GST Invoice Format

An invoice is a commercial instrument issued by a seller to a buyer. It identifies both the trading parties, and lists, describes, and quantifies the items sold, shows the date of shipment and mode of transport, prices and discounts, if any, and the delivery and payment terms.

Detailed rules and guidelines for issue of invoice and GST invoice format has been provided for in the GST Tax Invoice, Credit and Debit Notes rules.According to the rules, the following entries are mandatory in a GST Tax invoice issued in India.

1. Name, address and GSTIN of the supplier
2. A consecutive serial number, in one or multiple series,
   containing alphabets or numerals or special characters
   like hyphen or dash and slash symbolised as “-” and
   “/” respectively, and any combination there of, unique
   for a financial year
3. Date of its issue
4. Name, address and GSTIN or UIN, if registered, of the
   recipient
5. Name and address of the recipient and the address of
   delivery, along with the name of State and its code, if
   such recipient is un-registered and where the value of
   taxable supply is fifty thousand rupees or more
6. HSN code of goods or Accounting Code of Services
7. Description of goods or services
8. Quantity in case of goods and unit or Unique Quantity
   Code there of
9. Total value of supply of goods or services or both
10. Taxable value of supply of goods or services or both,
    taking into account the discount or abatement, if any
11. Rate of tax (Central tax, State tax, Integrated tax, union
    territory tax or cess)
12. Amount of tax charged in respect of taxable goods or
    services (Central tax, State tax, Integrated tax, union
    territory tax or cess)
13. Place of supply along with the name of State, in case of a
    supply in the course of inter-State trade or commerce
14. Address of delivery where the same is different from the
    place of supply
15. Whether the tax is payable on reverse charge basis
16. Signature or digital signature of the supplier or his
    authorized representative

All GST invoices must be prepared in triplicate in case of supply of goods. The original copy should be marked as Original for Recipient. The duplicate copy should be marked as Duplicate for Transporter and the triplicate copy should be marked as Triplicate for Supplier.

In case of supply of services, the invoice should be prepared in duplicate. The original copy should be marked as Original for Recipient and the duplicate copy should be marked as Duplicate for Supplier.

Under GST, a tax invoice is an important document.It not only evidences the supply of goods or services,but is also an essential document for the recipient to avail Input Tax Credit (ITC). A registered person cannot
avail Input Tax Credit unless he is in possession of a tax invoice or a debit note.

GST is chargeable at the time of supply. Invoice is an important indicator of the time of supply. Broadly speaking, the time of supply of goods or services is the date of issuance of an invoice or receipt of payment,
whichever is earlier.Thus the importance of an invoice under GST cannot be
over-emphasised. Suffice it to say, the tax invoice is the primary document evidencing the supply and vital for availing Input Tax Credit.

Creating a B2B Sales invoice in GSTZen

GSTZen enables users to generate B2B sales invoice seamlessly. Click on the
following link – Create B2B Sales Invoice, to learn how to create a B2B sales invoice using GSTZen.

The above is a sample invoice generated using GSTZen software.
Users can also add their logo, other header and footer information and digital signature to customise their tax invoice, which can be downloaded in PDF format and sent to their customers.