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E-invoice error explained

BR-DE-3: Seller city or post code is missing

EN 16931 only asks for the country code in the seller's address.

What the rule checks

EN 16931 only asks for the country code in the seller's address. XRechnung also requires the city (BT-37, rule BR-DE-3) and the post code (BT-38, rule BR-DE-4). The two usually appear together because the address is missing in whole or in part.

Official rule text

BR-DE-3: The element "Seller city" (BT-37) must be transmitted.
BR-DE-4: The element "Seller post code" (BT-38) must be transmitted.

Source: KoSIT configuration XRechnung 3.0.2 (31 Jan 2026).

Typical causes

  • The address is kept in one free text line, without separate post code and city fields.
  • The export writes street and country, but not post code and city.
  • For a branch abroad the post code field is empty.

How to fix it

Add ram:PostcodeCode and ram:CityName to ram:SellerTradeParty/ram:PostalTradeAddress. The order is fixed: PostcodeCode, LineOne, LineTwo, LineThree, CityName, CountryID. A wrong order causes a schema error.

Example

Wrong (CII)

<ram:PostalTradeAddress>
  <ram:LineOne>Musterstraße 1</ram:LineOne>
  <ram:CountryID>DE</ram:CountryID>
</ram:PostalTradeAddress>

Right (CII)

<ram:PostalTradeAddress>
  <ram:PostcodeCode>97070</ram:PostcodeCode>
  <ram:LineOne>Musterstraße 1</ram:LineOne>
  <ram:CityName>Würzburg</ram:CityName>
  <ram:CountryID>DE</ram:CountryID>
</ram:PostalTradeAddress>

In Dynamics 365, Business Central and Finance

Sales / Project Operations: Sales and Project Operations have no e-invoice output out of the box. In the WBS Invoice Accelerator for Dynamics 365 the address comes from the brand profile: Address line 1, Postal code and City. The country is taken from Locale, for example de-DE gives DE.

Business Central: Fill Address, Post Code, City and Country/Region Code on the Company Information page.

Finance: Under Legal entities, Addresses FastTab, the legal entity needs a valid primary address.

Related error codes

All error codes

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