Reference

BR-DE-2 Seller contact must be provided

The German XRechnung standard mandates that the seller party must contain the seller contact group (BG-6). While European standard EN 16931 considers seller contact details optional, public contracting entities in Germany require an identified contact department or contact person along with phone and email coordinates. This ensures administrative clerks can resolve accounting inquiries, goods delivery discrepancies, or contractual clarifications quickly without having to issue a formal legal invoice rejection notice.

Problem Description

ERROR

German XRechnung rule (KoSIT, BR-DE) · XRechnung 3.0

Context and Significance

Automated German public sector invoice platforms such as OZG-RE (direct federal administration, more than 170 indirect federal bodies and several Länder) and other state or municipal portals evaluate BG-6 presence before forwarding the XML payload to recipient accounting backends. Missing seller contacts cause instantaneous Schematron validation errors.

Solution

In your ERP or accounting software, verify that the seller company billing profile or outgoing invoice template includes full contact details. In UBL 2.1 syntax, populate <cac:Contact> under <cac:AccountingSupplierParty><cac:Party>. Per rules BR-DE-5, BR-DE-6, and BR-DE-7, you must populate <cbc:Name> (BT-41), <cbc:Telephone> (BT-42), and <cbc:ElectronicMail> (BT-43). In UN/CEFACT CII syntax, populate <ram:DefinedTradeContact> under <ram:SellerTradeParty> with <ram:PersonName> or <ram:DepartmentName>, <ram:TelephoneUniversalCommunication>, and <ram:EmailURIUniversalCommunication>.

Quick actions

Validate XML Convert invoice

Valid Examples

Seller contact BG-6 present with contact point "Zentrale Rechnungsprüfung", phone "+49 30 1234567", and email "rechnung@lieferant.de"
Seller contact BG-6 present with department "Accounts Receivable", phone "+49 89 98765432", and email "billing@company.com"

Invalid Examples

Seller party (cac:AccountingSupplierParty / ram:SellerTradeParty) declares legal entity name and postal address but omits the contact sub-element
Seller contact element present but left completely empty without name, phone, or email

Code Examples

Valid XML

<cac:Party>
  <cac:PartyName>
    <cbc:Name>Lieferant GmbH</cbc:Name>
  </cac:PartyName>
  <cac:PostalAddress>
    <cbc:CityName>Berlin</cbc:CityName>
    <cbc:PostalZone>10115</cbc:PostalZone>
    <cac:Country><cbc:IdentificationCode>DE</cbc:IdentificationCode></cac:Country>
  </cac:PostalAddress>
  <cac:Contact>
    <cbc:Name>Zentrale Rechnungsprüfung</cbc:Name>
    <cbc:Telephone>+49 30 1234567</cbc:Telephone>
    <cbc:ElectronicMail>rechnung@lieferant.de</cbc:ElectronicMail>
  </cac:Contact>
</cac:Party>

Invalid XML

<cac:Party>
  <cac:PartyName>
    <cbc:Name>Lieferant GmbH</cbc:Name>
  </cac:PartyName>
  <cac:PostalAddress>
    <cbc:CityName>Berlin</cbc:CityName>
    <cbc:PostalZone>10115</cbc:PostalZone>
    <cac:Country><cbc:IdentificationCode>DE</cbc:IdentificationCode></cac:Country>
  </cac:PostalAddress>
</cac:Party>

Affected Fields

BG-6 Seller contact

BT-41 Seller contact point

BT-42 Seller contact telephone number

BT-43 Seller contact email address

Validation Tools

Official KoSIT Validator

Run the official KoSIT validator with the XRechnung configuration to check EN 16931 and XRechnung rules.

Convert PDF to XRechnung

Find validation errors during conversion and review each correction.