The Right Invoice Format — Ready to Use, GST-Compliant & Free.

Rule 46 of the CGST Rules is the real answer to the search 'invoice format'. It never prescribes a layout. It prescribes contents, which leaves you free to put the logo left, right or nowhere. What a registered business cannot do is leave a particular out: supplier and recipient details, a serial number, the date, the SAC, the taxable value, the rate and amount of each tax, the place of supply, the reverse-charge answer and a signature. Most free templates miss two or three of these. The usual gaps are the reverse-charge line and the place of supply, since a template built for a shop selling inside one state never needed either. The Excel file on this page tests 12 of these points as you type and prints a plain-language warning beside any that is missing, so an incomplete invoice stays on your desk.

Start with the serial number, because it fails most often. The rule allows 16 characters made of letters, digits, a slash or a hyphen, unique for the financial year. EVD/2627/0091 works at 13. The format many billing tools default to, EVD-2026-27-000091, runs to 18, and the GST portal rejects it when you upload. Keep one series for tax invoices and a separate one for credit notes and bills of supply so each stays consecutive. If you void an invoice, leave its number in the register marked cancelled instead of reusing it. A gap you can explain is safer than a duplicate you cannot.

The recipient block changes with who is buying. A registered company gets its GSTIN printed, because that number is how its accountant claims credit. Take the sample: the buyer's ₹37,440 of GST is only useful to it if the GSTIN on your invoice matches its registration exactly. An unregistered buyer is different. Under ₹50,000 you need only the state name and code. At ₹50,000 or more you add the name and address, plus a delivery address if it differs. The test runs on invoice value, so a ₹48,000 job that picks up a ₹4,000 extra on the day moves from the light block to the full one. The Excel sheet flags that the moment the total crosses the line.

Lines carry three things people skip: a real description, a SAC and a value. 'Event services' tells nobody anything, whereas 'Stage 24 x 16 ft with backdrop and skirting' does. The SAC digits depend on turnover. Up to ₹5 crore you need at least 4 digits on invoices to registered buyers, above ₹5 crore you need 6, and a sale to an unregistered buyer needs none. The sample prints all six, 998397, because turnover has a habit of crossing ₹5 crore in March and nobody wants to change a template in April. Discounts belong on the invoice, before tax. Here ₹2,13,000 less ₹5,000 leaves ₹2,08,000 taxable, so the tax is ₹37,440 and not the ₹38,340 you would owe if the discount came off afterwards.

The last block is where arithmetic meets law. Place of supply decides the tax head. Here it is Maharashtra to Maharashtra, so 9% plus 9%, which is ₹18,720 each. Then comes the reverse-charge answer, normally No, and a signature or digital signature. If your aggregate turnover crossed ₹5 crore in any year since 2017-18, invoices to registered buyers also need an IRN from the e-invoice portal and a QR code. Sources published in mid-2026 add that from ₹10 crore the invoice must be reported within 30 days of its date. The layout barely changes, but without the IRN the document is not a valid tax invoice. Confirm your own status with your CA, because these limits have moved before.

One habit saves a lot of phone calls: show the invoice total and the balance separately. The total here is ₹2,45,440. The client paid ₹50,000 earlier against a receipt voucher, so the balance is ₹1,95,440. An invoice that prints only the balance hides the tax on the full ₹2,08,000, and the buyer's accountant will ask for it. Quote the voucher number, RV-0044 in the sample, so the advance that was already taxed is not taxed a second time.