Customer Management for Swiss Freelancers
Swiss freelancers don't need a sales pipeline. You need customer management connected directly to invoicing, VAT and accounting. Client data, contracts, notes and revenue history per customer, in one place.
Customer data everywhere.
Just not where it should be.
You know the drill. The phone number lives in your contacts, the billing address in a Word template, the UID number in an old email, the contract in your Downloads folder. When you write an invoice, you're hunting across four tools. When your accountant asks in January how much you billed client X last year, you have no idea.
Data scattered across 4 tools
Address in your phone book, contract in Dropbox, UID number in an old email.Revenue per customer unknown
At year-end VAT check, hours spent pulling data from five different sources.Excel or an oversized CRM
Most tools are either too basic or built for SMEs with full teams.All your client data in one place
Master data, contracts, notes, revenue and QR-bill sending, in a single view. Connected to your invoicing software and your accounting.
Master data + UID
Address, email, UID number, language and VAT status per customer, entered once.
Contracts & notes
Contracts, NDAs and briefings attached directly to the client profile. Private notes only you can see.
Revenue per customer
Calculated automatically from your invoices. Important for the VAT threshold and your AHV status.
CRM or customer management:
which do you actually need?
A CRM is a sales tool with pipelines and workflow automation, useful if you have a sales team. Customer management is a central place for existing clients, their data and their revenue. That's what freelancers actually need.
You probably don't need a CRM
The honest answer for most Swiss solo freelancers.
- You work solo, no sales pipeline
- Clients come from referrals, not outbound
- 5 to 50 active customers at a time
- What matters is master data, contracts, notes, revenue
You actually do need a CRM
When a full CRM genuinely makes sense.
- You regularly cold-prospect with a sales funnel
- You work in a team with multiple people per client
- You need email sequences and automated follow-ups
- You're juggling hundreds of leads per month in parallel
Magic Heidi vs. a full CRM
An honest feature comparison for Swiss freelancers.
| Feature | Magic Heidi | bexio / Pipedrive / HubSpot |
|---|---|---|
| Target audience | ✓ Swiss freelancers & sole proprietorships | SMEs, sales teams |
| Client master data | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Contracts & notes per customer | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Revenue per customer | ✓ Automatic from invoices | ⚠ Manual upkeep |
| Connected directly to QR-bill | ✓ One click | ✗ Separate module |
| Sales pipeline with stages | ✗ No | ✓ Yes |
| Workflow automation | ✗ No | ✓ Yes |
| Swiss servers | ✓ Zurich | ⚠ Partial |
| Setup time | Under 5 minutes | Hours to days |
| Price | Free plan, Pro from CHF 25/month | From CHF 35–80/month |
How to organise your customers in 30 minutes
A concrete plan to turn chaos across four tools into a clean client database.
List your active customers
All clients from the last 12 months or with ongoing negotiations.
Collect master data
Address, email, UID, preferred language. You can find UIDs in the public Swiss federal register.
Tag VAT status
Domestic CH, EU, or rest of the world. Important for your quarterly VAT return.
Upload contracts
Attach PDF contracts, NDAs and briefings directly to the client profile.
Private note per customer
One line is enough. Payment behaviour, favourite calls, invoicing rhythm.
Send the first invoice
That's how your revenue history per customer begins.
Start your setup now
Free plan, no credit card, 3 invoices included.
Marc, a Swiss designer from Bern
A fictional but typical example. Marc has 12 retainer clients in Switzerland and three project clients in Germany. Before Magic Heidi, he had addresses in Mac Contacts, contracts in Dropbox, hours in Toggl, invoices in Word and revenue in Excel. In November his accountant asked how close Marc was to the CHF 100,000 VAT threshold. Four hours of research. With Magic Heidi, Marc now sees on a single screen: CHF 91,400, biggest client Müller AG at CHF 28,000, Schneider GmbH correctly tagged as EU revenue. The next VAT question takes 30 seconds instead of four hours.
Swiss data hosting.
nFADP-compliant from Zurich.
Since 1 September 2023, the revised Swiss data protection law (nFADP) is in force. Even as a sole proprietor, you have to be able to show where your client data lives and how it's protected. Magic Heidi hosts all data in Zurich, with encryption and automatic backups.
No transfers to the US or other third countries, all data stays in Switzerland.
Compliant with the revised Swiss data protection law and the EU GDPR.
ZIP archive with all your data, anytime. No vendor lock-in.
Encrypted at-rest and in-transit. Automatic daily backups.
What Swiss freelancers say
5,000+ Swiss freelancers organise their customers with Magic Heidi.
Finally all customer data in one place, without having to set up a full CRM. Just right for solo businesses.
4.7★ — read all reviews
We cancelled Pipedrive. Magic Heidi does what we actually need as freelancers, without the sales-pipeline bloat.
5.0★ — read all reviews
The combination of customer management and QR-bill in one click saves hours every month.
4.5★ — read all reviews
Frequently asked questions about customer management
Do I even need a CRM as a sole proprietor?
In most cases, no. What you need is customer management, a central place for master data, contracts, notes and revenue. A sales CRM with pipelines and workflow automation is built for teams, not solo freelancers.
What's the difference between Magic Heidi and bexio for customer management?
bexio is a full SME tool with a CRM module, payroll, inventory and newsletters, designed for businesses with employees. Magic Heidi is built only for solo freelancers and sole proprietorships, which makes it simpler to understand and cheaper. If you don't have employees, bexio is usually overkill. See the details on our bexio alternative page.
How many customers can I manage in Magic Heidi?
Unlimited on the Pro plan. The Free plan also includes unlimited customers, but is capped at 3 invoices per month.
Is my customer data stored in Switzerland?
Yes. All data sits on servers in Zurich, with encryption in-transit and at-rest plus automatic backups. Magic Heidi is nFADP- and GDPR-compliant. More in our data protection overview.
Can I import my customers from Excel or another tool?
Yes. Magic Heidi supports CSV import. You export your existing customer list from Excel, Word, Apple Contacts or bexio and import it in a single step.
How does customer management help with VAT?
Magic Heidi automatically calculates your rolling 12-month revenue per customer and overall. You see immediately when you're approaching the CHF 100,000 threshold set by the Swiss Federal Tax Administration (ESTV). Foreign clients are shown separately because they don't count toward the domestic threshold. Details in the VAT management guide.
How much does customer management cost?
Included in the Free plan (up to 3 invoices). On the Pro plan from CHF 25/month (annual) or CHF 30/month (monthly) for unlimited customers, invoices, quotes and receipts.
Deliberately simple. Made in Switzerland.
No sales-pipeline bloat. No marketing automation. Just clean customer management, connected to invoicing, accounting and VAT. Try it free, no credit card.