What it means
The payee (BG-10) is the party that receives the payment when that is not the seller. This rule checks that the payee's legal entity block has no cac:HeadOfficeParty, a whole party block that describes the head office of the payee's company. The standard only has the payee's name (BT-59), identifier (BT-60) and legal registration identifier (BT-61).
Why it matters
There is no field for a payee head office, so the recipient's software skips the block. The invoice or credit note is not rejected. It is worth fixing so the file contains only what the recipient actually reads.
How to fix it
Check the payee settings in your invoicing software for a head office or parent company entry and clear it. If the software cannot switch it off, ask its supplier for an export in a standard profile such as Peppol BIS or XRechnung. If you build the XML yourself, delete cac:HeadOfficeParty from cac:PayeeParty/cac:PartyLegalEntity.
The rule as published
A UBL invoice should not include the PayeeParty 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 |
Check your file
Drop your e-invoice to see whether UBL-CR-286 still fails, and which other rules do.