What it means
The rule looks at the discounts (BG-20) and charges (BG-21) placed on the whole invoice, directly under the invoice or credit note and not inside a line. It warns when one of them has a cbc:ID. EN 16931 describes a discount or charge by its reason text or code, its amount and its VAT category, not by an ID number.
Why it matters
EN 16931 does not use cbc:ID on document-level discounts (BG-20) or charges (BG-21).
How to fix it
Remove the ID. In the XML, delete cbc:ID from each cac:AllowanceCharge directly under the Invoice or CreditNote element. If the discount or charge needs a label, fill in its reason text (BT-97 or BT-104), for example Volume discount or Delivery costs. In your invoicing software, choose the output format the recipient asked for (for example Peppol BIS or XRechnung) and export again. Check the corrected file again.
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 AllowanceCharge ID 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-471 still fails, and which other rules do.
Related rules
- UBL-CR-472 Do not flag an invoice-level discount or charge as prepaid
- UBL-CR-473 Do not give invoice-level discounts and charges a sequence number
- UBL-CR-474 Do not add an accounting cost code to an invoice-level discount or charge
- UBL-CR-475 Do not add an accounting cost to an invoice-level discount or charge
- UBL-CR-476 Do not give an invoice-level discount or charge an amount per unit
- UBL-CR-477 Do not name the VAT category of an invoice-level discount or charge