e-Invoicing Validation Rules

As e-invoicing is a fairly new concept under GST, a taxpayer will encounter various challenging situations while generating an e-invoice.

Latest Updates on e-Invoicing

10th May 2023
The CBIC notified the 6th phase of e-invoicing, applicable to businesses with a turnover exceeding Rs.5 crore in any financial year from 2017-18 w.e.f. 1st August 2023.

6th May 2023
The GST department has deferred the time limit of 7 days to report the old e-invoices on the IRP portals by three months. Further, the department is yet to announce the new implementation date.

13th April 2023
As per the GST Network's advisories dated 12th April 2023 and 13th April 2023, taxpayers with annual turnover equal to or more than Rs.100 crore must report tax invoices and credit-debit notes to IRP within 7 days of invoice date from 1st May 2023.

This article discusses, in brief, the various errors that a taxpayer may encounter and how can he avoid those errors.

1. Use of unique invoice numbers- A taxpayer is supposed to use unique invoice numbers for each invoice in a financial year. Note that every e-invoice can be generated against a unique invoice number. Even for making corrections to a current invoice, a new invoice must be raised with a unique number.
2. Sorting B2B invoices- E-invoicing applies only to B2B (business-to-business) transactions. So, a taxpayer should sort all B2B invoices for generating e-invoices. If a taxpayer chooses the category of a transaction as B2C (business-to-consumer), then such invoices won’t be considered, and IRN won’t be generated for such invoices.
3. Invoice number should not start with certain characters- The invoice number should not start with 0, / and -. If these characters are used, the request will be rejected.
4. Two IRNs cannot be generated for the same invoice number- If a taxpayer has already generated an IRN for a particular invoice number, then IRN cannot be generated again on the same invoice number. If a taxpayer tries to do so, the request will be rejected. 
   If an IRN is cancelled for a specific invoice number, the same cannot be regenerated on the same invoice number. A new invoice number should be used. 
5. Verify the recipient’s GSTIN- A taxpayer shall verify whether the recipient’s GSTIN is registered and active on the GST portal on the invoice’s date of preparation.
6. Verify the first two digits of the GSTIN with the state code- A taxpayer must verify whether the first two digits of the GSTIN match with the state code entered in the supplier/recipient details section while uploading an invoice. If the supply type is ‘export’, then the recipient code will be 96.
7. Verification of PIN code- The master database of the e-invoicing system has a state master which validates the PIN codes against the states. If a particular PIN code does not exist, it will match the first three digits of the PIN code with the PIN code to the state mapping pattern as defined by the postal department. Only after proper validation, an IRN will be generated.
8. An SEZ unit cannot generate an e-invoice but an invoice can be generated with the SEZ unit as the recipient.
9. In case of reverse charge- In reverse charge invoices, the supplier is required to generate IRN. Reverse Charges can be marked as “Y” in the case of B2B and SEZ invoices. But, the tax is to be paid in a reverse manner.
10. Document date is before the filing date- Suppose the invoice document date is before the reporting date to the IRP. Consider that the GSTR-1 is already filed by that date, then the e-invoice will not be declared to that period’s GSTR-1.
11. Blank spaces where a specific master code list needs to be followed- A white space/blank space is counted as a GST system character. For instance: If a state code has been entered as ‘7 ’ instead of ‘7’ or ‘07’ while generating e-invoices, the same will not be auto-populated accurately in the GSTR-1.
12. Report invoices to IRP on time- As per the GST Network's advisories dated 12th April 2023 and 13th April 2023, taxpayers with annual turnover equal to or more than Rs.100 crore must report tax invoices and credit-debit notes to IRP within 7 days of invoice date from 1st May 2023.