BR-CO-25: Amount due but no due date or payment terms

StandardEN 16931-1 (European e-invoicing semantic model)SeverityError: the invoice is rejectedSyntaxUBL, CIIBusiness terms

BT-9 Payment due date
BT-20 Payment terms
BT-115 Amount due for payment

Applies toEvery EN 16931 invoice: XRechnung, ZUGFeRD 2.x / Factur-X (profiles EN 16931, EXTENDED, XRECHNUNG), Peppol BIS Billing 3.0, and national CIUS such as the Dutch NLCIUS or the Italian/Spanish profiles.

Official rule text

[BR-CO-25] In case the Amount due for payment (BT-115) is positive, either the Payment due date (BT-9) or the Payment terms (BT-20) shall be present.

Why this error occurs

If the amount due for payment (BT-115) is greater than zero, the invoice must state either a payment due date (BT-9) or payment terms (BT-20), so the buyer knows when to pay. In UBL the rule looks for cbc:DueDate or cac:PaymentTerms/cbc:Note on an Invoice with positive cac:LegalMonetaryTotal/cbc:PayableAmount; in CII for ram:SpecifiedTradePaymentTerms/ram:DueDateDateTime or ram:Description when ram:DuePayableAmount is positive. It is typically triggered by software that prints the terms on the PDF but does not export them, or only exports them for certain customer groups.

How to fix it

Add cbc:DueDate (YYYY-MM-DD) directly after cbc:DocumentCurrencyCode-related header fields in UBL (it sits after cbc:IssueDate and before cbc:InvoiceTypeCode), and/or cac:PaymentTerms/cbc:Note with the textual terms. In CII add ram:SpecifiedTradePaymentTerms with ram:DueDateDateTime/udt:DateTimeString format="102" and/or ram:Description inside ram:ApplicableHeaderTradeSettlement. Prefer giving both: the date is machine-readable, the text carries conditions such as cash discount. Credit notes and fully prepaid invoices (BT-115 = 0) do not need either.

Example (valid)

<cbc:IssueDate>2026-10-14</cbc:IssueDate>
<cbc:DueDate>2026-11-13</cbc:DueDate>
...
<cac:PaymentTerms>
  <cbc:Note>Payable within 30 days without deduction.</cbc:Note>
</cac:PaymentTerms>

What the validator checks

Checked element (context):

UBL

/ubl:Invoice/cac:LegalMonetaryTotal/cbc:PayableAmount

Test (XPath):

((. > 0) and (exists(//cbc:DueDate) or exists(//cac:PaymentTerms/cbc:Note))) or (. <= 0)

CII

/rsm:CrossIndustryInvoice

Test (XPath):

(number(//ram:DuePayableAmount) > 0 and ((//ram:SpecifiedTradePaymentTerms/ram:DueDateDateTime) or (//ram:SpecifiedTradePaymentTerms/ram:Description))) or not(number(//ram:DuePayableAmount)>0)

Check your invoice

Drop your XML or PDF on the validator and every failed rule is linked to its page here. Free, no account, the file is not stored.

Check your invoice →

Same check via API:

curl -F file=@invoice.xml https://einvoicechecker.com/v1/validate

Related rules

BR-CO-16 Amount due for payment (BT-115) does not add up
BR-15 An Invoice shall have the Amount due for payment
BR-DEC-18 The allowed maximum number of decimals for the Amount due for payment is 2
BR-CO-03 Tax point date and tax point date code both given
BR-CO-04 Invoice line without VAT category code (BT-151)
BR-CO-05 Document level allowance reason code and Document level allowance reason shall…
BR-CO-06 Document level charge reason code and Document level charge reason shall indicate the…
BR-CO-07 Invoice line allowance reason code and Invoice line allowance reason shall indicate…

Frequently asked questions

What does BR-CO-25 mean?

BR-CO-25 is a en 16931 core rule: In case the Amount due for payment (BT-115) is positive, either the Payment due date (BT-9) or the Payment terms (BT-20) shall be present.

Will my invoice be rejected because of BR-CO-25?

Yes. BR-CO-25 is flagged "fatal"; validators (KoSIT, Peppol access points, the German ZRE/OZG-RE portals) reject the invoice until it is fixed.

Which formats does BR-CO-25 apply to?

Every EN 16931 invoice: XRechnung, ZUGFeRD 2.x / Factur-X (profiles EN 16931, EXTENDED, XRECHNUNG), Peppol BIS Billing 3.0, and national CIUS such as the Dutch NLCIUS or the Italian/Spanish profiles. Syntax: UBL and CII.

Source: EN 16931-1:2017 schematron (CEN TC434, via Peppol BIS 3.0.20). Catalogue generated from the official schematron on 2026-10-14.