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BR-DE-5 Seller contact point must be provided

In XRechnung, whenever the seller contact group (BG-6) is present, the seller contact point or person name (BT-41) must be populated. Public administration accounting offices in Germany use this field to identify which organizational unit (e.g. "Buchhaltung", "Vertrieb", "Kundenservice") or individual contact person is responsible for answering invoice content queries and resolving performance verification issues.

Problem Description

ERROR

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

Interactive pipeline

Click a stage to see what it checks, or type a rule ID to light up the stage that reports it.

Try:

BR-DE-5 XRechnung rule (Germany)

Reported in stage 3: National rules (CIUS).

Level error: the report recommends rejecting the invoice.

Stage 3 · What it checks

  • The specification identifier in BT-24 selects the rule set, for example XRechnung 3.0 or Peppol BIS Billing 3.0.
  • XRechnung adds the German BR-DE rules: buyer reference (BT-10), seller contact, payment instructions.
  • Peppol adds PEPPOL-EN16931 and country rules. XRechnung applies some PEPPOL-EN16931 rules too.

Example codes

Typical fix

Fill the fields the rule set requires in your master data, such as the Leitweg-ID in BT-10 or the seller contact.

A validator checks an e-invoice in stages. First the file must be well-formed XML that matches the UBL or CII schema (XSD). Then the EN 16931 business rules run: BR core rules, BR-CO calculations, BR-CL code lists, BR-DEC decimals and VAT-category rules such as BR-S. Next come the national or network rules that BT-24 selects: BR-DE for XRechnung, PEPPOL-EN16931 for Peppol BIS Billing. The report lists every failed rule: one error means reject, warnings alone still mean accept. BR-DE-5: XRechnung rule (Germany), reported in the stage “National rules (CIUS)”. Rule sets: KoSIT validator 1.6.3 with the XRechnung configuration of 31 Aug 2026 (EN 16931 artefacts 1.3.16), Peppol BIS Billing 3.0.21.

Context and Significance

BT-41 operates in tandem with BT-42 (phone) and BT-43 (email). If any of these three fields is missing from BG-6, the XRechnung Schematron validation engine flags an error.

Solution

In your billing software, enter a contact department or person name in the seller profile. In UBL 2.1 syntax, populate <cbc:Name> inside <cac:AccountingSupplierParty><cac:Party><cac:Contact>. In UN/CEFACT CII syntax, populate <ram:PersonName> or <ram:DepartmentName> inside <ram:SellerTradeParty><ram:DefinedTradeContact>. Do not leave the element empty or populate it with whitespace only.

Quick actions

Validate XMLConvert invoice

Valid Examples

  • BT-41 = "Finanzbuchhaltung / Rechnungsabteilung"
  • BT-41 = "Dr. Johannes Weber (Projektleitung)"

Invalid Examples

  • Seller contact group (cac:Contact / ram:DefinedTradeContact) contains telephone and email but completely omits cbc:Name / ram:PersonName
  • Contact name element contains empty string or whitespace only (<cbc:Name></cbc:Name>)

Code Examples

Valid XML
<cac:Contact>
  <cbc:Name>Zentrale Rechnungsprüfung</cbc:Name>
  <cbc:Telephone>+49 30 1234567</cbc:Telephone>
  <cbc:ElectronicMail>rechnung@lieferant.de</cbc:ElectronicMail>
</cac:Contact>
Invalid XML
<cac:Contact>
  <cbc:Telephone>+49 30 1234567</cbc:Telephone>
  <cbc:ElectronicMail>rechnung@lieferant.de</cbc:ElectronicMail>
</cac:Contact>

Affected Fields

BT-41 Seller contact point
BG-6 Seller contact
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.