BR-01 Specification identifier missing

Every e-invoice must say which rules it follows (its specification identifier). The program that made it should fill this in.

What the rule says

An Invoice shall have a Specification identifier (BT-24).

The rule's official wording (CEN / KoSIT). The German XRechnung rules are published in German.

Why it happens

The program that made the invoice didn't fill in BT-24, the field that says which rules the invoice follows (for example urn:cen.eu:en16931:2017 or the XRechnung identifier).

How to fix it

Choose a proper e-invoice format in your invoicing software (EN 16931, ZUGFeRD EN 16931 or XRechnung), then export the invoice again. Hand-built XML needs the identifier in GuidelineSpecifiedDocumentContextParameter (CII) or CustomizationID (UBL).

Applies to

Every EN 16931 e-invoice: XRechnung, ZUGFeRD / Factur-X, Peppol and others.

Check your invoice again Create an invoice that passes

More about BR-01

The specification identifier is the first thing a receiving system reads. It names the set of rules the invoice claims to follow, and the receiver picks its checks from it: an XRechnung is checked against the German rules, a ZUGFeRD EN 16931 invoice against the European ones. Without it, the receiver can't tell what it's looking at, so most systems stop right there and reject the file.

Common values are urn:cen.eu:en16931:2017 (plain EN 16931, the ZUGFeRD/Factur-X "EN 16931" or "COMFORT" profile), urn:cen.eu:en16931:2017#compliant#urn:factur-x.eu:1p0:basic (BASIC), urn:cen.eu:en16931:2017#compliant#urn:xeinkauf.de:kosit:xrechnung_3.0 (XRechnung 3.0) and urn:cen.eu:en16931:2017#compliant#urn:fdc:peppol.eu:2017:poacc:billing:3.0 (Peppol BIS Billing 3.0).

The fields involved

BT-24 Specification identifier: CII rsm:ExchangedDocumentContext/ram:GuidelineSpecifiedDocumentContextParameter/ram:ID; UBL cbc:CustomizationID

Typical situations

The XML was written by a script or a template that left the context block empty.
A plain PDF was turned into "ZUGFeRD" by a tool that only attached partial data.
The identifier was put in the wrong element, for example in the business process field (BT-23).

Example

The start of a correct CII file:

<rsm:ExchangedDocumentContext>
  <ram:GuidelineSpecifiedDocumentContextParameter>
    <ram:ID>urn:cen.eu:en16931:2017</ram:ID>
  </ram:GuidelineSpecifiedDocumentContextParameter>
</rsm:ExchangedDocumentContext>