Chartered Accountant · ICAI M.No. 153926 · FRN 136869W
Who must do it
Turnover above ₹5 crore in any financial year since GST began. Confirm the current threshold.
What it means in practice
Each B2B invoice is uploaded to the IRP, which returns an IRN and QR code. Bill-books and accounting software must integrate with it.
How it works, and what breaks without it
E-invoicing doesn’t change your invoice format so much as add a reporting step: for each B2B invoice, credit or debit note, your system sends the details to the Invoice Registration Portal (IRP), which returns a unique Invoice Reference Number (IRN) and a signed QR code that must be printed on the document. Only then is it a valid tax invoice. The data flows automatically into your GSTR-1 and into the e-way bill system, which reduces re-keying but means errors surface immediately. Crucially, a B2B invoice issued without an IRN by a business that’s required to e-invoice is treated as no invoice at all — the buyer can be denied input credit on it, and penalties can apply — so the IRP step can’t be skipped. The threshold is based on aggregate turnover crossing ₹5 crore in any year since 2017-18, and once you’re in, you stay in. Practically, your billing or accounting software must integrate with the IRP (directly or through a GSP), staff must generate the IRN at the point of invoicing, and B2C invoices, while outside e-invoicing, may still need a dynamic QR code for large taxpayers. Confirm the current threshold, which has been lowered in stages.