GST invoice format in PDF, free download

Which fields make a printed invoice a tax invoice

The PDF carries the particulars Rule 46 of the CGST Rules asks for: your GSTIN and address, a consecutive invoice number and date, the buyer details with their GSTIN where registered, an HSN or SAC code and description per line, the quantity, rate, taxable value, place of supply and the tax charged.

Two blocks do the identifying work, and both are ruled at the top of the page before a single item line appears. Yours holds your business name, address and GSTIN, which does not change from bill to bill, so it is worth writing once on the master sheet before you run off copies. The buyer block holds their name, address and GSTIN where they are registered, and on a sale to another business that GSTIN is the field their side needs to claim input tax credit against your bill.

The full form gives you ten item lines, each with its own HSN or SAC cell and its own CGST, SGST and IGST columns, so one bill can carry goods taxed at two different rates and the tax under each line still ties to that line. The simple form gives you five lines and asks for one GST rate for the whole bill, which is the right shape for a counter that sells at a single rate all day.

The two fields most often left off a bill written from memory are also the two easiest to rule back in. HSN or SAC belongs on each line, and the place of supply belongs once in the header. Leave either out and you have a bill your customer may ask you to raise again, usually months later and usually in a hurry.

Every field a tax invoice carries

How do you decide between CGST plus SGST and IGST on a printed bill

The place of supply decides it. When the place of supply is in your own state, split the rate between CGST and SGST, half each, and leave the IGST row blank. When it is in another state or union territory, write the whole rate under IGST and leave CGST and SGST blank.

A 12% supply inside your own state is CGST 6% plus SGST 6%. The same supply to a buyer in another state is IGST 12%. Your customer pays the same money either way, so the split is not about them. It is about which government collects it, and that is why the place of supply is a mandatory field rather than a nicety.

For goods, the place of supply is generally where the movement of the goods ends for delivery to the buyer. For services it is generally the location of the recipient where they are registered, with specific rules for particular services such as immovable property and events. If your supply falls under one of those, check it before you write the field, because the whole split hangs on it.

Union territories are the case worth knowing. A union territory without its own legislature levies UTGST in place of SGST. Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir all have legislatures and levy SGST like any state, so a Delhi seller billing a Delhi buyer writes CGST plus SGST.

On the printed form the three columns sit side by side on every item line, on purpose, so the empty pair is a visible gap rather than a guess. Leave that pair blank rather than writing a zero into it, so a later reading of the bill cannot mistake a zero for a rate that was actually charged.

Full form or simple form: which one to print

Take the full form when one bill can carry goods at more than one GST rate, since it rules a GST rate cell on every line along with its own CGST, SGST and IGST columns. Take the simple form when your counter sells at a single rate: five lines, one rate, one page.

Neither form drops anything the rules ask for. The simple one is a shorter tax invoice, not a lighter one: the GSTIN of both parties, the codes, the place of supply, the taxable value and the tax split are all still ruled on it. What it drops is a set of per-line tax columns that would hold the same figures on every row, which on a printed page is space that only ever slows down the writing.

If you are not sure which to print, start with the simple form and move up the first time a bill needs two rates on it. Going that way costs you a fresh print run. Going the other way, after three months of a bill book in a shape that cannot hold what you sell, costs a rebuild of the stack you already filled.

The Word document on its own

When the printed GST invoice format stops being enough

Invoice Saathi is billing software for Indian businesses that raises compliant GST invoices and simple non-GST bills from one app, and works offline when the internet drops. A printed form cannot keep one consecutive number series across a bill book and a phone, and it cannot credit a return back against the invoice it came from.

Numbering is what usually breaks first, and it breaks quietly. A GST invoice number has to run consecutively within its series for the financial year, and a bill book has no way to enforce that against a second book, or a second counter, started the same week. One book at the front counter and another kept for deliveries is all it takes to issue the same number twice, after which the two bills are no longer told apart by the only key they carry.

The arithmetic is the second thing. Everything this page asks you to work out with a pen is already done by the time a bill is on screen in the app: the taxable value on each line, the split between the heads, the round off, the grand total and the amount in words.

Returns are the third. A refund on a GST invoice is a credit note, not a line struck through in the bill book. It needs a serial of its own, and it has to carry the original invoice number and date on its face and inherit the tax treatment that invoice was raised under. Rebuilding that months later from a torn-off carbon copy is how a return ends up credited at the wrong rate.

The billing screen itself stays as plain as the printed page: items and a total. The tax settings are entered once in Setup, and the breakup appears on the printed bill.

Open the billing app