GST
Restarting invoice numbers in a new financial year
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Facts
Rule 46(b) needs the invoice number to be unique for a financial year. You may restart the series each year or continue it. Most businesses add the year to the series, such as INV/26-27/0001, so numbers do not repeat.
Provisions and law
- Rule 46(b), CGST Rules 2017Serial number in one or more series using letters, numbers, hyphen and slash, up to 16 characters, unique for the financial year
- Sec 31, CGST Act 2017When and how a tax invoice and other documents must be issued
Analysis
If you restart at 1 without a year marker, the number INV-0001 exists in two years, which is allowed but confuses books and e-invoicing. Adding a year prefix keeps numbers unique across years too. Remember the 16-character limit when building the prefix: INV/26-27/00001 is 15 characters.
Conclusion
- Decide the format, for example INV/26-27/00001.
- Count characters to stay within 16.
- Set it in your billing software from 1 April.
- Report the series in GSTR-1 Table 13.
A Savvy can do this for you
Invoice series, numbering and document summary (GSTR-1 Table 13)
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