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. It warns when one of them has a cbc:PrepaidIndicator, a yes or no flag that in UBL marks the discount or charge as prepaid. EN 16931 has no such flag. Payments made in advance are carried only as one total, the paid amount (BT-113).
Why it matters
EN 16931 records payments already made in the paid amount (BT-113), not in a prepaid flag on a document-level discount or charge.
How to fix it
Delete cbc:PrepaidIndicator from each cac:AllowanceCharge directly under the Invoice or CreditNote element. If part of the invoice has already been paid, enter the total in the paid amount field of your invoicing software so the amount due is lowered by it. Then export again in the output format the recipient asked for. 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 PrepaidIndicator 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-472 still fails, and which other rules do.
Related rules
- 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
- UBL-CR-478 Do not give a base unit for the VAT of an invoice-level discount or charge