E Invoice Website, explained without the jargon: what actually happens when an invoice is registered, what comes back, and why registrations fail. The applicability threshold has been lowered in stages since e-invoicing began, so check the current notification for whether it applies to you.
What e-invoicing actually is
It is not a government invoice format you fill in. You raise your invoice in your own software as usual; the software sends a structured version to the invoice registration portal, which validates it, assigns an Invoice Reference Number (IRN) and returns a digitally signed QR code.
Your invoice then carries that IRN and QR code. The reported data also flows into your GSTR-1 and into e-way bill generation, which is the actual point of the exercise — one reporting event instead of three.
The threshold at which it becomes mandatory has been reduced in several stages since introduction. It is turnover-based and it has moved more than once, so verify the current position rather than relying on any article, including this one.
The registration portal, and what it does
The Invoice Registration Portal is the government system that receives invoice data, validates it, assigns an Invoice Reference Number and returns a digitally signed invoice with a QR code. There is more than one such portal operated under the scheme, which is why the addresses people search for vary.
What goes to it is structured data in a prescribed schema, not a PDF of your invoice. What comes back is the IRN and the signed QR code, which then have to appear on the document you give the customer.
Taking data there is done either by uploading a file, through the portal's own tools, or through a provider that submits on your behalf from your billing software. That last route is what most businesses use, because manual upload for every invoice does not scale.
Two things worth knowing: the portal has offline utilities for bulk preparation, and it has downtime. What your process does when it is unavailable is a question to settle in advance, because billing cannot simply stop and an invoice issued without an IRN when one was required has to be dealt with afterwards.
We do not reproduce portal addresses or screen sequences here, because they change. Go to the official GST portal and follow its links rather than a third-party page, including this one.
What matters in your billing software
- Complete party masters — GSTIN and state on every registered customer, validated in format.
- HSN or SAC on every line, without exception.
- Place of supply derived, not chosen, so it can never contradict the parties.
- A clean, consecutive invoice series — duplicates are a rejection cause.
- Correct document types for credit and debit notes, referencing the original.
- Discipline about editing. A registered invoice cannot be altered; corrections are cancellation within the window or a credit note.
- Billixo enforces the first four by design, which is most of what the portal is checking.
The flow, step by step
- Confirm whether e-invoicing applies to you, based on the current turnover threshold.
- Complete your masters: GSTIN and state on parties, HSN or SAC on every item.
- Raise the invoice in your billing system as normal.
- The structured invoice is sent to the registration portal.
- The portal validates it and returns the IRN and a signed QR code.
- Print or share the invoice carrying the IRN and QR code.
- If it is rejected, read the reason before retrying — the usual causes are a missing HSN, an invalid GSTIN, a place-of-supply mismatch or a duplicate invoice number.
If e-invoicing does not apply to you yet
Bill as though it might. The turnover threshold has only ever moved in one direction, and the work involved in being ready is work worth doing anyway: complete GSTINs, HSN on every line, place of supply derived rather than typed.
A business already billing that way flips a switch when the threshold reaches it. A business that is not spends a fortnight cleaning masters under a deadline.
The free plan produces invoices with all of those fields, which makes it a reasonable place to build the habit. Start free now.
Cancellation, amendment and getting it wrong
A registered invoice cannot be edited. It can be cancelled within a limited window after registration, and after that the only route is a credit note referencing it.
That makes the check-before-you-register habit worth building. In practice it means reviewing the party, the place of supply and the totals on screen before generating, rather than after the customer queries it.
It also means your invoice numbering has to be right first time: a cancelled IRN does not release the invoice number for reuse.
What a GST invoice legally has to carry
Rule 46 of the CGST Rules sets out what a tax invoice must show, and it is a longer list than most invoice templates carry. Getting one field wrong does not usually cost you anything the day you raise it — it costs your customer their input credit months later, which is a harder conversation.
The fields are:
- Your name, address and GSTIN
- A consecutive invoice number, unique within the financial year
- The date of issue
- The customer's name, address and GSTIN where they are registered
- Place of supply, and the state code, for inter-state supplies
- HSN or SAC against every line
- Description, quantity, unit, rate and taxable value per line
- Rate and amount of CGST, SGST/UTGST, IGST and cess, shown separately
- Whether tax is payable on reverse charge
- Signature or digital signature of the supplier or an authorised person
Billixo fills these in from the customer and product records rather than asking you to remember them, which is the only reliable way a busy counter gets them all right every time.
CGST, SGST and IGST — worked out, not chosen
Whether a sale attracts CGST and SGST or IGST is not a preference. It follows from the place of supply: same state as your registration means the tax splits into central and state halves, a different state means one integrated tax at the combined rate.
That sounds simple and goes wrong constantly, because it is a dropdown in most billing software and a dropdown is something a tired person clicks past. In Billixo the split is derived from the state on the customer record against the state on your registration, and it changes the moment either does.
The consequence of getting it wrong is real: an IGST invoice raised as CGST/SGST has to be credited and reissued, and if the return has already gone in, amended.
The AI, and what it is actually for
The useful application of AI to billing is not a chatbot. It is the twenty minutes a day spent retyping things that already exist on paper.
- Scan a supplier bill. Photograph it; the lines, the GSTIN, the tax and the totals come back as a draft you check rather than a form you fill.
- Find the HSN code. Describe the product in plain words and get a code to confirm, instead of scrolling a list of eleven thousand.
- Ask about your own numbers. "What is outstanding over sixty days?" answered from your data, not a manual.
- Write the reminder. A polite, specific chase for an overdue invoice, ready to send on WhatsApp.
Nothing is sent anywhere until you ask for it, and the platform runs on whichever model it has been configured with — including one hosted on your own server.
Where this fits in a working day
Morning: yesterday’s supplier bills get photographed and become purchase records. Through the day: invoices go out as goods do, shared on WhatsApp before the customer has left. End of the week: the receivables list says who to call. End of the month: the GST summary is a download, not a project.
None of that requires a new habit, which is the point. A billing system that needs discipline to work is one that stops working the first busy week.
What "free" means here, exactly
The Free plan costs nothing, needs no card, and has no expiry date. It is not a trial that turns into a bill; it is a plan you can run a small business on indefinitely.
What it gives you:
- Real GST invoices with the full Rule 46 field set
- Customers and products, with HSN/SAC held against each
- A daily and monthly invoice allowance, generous enough for a small operation
- One login
- Export of your own data, whenever you want it
What it does not give you:
- A watermark-free PDF
- GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B export
- The AI features — bill scanning, HSN lookup, the assistant
- Extra team logins, bulk import, recurring invoices and reminders
Every new account also gets the full paid feature set for its first 14 days, so you can see what the ceiling looks like before deciding whether you need it. When that ends nothing is charged and nothing is deleted — the account simply settles onto Free.
Start free now — it takes an email address and about a minute.
Where your data lives
On the server this platform is installed on. Every record carries a company identifier and every query is scoped to the signed-in account at the framework level, so one business cannot read another’s data by any route, including a crafted one.
Sign-in is rate limited, sessions can be restricted to one device per user, and passwords are stored hashed. Exports are available on every plan, free included: if you ever want to leave, your data leaves with you.
Frequently asked questions
Why do my e-invoices get rejected?
Overwhelmingly four causes: a missing HSN or SAC, a malformed or invalid GSTIN, a place of supply that contradicts the parties, or a duplicate invoice number. All four are master data problems rather than portal problems.
Does e-invoicing replace the e-way bill?
No, but the data flows across — details reported at registration can be used in e-way bill generation, so the same information is not entered twice.
Do I need e-invoicing to use Billixo?
No. Billixo produces fully compliant GST invoices whether or not e-invoicing applies to you, with the complete field set the registration portal checks for.
Are the invoices valid for GST?
Yes. Every invoice carries the fields Rule 46 requires — GSTIN, HSN/SAC on each line, place of supply, the correct CGST/SGST or IGST split, and a consecutive invoice series that restarts each financial year.
Can I move my existing customers and products in?
Yes. Bulk import from CSV or Excel on any paid plan, and export back out in CSV, Excel or JSON at any time, including on Free. Most people bring their party and item lists across in one pass and carry outstanding invoices as opening balances.
Try it — the demo is the product
There is no sales call and no scheduled demo, because a recorded walkthrough of somebody else’s data tells you nothing about your own. Open an account instead and raise a real invoice for a real customer; it takes about a minute and costs nothing.
Open the software demo → — sign in, or create a free account from the same screen.
See full details on the home page → — features, the AI, pricing and the answers to the usual questions.
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