What it means
This rule checks that the buyer's postal address (BG-8) does not contain a district element, cbc:District. EN 16931 has no field called district in the buyer address. It has address lines (BT-50, BT-51, BT-163), a city (BT-52), a postcode (BT-53), a country subdivision (BT-54) and a country code (BT-55). The rule applies to UBL invoices and credit notes.
Why it matters
EN 16931 does not use a separate District element in the buyer's postal address.
How to fix it
Look at the buyer's address in your invoicing software for a district or area field. Move any district text you need into an address line and stop exporting the separate District element, then export again and recheck the file. If you build the XML yourself, delete cbc:District from cac:AccountingCustomerParty/cac:Party/cac:PostalAddress and 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 District 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-227 still fails, and which other rules do.
Related rules
- UBL-CR-228 Leave the timezone offset out of the buyer's address
- UBL-CR-229 Leave the country name out of the buyer's address
- UBL-CR-230 Leave map coordinates out of the buyer's address
- UBL-CR-231 Leave the physical location out of the buyer's details
- UBL-CR-232 Leave the tax registration name out of the buyer's tax details
- UBL-CR-233 Leave the tax level code out of the buyer's tax details