CII-SR-167: Invoice lines should not give an actual despatch date

What it means

The delivery details of an invoice line (SpecifiedLineTradeDelivery in the XML) should not contain an ActualDespatchSupplyChainEvent. That element records the date on which the goods actually left the seller. EN 16931 has no despatch date. Its only date for the supply is the delivery date (BT-72), given once for the whole invoice.

Why it matters

This is a warning, so the file is not rejected. A despatch date on a line is outside what EN 16931 software reads, so it is usually dropped before the buyer's system sees it. It is worth fixing when your recipient wants a file without warnings.

How to fix it

Remove the despatch date from the lines, either by clearing it in your invoicing software or by switching the export to the EN 16931 profile instead of an extended one. If you want to show when the goods or services were supplied, fill in the delivery date for the whole invoice. If you build the XML yourself, delete the ActualDespatchSupplyChainEvent block from the line's SpecifiedLineTradeDelivery.

The rule as published

ActualDespatchSupplyChainEvent should not be present

Where this rule applies