Glossary Term
BG-4

BG-4 Seller

BG-4 is the EN 16931 business group that contains all information identifying and describing the seller (supplier) of goods or services on the invoice.

Quick Facts

Mandatory
Yes
Key fields
BT-27 Name, BT-31 VAT, BT-34 Endpoint
Cardinality
1..1

Definition

What is BG-4?

BG-4 (Seller) is a mandatory business group in the EN 16931 data model. It groups all the fields that identify and describe the party that sells goods or services and issues the invoice.

Fields in BG-4

Field Name Cardinality
--------------------------
BT-27 Seller name 1..1 (mandatory)
BT-28 Seller trading name 0..1
BT-29 Seller identifier 0..n
BT-30 Seller legal registration 0..1
BT-31 Seller VAT identifier 0..1
BT-32 Seller tax registration 0..1
BT-34 Seller electronic address 1..1 (Peppol)
BG-5 Seller postal address 1..1
BG-6 Seller contact 0..1

In UBL XML


  
    0123456789
    
      Acme Corp
    
    
      Main Street 1
      Brussels
      1000
      BE
    
    
      BE0123456789
      VAT
    
    
      Acme Corp NV

Key Requirements

  • BT-27 (Seller name) is always mandatory

  • BT-34 (Electronic address) is mandatory in Peppol — this is the EndpointID

  • BG-5 (Postal address) must include at minimum the country code (BT-40)

  • BT-31 or BT-63 — at least one tax identifier is required in most CIUS

    • Common Errors

  • Missing seller name (BT-27) — fails BR-06

  • Missing seller country (BT-40 in BG-5) — fails BR-09

  • Missing EndpointID for Peppol invoices — fails PEPPOL-EN16931-R020

  • Missing VAT identifier when VAT is charged — fails BR-CO-09

    • XML Examples

    UBL (Peppol, XRechnung)

    <cac:AccountingSupplierParty>...</cac:AccountingSupplierParty>

    CII (ZUGFeRD, Factur-X)

    <ram:SellerTradeParty>...</ram:SellerTradeParty>