Staff augmentation
Senior engineers who join your stand-ups and work in your tools.
Best when
You have a roadmap and need more capacity or a specific skill.
A software engineering team for Swiss companies
elitics works for companies in Switzerland from Prishtina, Kosovo. The team shares your time zone, invoices in euros without Swiss VAT, which you account for as acquisition tax, and covers the revised Data Protection Act with Standard Contractual Clauses adapted for Switzerland. Start with one senior engineer or a full product squad.
- shared hours on a 09:00–18:00 day, all year
- 9 h
- MWSTG acquisition tax instead of VAT on our invoices
- Art. 45
- transfers covered by SCCs with Swiss adaptations
- revDSG
- OR: mandates can be ended at any time
- Art. 404
Your working day is our working day
Prishtina, Zurich and Geneva are on Central European Time and change their clocks on the same dates, so a 09:00–18:00 day is fully shared in summer and winter.
Prishtina team dayYour working dayShared hours
- Zurich09:00–18:00 your time9 h Shared: 09:00–18:00 your time
- Geneva09:00–18:00 your time9 h Shared: 09:00–18:00 your time
- Basel09:00–18:00 your time9 h Shared: 09:00–18:00 your time
Hours on the scale are Prishtina time. Working days are 9 hours long, including a break.
Public holidays differ. Kosovo observes days that Switzerland does not, such as Independence Day (17 February), Constitution Day (9 April) and the two Eid holidays, whose dates move each year. Cantonal holidays do not apply in Prishtina. Plan cover for these days in the first sprint.
Contracts under the Swiss Code of Obligations
Swiss law treats time-based work and fixed-price results as different contracts, with different termination rules.
- Mandate for team extension and squads
- Engagements billed for time worked are usually simple mandates (einfacher Auftrag, Art. 394 OR). You pay for careful work, not for a guaranteed result.
- Termination at any time
- Under Art. 404 OR either party can end a mandate at any time, and the courts treat this rule as mandatory for most mandates. A party that ends it at an inopportune moment may owe compensation for the resulting damage. Our month-to-month contracts already work this way.
- Contract for work for fixed-price projects
- A fixed-price MVP or project is a contract for work (Werkvertrag, Art. 363 OR), with defined deliverables, acceptance and payments tied to accepted milestones.
- Intellectual property
- An NDA and an IP assignment are signed before work starts. All code, designs and documentation belong to you and live in your repositories.
VAT and invoicing
Our invoices to Swiss companies carry no Swiss VAT. Services bought from abroad are taxed through the acquisition tax (Bezugsteuer).
- Acquisition tax
- Services from a provider abroad are subject to the acquisition tax under Art. 45 MWSTG. A company registered for Swiss VAT declares it in its return and can normally deduct it as input tax in the same period.
- Companies not registered for VAT
- A company that is not registered becomes liable for the acquisition tax once it buys more than CHF 10,000 of such services from abroad in a calendar year, and must then report it to the Federal Tax Administration.
- Invoices in euros
- Rates and invoices are in euros, the currency of Kosovo. Your cost in Swiss francs therefore follows the EUR/CHF rate; a fixed-price project fixes the total in euros up front.
- What we need from you
- Your company name, address and UID or VAT number for the invoices.
The revised Data Protection Act
The revised Federal Act on Data Protection (revDSG) has applied since 1 September 2023. Kosovo is not on the Federal Council’s list of countries with adequate protection, so disclosures to our team need safeguards.
- Standard Contractual Clauses for Switzerland
- The FDPIC recognises the EU Standard Contractual Clauses with Swiss adaptations as a safeguard for disclosures abroad. We sign them together with a data processing agreement.
- Swiss and EU data together
- If you also process personal data of people in the EU, one set of clauses with the Swiss adaptations can cover both the GDPR and the revDSG.
- Data stays in your region
- Production systems can stay in your Swiss or EU cloud region. Engineers work through your accounts and access controls, and test environments use anonymised or synthetic data where possible.
- Kosovo’s own data protection law
- Kosovo’s Law No. 06/L-082 on the Protection of Personal Data is modelled on the GDPR and supervised by the Information and Privacy Agency.
What it costs
Team extension from €45–65 per engineer-hour, dedicated squads from €15,000 per month, and fixed-price MVPs from €15,000. You receive a written proposal and estimate within 24 hours of the first call.
Dedicated squad
A cross-functional team (product, engineering, QA, DevOps) that owns a product or feature.
Best when
You want a product built or rebuilt without growing headcount.
Build-Operate-Transfer
Your own development center in Kosovo, set up and run by us.
Best when
You plan a long-term engineering presence in Europe.
How an engagement starts
- 01
First call
You talk to our engineering lead about the product, your team and your deadlines.
- 02
Proposal within 24 hours
A written proposal with the model, the team, the timeline and the price.
- 03
Contracts signed together
Master services agreement, NDA, IP assignment, data processing agreement and the Standard Contractual Clauses with Swiss adaptations.
- 04
Work starts
Individual engineers start within about 48 hours of you approving their profiles. Squads start on the date agreed in the proposal.
Guides for this decision
- GDPR and Outsourcing Software Development to KosovoHow to outsource software development to Kosovo under the GDPR: no adequacy decision, a DPA, Standard Contractual Clauses, a transfer impact assessment.
- Fixed Price vs Time and Materials ContractsFixed price or time and materials for software development? Where the risk sits, the change-request trap, hybrid contracts and what to write into each one.
- How to Vet a Software Development Company: ChecklistA checklist for vetting a software development company: verify claims, meet the engineers, run a paid trial, and check contracts, security and overlap.
Tax and legal sections reviewed by our legal counsel on 4 November 2026. General information, not legal advice.
Common questions
Do we pay Swiss VAT on elitics invoices?
Not on the invoice. If your company is registered for VAT, you declare the acquisition tax under Art. 45 MWSTG and can normally deduct it as input tax. Unregistered companies become liable above CHF 10,000 of foreign services a year.
Can we end the contract at short notice?
Yes. Time-based engagements are mandates, which Art. 404 OR lets either party end at any time, and our contracts run month to month. Fixed-price projects follow the milestones in the contract for work.
Is working with developers in Kosovo compatible with the revDSG?
It can be, with the right safeguards. Kosovo is not on the Federal Council’s adequacy list, so we sign the Standard Contractual Clauses with the Swiss adaptations recognised by the FDPIC and a data processing agreement.
Does the team work the same hours as we do?
Yes. Prishtina is on CET and CEST like Switzerland and changes clocks on the same dates, so the whole working day overlaps all year.
Let’s build what comes next.
Tell us what you need to build or scale. You will get a proposal and estimate within 24 hours.