E-invoice rule EN 16931

BR-33: The allowance on document level needs a reason

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The allowance on document level needs a reason. Add cbc:AllowanceChargeReason (text) or cbc:AllowanceChargeReasonCode (code).

What the rule says

[BR-33]-Each Document level allowance (BG-20) shall have a Document level allowance reason (BT-97) or a Document level allowance reason code (BT-98).

Source of the quotation: EN 16931 schematron (ConnectingEurope/eInvoicing-EN16931, licence EUPL 1.2)

Business terms in the wording: BG-20, BT-97, BT-98

Why the validator reports it

The rule is part of the EN 16931 core. Our checker runs it on every UBL 2.1 invoice and credit note, in the EN 16931, Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 and XRechnung profiles.

Profile: EN 16931, Peppol BIS Billing 3.0, XRechnung 3.x

How we rate it: error

UBL elements: cbc:AllowanceChargeReason, cbc:AllowanceChargeReasonCode

Where we point in the file: /Invoice/cac:AllowanceCharge[1]

How to fix it

Open the XML file and find the element cac:AllowanceCharge/cbc:AllowanceChargeReason.
Add or correct the value the way the wording of the rule above asks for.
Save the file and check it again. The checker runs in your browser, the file is never uploaded.

A correct UBL 2.1 snippet

<cac:AllowanceCharge
    xmlns:cac="urn:oasis:names:specification:ubl:schema:xsd:CommonAggregateComponents-2"
    xmlns:cbc="urn:oasis:names:specification:ubl:schema:xsd:CommonBasicComponents-2">
  <cbc:AllowanceChargeReason>Zlava za objem</cbc:AllowanceChargeReason>
</cac:AllowanceCharge>

The snippet is only the part of the document the rule is about, and the values in it are made up. Put it in the right place inside your invoice; the namespaces are written here only so that the snippet reads on its own.

Check the whole file

The checker holds 332 rules. For each file it runs the ones that match the invoice profile and shows the rule code, a plain sentence and the path to the element for every finding. The file is read in your browser and never uploaded. Free, no account.

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Related rules

Same business term (BT-97, BT-98)

BR-CO-21 The allowance on document level needs a reason

Same group (BR)

BR-31 The allowance on document level has no amount
BR-32 The allowance on document level has no VAT category code
BR-36 The charge on document level has no amount
BR-37 The charge on document level has no VAT category code

All rules in the group BR (58)

What our tool does about this error

The checker finds BR-33 in your file and shows where it sits in the XML. If you build the invoice in our generator, the finished XML runs through the same checker before the download and will not download while an error remains.

The checker and the preview cost 0 € and need no account. Downloading the finished XML costs 2.90 € excl. VAT, unlocked in the browser for 24 hours, or 9.90 € excl. VAT for 30 days including the CSV batch.

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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. The source of each quoted wording is given next to the quotation.

Page content last changed: 9 October 2026