BR-16 No invoice lines

The invoice needs at least one line with what was sold.

What the rule says

An Invoice shall have at least one Invoice line (BG-25).

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

Why it happens

The invoice has no line items. This happens with the ZUGFeRD profiles MINIMUM and BASIC WL, which leave the lines out.

How to fix it

Add at least one line with what was sold, or export with the EN 16931 (COMFORT), EXTENDED or XRECHNUNG profile.

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-16

An e-invoice under EN 16931 has to list what was sold, line by line, with quantity, unit, price and net amount. The totals are then checked against the lines, which is a large part of what makes the data trustworthy for automatic processing.

The ZUGFeRD / Factur-X profiles MINIMUM and BASIC WL carry only totals and no lines. They were meant as booking aids, not full invoices, and the German tax authorities don't accept them as e-invoices for the German e-invoicing rules that apply to businesses from 2025. Use the profile EN 16931 (COMFORT), EXTENDED or XRECHNUNG instead; BASIC also has lines but covers fewer fields.

The fields involved

BG-25 Invoice line: CII ram:IncludedSupplyChainTradeLineItem; UBL cac:InvoiceLine

Typical situations

The software's ZUGFeRD export is set to MINIMUM or BASIC WL.
A lump-sum invoice ("for services as agreed") was made without any line.
Lines exist in the PDF, but the tool that added the XML only wrote the totals.

Example

A minimal invoice line in CII:

<ram:IncludedSupplyChainTradeLineItem>
  <ram:AssociatedDocumentLineDocument><ram:LineID>1</ram:LineID></ram:AssociatedDocumentLineDocument>
  <ram:SpecifiedTradeProduct><ram:Name>Web design, October</ram:Name></ram:SpecifiedTradeProduct>
  <ram:SpecifiedLineTradeAgreement><ram:NetPriceProductTradePrice><ram:ChargeAmount>80.00</ram:ChargeAmount></ram:NetPriceProductTradePrice></ram:SpecifiedLineTradeAgreement>
  <ram:SpecifiedLineTradeDelivery><ram:BilledQuantity unitCode="HUR">10</ram:BilledQuantity></ram:SpecifiedLineTradeDelivery>
  <ram:SpecifiedLineTradeSettlement>
    <ram:ApplicableTradeTax><ram:TypeCode>VAT</ram:TypeCode><ram:CategoryCode>S</ram:CategoryCode><ram:RateApplicablePercent>19</ram:RateApplicablePercent></ram:ApplicableTradeTax>
    <ram:SpecifiedTradeSettlementLineMonetarySummation><ram:LineTotalAmount>800.00</ram:LineTotalAmount></ram:SpecifiedTradeSettlementLineMonetarySummation>
  </ram:SpecifiedLineTradeSettlement>
</ram:IncludedSupplyChainTradeLineItem>