E-invoice rule EN 16931 schematron
BR-03: The issue date (BT-2, element cbc:IssueDate)
The issue date (BT-2, element cbc:IssueDate) is missing. Write it as YYYY-MM-DD.
Original wording of the rule
[BR-03]-An Invoice shall have an Invoice issue date (BT-2).
Source of the quotation: EN 16931 schematron (ConnectingEurope/eInvoicing-EN16931, licence EUPL 1.2)
How to fix it
- Open the XML file and find the element
cbc:IssueDate. - Add or correct the element the way the wording of the rule above asks for.
- Save the file and check it again with our checker. It runs in your browser, the file is never uploaded.
A correct UBL 2.1 snippet
<cbc:IssueDate
xmlns:cbc="urn:oasis:names:specification:ubl:schema:xsd:CommonBasicComponents-2">2026-09-11</cbc:IssueDate>The snippet is only the part of the document the rule is about. Put it in the right place inside your invoice; the namespaces are written here only so that the snippet reads on its own.
When it is reported
Profile: EN 16931, Peppol BIS Billing 3.0, XRechnung 3.x
How we rate it: error
UBL elements: cbc:IssueDate
Related rules
- BR-01 The specification identifier (BT-24, element cbc:CustomizationID)
- BR-02 The invoice number (BT-1, element cbc:ID) is missing
- BR-04 The invoice type code (BT-3) is missing
- BR-05 The invoice currency code (BT-5, element cbc:DocumentCurrencyCode)
- BR-06 The seller name (BT-27) is missing
Our check is not complete: we do not check the XSD schema and we do not implement every rule, and a file that passes says nothing about whether the buyer or the Peppol network will accept it. Licences for the quoted wordings are listed in our sources.