# BR-04

Quoted from a public specification. This page is not a validator, and it is not tax, legal, or accounting advice.

- Country: EU
- Syntax: UBL
- Severity: fatal
- Statement language: en
- Last verified: 2026-10-18

## Official statement

> An Invoice shall have an Invoice type code (BT-3).

Source: https://docs.peppol.eu/poacc/billing/3.0/rules/ubl-tc434/BR-04/

Peppol BIS Billing 3.0, May 2026 release, EN 16931 model bound to UBL

Severity note: fatal, from the Flag column of the Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 UBL rules index retrieved 2026-10-18.

## Plain-language reading

An invoice must have an invoice type code (BT-3). The published test accepts a non-blank invoice type code or a non-blank credit-note type code. The credit-note comparison is !='' with no space before the quotes. The invoice-type comparison is != '' with a space. The message says "shall have".

## What to change

Fill cbc:InvoiceTypeCode or cbc:CreditNoteTypeCode with a non-empty type code (BT-3).

## Illustration

Illustration of the condition in the official statement. Not an example published by the source.

**Fails the stated condition.** InvoiceTypeCode and CreditNoteTypeCode are both missing or blank.

**Passes the stated condition.** InvoiceTypeCode contains a non-empty code, or CreditNoteTypeCode does.

## Published context and test

Copied from the source. Not reimplemented on this page.

```
/ubl:Invoice | /cn:CreditNote
```

```
normalize-space(cbc:InvoiceTypeCode) != '' or normalize-space(cbc:CreditNoteTypeCode) !=''
```

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