E-Invoicing Under GST – Handling Most Frequent Errors While e-Invoice Generation

e-Invoicing under GST aims at bringing transparency within the GST structure.

It is evident from the government’s actions that e-Invoicing will be mandatory for all businesses irrespective of your aggregate annual turnover.

Hence, e-Invoicing is an inevitable part of any business, and small & medium-sized companies should equip themselves with robust e-Invoicing software.

In this short article, we have discussed the most common errors that businesses face while e-invoice generation.

Importance of error handling during e-Invoice generation

Registered businesses must furnish their invoice data on the Invoice Registration Portal in a specific e invoice format format as prescribed by the government.

Taxpayers must upload the invoice data in the JSON format and can be challenging for the taxpayers who are not comfortable with the technical end.

Hence, there are high chances that manual errors are introduced while e-Invoice generation.

Following are some of the consequences of incorrect e-Invoice generation:

• Furnishing incorrect information while e-Invoice generation can cost you a penalty of Rs. 25,000.
• Non-issuance of e-Invoice under eligible conditions is an offence as per the GST laws. The penalty for non-issuance of the invoice can cost you the total tax due or Rs. 10,000 (whichever is higher)

Hence, businesses should be cautious during the generation of their e-Invoices. Therefore, it will be beneficial if the companies use GST e-Invoice generation software from a Government-appointed GST Suvidha Provider (GSP).

Frequent errors while e-invoice generation

There are two major categories of e-Invoicing errors:

File Format Errors (Schema related errors)

Following are some of the most common Schema errors with their resolution:

1. Mandatory field missing–

• This error appears when any fields are marked as mandatory, and the taxpayer fails to furnish this mandatory information.
• In the e-invoice schema provided by the government, 28 are mandatory, and 18 are conditional mandatory.

Solution– Fill out the mandatory fields first and then go for the optional fields. You can miss out on mandatory fields when generating e-invoices in bulk. Hence, businesses are advised to use automated software for e-Invoice generation like GSTHero.

2. Field Type Error:

• The specified e-Invoice schema has assigned different data types to every field.

• For example, the ‘Date’ field; should be entered in the specified date format of DD-MM-YYYY.
• If the businesses fail to follow this format in any field, the ‘Field Type error’ will appear.
• There are different data types assigned to the fields in the schema. Fields like decimal, character, date, number, etc.

3. Invalid JSON Schema

• A missing or an invalid character is the reason for this error to appear. For example, a misplaced or missing comma or a missing bracket can be the reason for this error.
• The businesses must use the standard JSON schema as specified by the government.

Solution– This error is very common when multiple invoices are created. Automating this process will help eliminate all the schema related errors and allow the businesses to generate e-invoices in bulk.

4. Specific values allowed:

• Some fields in the schema accept only specific data as valid input.
• For example, the field ‘Document Type’ in the schema accepts only three values: i.e. INV (invoice), CNR (Credit Note), DBN (Debit Note).

Errors on the IRP platform

The consolidated table explains the most frequent errors businesses encounter on the Invoice Registration Portal while reporting their invoices.

NOTE: These are the most frequent errors shared in the table above. However, the error list is not just limited to the table.

Master Code Errors

Businesses are advised to use the data point from their ERP to avoid the Master Code errors.

Following are some of the frequent Master Code Errors as listed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC):

1. PIN Code:

• Businesses should input the appropriate PIN code as per the master code list of NIC.
• This PIN code should match with the state code.
• You should download these lists from the NIC portal and update your master code data.

2. HSN Code:

• The HSN code should be entered as per the Master Code list from the NIC portal.
• The HSN code list is different for different types of goods or services and classified into various chapters.
• HSN codes placed in chapter 99 are for ‘Services’.

3. State Codes, UQC and Tax Rate:

• State code, UQC codes, and the tax rate remains similar to the Master list present on the GSTN portal.
• No changes will be required here.

In a nutshell

In this article, we have discussed the most common errors that appear during the e-Invoice generation.

E-invoicing is an essential part of small & medium businesses. Therefore, they must be ready for e-Invoicing with robust GST e invoice generation software.

This will especially be helpful for businesses that have to generate e-invoices in bulk, which can be done directly from their ERP using ERP connectors like GSTHero’s Tally connector. For generating e invoice in tally GSTHero is the best automation tool in India. Take the demo today.

Stay updated; stay ahead!

Until the next time….