FAQ's On E-Invoicing

What is an e-invoice and e-invoice Schema? ‘E-invoicing’ or ‘electronic invoicing’ is a system in which B2B invoices are authenticated electronically by GSTN for further use on the common GST portal.

What is an Invoice Registration Portal (IRP)?

IRP, known as the Invoice Registration Portal is instrumental in validating the genuineness of the invoices used in the GST ecosystem. It generates and assigns IRN to every GST invoice.

What is an Invoice Reference Number?

The hash computed by IRP will become the IRN (Invoice Reference Number) of the e-invoice. This shall be unique to each invoice and hence be the unique identity for each invoice for the entire financial year in the entire GST System for a taxpayer. Hash will be based on seller’s GSTIN, Document Type, Document Number and Financial Year

What type of documents are covered under e-Invoice

Invoice by Supplier

Credit Note by Supplier

Debit Note by Supplier

Any other document as required by law to be reported by the creator of the document (as notified by the Government from time to time).

Is it mandatory to generate IRN within 24 hours?

There would be time limit for e-invoice uploading for registration and the same would be notified by the Government. Without registration of e-invoice, the same will not be valid. Once uploaded to the invoice registration portal (IRP), it will be registered immediately, on a real-time basis

Can IRN be generated in Bulk?

Invoices must be uploaded on IRP one at a time. The IRP will be able to handle a large sequence of invoices for registration and validate them. Essentially bulk upload will be required by large taxpayers who generate a large number of invoices. Their ERP or accounting system will have to be designed in such a way that it makes requests one by one. For the user, it will not make any difference.

What is an E-invoice end to end workflow

Step 1 is the generation of the invoice by the seller in his own accounting or billing system

Step 2 and 3: is to upload and push the JSON of the e-invoice to the IRP by the seller. The JSON may be uploaded directly on the IRP or through GSPs or through third party provided Apps.

Step-4: The IRP will generate the hash based on the seller’s GSTIN, Document Type, Document Number and Financial Year and check the hash from the Central Registry of GST System to ensure that the same document (invoice etc.) from the same supplier pertaining to the same Fin Year is not being uploaded again. On receipt of confirmation from Central Registry, IRP will add its signature on the Invoice Data as well as a QR code to the JSON. In case the same document has been uploaded earlier, the IRP will send an error code back to the seller when he tries to upload a duplicate e-invoice.

Step 5 will involve returning the digitally signed JSON with IRN back to the seller along with a QR code.

Step 6 will involve sharing the uploaded data of the accepted document (invoice etc.) with GST and e-way bill system.

What indicates that IRP has approved the e-invoice?

IRP will involve returning the digitally signed JSON with IRN back to the seller along with a QR code after confirmation from Central Registry

Can IRP reject the submitted the invoice

In case the same document has been uploaded earlier, the IRP will send an error code back to the seller, when he tries to upload a duplicate e-invoice

What validations are conducted by IRP

IRP will validate for GSTIN correctness and whether the invoice already exists in the system

Will IRP return the signed invoice PDF/mail it to respective supplier and buyer?

No, IRP will return only the digitally signed JSON with IRN back to the seller along with a QR code.No sharing of PDF copy or mailing of JSONs / PDFs will be done by IRP to respective buyers and a seller PDF copy of the invoice can be generated by the supplier using QR code that is returned by IRP.

Can IRN be created by Supplier's Vendor directly?

No, IRN needs to be generated only by the Supplier I,e Creator of the Invoice.

Is the supplier allowed to distribute e-invoice to the buyer?

Yes, The supplier is also allowed to distribute JSON as well as PDF. Further, the supplier is also free to share/distribute business invoice to the buyer (having multiple fields as per the business needs). However, it needs to ensure that the business invoice is having all the mandatory fields as prescribed in the e-invoice schema

Is printing of e-invoice PDF mandatory?

No, with machine readability, the need for printing will be eliminated. Moreover QR code will enable to validate contents of an e-invoice

Whether QR will be required to be printed on the invoice

If the invoice is printed by the Company, it needs to contain QR code returned by IRP. QR code will also contain IRN

Whether non-tax invoices/documents will be subjected to IRN

No, Bill of supply and Delivery Challan will not be required to generate an IRN

Whether IRN will be required for ISD and Export transactions

ISD invoice and ISD Credit note will be issued by an Input Service Distributor and IRN will be required on the same. In respect of Exporter further notification is required from CBEC

Whether importers are required to generate IRN

e-invoicing / IRN generation is only applicable to the B2B document.

What is the process of amendment of an e-invoice?

Amendment of e-invoice already uploaded on IRP will be done only on the GST portal. Any amended e-invoice, if reported to IRP, will get rejected as its IRN (unique hash) will be already be existing in the IRP system. Hence amendment of invoices will not be possible through the IRP.

What is the process of cancellation of an e-invoice?

The cancellation of e-invoice will be done by using the ‘Cancel IRN’ API (published on the e-invoice portal). The API will be a POST API and will require the IRN that is to be cancelled as the key parameter of the payload.

Is it necessary to print all mandatory fields on the invoice?

27 mandatory fields compulsorily needed for the purpose of Generation of E-invoice, as without those fields invoice cannot be pushed to IRP.

Further, provisions of Rule 46 and Rule 48(4) of CGST Rules are to be read conjointly.

What are the recent changes done in the GST law incase of Invoice generation?

Notification no.70/2019 states that taxpayers having aggregate turnover in previous financial year greater than 100 crore rupees are required to follow invoicing procedures prescribed under Rule 48(4) of CGST Rules. Therefore such taxpayers shall be required to mention the particulars prescribed in Notification No. 02/2020 read with Rule 46 of CGST Rules on the invoice. In order to comply with provisions of Rule 48(4) of CGST Rules, the taxpayer shall be required to push invoices data to IRP portal for obtaining IRN and QR code which are to be mentioned on the invoice.

What is size of QR code

GST the law does not provide any such dimensions. However the same may vary depending upon the data content.

Whether each invoice need to be digitally signed or physical signature on the invoice can suffice the purpose?

Invoice can be either signed manually or digitally, there is no specific requirement to sign the invoice digitally. Also as per the fifth proviso to Rule 46 of CGST Rules signature or digital signature of the supplier or his authorized representative is not required in the case of issuance of an electronic invoice in accordance with the provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

However, in case Honda desires to maintain records electronically, in such case, DSC shall be required considering requirements of Rule 56(15) of CGST Rules

Why HSN is not a mandatory column in the schema, if it is to be captured in QR code

Latest schema released by the government on 14th Feb 2020 mandates HSN requirement under section "Item details".

Can QR code be printed as a sticker and pasted on the invoice?

Not recommended to use

Is printing of e-invoice must?

For the purpose of maintenance of records, invoices are not necessary to be printed subject to authentication by the digital signature in accordance with Rule 56(15)

Validation checks by IRP and Service provider?

"IRP has specified certain checks which we have incorporated. We will be adding further validation layer on top of that

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/166kT27tzaTypfbnRtTHsqqf4kRrB1XtQXpbQOzLEBgo/edit#gid=0"

Applicability of Rule 48(6)

GST rules with respect to e-invoicing already been amended on 13th Dec 2019. Therefore, 3 copies for goods or 2 copies for services are not required going forward.

No triplicate/duplicate copy needed after e-invoicing.

No. of line items in one invoice as per the schema

As per the latest FAQs by GSTN, the no of line items is restricted to 1000. However, the same is expected to increase based on the experience of trials on sandbox