# PEPPOL-EN16931-R002

> Either a Buyer reference (BT-10) or a Purchase order reference (BT-13) must be provided. Peppol requires at least one so the buyer can route the invoice.

Checked against Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 2026.5

Canonical: https://einvoicecheck.eu/rules/peppol-en16931-r002

## Official rule text

No more than one note is allowed on document level, unless both the buyer and seller are German organizations.

## Why did my invoice fail PEPPOL-EN16931-R002?

Peppol restricts document-level notes (BT-22) to at most one occurrence, except when both buyer and seller are German (identified by DE country codes), where multiple notes are permitted for national practice. This keeps document-level free text minimal for automated processing across the network.

## Common causes

- More than one cbc:Note element at document (Invoice) level while the parties are not both German.
- Multiple free-text remarks placed at document level instead of consolidating into one Note.
- Line-level notes accidentally emitted at document level.
- Both parties German but their country codes (cac:PostalAddress/cac:Country/cbc:IdentificationCode) are not set to DE.

## How do I fix it?

```
Consolidate into a single document-level note, e.g. keep one <cbc:Note>Delivery terms: DAP Berlin. Payment within 30 days.</cbc:Note> and remove the extra Note elements.
```