DEFINITION
The European standard that defines what an electronic invoice must contain and which formats are accepted. Factur-X, UBL and CII all follow it. Our free reader checks that seven basic fields are present (invoice number, issue date, seller, totals, currency), without going as far as validating compliance.
What the standard defines
EN 16931 sets out a common model of an invoice: the information it carries, from the seller and the buyer to the lines, the VAT breakdown and the totals, and the rules those fields follow. It then names the XML syntaxes that can carry this model, UBL and CII. It was published by the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) in 2017, and the French e-invoicing reform builds on it: the invoices exchanged between French businesses follow its model.
Which formats comply
UBL and CII are the two syntaxes the standard accepts. For Factur-X, it depends on the profile, which sets how much data the XML holds. MINIMUM and BASIC WL carry only the header and the totals, without the invoice lines, and don’t comply with the standard. BASIC, EN 16931 and EXTENDED include the lines and do. In ZUGFeRD, the German twin of Factur-X, the EN 16931 profile is called COMFORT.
The profile is written at the very start of the XML, as an identifier. For the EN 16931 profile, it reads urn:cen.eu:en16931:2017.
Checking an invoice
Our free reader runs a quick check on seven basic fields: invoice number, issue date, seller, total excluding VAT, VAT, total including VAT and currency. It tells you whether they’re present, and nothing more. It doesn’t validate compliance with the standard: accredited platforms check the form of invoices as they go through the network, and can reject a non-compliant one.
Frequently asked questions
Is a Factur-X always EN 16931 compliant?
No, it depends on its profile. BASIC, EN 16931 and EXTENDED comply. MINIMUM and BASIC WL, which leave out the invoice lines, don’t.
Does Clivio’s free reader validate EN 16931 compliance?
No. It checks that seven basic fields are present and shows the invoice in plain view. It isn’t an official validation.
Further reading
Invoice readerCheck an e-invoice