A working guide to eway bill software for pc for anyone moving goods. The threshold, the two parts, validity by distance, and the one mismatch that causes most of the problems.
Part A and Part B
Part A is the consignment: consignor and consignee with GSTINs, place of delivery, invoice or document number and date, value of goods, HSN, and the reason for transportation.
Part B is the movement: the transporter ID, or the vehicle number if you are moving the goods yourself.
An e-way bill without Part B is not valid for movement. Part A can be filled in advance and Part B added when the vehicle is known, which is how most despatch desks work.
What your billing system needs to get right
- Invoice value that matches the e-way bill. This is the single most common cause of trouble in transit.
- Correct GSTINs for both parties, in valid format.
- HSN on every line, since it is reported on the bill.
- Correct place of delivery, which is not always the customer’s registered address.
- A stable invoice number — the e-way bill references the document, so renumbering after the fact breaks the link.
- Billixo keeps all of these on the invoice by design, so the data the e-way bill needs is already correct and consistent.
Generating one, step by step
- Raise the invoice first. The e-way bill references it, so it has to exist and its value has to be final.
- Log in to the e-way bill portal, or generate from your billing or accounting system if it connects.
- Fill Part A: parties, GSTINs, place of delivery, document number and date, value, HSN, reason for transport.
- Fill Part B: transporter ID, or the vehicle number for own transport.
- Generate, and keep the e-way bill number with the consignment.
- If the vehicle changes mid-journey, update Part B. If validity is running out, extend it within the permitted window rather than letting it lapse.
Validity, and what expiry actually means
Validity runs by distance and is counted in days from generation, with the exact calculation set by rule and differing for over-dimensional cargo.
Expiry is not administrative. Goods moving on an expired e-way bill are treated as moving without one, with the consequences that follow — detention, penalty, and a delay far more expensive than the extension would have been.
Extension is permitted within a window around expiry. The practical discipline is simple: whoever tracks the vehicle should also be watching the clock on the bill.
The mismatch that causes most problems
The value on the e-way bill and the value on the invoice must agree. When they do not, it is almost always because the invoice was amended after the bill was generated, or because someone typed the taxable value where the total was required.
That is a workflow problem rather than a rules problem, and the fix is order of operations: finalise the invoice, then generate, never the other way round.
Reverse charge, exports and the supplies that behave differently
Not every supply is a straightforward taxable sale. Some notified supplies put the tax liability on the recipient rather than the supplier. Exports and supplies to an SEZ can be made under a bond or LUT without payment of tax, or with tax and a refund claimed afterwards. Composition dealers cannot charge tax at all and must say so on the bill.
Each of these changes what the invoice has to say — the reverse charge marking, the LUT reference, the "composition taxable person" declaration. They are not exotic cases; most businesses hit at least one.
The fields are on the invoice in Billixo whether or not you use them, so the day you need one you are not looking for a workaround.
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.
Bill scanning, in practice
The single largest time cost in most small businesses is not raising invoices — it is entering purchases. A photograph of a supplier bill goes in and a structured draft comes out: supplier, GSTIN, line items, rates, tax split and total.
You check it. That is the workflow, and it is deliberate: an extraction you did not read is a liability, not a saving. But checking a filled form takes fifteen seconds and typing one takes three minutes, and that difference compounds over a month of purchases.
A note for accountants and CAs
If you are the person who has to make sense of a client’s billing at the end of the month, what you need from their software is narrow and specific: a complete outward supply summary, correct place-of-supply treatment, HSN present on every line, and an export you can open without repair.
Billixo produces GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B summaries and exports to CSV, Excel and JSON. Client-side, the invoice fields cannot be skipped, which removes the category of problem where the data was never captured in the first place.
Free, and what it costs you instead
Free software usually costs you something that is not money: your data held hostage, an export that does not work, ads inside your invoice, or a "free" tier so narrow it is a demo with a login screen.
The line here is drawn differently. Export works on the free plan — CSV, Excel and JSON — because data you cannot get out is not data you own. The invoice is a real compliant invoice, not a sample. The limits are on volume and on the conveniences, not on whether the thing works.
Start free now. If it does not suit you, take your data with you.
Reliability, backups and getting your data out
Cloud billing software is only as good as its worst day. Two things matter more than any feature list: that your data is backed up somewhere you can reach, and that you can export it in a format something else can read.
Exports here are CSV, Excel and JSON, on every plan including the free one, covering customers, products, invoices and payments. That is the honest test of whether software respects you — not what it promises, but what it lets you take when you leave.
Frequently asked questions
What happens if it expires in transit?
The goods are treated as moving without a valid e-way bill, with detention and penalty consequences. Extension is permitted within a window around expiry, so watch the clock rather than discovering it at a checkpoint.
Can I change the vehicle number after generating?
Yes — Part B can be updated when the vehicle changes, which is expected on multi-leg journeys.
Does Billixo generate e-way bills?
It produces the invoice the e-way bill is generated against, with the GSTINs, HSN codes, place of delivery and value that the bill needs, correct and consistent. Generation itself happens on the e-way bill portal or through whatever route you already use.
Do I need to install anything?
No. It runs in a browser, on a laptop, desktop or phone, so there is nothing to install, nothing to update and nothing tied to one machine. If the office computer dies, you sign in from another one and everything is there.
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.
Start free, decide later
You do not have to choose a plan to begin. Start on Free, use it for as long as it suits you, and upgrade only when a limit actually gets in your way — never automatically, and never because a countdown ran out.
Open the software demo → — or create the free account from the same page.
Read the full details → on the home page, including pricing and the AI features.
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