All about GePP facility under e-Invoicing

GePP facility has been introduced under e-Invoicing to facilitate those businesses which cannot integrate with IRP. The system is mandatory in a phased manner for all businesses whose aggregate turnover exceeds the limit specified (currently Rs.10 crore) in any of the preceding financial years from 2017-2018 to 2019-2020.

Latest Update
10th May 2023
CBIC notified the sixth phase of e-invoicing. Henceforth, taxpayers with INR 5 Crore+ turnover in any financial year from 2017-18 must issue e-invoices w.e.f 1st August 2023.

6th May 2023
The GST Network has deferred the implementation of rule to fix time limit of 7 days for reporting 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
The GSTN released an advisory on 12th and 13th April 2023 stating that taxpayers with an annual turnover of Rs.100 crore and more must report tax invoices and credit-debit notes to the IRP within 7 days from the date of issue of the invoice/CDN from 1st May 2023.

1st August 2022 
The e-Invoicing system for B2B transactions has now been extended to those with an annual aggregate turnover of more than Rs.10 crore up to Rs.20 crore starting from 1st October 2022, vide notification no. 17/2022. 

What is the GePP facility under e-invoicing and who can use it?

GePP is GST e-invoice preparing and printing tool. It is an excel-based tool to help the taxpayers who do not have ERP solution to enter the invoice details in a user-friendly form and print the e-invoice with QR code by downloading the IRN from e-invoice portal.

Where to access the GePP facility?

GST e-invoice preparing and printing tool is available on the e-invoice portal under the ‘Bulk generation tool’ option available by navigating to ‘Help tab’> ‘Tools’ on the homepage. The screenshot from the homepage is given below:

Salient features or functionalities of GePP facility

GePP is an excel-based tool having the below functionalities:

1. It is a very simple form in which invoice details can be entered one by one.
2. It facilitates the creation of supplier profiles as well as recipient masters.
3. It helps in the creation of HSN masters.
4. It helps in preparation of e-invoice JSON file and generation of IRN.
5. It helps in downloading and importing the QR code in the tool.
6. Lastly, it enables printing of e-invoice from the tool.

Benefits and Limitations of the GePP facility

Benefits of the GePP facility are:

1. It helps the taxpayers to enter data offline. To prepare as well as print the e-invoice with QR code.
2. It enables the exchange of data with the e-invoice system as per its interface format.
3. Master data of suppliers, recipients and products will help in auto-population of details for easier e-invoice generation.
4. There is the option to maintain the details of payment received towards e-invoices.

Limitations of GePP facility are:

1. This tool is best suitable for small taxpayers who do not have an ERP system and are issuing 10-12 invoices (B2B and export) per day.
2. The entry of profile details, recipient master and product master is mandatory before entering the e-invoices.
3. A separate GePP tool must be downloaded for every GSTIN.
4. A maximum of ten invoices can be entered using this tool.
5. A maximum of ten invoices can be kept pending for IRN generation.
6. Importing IRN details is mandatory to print e-invoice.
7. This tool does not validate GSTINs and HSN codes.

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Difference between the GePP facility and the Bulk IRN generation tools

Bulk IRN generation tools facilitate the generation of e-invoices by uploading multiple invoices at a time. It is an excel based tool which enables the export of invoice details from the taxpayers billing software or ERP. The IRP will then accept the bulk upload request of JSON files of these invoices.

After verification, the invoice registration portal will generate a unique invoice reference number and quick response code for each e-invoice and then digitally sign the same. It has four different formats available to suit the requirements of different classes of taxpayers.

Format A: Businesses with one or two items in their invoices can use this format.

Format B: This format is suitable for businesses having several line items in their invoices.

Format C: This format is suitable for businesses having many line items in the invoices with payment details, reference details, etc.

Format D: This format is suitable for businesses having a large number of line items in the invoices with payment details, reference details, etc.

Whereas GePP is useful only for small taxpayers who do not have ERP. They can directly enter the invoice details into this tool. It has an interface with IRP and thus enables the generation of IRN and e-invoice JSON. It allows import of QR code and then printing of e-invoice.

Thus, bulk IRN generation is a wider term, and GePP facility is one of the bulk IRN generation tools useful for small taxpayers.