BR-DE – XRechnung

BR-DE-3: seller city (BT-37) missing in the XRechnung

ErrorXRechnung business rule (KoSIT)

The rule's own wording

[BR-DE-3] Das Element "Seller city" (BT-37) muss übermittelt werden.

Source: KoSIT XRechnung, version 3.0.2 (Schematron 2.6.0)

The fix in the XML

Add the city to the seller's address: in UBL the element cbc:CityName under cac:PostalAddress, in CII ram:CityName in the seller's PostalTradeAddress. Check at the same time that street, post code and country code are filled.

Before – invalid

<cac:AccountingSupplierParty>
  <cac:Party>
    <cac:PostalAddress>
      <cbc:StreetName>Musterstraße 12</cbc:StreetName>
      <cbc:PostalZone>10115</cbc:PostalZone>
      <cac:Country><cbc:IdentificationCode>DE</cbc:IdentificationCode></cac:Country>
    </cac:PostalAddress>
  </cac:Party>
</cac:AccountingSupplierParty>

After – corrected

<cac:AccountingSupplierParty>
  <cac:Party>
    <cac:PostalAddress>
      <cbc:StreetName>Musterstraße 12</cbc:StreetName>
      <cbc:CityName>Berlin</cbc:CityName>
      <cbc:PostalZone>10115</cbc:PostalZone>
      <cac:Country><cbc:IdentificationCode>DE</cbc:IdentificationCode></cac:Country>
    </cac:PostalAddress>
  </cac:Party>
</cac:AccountingSupplierParty>

Meaning of the rule

The city is missing from the invoice issuer's address. XRechnung requires a complete seller address because the recipient and the tax office must identify the issuer without doubt; a street and a post code alone are not enough for that. An invoice without a city is rejected on receipt even when everything else is right. Enter the city in your company's master data so that every invoice carries it.

What usually goes wrong

The city is not maintained in the company master data of the invoicing software, or not mapped to the field.
The address was captured on one line and not split into street, city and post code on export.
A template only transfers the street and the post code.

Questions and answers

Why does XRechnung require the city when the post code is already unique?

The norm EN 16931 makes the city its own mandatory field of the address; XRechnung enforces it so that the address is readable without a lookup.

Does the same obligation apply to the buyer's address?

Yes. BR-DE-8 reads: „Das Element "Buyer city" (BT-52) muss übermittelt werden.“ The buyer's address is checked with the same rules as the seller's.

EN 16931 fields

BT-37
BG-5

Check your invoice

The XRechnung validator reports this rule with the line number and location – right in your browser, without upload.

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The rule in detail

UBL · Context (XPath): /ubl:Invoice/cac:AccountingSupplierParty/cac:Party/cac:PostalAddress | /cn:CreditNote/cac:AccountingSupplierParty/cac:Party/cac:PostalAddress
UBL · Schematron test: cbc:CityName[boolean(normalize-space(.))]
CII · Context (XPath): /rsm:CrossIndustryInvoice/rsm:SupplyChainTradeTransaction/ram:ApplicableHeaderTradeAgreement/ram:SellerTradeParty/ram:PostalTradeAddress
CII · Schematron test: ram:CityName[boolean(normalize-space(.))]

Explanation written on 14 September 2026

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