How to Check & Download E-Way Bill History

The e-way bill system has simplified reporting, tracking and monitoring GST compliance for movement of goods across the country. It makes e-way bill history an essential piece of documentation for all the stakeholders within the GST network, namely suppliers, recipients, transporters and tax officials. In this article, we explain how to check e-way bill history and how to download the e-way bill history for local documentation at a stakeholder’s end.

Importance of maintaining a record of e-way bill history

The e-way bill system is user-friendly, and it’s easy to generate bills quickly using the internet. Suppliers just need to furnish information related movement of goods before they begin the actual process of moving goods to be transported. Every detail of the information thus furnished remains online for stakeholders to check, validate and respond to as per their respective necessities. Besides, the system also supports multiple modes of generating e-way bills.  

However, it is also important that suppliers, recipients and transporters download e-way bill history and store the same at their end locally. The reasons are: 

• It helps keep records of e-ways that are about to expire. Suppliers, recipients, and transporters can check soon-to-expire e-way bills inside the e-way bill portal. Thus, respective stakeholders are expected to download these bills as part of the documentation for their indirect tax compliance process. 
• Downloading e-way bill history allows you to overcome the internet and the portal downtime. Stakeholders can easily access e-way bill records saved locally, even when the internet is absent or the e-way system is malfunctioning. Suppliers and recipients can share the records locally with transporters, legal experts and accounting departments. 
• Downloaded e-way bill records are sources of essential data for managerial decision-making. Managing business and logistic operations are becoming increasingly data-driven.  
• These records may serve as legal evidence in case of any future legal proceedings relating to the supply of goods and services. The authorities are becoming more active and efficient in countering tax fraud. You may need to appear in court or face investigators as a stakeholder in a fraudulent transaction, even when you have not been a part of the wrongdoing. 

How to check e-way bill history? 

Any registered stakeholder can search and check the history of e-way bills in the e-way bill portal by following a few simple steps. 

It is important to remember that any registered stakeholder can view the e-way bill history in the portal by searching for e-way bill numbers. In case you do not remember a specific e-way number, you can check reports to find that specific bill of your interest. 

• Step 1: Visit the e-way portal; log in to the portal; submit your user ID, password and the captcha verification code. 

• Step 2: Once your user ID, password and captcha are validated by the system, the main menu of the e-way portal appears. 

• Step 3: It is time to select the REPORT tab from the left-side drop-down menu. This section contains several reports, like: ‘e-way generated by me’, ‘e-way generated by others’, and ‘Outward supply’. Each of these reports contains stakeholder-specific essential data related to the supply of goods. 

• Step 4: Check each of these reports to keep track of your e-way bill history.

How to download e-way bill history? 

Along with checking e-way bills online, stakeholders can download e-way bills from the portal. For that you need to follow a few steps, similar to checking the e-way bill history. 

• Step 1: Log in to the e-way portal using ID, password and captcha verification procedures. 
• Step 2: Search the specific e-way bill history you are looking for and get the e-way number from the report. 
• Step 3: Go to the ‘Print EWB’ tab under ‘e-waybill’ dropdown menu. 

• Step 4: Upon clicking the ‘Print e-way’ tab, the following page will open. Here you need to write or paste your e-way bill number and click the GO button.   

• Step 5: The system retrieves the desired e-way from its database in the following format. 

Step 6: You can print the report in physical or in PDF format for downloading and storing the report locally at your end.