What a valid GST invoice must contain

The mandatory fields

All of these must appear on a tax invoice under Rule 46 of the CGST Rules.

• A consecutive, gap-free invoice number within the financial year.
• Date of issue.
• Supplier name, address and GSTIN.
• Recipient name, address and GSTIN where registered.
• Place of supply, which decides CGST plus SGST versus IGST.
• HSN or SAC code per line.
• Taxable value and tax shown separately for each rate.
• Total in figures, and generally in words.

The numbering trap

Invoice numbers must be consecutive and unbroken within a financial year. Cancelling an invoice by deleting it leaves a gap, and a gap is exactly what an assessment looks for. Issue a credit note instead.

The specifications this applies to

For reference, here is how it works out on the products this comes up on most often.

• Letterheads — 210 × 297 mm finished, 3 mm bleed, 300 DPI minimum, from ₹4 per unit with a minimum of 100.

Ordering

Every file is checked automatically before printing, so a mistake in any of this is caught while it can still be corrected rather than after a run is on paper.

Standard delivery is free to every PIN code in India — two working days to a metro, up to twelve to the islands — and prices include GST, so the figure on the product page is the figure charged. Add a GSTIN at checkout and the invoice carries it for input credit.

Keeping the paperwork straight

Every order here produces a GST invoice automatically, carrying a consecutive invoice number, the HSN per line and the tax split by rate, so it stands up to an assessment without further work.

Add your GSTIN at checkout rather than afterwards. Amending an issued invoice is considerably more trouble than entering fifteen characters at the right moment, and until it is amended the input credit is not claimable.