Facturx

Pure-Elixir toolkit for Factur-X / ZUGFeRD hybrid electronic invoices (the Franco-German EN 16931 standard: a PDF/A-3 file with a machine-readable CII XML payload embedded inside it).

The goal is to remove the need to shell out to the Python akretion/factur-x library from Elixir projects, and to fill the gap on Hex.pm.

Status: v1 core complete.generate, extract, build/parse and the optional validate all work and are proven end-to-end (veraPDF-valid output, parity with the Python reference, XSD-valid CII, Schematron via Saxon). See the scope ADR in docs/adr/0001-perimetre-et-architecture.md.

Scope (v1)

The EN 16931 Schematron ships compiled in priv/schematron/. validate/2 posts the XML + XSLT to a Saxon server and reads back the SVRL report. The XSLT resolves a code-list DB via document(...), which Saxon only permits with --insecure; docker/ provides an image that enables it and embeds the DB, so validation runs offline. It is exercised in CI against invoices the library builds.

Deliberately out of v1 scope (delegate to external tools, exactly as the Python library does):

• Normalising an arbitrary PDF into PDF/A-3 — the caller supplies a valid PDF/A-3; convert upstream with Ghostscript if needed.
• Running Schematron locally — the EN 16931 rules are XSLT 2.0, which the BEAM cannot execute. Facturx.Validate POSTs to a Saxon server (public by default, self-hosted recommended in production for privacy). It is opt-in and disabled by default.

Installation

def deps do
  [
    {:facturx, "~> 0.5"},
    # only if you use Facturx.validate/2:
    {:req, "~> 0.5"}
  ]
end

Docs: hexdocs.pm/facturx.

Usage

Generate a Factur-X PDF from invoice data

The caller supplies the visual PDF as a valid PDF/A-2 or PDF/A-3 (e.g. Typst compiled with --pdf-standard a-2b). generate/3 builds the CII XML, embeds it, and promotes the container to PDF/A-3.

invoice = %Facturx.Invoice{
  number: "INV-2026-001",
  issue_date: ~D[2026-07-24],
  currency: "EUR",
  seller: %{name: "ACME SARL", vat: "FR12345678900",
            address: %{line_one: "1 rue de Rivoli", postcode: "75001", city: "Paris", country: "FR"}},
  buyer: %{name: "Client SAS", vat: "FR98765432100",
           address: %{line_one: "2 place Bellecour", postcode: "69001", city: "Lyon", country: "FR"}},
  lines: [%{id: "1", name: "Service", net_price: Decimal.new("100.00"),
            quantity: Decimal.new("2"), unit: "C62",
            vat_category: "S", vat_rate: Decimal.new("20.00"), line_total: Decimal.new("200.00")}],
  tax_breakdown: [%{type: "VAT", category: "S", rate: Decimal.new("20.00"),
                    basis: Decimal.new("200.00"), calculated: Decimal.new("40.00")}],
  totals: %{line_total: Decimal.new("200.00"), tax_basis_total: Decimal.new("200.00"),
            tax_total: Decimal.new("40.00"), grand_total: Decimal.new("240.00"),
            due_payable: Decimal.new("240.00")}
}

{:ok, facturx_pdf} = Facturx.generate(pdf_a2b_binary, invoice, profile: :en16931)
# You can also pass ready-made CII XML instead of a struct:
# {:ok, facturx_pdf} = Facturx.generate(pdf_a2b_binary, cii_xml)

Extract and parse a received invoice

{:ok, %{xml: xml, profile: :en16931, filename: "factur-x.xml"}} = Facturx.extract(pdf_binary)
{:ok, %Facturx.Invoice{} = invoice} = Facturx.parse(xml)

Build / parse CII XML directly

{:ok, xml} = Facturx.build(invoice, profile: :en16931)
{:ok, invoice} = Facturx.parse(xml)

Notes, periods, gross prices, VAT exemption

%Facturx.Invoice{
  # BG-1 — CII puts the content before the subject code (BT-22 then BT-21)
  notes: [%{content: "Escompte 2% sous 8 jours", subject_code: "AAB"}],
  # BG-14 — either date may stand alone
  billing_period: %{start_date: ~D[2026-07-01], end_date: ~D[2026-07-31]},
  lines: [
    %{
      net_price: Decimal.new("90.00"),
      gross_price: Decimal.new("100.00"),    # BT-148, price before discount
      price_discount: Decimal.new("10.00"),  # BT-147
      # ...
    }
  ],
  tax_breakdown: [
    %{
      category: "E",
      exemption_reason: "Exonération art. 262 ter I",  # BT-120
      exemption_reason_code: "VATEX-EU-IC",            # BT-121
      # ...
    }
  ]
}

Allowances and charges

Document level (BG-20 / BG-21) and line level (BG-27 / BG-28). All four are the same CII element told apart by ChargeIndicator; which list you use decides it:

%Facturx.Invoice{
  allowances: [
    %{amount: Decimal.new("20.00"), reason: "Remise commerciale", reason_code: "95",
      basis_amount: Decimal.new("200.00"), percent: Decimal.new("10.00"),
      vat_category: "S", vat_rate: Decimal.new("20.00")}
  ],
  charges: [%{amount: Decimal.new("5.00"), reason: "Frais de port",
              vat_category: "S", vat_rate: Decimal.new("20.00")}],
  totals: %{
    line_total: Decimal.new("200.00"),
    allowance_total: Decimal.new("20.00"),   # BT-107
    charge_total: Decimal.new("5.00"),       # BT-108
    tax_basis_total: Decimal.new("185.00"),  # 200 − 20 + 5
    tax_total: Decimal.new("37.00"),
    grand_total: Decimal.new("222.00"),
    prepaid: Decimal.new("50.00"),           # BT-113 — down payments already paid
    due_payable: Decimal.new("172.00")
  }
}

Lines take the same :allowances / :charges keys.

⚠️ Two rules the XSD accepts but the platform will not:

• Every entry needs a :reason or :reason_code (BR-33, BR-38, BR-42, BR-44). An amount on its own gets the invoice rejected.
• Document-level entries must match their totals, which in turn feed :tax_basis_total (BR-CO-11, BR-CO-12, BR-CO-13). This library does not compute that arithmetic for you.

Payment means

How the invoice is to be paid (BG-16). Not part of the regulatory data set — the tax administration does not need it — but an invoice without it is unusable:

%Facturx.Invoice{
  payment_means: [
    %{
      type_code: "58",                          # BT-81, UNTDID 4461: SEPA credit transfer
      iban: "FR7630006000011234567890189",      # BT-84
      account_name: "ACME SARL",                # BT-85
      bic: "BNPAFRPPXXX"                        # BT-86
    }
  ]
}

type_code is commonly "30" (credit transfer), "58" (SEPA credit transfer), "59" (SEPA direct debit), "48" (card), "20" (cheque), "10" (cash). The 84-value list is not validated here — the schematron already does it.

Other shapes: :payer_iban for a direct debit (BT-91), :account_id for a non-IBAN account, :card_id / :cardholder_name for a card (BT-87 / BT-88).

⚠️ :card_id must be at most 10 characters — rule BR-51 enforces the PCI standard of showing at most the first 6 and last 4 digits. A masked 16-character number like "************1234" is too long and the invoice gets rejected. The XSD accepts any length; only the schematron catches this.

Down payments: referencing a preceding invoice

A final invoice nets off the down payments already invoiced, and points back at them (BG-3). This is the counterpart of the B4/S4/M4 invoicing frameworks:

%Facturx.Invoice{
  business_process: "S4",   # BT-23 — final invoice after a down payment
  preceding_invoices: [
    %{number: "F-2026-042", issue_date: ~D[2026-06-15]},  # BT-25 / BT-26
    %{number: "F-2026-043"}                               # BT-26 is optional
  ],
  # ...
}

Rule G1.60 forbids pairing a B4/S4/M4 framework with type_code386, 500 or 503: the framework already says "final invoice after a down payment", so the document cannot itself be one. That is enforced along with the closed list (validate_business_process: true), returning {:error, {:final_invoice_type_conflict, %{business_process: …, type_code: …}}}. Being a cross-field rule, neither the XSD nor the EN 16931 schematron sees it — the latter being French.

Two things the XSD will not catch, so worth knowing:

• :price_discount needs :gross_price — the CII price container requires an amount, so a lone discount is dropped.
• An exempt VAT breakdown needs a line in the matching category (BR-E-01), and a period needs its end on or after its start (BR-29). Both are schematron rules; see the Schematron section below to check them.

French mandate: invoicing framework and VAT point date

Two data items are required for domestic French invoicing on top of plain EN 16931. Both are nil by default, so nothing changes if you don't need them — cross-border EN 16931 output is byte-for-byte unaffected.

invoice = %Facturx.Invoice{
  business_process: "S1",        # BT-23 — cadre de facturation (closed list, see below)
  tax_due_date_type_code: "5",   # BT-8  — VAT point date code
  # ...
}

BT-8 says when VAT becomes chargeable. In CII the code list is UNTDID 2475, restricted by EN 16931 (rule BR-CL-06) to three values, which Facturx.vat_point_date_codes/0 returns:

⚠️ 3/35/432 belong to UNTDID 2005, the UBL list. In CII they pass the XSD (the type is an unrestricted xs:token) but the Schematron — and the platform — reject them. This library validates BT-8 against the three codes above by default, since the restriction comes from EN 16931 rather than from the French mandate. To reproduce a third-party document that carries a nonconformant code, pass validate_vat_point_date: false.

On the wire BT-8 sits inside each VAT breakdown entry, and EN 16931 lets the code differ between entries (French rule S1.13 does not). The document-level field above is the convenient case and is applied to every entry; set :due_date_type_code on a tax_breakdown entry to override it there. Parsing mirrors this: a uniform code is hoisted to the document level, divergent codes stay per entry rather than being collapsed onto one value.

business_process (BT-23, mandatory 1..1 for the mandate) carries the nature of the transaction, which drives VAT chargeability. Its first letter is the category — Biens / Services / Mixte:

The list is closed for the French mandate (rule G1.02) and Facturx.business_processes/0 returns it. BT-23 is an EN 16931 term, though, and its values are not restricted to those codes — Peppol uses urn:fdc:peppol.eu:…, Chorus Pro used A1/A2. So the code is emitted as given by default, and checking against the French list is opt-in. If you issue French domestic invoices, enable it once in your config:

config :facturx, Facturx.CII, validate_business_process: true

An unknown code then returns {:error, {:invalid_business_process, code}} instead of producing an invoice a platform will reject. It can also be set per call (Facturx.build(invoice, validate_business_process: true)), which overrides the config in both directions.

Two caveats worth knowing before you rely on this:

• Enabling the check also enforces G1.60 (see the down-payment section above). Other French rules remain unenforced, so this is not full BT-23 conformance.
• The Base_/Full_ file naming that declares the PPF profile (rule S1.06) is the caller's or the platform's job, not this library's.

Full reference, with primary sources and the complete Flux 1 → CII mapping: docs/reference/reforme-fr.md · docs/reference/mapping-cii-flux1.md · ADR 0002.

Validate

XSD (structure/types) — pure Elixir, in-process, no external tool:

{:ok, :valid} = Facturx.validate_xsd(xml)
# {:error, {:invalid, ["...invalid_decimal...", ...]}} on a bad document

Schematron (EN 16931 business rules) — needs a reachable Saxon server (see Facturx.Validate):

case Facturx.validate(xml, endpoint: "http://localhost:5000/transform") do
  {:ok, :valid} -> :ok
  {:ok, {:valid_with_warnings, findings}} -> inspect_warnings(findings)
  {:error, {:invalid, errors}} -> reject(errors)
end

Findings are split by SVRL severity: only "warning" and "info" are non-blocking. Don't read :valid_with_warnings as harmless — of the three assertions the bundled schematron flags as warnings, two are business rules: BR-29 (BT-74 ≥ BT-73) and BR-FX-EN-04 (a non-down-payment invoice must carry BT-72, BG-14 or BG-26). Only PEPPOL-EN16931-R008 (no empty elements) is cosmetic, and it fires when neither :ship_to nor :delivery_date is set, since CII still requires the ram:ApplicableHeaderTradeDelivery container.

The bundled rules load their code-list DB through document(), which Saxon refuses unless started with --insecure. A ready-made image is provided that enables it and bakes the code-list DB in, so validation needs no network:

docker compose -f docker/compose.yml up -d --build

mix test --include saxon   # with the env vars below

Facturx.validate(xml,
  endpoint: "http://localhost:5000/transform",
  codedb_url: "file:///opt/facturx/FACTUR-X_EN16931_codedb.xml")

Without :codedb_url, the XSLT fetches the code-list DB over the network on every call — slower, and it tells a third party that you are validating. See docker/Dockerfile for the details, including why the upstream image's CMD has to be rebuilt rather than appended to.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

The XSD and Schematron artefacts bundled under priv/ are third-party standard schemas, not part of this library's code: Factur-X / EN 16931 (UN/CEFACT CII), as packaged by akretion/factur-x (BSD-3-Clause). Their notices and licence texts are reproduced in priv/NOTICE.md.