Reference

BR-DE-8 Buyer city must be provided

Under German invoice regulations (§ 14 Abs. 4 Nr. 1 UStG) and the XRechnung standard specification, the buyer postal address (BG-8) must contain the city name (BT-52). In German public procurement, public entities (such as federal ministries, state agencies, and city administrations) often operate multiple offices or departments across different municipalities. An explicit city name ensures correct administrative allocation and budget accounting in public ERP backends.

Problem Description

ERROR

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

Context and Significance

Missing buyer city information causes immediate validation rejection in XRechnung validator rulepacks (BR-DE-8), preventing the invoice from passing public procurement preflight checks.

Solution

In your customer master data (e.g. SAP customer master, DATEV debitor profile, Dynamics 365 customer account), verify that the buyer city is maintained. In UBL 2.1 syntax, populate <cbc:CityName> inside <cac:AccountingCustomerParty><cac:Party><cac:PostalAddress>. In UN/CEFACT CII syntax, populate <ram:CityName> inside <ram:BuyerTradeParty><ram:PostalTradeAddress>. Do not leave the city element blank or merge it into the street line.

Quick actions

Validate XML Convert invoice

Valid Examples

Buyer postal address with BT-52 = "Hamburg", postal code "20095", and country code "DE"
Buyer postal address with BT-52 = "Köln", postal code "50667", and country code "DE"

Invalid Examples

Buyer address specifies street and postal code but leaves cbc:CityName / ram:CityName empty
Customer record in ERP has missing city field, generating empty XML element (<cbc:CityName></cbc:CityName>)

Code Examples

Valid XML

<cac:AccountingCustomerParty>
  <cac:Party>
    <cac:PartyName><cbc:Name>Bezirksamt Mitte</cbc:Name></cac:PartyName>
    <cac:PostalAddress>
      <cbc:StreetName>Karl-Marx-Allee 31</cbc:StreetName>
      <cbc:CityName>Berlin</cbc:CityName>
      <cbc:PostalZone>10178</cbc:PostalZone>
      <cac:Country><cbc:IdentificationCode>DE</cbc:IdentificationCode></cac:Country>
    </cac:PostalAddress>
  </cac:Party>
</cac:AccountingCustomerParty>

Invalid XML

<cac:AccountingCustomerParty>
  <cac:Party>
    <cac:PartyName><cbc:Name>Bezirksamt Mitte</cbc:Name></cac:PartyName>
    <cac:PostalAddress>
      <cbc:StreetName>Karl-Marx-Allee 31</cbc:StreetName>
      <cbc:PostalZone>10178</cbc:PostalZone>
      <cac:Country><cbc:IdentificationCode>DE</cbc:IdentificationCode></cac:Country>
    </cac:PostalAddress>
  </cac:Party>
</cac:AccountingCustomerParty>

Affected Fields

BT-52 Buyer city

BG-8 Buyer postal address

BT-55 Buyer country code

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

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