Fix CII-SR-475: More than one description (BT-123) on the attachments

What does CII-SR-475 mean?

CII-SR-475 is a syntax rule of EN 16931 for CII. It allows only one description (BT-123, ram:Name) on attachments with TypeCode 916 and counts the descriptions of all attachments of the invoice together, not per attachment. If two attachments carry a description, the warning appears. The standard allows any number of attachments (BG-24); the invoice stays valid.

Common causes of CII-SR-475

• Two or more attachments carry a description in ram:Name.
• The invoicing software writes the file name of each attachment once more as its description.

How to fix CII-SR-475

1. Find the faulty spot in the XML. Open the XML of the invoice and go to field BT-123 along this XPath://ram:ApplicableHeaderTradeAgreement/ram:AdditionalReferencedDocument/ram:Name
2. Apply the fix. Harmless: the rule counts the descriptions (BT-123) of all attachments of the invoice together instead of per attachment. EN 16931 explicitly allows several attachments (BG-24 any number of times). The invoice stays valid. To avoid the warning, leave out 'ram:Name' on the attachments.
3. Validate again. Save the file and validate it again to check that CII-SR-475 is no longer reported.

Frequent questions about CII-SR-475

Related error codes

Check CII-SR-475 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.