GST Invoice in Tally Prime, explained in the order you actually do it. Names of menu items vary by version; the sequence and the settings do not.
Recording a GST sales entry
Assuming GST is enabled and your ledgers carry rates and HSN codes, the entry itself is short.
- From the Gateway of Tally, open Vouchers and choose the sales voucher — F8.
- Set the voucher to invoice mode if it is not already there, so it prints as a tax invoice rather than a voucher.
- Enter the invoice number and date. The number should continue your consecutive series for the financial year.
- Select the party ledger. Confirm the despatch and buyer details, and check the place of supply — this is the field that decides CGST+SGST versus IGST.
- Select the sales ledger, then enter each stock item with quantity and rate.
- Select the tax ledgers. With rates set on the items, the amounts fill themselves; if they do not, the rate or the HSN is missing somewhere up the chain.
- Check the tax split at the bottom, then accept and print or export the invoice.
If CGST and SGST appear on a sale to another state, the place of supply or the party’s state is wrong. Fix the master rather than editing the voucher, or the next invoice repeats it.
On TallyPrime specifically
TallyPrime reorganised how you move around the product rather than how the accounting works. The go-to search, the ability to change a report's view without leaving it, and the rework of the data-entry screens mean most older instructions give you the right idea and the wrong keystrokes.
So when following a guide written for the previous generation, follow the intent rather than the key sequence: the ledger still needs the same fields, the invoice still needs the same content, and the exceptions list in the GST report is still where the return actually gets fixed.
What is worth checking on any current release is the compliance side rather than the interface — whether your installation is up to date for the return formats and the e-invoicing schema in force. An out-of-date installation does not announce itself; it produces a file the portal rejects, or one it accepts with figures in the wrong column.
Data from the earlier generation migrates, but migration is a one-way step and worth doing from a backup you have verified rather than from the live company data.
Keeping both, which is often the right answer
If your accountant works in a desktop ledger and is happy there, you do not have to move them. Plenty of businesses raise invoices in one system and hand a clean summary to a practitioner working in another.
The interface between the two is a file — a GSTR-1 summary, or a CSV of invoices — not a platform commitment. Billixo exports CSV, Excel and JSON, and the export works on the free plan.
Change only the part that is actually costing you evenings.
When this is worth doing differently
None of the above is difficult. It is just a lot of setup that has to stay correct, on a machine that has to stay working, maintained by someone who remembers how it was configured.
That is a reasonable cost for a business with an accountant on staff and a stable office. It is a poor fit for a business where the person billing is also the person selling, and where the office computer is whatever laptop is nearest.
Billixo takes the other approach: the GST details are entered once when you sign up, the tax split is derived from the customer’s state on every invoice with nothing to configure, and there is no installation to maintain. It runs in a browser, and the free plan costs ₹0 with no card.
That is not an argument that one is better. It is an argument that they suit different situations, and it is worth knowing which one you are in.
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.
Who it is built for
Small and mid-sized Indian businesses that are registered under GST and bill regularly. One person doing everything, or a counter with three people billing at once and an accountant who needs the month to close cleanly.
The design assumption throughout is that whoever raises the invoice is busy and is not a tax specialist. So the tax is computed rather than asked for, the compliance fields are populated rather than presented as questions, and the report the accountant wants is a download rather than a request.
Try it free — the free plan needs no card and does not expire.
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
Do the menu paths differ between Tally.ERP 9 and TallyPrime?
The wording does — TallyPrime reorganised the menus and renamed several screens — but the sequence is the same: enable GST on the company, set up tax ledgers, put HSN and rates on masters, record the voucher, then clear the GST reports.
Is there a simpler way to do this?
For many small businesses, yes. Billixo derives the tax split from the customer’s state automatically and needs no ledger setup at all — you enter your GSTIN once and bill. It runs in a browser, and the free plan costs ₹0 with no card.
Can I use both?
Yes, and many businesses do. Raise invoices wherever it is fastest and hand your accountant a clean GSTR-1 summary. The hand-off is a file, not a commitment.
What happens to my data if I stop paying?
Nothing is deleted. The account settles back onto the Free plan: the paid conveniences switch off, the volume limits return, and every invoice, customer and product you created stays exactly where it is — including the export.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. It is a browser application that adapts to the screen, so the same account works from a desktop at the counter and a phone in the market. There is no separate app to keep in step.
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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