What it means
In a UBL invoice or credit note, this rule checks that cac:AccountingCustomerParty/cac:Party/cac:PostalAddress does not contain cbc:Department. In UBL that element holds the department of the buyer that the mail is for, such as 'Accounts payable'. EN 16931 has no separate field for it.
Why it matters
EN 16931 does not use a separate department element in the buyer's postal address.
How to fix it
Add the department to the second address line (BT-51) or to the buyer contact point (BT-56), and stop your invoicing software exporting it as a separate field. Export again and check the result. If you build the XML yourself, move the value of cbc:Department into cbc:AdditionalStreetName or the buyer's cac:Contact/cbc:Name and delete cbc:Department, then recheck the file.
Once the file is corrected, check it again for free: Validate an invoice against EN 16931
Or fix the invoice in a form and download the corrected file, for 1 credit: Fix a rejected e-invoice
The rule as published
A UBL invoice should not include the AccountingCustomerParty Party PostalAddress Department Where this rule applies
| Rule set | Version |
|---|---|
| EN 16931 (UBL) | 1.3.17 |
| EN 16931 (UBL credit note) | 1.3.17 |
| XRechnung 3.0 (UBL) | 3.0.2 |
| XRechnung 3.0 (UBL credit note) | 3.0.2 |
| Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 (invoice) | 2026.5 |
| Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 (credit note) | 2026.5 |
| SI-UBL 2.0 / NLCIUS (invoice) | 2.0.3.13 |
| SI-UBL 2.0 / NLCIUS (credit note) | 2.0.3.13 |
| France CTC (UBL invoice) | 1.4.0-04 |
| France CTC (UBL credit note) | 1.4.0-04 |
| CIUS-RO UBL Invoice 1.0.9 | 1.0.9 |
| CIUS-RO UBL Credit Note 1.0.9 | 1.0.9 |
Check your file
Drop your e-invoice to see whether UBL-CR-220 still fails, and which other rules do.
Related rules
- UBL-CR-221 The buyer's address should not have an 'attention of' field
- UBL-CR-222 Leave the care-of marking out of the buyer's address
- UBL-CR-223 Leave the plot identification out of the buyer's address
- UBL-CR-224 Leave the city subdivision out of the buyer's address
- UBL-CR-225 Leave the country subdivision code field out of the buyer's address
- UBL-CR-226 Leave the region out of the buyer's address