BR-DE-15
The invoice must carry a buyer reference (BT-10). For invoices to German public authorities this field normally holds the Leitweg-ID, the routing identifier that gets the invoice to the right office.
- Severity
- Error
- Applies to
- CII, UBL
- Rule set
- v2026-01-31
Official rule text
Das Element "Buyer reference" (BT-10) muss übermittelt werden.
Why it happens
It is usually missing because an existing B2B invoice template was reused: buyer reference is rarely needed there, but XRechnung makes it mandatory.
How to fix it
Put the Leitweg-ID or buyer reference supplied by your customer into BT-10 — cbc:BuyerReference in UBL, ram:BuyerReference in CII.
NormAPI provides technical validation, not tax or legal advice.