When an invoice fails Peppol validation, you see an error code such as PEPPOL-EN16931-CL008 or BR-CO-15. These codes are not Banqup errors: they come from the checks the Peppol network runs against the European e-invoicing standard EN 16931. The document does not meet one of these rules, and it stays blocked until the cause is corrected.
Note: Does your message describe a failed or rejected delivery, without a rule code? See Fixing Peppol delivery errors on your documents.
First: who has to act?
You are sending the invoice: the correction happens in your document, in the customer card, or in the external software that produced the invoice.
You received the invoice (purchase invoice): received e-invoices are read-only. The sender must correct the document and send it again. Contact your supplier and quote the error code.
The most frequent codes
Look up the code from your error message below.
PEPPOL-EN16931-CL008: the electronic address is not in the correct format
The electronic address of the sender or the receiver (their Peppol identifier) does not follow the required format. The two usual causes:
The invoice is addressed to a private individual. A customer without an enterprise number or VAT number has no Peppol identifier, so the document cannot pass Peppol validation. Invoices to private individuals should not go through Peppol: open the customer card and select Email under Delivery channels. Then send the invoice again.
The identifier is incomplete or has a typo, for example an enterprise number or VAT number in the wrong format, or an incorrect mapping from your accounting software. Check the number on the customer card, or correct it in the software that produced the invoice.
BR-CO-15: the totals do not add up
The invoice total including VAT must equal the total excluding VAT plus the VAT amount. This usually happens on uploaded PDFs where the automatic recognition read a total as 0.00 or misread an amount. What to do:
If the invoice has not been sent yet: open it, check the extracted amounts (total excluding VAT, VAT amount) and correct them.
If you already tried to send it, the fields are locked. Delete the invoice (it was not delivered), upload the PDF again, let the recognition finish, verify every amount, then send.
PEPPOL-EN16931-R120: a line amount does not match the calculation
Each invoice line must satisfy: line net amount = quantity x unit price + line charges - line discounts, with a tolerance of only 0.02 EUR per line. This is almost always a rounding issue on the unit price:
Real price 7.39933 EUR, invoiced as 7.40 EUR x 1,000 units = 7,400.00 EUR against a line total of 7,399.33 EUR: the difference of 0.67 EUR is rejected.
Fix: use a base quantity instead (7,399.33 EUR per 1,000 units), or correct the line so the calculation is exact.
Other causes: a discount already included in the unit price and repeated as a separate discount line, or a unit price entered including VAT (it must be excluding VAT).
If the invoice comes from an external package, correct it there, not in Banqup.
BR-CO-26: the supplier cannot be identified (purchase invoices)
No enterprise number or VAT number could be found for the supplier:
Check the PDF: is one of those numbers printed on the invoice? If not, the invoice is missing a mandatory mention. Ask the supplier for a corrected invoice.
If the number is on the invoice but was not detected: add the supplier manually to your supplier list. The public registry lookup completes the data, and the invoice can validate.
Foreign suppliers: the supplier card needs a valid VAT number starting with the supplier's country code (DE for Germany, NL for the Netherlands, and so on).
PEPPOL-EN16931-R010 and R020: an electronic address is missing
The Peppol address of the customer (R010) or of the seller (R020) is missing. That address is the enterprise number or VAT number preceded by its scheme code (in Belgium: 0208 for the enterprise number, 9925 for the VAT number). Check:
Your own company data: enterprise number or VAT number complete, including the country code.
The customer card: enterprise number or VAT number correct.
If R010 and R020 appear together, your external invoicing software is probably not sending the identifiers at all. Correct it there.
PEPPOL-EN16931-R008: the document contains empty fields
Somewhere in the document a field is present but was left empty, for example a payment reference, a date or a bank account without a value. This code is mostly seen on received documents. Received e-invoices cannot be edited: contact the supplier, quote the code, and ask for a corrected invoice.
BR-CL-24 and PEPPOL-EN16931-CL001: attachment type not allowed
An attachment on the invoice has a file type Peppol does not accept. The supported formats are PDF, PNG, JPEG, CSV, Excel (XLSX) and Open Office (ODS). Word documents (.doc, .docx) are the usual culprit. Remove the attachment or replace it with a PDF, then send again. If the error persists after removing it, contact us through the messenger so the document can be reprocessed.
BR-25 and BG-25: invoice lines need a name
Every invoice line must have a name or description, and the invoice needs at least one line. A reference or article number alone is not enough: fill in the description field on each line. If the invoice can no longer be edited, create a new one with complete lines.
BG-23: the VAT summary is missing
Every invoice must contain a VAT breakdown: a summary per VAT rate of the taxable amount and the VAT amount. An error mentioning BG-23 means this summary is missing or incomplete. Check that every line has a VAT rate, and that the VAT details of your own company and of your customer are complete. Removing and re-adding the enterprise number or VAT number on the customer card triggers a fresh check.
BR-CO-09: a VAT number without country prefix
Every VAT number in the document must start with a two-letter country code (BE, NL, DE and so on; Greece uses EL). This often appears with customers outside the EU, for example in the United States. Do not enter 0% VAT for them: select Outside the scope of VAT as the VAT treatment instead. No VAT number is required in that case, and the invoice validates.
BR-S-02: a standard VAT rate but no VAT number for the seller
A line on the invoice carries a standard VAT rate, but the document contains no VAT number for the party that issued it. On your own sales invoice: complete the VAT number in your company data. On a received purchase invoice: add the VAT number to the supplier card, then have the document validated again.
BR-CO-17: the VAT amount does not match the rate
For each VAT rate, the VAT amount must equal the taxable amount multiplied by that rate. This typically appears when the VAT percentage on the document lines differs from the one on the original PDF (for example 21% on the lines against 10.5% on the PDF). Align the VAT rate on the lines with the actual document, then save.
Related delivery problems
These situations block sending over Peppol without showing an EN 16931 code.
Peppol cannot be selected as delivery channel for a customer: the customer card may be incomplete, or the Peppol check ran before the customer was registered on the network. Remove and re-add the enterprise number or VAT number in the customer card to trigger a fresh check. You can check any company's Peppol registration yourself at https://directory.peppol.eu/public (use scheme 0208 plus the enterprise number, without dots or spaces).
Invalid GLN: a GLN containing letters is not valid as a Peppol address. Clear the GLN and use the enterprise number (0208) or the VAT number (9925) instead.
Negative amounts: Peppol does not accept negative prices. For returns or deductions, use a negative quantity with a positive price, or use the discount fields.
Where to see the full error details
Open the document and check the banner at the top, or open View details / Activities for the complete validation report: it names the exact field, which the code alone does not. Is your code not listed here? Contact us through the messenger and copy the complete error message: the accompanying text identifies the field to correct. You can find the full official rule lists at docs.peppol.eu.