Please recheck Item Description (BT-153) providing unclear description violates the requirements specified in Article 53 of VAT Regulations.
What does this mean?
The message names the item description, BT-153, which sits in cac:InvoiceLine/cac:Item/cbc:Name, and Article 53 of the VAT Implementing Regulations, the article that lists what a tax invoice must contain, among them a description of the goods or services supplied. A description that is only a number tells the buyer, and the Authority, nothing about what changed hands.
It is a warning: the document is cleared or reported, and the code comes back with the acceptance in warningMessages, category EN_16931. Nothing needs to be reissued for it, but the same warning returns on every invoice written the same way.
The code is not in the compiled validation rules shipped with ZATCA's SDK, the source of the other codes in this reference, so its executable test is not public. We saw it on a real tax invoice whose lines were named only by 18-digit SIM card serial numbers. What exactly the live check treats as unclear — digits only, a short code, a generic word — we cannot see, and we do not guess beyond that case.
It is the third code we have captured from live answers rather than from the SDK, after BR-KSA-F-13 and BR-KSA-F-06-C19, and it is close to the latter: that one checks the length of the same field, three characters at least; this one reads its meaning.
Why does it happen?
Ordered from the most common to the least — your cause is most likely the first or the second.
- A serial number, IMEI or SIM number (ICCID) typed as the item name, one line per unit.
- An internal SKU or stock code carried over from a warehouse or point-of-sale system as the name, with the product name left in another field that never reaches the invoice.
- A barcode scanned into the name field.
- An import that maps the code column to the name.
How to fix it
3 steps, then send the invoice again.
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1
Write the product name, and keep the number beside it
Put what was sold first and the identifier after it: «شريحة بيانات — 8996…», a data SIM followed by its number, rather than the 18 digits alone. The number stays on the document for your own reconciliation, and the name gives the description Article 53 asks for.
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2
Unit numbers in the line description, not the name
When each unit has its own number, one line with the product name and the quantity, and the numbers in the line description or the invoice notes, reads better than ten lines of digits. Check that your system prints the description field before relying on it.
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3
Fix it where the name comes from
If the name is filled in by a store, a point of sale or an import, the fix belongs in that source: the product title in the catalogue, or the column mapped to the name in the import.
This code does not block acceptance, so the invoice you have is compliant. Correct the data so the warnings disappear from future invoices.
Does ZATCA Tools prevent it?
Partly. Since 2026-09-27 the ZATCA Tools invoice form names the lines whose description is digits only before «إصدار» and shows how to write them: the product name with the number. Nothing is refused, and the notice goes as soon as the line carries a word. The API and the store integrations send the name they are given without this notice: Shopify and WooCommerce send the product title from the store, and an API line takes its name as sent.
Related codes
Frequently asked questions
Was my invoice rejected? +
errorMessages.I sell SIM cards and every card has its own number. Do I drop the number? +
Do I reissue the invoices that were accepted? +
Why can I not find this code in the SDK rules? +
Which other rule looks at the item name? +
ZATCA Tools builds the signature, the PIH, the counter and the encoding for you, and validates your data before it is sent. Start free, with no credit card.
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