Gepp_On – Free web based e-invoice generation tool for small tax payers. Print IRN, ACK No., QR code easily.
Gepp-On and Gepp Tool Offline – Free and Simple E-Invoice Tools for small tax payers.
E-invoice has been introduced by the GST council from October 2020 onwards. Now the mandatory turnover limit has been reduced to 10 Crores with effect from October 1 2022. From January 2023, it is expected that the turnover will be further reduced to 5 crore or even upto 1 crore. This will definitely make all the taxpayers under the e-invoice net for their B2B transactions.
E-invoice or E-invoicing means declaring the relevant details of the supply invoice , the debit note and the credit note ,to a dedicated e-invoice portal. After uploading or submitting the relevant data,the portal generates a 64 character Invoice Reference Number (IRN), 16 digits Acknowledge Number (ACK Number) and a QR code embedded with the details of IRN and date of IRN. This process is meant for B2B transactions, export etc. Exemption for e-invoice is applicable to B2C , Nil rated supply etc as notified.
For the generation of e-invoice several tools are available in the market. This includes GSP or ERP softwares with API integration to the e-Invoice portal. It is to generate e-invoices using the software, by providing the supply invoice details of the taxpayer. However, some of the softwares a little bit costly in the long run as the small taxpayers can’t afford the cost incurred for availing the service online or purchasing the product.
Therefore National Informatics Center (NIC), Bengaluru, who is behind the e-Invoice portal has come up with free tools for the generation of e-Invoice . They are GePP tools and MS Excel based Bulk tools. Let us discuss about Gepp tools below
Gepp tools
The Gepp tool has two versions – online web based version and an offline MS-Excel based version. Earlier only the Gepp offline version was introduced. Later Gepp-On , the online version of the Gepp tool introduced with the latest update in the year 2022.
1. Gepp-On Tool – Online web based tool
It is web based tool developed for taking online e-invoice, without using any GSP, ERP software or any offline tools. The procedure for generating e-invoice is detailed below . The main advantage of this tool is that it does not require any software like Microsoft Office Excel etc. It can work in any internet browsers like Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome etc. It will easily work in the mobile versions of the same browsers without any glitches. Therefore e-invoice can be generated, even if you are outside of your office. This functionality is very useful for generating e-invoice from home, sales van or even while traveling.
1.1 Preliminary steps for e-invoice system.
First go to the e-Invoice portal and register with the credentials. This will be possible only if the taxpayer is enabled for e-invoicing by the portal. It is normally done automatically on the basis of annual turnover as prescribed in the updated notification. User credentials are normally the same as an e-way bill portal.
You can also create sub users for your branches or separate sales or accounting divisions. The details of the respective staff- name, mobile, email – need to be entered for creating a sub-user. .The main advantage of sub-user creation is that the OTP while login to the portal or generating the e-invoice will be sent to the respective sub-user’s mobile / email. You can restrict , edit, delete a sub-user at any time.
E invoice portal
After login, provide the details of a technical person or a staff member who deals with e-invoicing of your firm – name, mobile number and email. Then click the “Update” menu on the left pane menu, which is seen at the bottom inorder to update the latest data from common portal.
1.2 Gepp-On link
Then click the following link for accessing ‘GePP-On’, the web interface of the portal.
https://gepp.einvoice1.gst.gov.in/#/
Login with the same credentials for the e-invoice portal.
Then complete the required menus in the left pane
1. Home
2. Pending Invoice : These are the invoices for which IRNs have not been generated. The taxpayer may select the invoice and generate the IRN.
3. Generated Invoice: This contains all the e-Invoices for which IRNs have
been generated.
4. Create e-invoice :A simple form for inputting the invoice details is displayed. The user can enter all the details and proceed to generate IRN.
5. EWB by IRN: User can generate the e-Waybill using IRN number or document
details.
6. Cancel IRN :User can cancel the e-Invoice using IRN number or document
details.
7. Recipient Master: User can enter all the details of recipient GSTINs that are more frequently used, in the masters. This is a one-time entry and while entering the invoice details, the GSTIN of the recipient can be picked from the master and subsequently other details are auto-populated. This reduces the time and burden of entering all the details of the same GSTIN for all the transactions. The item name and other relevant details as saved in master data will be auto populated for data entry , when two or three letters of the saved data typed in Recipient name etc.
8. Product Master :Similarly, the User can do a one-time entry of all the frequently used HSN codes. On entering the invoice details, the HSN details may be picked from the master. All the above are (adding master list) one time processes at the first time use of the tool. The data can be edited or deleted if required. More recipients and products can be added in future whenever required.
9. Back Up and Restore Data :To export the data entered in one browser or system to another. Data entry of an e-invoice can be started from one system .Then click “BACK UP”. The saved data can be downloaded as JSON file. Later the saved data can be retrieved and completed from the same system or from another system in another location by clicking RESTORE menu in that system after login with credentials.
10. Profile
11. Settings
Next click “Generate Invoice” on the left pane menu. Fetch details of your recipients , products from the master data by typing two or three letters of the name or other details. Enter balance details like, supply document details, Item details, Total Values, Eway Bill in the respective tabs.
Then click Preview tab , then click Save button and Generate button. Print generated e-invoice from the Generated Invoice menu on the left pane. after entering Part B details of eway bill if required.
2. Gepp Tool – Microsoft Excel based tool
This tool is just like GSTR Bulk generation tools. For using this tool a PC/Laptop equipped with the latest version of Microsoft Office Excel (version above MS Office 10) required. First download the tool from the portal. The link for downloading the tool detailed below.
https://einvoice1.gst.gov.in/Others/BulkGenerationTools
After downloading, extract the MS Excel sheet. Then enable “Macros” in MS Excel for the smooth functioning of the tool. The “Left Pane Menus” are the same as detailed above. First enter your own data as “Suppliers Data” with the logo (if you have one), then enter the master data for recipients, products with rate of taxes, cess etc.
Then click “New Invoice” and enter data for creating an invoice – supply invoice details, quantity etc. Basic data of recipients and products can be automatically fetched from the master data by entering two or three letters.
Then click the ‘Validate’ button to know any errors in your data entry. If any error, shown after clicking the ‘Validate’ button, rectify that mistake and then click the ‘Validate’ button again. Then click the ‘Generate JSON’ button. The ‘JSON’ stands for ‘JavaScript Object Notation’ or simply a Java based Text file. The JSON file will be generated into your ‘download’ folder.
Then login to the e-invoice portal. Upload the ‘JSON” file from the download folder. The portal will generate IRN, ACK No, with date and QR code A ‘Signed JSON’ file can be downloaded as a ‘zip’ folder from the portal, which includes the above e-invoice data. Then open the file (without extracting the zip folder) using the offline tool by clicking the ”Import QR code” menu on the left pane. Take printout of the e-invoice. Please don’t forget to clear the supply invoice data in the tool before generating a new e-invoice, otherwise the system will throw an error ‘duplicate data’ as a message.
Shijoy James
State Tax Officer
State GST
Kozhikode , Kerala.
Author Bio
