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BR-DE-7 Seller contact email must be provided

In XRechnung, the seller contact email address (BT-43) is mandatory within the seller contact group (BG-6). Public procurement invoice platforms in Germany, such as OZG-RE (direct federal administration, more than 170 indirect federal bodies and several Länder) and other state or municipal portals, use this address to automatically send technical status updates, receipt confirmations, rejection notices, and payment advisories.

Problem Description

ERROR

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

Context and Significance

An invoice submitted without a valid seller contact email cannot receive automated clearing notices or reject diagnostics from public gateway APIs, prompting immediate Schematron rejection.

Solution

In your accounting or invoicing configuration, maintain a monitored accounts receivable or billing email address. In UBL 2.1 syntax, populate <cbc:ElectronicMail> inside <cac:AccountingSupplierParty><cac:Party><cac:Contact>. In UN/CEFACT CII syntax, populate <ram:EmailURIUniversalCommunication><ram:URIID> inside <ram:SellerTradeParty><ram:DefinedTradeContact>. Per rule BR-DE-28, the email address must be properly formatted with exactly one @ character and a valid domain name.

Quick actions

Valid Examples

  • BT-43 = "rechnungswesen@lieferant.de"
  • BT-43 = "billing-support@vendor.com"

Invalid Examples

  • Seller contact group (cac:Contact / ram:DefinedTradeContact) includes name and phone but omits cbc:ElectronicMail / ram:URIID
  • Email element contains malformed address without domain (e.g. "rechnung@")

Code Examples

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

Affected Fields

Validation Tools