BR-03: missing invoice issue date

Original rule text

[BR-03]-An Invoice shall have an Invoice issue date (BT-2).

Stored validation assertion

normalize-space(cbc:IssueDate) != ''

BR-03 is a fatal rule in the business layer of Peppol BIS Billing 3.0.20 · UBL. An invoice that breaks it is rejected. It refers to BT-2.

What this rule requires

The rule requires that an invoice or credit note contains an invoice issue date (BT-2) that is not empty or only whitespace. In UBL, this means cbc:IssueDate must have a non-whitespace value. In CII, rsm:ExchangedDocument/ram:IssueDateTime/udt:DateTimeString[@format='102'] must have a non-whitespace value. Since severity is fatal, a document missing this date fails validation.

How to fix

Add the invoice issue date as a non-empty value. For UBL, populate cbc:IssueDate with the issue date. For CII, populate rsm:ExchangedDocument/ram:IssueDateTime/udt:DateTimeString with @format='102' with the issue date. Ensure the value is not empty and not only whitespace.

Guidance on this rule. The original text above is authoritative.

How to resolve BR-03

The invoice needs an issue date in its top-level cbc:IssueDate element. This is business term BT-2.

A payment due date or delivery date does not replace the invoice issue date. This rule checks that the value is present and not whitespace; date format and other requirements are checked separately.

Map the actual invoice issue date from the source system into IssueDate. Export it as an XML date, for example YYYY-MM-DD. Regenerate the invoice rather than changing a displayed date in a PDF.

XML examples

These synthetic UBL fragments illustrate this rule only. Place the field directly under the Invoice or CreditNote root, using the UBL common basic components namespace for cbc. They are not complete invoices.

Fails this presence check

<cbc:IssueDate> </cbc:IssueDate>

Supplies the required field

<cbc:IssueDate>2026-10-19</cbc:IssueDate>

Run the complete invoice through the Peppol invoice validator after correcting it. Supplying this field does not establish that the complete document passes all rules.

Related header checks

Reference: official Peppol BR-03 definition. Guidance checked against that definition on 19 October 2026. The stored assertion above identifies the rule in this archived version; the linked documentation may advance to a newer release.