What it means
This rule checks for cac:Country within cac:PaymentMeans/cac:PayeeFinancialAccount in a UBL invoice or credit note. A country element there says in which country the account is held. EN 16931 has no business term for it. The payment account details carry the account identifier (BT-84), account name (BT-85) and bank identifier (BT-86).
Why it matters
EN 16931 does not use a separate country element on the payee bank account. This rule concerns that element, not country fields elsewhere in the invoice.
How to fix it
Delete cac:Country from cac:PaymentMeans/cac:PayeeFinancialAccount. If you use an IBAN, keep the full IBAN in cbc:ID in the same block (BT-84). If your invoicing software adds the country element, adjust the XML export to omit it. Export again 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 PaymentMeans PayeeFinancialAccount Country 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-433 still fails, and which other rules do.
Related rules
- UBL-CR-434 A credit account block is not used in EN 16931
- UBL-CR-435 A direct debit mandate type is not used
- UBL-CR-436 A maximum number of direct debit instructions is not used
- UBL-CR-437 A maximum direct debit amount is not used
- UBL-CR-438 A direct debit mandate signature ID is not used
- UBL-CR-439 A separate payer party in a direct debit mandate is not used