PEPPOL-EN16931-R046: Item net price is not gross price minus price discount

StandardPeppol BIS Billing 3.0 (OpenPeppol)SeverityError: the invoice is rejectedSyntaxUBL, CIIApplies toInvoices and credit notes sent over the Peppol network (UBL) and, because XRechnung embeds the Peppol rule set, every XRechnung as well.

Official rule text

[PEPPOL-EN16931-R046] Item net price MUST equal (Gross price - Allowance amount) when gross price is provided.

Why this error occurs

When a gross price (BT-148) is given, the net price (BT-146) must be exactly the gross price minus the item price discount (BT-147); there is no tolerance. In UBL the rule compares cac:Price/cbc:PriceAmount with cac:Price/cac:AllowanceCharge/cbc:BaseAmount minus cbc:Amount; in CII ram:NetPriceProductTradePrice/ram:ChargeAmount with ram:GrossPriceProductTradePrice/ram:ChargeAmount minus ram:AppliedTradeAllowanceCharge/ram:ActualAmount. It fails when the discount is derived from a percentage and rounded separately, or when net and gross prices use a different number of decimals.

How to fix it

Formula: PriceAmount = BaseAmount - Amount (UBL) / NetPrice ChargeAmount = GrossPrice ChargeAmount - ActualAmount (CII), compared as exact decimals. Compute the discount amount first, then derive the net price from it, using the same number of decimals for all three values (up to four are common for prices). If you cannot reproduce the gross/discount pair exactly, drop the price-level allowance and the gross price and give only the net price, which is always sufficient.

Example (valid)

<cac:Price>
  <cbc:PriceAmount currencyID="EUR">85.50</cbc:PriceAmount>
  <cac:AllowanceCharge>
    <cbc:ChargeIndicator>false</cbc:ChargeIndicator>
    <cbc:Amount currencyID="EUR">4.50</cbc:Amount>
    <cbc:BaseAmount currencyID="EUR">90.00</cbc:BaseAmount>
  </cac:AllowanceCharge>
</cac:Price>

What the validator checks

Checked element (context):

UBL

cac:Price/cac:AllowanceCharge

Test (XPath):

not(cbc:BaseAmount) or xs:decimal(../cbc:PriceAmount) = xs:decimal(cbc:BaseAmount) - xs:decimal(cbc:Amount)

CII

rsm:SupplyChainTradeTransaction/ram:IncludedSupplyChainTradeLineItem/ram:SpecifiedLineTradeAgreement/ram:GrossPriceProductTradePrice

Test (XPath):

not(ram:ChargeAmount) or xs:decimal(../ram:NetPriceProductTradePrice/ram:ChargeAmount) = xs:decimal(ram:ChargeAmount) - u:decimalOrZero(ram:AppliedTradeAllowanceCharge/ram:ActualAmount[1])

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

PEPPOL-EN16931-R001 Business process identifier (BT-23) is missing
PEPPOL-EN16931-R002 No more than one note is allowed on document level, unless both the buyer and seller…
PEPPOL-EN16931-R003 Neither buyer reference nor purchase order reference given
PEPPOL-EN16931-R004 Specification identifier is not the Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 identifier
PEPPOL-EN16931-R005 VAT accounting currency equals the invoice currency
PEPPOL-EN16931-R006 Only one invoiced object is allowed on document level
PEPPOL-EN16931-R007 Business process identifier has the wrong format
PEPPOL-EN16931-R008 Document contains empty elements

Frequently asked questions

What does PEPPOL-EN16931-R046 mean?

PEPPOL-EN16931-R046 is a peppol bis billing 3.0 rule: Item net price MUST equal (Gross price - Allowance amount) when gross price is provided.

Will my invoice be rejected because of PEPPOL-EN16931-R046?

Yes. PEPPOL-EN16931-R046 is flagged "fatal"; validators (KoSIT, Peppol access points, the German ZRE/OZG-RE portals) reject the invoice until it is fixed.

Which formats does PEPPOL-EN16931-R046 apply to?

Invoices and credit notes sent over the Peppol network (UBL) and, because XRechnung embeds the Peppol rule set, every XRechnung as well. Syntax: UBL and CII.

Source: Peppol BIS Billing 3.0.20 (November 2025). Catalogue generated from the official schematron on 2026-10-14.