E-Invoice in GST

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.

To whom it applicable:

From 1st January 2021, e-Invoicing will be applicable to businesses exceeding the Rs.100 crore turnover  limit in any of the financial years between 2017-18 to 2019-20, as intimated in Notification No.88/2020 – Central Tax.

Further, in coming days Govt. definitely will apply to the business where turnover less than Rs.100 crore.

Name of the E-invoicing portal :

https://einvoice1.gst.gov.in/

Steps to generate an e-invoice :

Step 1 – Creation of the invoice

The taxpayer will continue to generate invoices in the normal course of business. However, the reporting of these invoices electronically has criteria. It needs to be done as per the e-invoice schema along with mandatory parameters.

The seller has to ensure that his accounting/billing software is capable of generating a JSON file of the final invoice. The seller can create a JSON file following the e-invoice schema and mandatory parameters by using the following modes:

1. An accounting and billing system that offers this service
2. A utility to interact with the accounting/billing system, or ERP, such as an excel/word document or a mobile app
3. An offline Tool to generate e-invoices by keying-in invoice data

Step 2 – Generation of the unique IRN:

The IRN (also known as hash) is a unique number which is generated by the e-invoice system using a hash generation algorithm. For every document submitted, a unique 64 character IRN will be generated.

At present, the e-invoice system provides the two modes to generate the IRN (Invoice Reference Number), i.e offline and API. Notified taxpayers who need to generate e-invoices, can generate them using these options:

1. Using the offline too
2. Using API (Through GSPs integration)
3. Using API (Through direct integration)
4. Using API (Through an enabled sister concern’s GSTIN)
5. E-way Bill API-enabled Taxpayers

Step 3 – Generation of the QR Code

The e-invoice system will generate the IRN, and then digitally sign the e-invoice and the QR code (quick response code). The QR code will enable a quick view, and validation and access of the invoices from handheld devices.