CoreAxis ePOSGST Invoice Guide for Small Shops in India
Every bill a GST-registered shop issues is a tax document. A missing GSTIN, a wrong HSN code or a broken invoice series can cost input tax credit for your customer and trouble for you at audit time. This guide lists what a correct bill needs, in plain words.
1. What every tax invoice must show
Rule 46 of the CGST Rules lists the details. For a normal shop bill they come down to:
- Your business name, address and GSTIN.
- An invoice number in one consecutive series per financial year (up to 16 characters, no repeats), and the date.
- The customer's name, address and GSTIN when the customer is registered (B2B).
- For each item: description, HSN (goods) or SAC (services), quantity, unit, value, discount and taxable value.
- The GST rate and amount — CGST + SGST within your state, IGST for another state — and the place of supply for inter-state sales.
- Whether tax is payable on reverse charge, and your signature (a digital or printed one is fine on electronic bills).
For an unregistered customer, name and address can be left out on small bills, but once the bill is ₹50,000 or more the customer's name, address and place of supply must be recorded.
2. Tax invoice or bill of supply?
| Situation | Document |
|---|---|
| Regular GST-registered seller, taxable goods | Tax invoice |
| Composition scheme seller | Bill of supply — no GST charged, with the line "composition taxable person, not eligible to collect tax on supplies" |
| Exempt goods only (for example fresh milk, fresh vegetables) | Bill of supply |
| Taxable and exempt items on one bill | Invoice-cum-bill of supply |
3. How many HSN digits?
- Annual aggregate turnover up to ₹5 crore: 4-digit HSN on B2B invoices (optional on B2C).
- Above ₹5 crore: 6-digit HSN on all invoices.
4. E-invoice and e-way bill
- E-invoice (IRN + QR code) is required on B2B invoices for businesses whose aggregate turnover crossed ₹5 crore in any year from 2017-18 onwards.
- An e-way bill is generally needed when goods worth more than ₹50,000 are moved; some states set a different limit for movement within the state.
5. Return due dates (monthly filers)
| Return | What it covers | Due |
|---|---|---|
| GSTR-1 | Details of your sales | 11th of next month |
| GSTR-3B | Summary and tax payment | 20th of next month |
Small businesses (turnover up to ₹5 crore) can opt for the quarterly QRMP scheme instead, paying tax monthly and filing quarterly.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Starting a new invoice series in the middle of a year, or reusing numbers after deleting a bill. Cancel instead of deleting.
- Charging CGST + SGST on an inter-state sale (it should be IGST), or the other way round.
- Writing the wrong customer GSTIN — your customer loses the credit.
- Charging GST while under the composition scheme.
How CoreAxis ePOS helps
CoreAxis numbers bills in one series per financial year, picks CGST/SGST or IGST from the place of supply, prints a bill of supply for exempt or composition sales, checks HSN digits against your turnover band, generates e-invoices and e-way bills, and prepares GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B from your bills. Cancelled bills stay on record instead of being deleted.
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