Fix BR-DE-15: Buyer reference / Leitweg-ID (BT-10) missing

What does BR-DE-15 mean?

The element "Buyer reference" (BT-10) must be sent. This is a national add-on rule from KoSIT (XRechnung). It goes beyond EN 16931 and is mandatory for German e-invoices.

Common causes of BR-DE-15

• The element required by the German KoSIT rule is missing from the XML.
• The value appears only in the PDF, not in the structured data set.
• The entry was left empty.

How to fix BR-DE-15

1. Find the faulty spot in the XML. Open the XML of the invoice and go to field BT-10 along this XPath://ram:ApplicableHeaderTradeAgreement/ram:BuyerReference
2. Apply the fix. Add the Buyer reference / Leitweg-ID (BT-10) in 'ram:ApplicableHeaderTradeAgreement/ram:BuyerReference'.
3. Validate again. Save the file and validate it again to check that BR-DE-15 is no longer reported.

Before / after: the XML example

This is the spot in question before and after the fix (Cross Industry Invoice, ZUGFeRD/Factur-X).

<ram:ApplicableHeaderTradeAgreement>
  <!-- ram:BuyerReference fehlt -->
</ram:ApplicableHeaderTradeAgreement>

<ram:ApplicableHeaderTradeAgreement>
  <ram:BuyerReference>04011000-12345-34</ram:BuyerReference>
</ram:ApplicableHeaderTradeAgreement>

Frequent questions about BR-DE-15

Related error codes

Check BR-DE-15 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.