Place of supply picks the tax. The dated rate prices it.

Six decisions on each invoice

Leave them to a dropdown and someone will pick wrong.

In short: every invoice settles six things. Get one wrong and the invoice can still look perfect.

• Which tax, from place of supply

  Worked out from the supply, not the billing address. The total is the same either way, so errors go unnoticed.

• Which rate, from a dated period

  An invoice dated in March keeps March's rate for good, even on a credit note raised in September.

• Rounding, per line then totalled

  Round each line, then add. Working CGST and SGST back from a rounded total leaves the split a paisa short.

• Whether the GSTIN is real

  The last of its fifteen characters is a check digit. With a wrong GSTIN your customer cannot claim that GST back (ITC), and finds out only at their month-end.

• Whether the buyer pays instead

  Under reverse charge (the buyer pays the GST, not the seller) no tax shows, and the invoice must say so.

• Whether the credit was ever claimable

  Show blocked credit under Section 17(5) beside the claimable figure, never netted off.

Place of supply, and the case that catches everyone

The tax follows the supply, not the customer record.

HSN, SAC, and why a rate change never rewrites old invoices

The common fault: one rate field per item, overwritten when the rate changes.

In short: keep each rate with the date it starts. Old invoices and their credit notes keep the old rate.

• In Ordence each rate is entered with the date it takes effect. You or your CA keep the rates; Ordence does not supply a rate table. Earlier invoices keep the old rate.
• A credit note takes the rate of the invoice it reduces, not today's rate.
• This mattered on 22 September 2025. Notification 9/2025-Central Tax (Rate) replaced the old goods-rate list:
  • the general rates became 5 and 18%, with 40% for a short list of demerit goods;
  • the 12 and 28% general slabs went away;
  • special rates stayed: 3% on gold, silver and jewellery, 0.25% on rough diamonds and 1.5% on cut and polished diamonds.
  Credit notes still due at a rate no longer in the master are impossible to audit with one overwritten rate field.
• HSN digits depend on aggregate turnover (total across your registrations) in the previous financial year. Above 5 crore: six digits on every invoice, business-to-business and business-to-consumer. At or below 5 crore: four digits on business-to-business, optional on business-to-consumer. See The digit rule and what it does to a catalogue. A code fine at four digits can be short at six; catch it at entry.
• If you also bill freight, keep its SAC code separate, or a service line ends up at a goods rate.

One order, from quote to books

How a sale moves through Ordence, typed once.

1. The quotation

   GST worked out as CGST plus SGST or IGST, a margin snapshot, and a PDF with a UPI QR. Low-margin quotes go for approval. The customer accepts or declines from a link.

2. The order

   A credit-limit check runs first; an override carries the approver's name.

3. The dispatch

   Scan-to-dispatch after QC; in the roll and batch pack, a shade check blocks mixed or unapproved lots. The packing note has transporter, LR and e-way bill fields, and e-way bill JSON is prepared where one is needed (that depends on consignment value and state, not the invoice total).

4. The invoice and the books

   The GST invoice prints HSN, amount in words and a UPI QR. It posts to Ordence's own books and feeds the GSTR-1 JSON, the return the department checks against your 3B. It can go to Tally by file or the optional connector.

Typed once: an order from a Delhi godown to a Pune buyer carries IGST on the quote, the invoice and the GSTR-1 JSON, with no re-entry.

Reverse charge: bills that show no tax

Easy to miss, because the supplier's bill shows nothing.

In short: for some purchases you, the buyer, pay the GST, in cash. For unregistered suppliers you must issue the invoice yourself.

• It covers goods transport, legal services from an advocate, sponsorship, imported services and specified purchases from unregistered suppliers.
• Tax owed and credit claimable may fall in different periods.
• Section 49(4) does not let the electronic credit ledger pay a reverse-charge liability. Budget cash for it.
• Buying from an unregistered supplier under reverse charge means you must raise a self-invoice for them under Section 31(3)(f). Since 1 November 2024, Rule 47A gives you thirty days from receiving the supply. It is often found missing in audits.
• The Section 16(4) deadline for reverse-charge credit runs from the financial year the self-invoice was issued, not the year the supplier billed you. With no self-invoice, there is nothing to claim against.
• The list keeps growing:
  • Since 10 October 2024, renting any property other than a residential dwelling from an unregistered landlord is under reverse charge for a registered tenant. Composition taxpayers were taken out of this from 16 January 2025.
  • From the same 10 October 2024, metal scrap (Chapters 72 to 81) bought from an unregistered seller is under reverse charge, and a registered buyer of metal scrap from a registered seller must deduct GST TDS.

E-invoicing: are you above the line?

Who must register invoices, the thirty-day limit, and what Ordence does.

What Ordence prepares, and what stays with you

Ordence prepares; a person uploads or files. Nothing is filed through an API.

Questions

Asked before a first conversation.