BR-2 in your own invoice? Upload the file and find every error in seconds.
What does BR-2 mean?
An Invoice shall have an Invoice number (BT-1). It is one of the mandatory fields of the European standard EN 16931. Without it the invoice is structurally incomplete and will be rejected.
Common causes of BR-2
- The mandatory element is missing entirely from the structured XML.
- The value appears only in the visible PDF layout, not in the XML.
- The element was sent empty.
How to fix BR-2
- Find the faulty spot in the XML. Open the XML of the invoice and go to field BT-1 along this XPath:
//rsm:ExchangedDocument/ram:ID - Apply the fix. Add the Invoice number (BT-1) in 'ram:ExchangedDocument/ram:ID'.
- Validate again. Save the file and validate it again to check that BR-2 is no longer reported.
Concrete fix
Add the Invoice number (BT-1) in 'ram:ExchangedDocument/ram:ID'.
XPath
//rsm:ExchangedDocument/ram:IDBefore / after: the XML example
This is the spot in question before and after the fix (Cross Industry Invoice, ZUGFeRD/Factur-X).
Wrong
<rsm:ExchangedDocument>
<!-- ram:ID fehlt -->
</rsm:ExchangedDocument>
Correct
<rsm:ExchangedDocument>
<ram:ID>RE-2026-001</ram:ID>
</rsm:ExchangedDocument>Frequent questions about BR-2
How do I fix BR-2?
Add the Invoice number (BT-1) in 'ram:ExchangedDocument/ram:ID'.
Related error codes
Check BR-2 automatically
Instead of digging through the XML by hand you can validate your ZUGFeRD or XRechnung file online – upload the PDF or the XML and you get every error with rule ID, affected field, fix and XPath, as a readable report or as JSON through the API.