IN-PAYABLE-POSITIVE:Payable amount should be positive
The amount due for payment (PayableAmount) should typically be a positive value.
Engine Classification
Financial or legal field · Modification blocked by policy
Reason: The payable amount is negative, which typically indicates a calculation error or that this should be a credit note instead. Review the invoice totals and line items in your source system. If this is a refund, use invoice type 381 (Credit Note).
What is IN-PAYABLE-POSITIVE?
IN-PAYABLE-POSITIVE is a warning validation rule defined in the peppol-bis-3 specification. It validates the PayableAmount element under Invoice > LegalMonetaryTotal in the UBL invoice XML.
This is a soft validation failure. The invoice may pass initial transmission, but non-compliant values in this field can cause problems during tax audits, buyer-side processing, or downstream VAT reconciliation.
Target path: XPath: /Invoice/cac:LegalMonetaryTotal/cbc:PayableAmount
Why This Error Matters
Invoices should have positive payable.
IN-PAYABLE-POSITIVE is a soft failure. The invoice may pass initial validation, but the non-compliant field can cause issues at the receiving end — tax authorities may flag it during audits, buyer ERP systems may fail to process it, or VAT reconciliation may produce mismatches. Fixing warnings before they accumulate prevents larger compliance gaps.
Validator Behavior
- ·Generates validation warning
- ·Rejected by PEPPOL Access Points
- ·Error returned: IN-PAYABLE-POSITIVE
- ·Specification: peppol-bis-3
How to Fix It
Check amount
PayableAmount value
Use credit note
Document type 381 for negative amounts
XML Example
Generic example based on the rule's target XPath. Your actual XML structure may differ.
<!-- Incorrect value --> <cbc:PayableAmount>INVALID</cbc:PayableAmount>
<!-- Corrected value --> <cbc:PayableAmount>VALID_VALUE</cbc:PayableAmount>
Technical Reference
XPath: /Invoice/cac:LegalMonetaryTotal/cbc:PayableAmountCommon Causes
- ·Negative payable on invoice type 380
Seeing this in production? The API handles IN-PAYABLE-POSITIVE automatically. See the fix response →
Frequently Asked Questions
PayableAmount should typically be positive.
For credits use credit note (381) instead. Invoice Navigator can help identify and fix this issue.
Yes, PEPPOL-EN16931-R044 is a critical error that must be fixed.
Related Errors
Last updated: 19 January 2026
Handle IN-PAYABLE-POSITIVE Automatically in Your Pipeline
The compliance engine auto-remediates this error with controlled safety policies and evidence pack generation.