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Warning

UBL-CR-638: A discount accounting code does not belong inside the line price

In short

Warning: worth checking.

UBL-CR-638 means a cac:AllowanceCharge block inside an invoice or credit note line's price contains an accounting cost code (cbc:AccountingCostCode). Remove the code from that block. Use the line's buyer accounting reference (BT-133) only if the code genuinely belongs there.

On this page

What it means

The rule checks every cac:Price/cac:AllowanceCharge on invoice and credit note lines for cbc:AccountingCostCode. It does not check the buyer accounting reference on the line itself (BT-133).

Why it matters

EN 16931 has a buyer accounting reference for a line, but no separate accounting cost code for a price discount.

How to fix it

Remove cbc:AccountingCostCode from cac:AllowanceCharge inside cac:Price in each affected cac:InvoiceLine or cac:CreditNoteLine. If the buyer supplied the code as the accounting reference for the whole line, enter it as BT-133. Do not move an internal or discount-only code there automatically. Export the corrected file and recheck it.

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 InvoiceLine Item Price AllowanceCharge AccountingCostCode

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-638 still fails, and which other rules do.

Updated 6 November 2026