Electronic documents are validated through application of a set of validation rules. One example of an electronic document to be validated has main data and view portions, wherein the main data portion can be parsed separately from the view portion, and the view portion includes presentation formatting for providing a display corresponding to the main data portion. There, the validation rules include comparison rules for determining whether a display provided by the view portion substantially matches the main data portion. Linking elements in the electronic document that point to corresponding information field in the view and main data portions can accommodate the matching comparison. Other types of validation rules include membership rules and reference identifier rules, and various document views corresponding to a given transaction can be separately validated.