E-invoicing, stands for electronic invoicing system. The GST Council, in its 37th meeting held on 20th September 2019, approved the introduction of e-invoicing.
E-invoicing is the exchange of the invoice documents between a supplier and a buyer in an integrated electronic format.
Now why E-Invoicing?
The main motive of the Government behind decision for implementing E-invoicing is increase the business efficiency by lowering the processing cost.
Benefits of E-invoicing
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Misconception about E-Invoicing under GST
The biggest misconception going on among the registered person is that e-invoicing will be generated from Government Tax Portals. However, this is incorrect. Invoices will continue to be generated from Accounting or Billing Software. Under E-invoicing, invoices are prepared on ERP Software and then JSON file from software will be created and that is required to be uploaded on portal.
Here is is the list of E-Invoice portal address as per the notification No. 69/2019-Central Tax, dt. 13- 12 2019. Thus, below sites will be the Common Goods and Services Tax Electronic Portal (websites) to issue E invoices.
| Sl. No | Link of Portal |
| 1 | www.einvoice1.gst.gov.in |
| 2 | www.einvoice2.gst.gov.in |
| 3 | www.einvoice3.gst.gov.in |
| 4 | www.einvoice4.gst.gov.in |
| 5 | www.einvoice5.gst.gov.in |
| 6 | www.einvoice6.gst.gov.in |
| 7 | www.einvoice7.gst.gov.in |
| 8 | www.einvoice8.gst.gov.in |
| 9 | www.einvoice9.gst.gov.in |
| 10 | www.einvoice10.gst.gov.in |
Applicability of E-invoicing
| Notification | Parameter | Date |
| 70/2019 Central Tax dated 13-12-2019 | Registered person whose aggregate turnover in a financial year exceeds INR 100 Crore in term of sub-rule (4) of Rule 48 of the CGST Rule 2017 | 1st April, 2020 |
| 13/2020 Central Tax dated 21 03-2020 | Registered person other than those referred in sub- rule 2,3,4,4A of Rule 54 of the said rule whose aggregate turnover in a financial year exceeds INR 100 Crore. | 1st October, 2020 |
| 61/2020 Central Tax dated 30-07-2020 | The thresh hold limit of INR 500 Crore has been substituted by INR 100 Crore | – |
| 88/2020 Central Tax dated 10-11-2020 | Registered person having an aggregate turnover of more than INR 100 Crores in a financial year | 01-01-2021 |
| 05/2021 Central Tax dated 08-03-2021 | Registered person whose aggregate turnover is more than INR 50 Crore in financial year | 01-04-2021 |
To Whom E-Invoicing is not applicable
Steps of Generation of E-Invoice under GST
| STEP- 1 Generation of Invoice and JSON | |||
| Generation of the invoice by the seller in his own accounting or billing system (it can be any software/ ERP that generates invoice) | The invoice must conform to the einvoice (standards). Seller should have a feature in its ERP that will output invoice data in JSON format. | Those who do not use any accounting software or IT tool to generate the invoice, will provide an offline tool to key-in data of invoice and then submit the same | The suppliers software should be capable to generate a JSON of the final invoice that is ready to be uploaded to the IRP. The IRP will only take JSON. |
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| STEP-2 – Uploading of JSON | |
| Seller to upload the JSON of the einvoice into the ERP | The JSON may be uploaded directly on the IRP or through GSPs or through third party provided Apps |
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| STEP 3 – Validation of data by IRP | ||
| If IRN is not generated, then IRP will generate IRN, based on JSON uploaded | If IRN is generated, then IRP will validate the IRN from Central Registry of GST System to ensure that the same invoice from the same supplier pertaining to same financial 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 QR Code to the JSON. |
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| Step-4 Sharing of E-invoice | |||
| Sharing the signed E-Invoice data along with IRN to seller | The IRP will sign the e-invoice and the e-invoice signed by the IRP will be a valid einvoice and used by GST/E-Way bill system. | Sharing the signed E-Invoice data along with IRN to the GST system as well as to E-Way bill system, will also update the ANX-1 of the seller and ANX- 2 of the buyer | The registered invoice will also be sent to the seller and buyer on their mail ids as provided in the invoice |
Concept of QR Code
The QR code will enable quick view, validation and access of the invoices from the GST system. The QR code will consist of the following e-invoice parameters.
- GSTIN of supplier
- GSTIN of recipient
- Invoice number as given by Supplier
- Date of generation of Invoice
- Invoice value
- Number of line items
- HSN Code of main item
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