Commercial register
The commercial register is the public, cantonally maintained directory of businesses; it shows the company name, seat, purpose, legal form and the persons with signing authority, and registration is mandatory always for corporations and, for sole proprietorships and partnerships, from CHF 100,000 of annual turnover.
Definition
Publicity is the point of it: what is registered and published in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce is deemed known. Whoever revokes a power of representation has to have it struck off, otherwise it continues to have effect towards third parties.
Day to day, two things depend on it that every program touches: the exact company designation on invoices and the question of who may sign. Both should come from the register and not from memory.
The numbers
- CHF 100,000
- annual turnover from which sole proprietorships and partnerships must register Art. 36 HRegV
Where to read it
What the software must be able to do
Reconciling company name, seat and UID against the register is useful — some programs fetch the data over an interface. That removes the most frequent source of error in the address master.
Checked Aug 2026
More terms under Legal form and register: AG (public limited company) Association Auditor Cooperative General partnership GmbH (limited liability company) Liquidation Signing authority (Prokura) Sole proprietorship UID number