Advance Payment Receipt Format for Venue & Catering Bookings.

GST on a service falls due when the money arrives, not when the event happens. Section 13(2) of the CGST Act sets the time of supply for services at the earlier of the invoice date and the date of payment, so a ₹1,50,000 advance taken on 5 September puts ₹7,500 of tax into the September return even though the wedding is on 18 November. The relief that lets some suppliers skip tax on advances applies to goods only, under Notification 66/2017, and does not reach a hall booking. For a venue, every advance is taxable on the day it lands.

Rule 50 lists the particulars of the voucher: the supplier's name, address and GSTIN, a serial number of up to 16 characters, the date, the recipient's details if registered, a description of the service, the advance amount, the rate and amount of tax, the place of supply with the state name and code, the reverse-charge answer and a signature. Two defaults are worth knowing. Where the rate cannot be worked out when the advance is received, the rule says to pay at 18% and adjust later. A supply whose nature is unclear is treated as inter-state. Neither default suits a venue that knows its own rates, so state the rate.

Say on the booking form whether the advance is before GST or includes it, because the maths differ. ₹1,50,000 plus 5% is ₹1,57,500, with ₹7,500 tax. Suppose the customer pays a round ₹1,50,000 and the contract is silent: the usual practice is to treat it as inclusive and carve the tax out: ₹1,50,000 × 5 ÷ 105 is ₹7,142.86, leaving ₹1,42,857.14 as taxable value. The Excel voucher has a switch for the two, and both examples reconcile to the paisa. Ask your CA which convention your contracts follow and print it on the form.

The voucher is adjusted, not forgotten, on the final invoice. Take a ₹4,00,000 package plus 5% GST, so an invoice of ₹4,20,000 with ₹20,000 of tax. The invoice shows the full ₹4,20,000, deducts the ₹1,57,500 advance against voucher RV/2627/0038 and leaves ₹2,62,500 to pay. Only ₹12,500 of tax is new, since ₹7,500 was paid in September. GSTR-1 records the advance in Table 11A when received and the adjustment in Table 11B when the invoice is raised. Miss the adjustment and the same tax is paid twice.

Rates differ within one booking, so vouchers differ too. Hall with a food package at an ordinary venue is taxed at 5% without input credit, while décor, sound and other extras billed as separate services carry 18%. One NEFT of ₹1,64,000 covering a ₹1,00,000 package advance and a ₹50,000 décor advance therefore produces two vouchers: ₹1,05,000 with ₹5,000 tax, and ₹59,000 with ₹9,000 tax. Issuing a single voucher at one blended rate is easy and wrong. The advance ledger in the workbook takes the rate per line for exactly this reason.

Cancellations need a refund voucher. Section 31(3)(e) and Rule 51 require one when an advance is returned because no supply was made, quoting the receipt voucher number, the service and the tax reversed. On the sample ledger, the Bhatia dinner advance of ₹84,000 is refunded in full under RF/2627/0003 and ₹4,000 of tax is reversed in the month. Partial forfeiture is less clear. Keep ₹60,000 of a ₹1,57,500 advance and the customer is refunded ₹97,500 either way. Treat the retained charge as taxable and ₹2,857.14 of GST stays with you while ₹4,642.86 is reversed. Treat it as non-taxable and the whole ₹7,500 is reversed. Practitioners differ, so record your CA's view.

A routine keeps all this manageable. Log each voucher in the ledger the day it is issued, enter the invoice number and date when the advance is adjusted, and enter the refund voucher when money goes back. At month end the summary sheet totals the advances received, adjusted and refunded by rate, which is the set of numbers you need to compare with Table 11 in GSTR-1. If you are not GST-registered, none of this applies: you issue a plain money receipt and owe no tax on the advance.