Catering Invoice Format for GST-Registered Caterers.

Most templates that come up for this search were written for a freelancer in another country. An Indian caterer's invoice has to carry things they never mention: your GSTIN, a serial number of up to 16 characters, the SAC, the tax rate and amount by head, the place of supply, and the FSSAI licence number that every food business must print on invoices, cash memos and bills. Registration itself becomes compulsory once turnover crosses ₹20 lakh, or ₹10 lakh in special-category states. Under that, you cannot charge GST at all, and a plain bill will do. Once registered, every bill to a client is a tax invoice and the format below is the minimum. The Excel workbook has all of it laid out, and the Word file is the advance voucher you need before an invoice exists.

The rate is not something to negotiate. Outdoor catering, meaning food supplied at a client's home, a wedding lawn or a rented hall, is taxed at 5% with no input tax credit under notification 20/2019-CT(Rate), and the SAC list itself describes 996334 as catering in exhibition halls, events, marriage halls and other functions. The 18% rate with credit is reserved for food served at specified premises, such as a hotel that sold a room above ₹7,500 a day in the preceding year. No credit means the GST you pay on inputs is your cost. Suppose you hire ₹40,000 of chafing dishes and other equipment hire that carries 18%. That is ₹7,200 you cannot claim back, about 1.4% of the ₹5,09,000 bill, and it belongs inside your per-plate price, not on the invoice.

Place of supply is where most out-of-state jobs go wrong. Under section 12(4) of the IGST Act, catering and restaurant services are supplied where they are actually performed, and that is the venue. A Delhi caterer feeding 350 guests in Jaipur is therefore making an inter-state supply and charges IGST of 5% on ₹5,09,000, which is ₹25,450. Serve the same dinner in Delhi and it becomes ₹12,725 CGST plus ₹12,725 SGST. The bill total is ₹5,34,450 either way, so the mistake stays invisible until an officer or an auditor looks at the tax head. Correcting it later means paying the right tax and then claiming refund of the wrong one, which parks cash you had already spent. The workbook asks for two states, where you are registered and where the food is served, and picks the tax head itself.

An advance for a service attracts GST when it is received, so a receipt voucher is issued that day. Say the client pays ₹1,50,000 on 12 August as a token. Treated as inclusive of tax at 5%, that amount holds ₹7,142.86 of GST and ₹1,42,857.14 of taxable value, which is advance x 5 / 105. If your contract says the advance is plus GST instead, the tax is ₹7,500 and the client pays ₹1,57,500. Use whichever the contract states, and state it. On the final invoice show the full ₹5,34,450, deduct the gross ₹1,50,000 against voucher RV/2627/0031 and ask for ₹3,84,450. Print the FSSAI number on the voucher as well, since a voucher is one of the documents the food-safety rule covers.

Plates move after the invoice is drawn up. If you billed 350 and the signed count later shows 372, raise a supplementary invoice for 22 plates: 22 x ₹1,100 is ₹24,200, plus ₹1,210 of GST. If the client dropped a counter after billing, issue a credit note that references the original invoice, and leave the original alone. Overwriting an invoice that is already reported in your return causes more trouble than the ₹18,000 it corrects. The workbook keeps advance vouchers on a separate sheet so a change to the invoice does not disturb them.

Do not over-split. Crew, crockery, chafing dishes and the transport of your kitchen team are part of the catering service, so on the sample they ride at 5% inside the same supply. Pulling the ₹42,000 crew and crockery line out as 'equipment rental' at 18% would add ₹5,460 of tax, the 13-point difference on ₹42,000, without any benefit to you or the client. The reverse mistake costs more. Decor, DJ, tent hire and lighting that you arrange as separate services are 18%. If you are billing both on one invoice, show two rate blocks and add the two taxable values separately. The bill-format page on this site covers the day-of settlement side of this, extra plates, overtime and breakage.

A corporate client will take TDS at 2% under section 194C when the payee is a company or firm, 1% for an individual or HUF, on the value before GST if GST is shown separately. On ₹5,09,000 that is ₹10,180, so your bank receives ₹5,24,270 of ₹5,34,450 until the deduction certificate arrives. Chase that certificate the week the payment lands. Keep one invoice book per financial year, CAT then 2627 then a running count, so no number repeats when April begins, and keep the advance voucher series separate as RV/2627/0031.