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Warning

UBL-CR-251: Leave the buyer's head office party out

In short

Warning: worth checking.

UBL-CR-251 means the buyer's legal entity block includes a separate party for their head office (HeadOfficeParty), which EN 16931 does not use. Remove that HeadOfficeParty block.

On this page

What it means

This rule checks the buyer's legal entity block in a UBL invoice or credit note (cac:AccountingCustomerParty, cac:Party, cac:PartyLegalEntity). It must not contain cac:HeadOfficeParty, a nested party description for the buyer's head office. The invoice describes one buyer (BG-7), not a group structure.

Why it matters

The rule excludes the nested head office party from the buyer's legal entity details. It does not require you to replace the buyer's identity with the head office's details.

How to fix it

Check whether your UBL export includes a linked head office as a separate HeadOfficeParty block and configure it to omit that block. If you edit or generate the XML, remove cac:HeadOfficeParty from cac:AccountingCustomerParty/cac:Party/cac:PartyLegalEntity. Keep the actual buyer's details and recheck the file in Klarbon.

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 PartyLegalEntity HeadOfficeParty

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
Rule text from phive-rules 4.6.4.

Check your file

Drop your e-invoice to see whether UBL-CR-251 still fails, and which other rules do.

Updated 6 November 2026