BR-02 Invoice number missing

The invoice needs an invoice number.

What the rule says

An Invoice shall have an Invoice number (BT-1).

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

Why it happens

The invoice has no invoice number (BT-1).

How to fix it

Give the invoice a unique number and export it again. Every invoice needs its own number.

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-02

The invoice number is how both sides refer to an invoice: in payment references, reminders, credit notes and the tax records. EU VAT law requires each invoice to carry a sequential number that identifies it uniquely; in Germany this is § 14 (4) No. 4 UStG. The number may contain letters and dashes, such as RE-2026-0142, as long as it's never used twice.

Buyers' systems also use it to catch duplicates. If a second invoice arrives with the same number from the same seller, it's usually rejected as a duplicate, so don't fix this error by reusing an old number.

The fields involved

BT-1 Invoice number: CII rsm:ExchangedDocument/ram:ID; UBL cbc:ID

Typical situations

A draft was exported before the software assigned a number.
The number only appears in the printed PDF text, not in the XML data.
The number was typed into the order reference field instead of the invoice number field.

Example

Where the number goes in CII:

<rsm:ExchangedDocument>
  <ram:ID>RE-2026-0142</ram:ID>
  <ram:TypeCode>380</ram:TypeCode>
  ...
</rsm:ExchangedDocument>