India eInvoicing

Any Company registered in India and have a business turnover of more than INR 100 Crores must report to the Government electronically or required to generate an eInvoice

The e-invoicing provisions under GST are getting effective January 1st 2021

The seller must ensure that his accounting/billing software can generate a JSON of the final invoice. The seller can create a JSON following the e-invoice schema and mandatory parameters by using the following modes:

  • Accounting and billing system that offers this service
  • Utility to interact with either accounting/billing system, ERP, excel/word document or a mobile app
  • Offline Tool to generate e-invoice by keying-in invoice data

Assumptions

1.The customer has the SAP-ERP and DCS Systems.

2.This blog explains about Services Industry i.e.,It does not include Implementation of eway bill.

Prerequisites

Implementation of All relevant OSS Notes related to eInvoicing / eWay bill/ GSTR reporting and data maintained in the relevant Configuration tables

1.Official Document Numbering (ODN)-Check if the functionality exists and has sufficient no.ranges

2.Invoice Outputs: IRN No and QR Code to be Printed on the Invoices

Check if the OSS Notes are implemented and proper logic is in place to print on the invoices

3.Custom Enhancement: Interfaces, Digital Signatures, Invoice Splits etc.,

4.Customer/Vendor Master Data: Correct GST Nos maintained and also for the suppliers in the Business place

  1. a) If GST number is not maintained in the Business partner data then it will treat it as Business to Customer and their transactions need not be reported to the Tax Authority
  2. b) SEZ Customers will be identified based on the tax classification.

Business PartneràCVI CustomeràSales and DistributionàBilling

5.In case the supplier is in SEZ Unit,then he cannot generate an e-invoice

6.Invoices with Zero values need not be reported to tax authority, as per SAP standards it will not have an accounting entry so it will not flow into edocument cockpit

All the above information can be seen once the invoice is flown in the edocument cockpit and the same can also be validated in the XML before it is submitted

Systems Involved

1.SAP ECC/S4 HANA

2.Digital Compliance Service for India (DCS)

3.SAP-CPI (Cloud Platform Interface)

4.GST Suvidha Provider (GSP)

5.IRP Invoice Registration Portal

DCS: SAP Localization Hub, digital compliance service for India, hereafter referred to as DCS, enables customers to upload and download data, process and reconcile invoice data that is to be reported to the GST Network (GSTN) using a GST Suvidha Provider (GSP).

Any business system (SAP ERP and non-SAP ERP) can use DCS to send invoice details to the GSTN.

DCS has the following features:

  • Authenticates with GSTN
  • Processes and uploads invoices from multiple source systems
  • Uploads invoices containing outward supply data (GSTR1)
  • An intuitive user interface for managing all GST returns

Data Flow

India eInvoicing Data Flow

Generation of e-invoice:

The taxpayer will continue to generate invoices in the normal course of business. However, the reporting of these invoices electronically is the criteria. It needs to be done as per the e-invoice schema along with mandatory parameters.

Supplier creates an Invoice in his system and submits it to the Invoice registration portal (IRP) using the edocument Cockpit and in return he receives an Invoice registration number (IRN), QR Code and a digitally signed eInvoice by IRP.

Invoice here refers to Supplier Invoice, Credit Notes and Debit Notes

In case of Invoice Cancellation, the initial invoice can be cancelled within the first 24 hours from the time of creation and it is communicated to IRP once the edocument is cancelled in the cockpit.

After implementing the relevant OSS Notes successfully,03 nodes will appear in the system

  • India eInvoice
  • India eway Bill (Not in scope of this document)
  • India GST Reporting

The document type in the Billing document types (TVFK-BLART) plays a key role for Sales Invoices, which means document types maintained in the configuration table will only be reported to tax authorities. It is the same scenario on the purchase side as well.

In my experience I have come across cases where a finance document type is used to create a sales as well as purchase invoice, this can be achieved by segregating the documents based on the Posting keys with the help of technical team a BADI Implementation can be done .You must have a clear cut visibility of which items must be reported to GSTN.

Businesses today may also want all the items in the invoices to be consolidated and displayed in the XML without having any impact on the Invoice outputs using the BADI: Edoc_adaptors provided by SAP.

Please refer the Link for regular updates: https://einv-apisandbox.nic.in/

Cut-Over Strategy

  1. All master data changes must be validated.
  2. All enhancements to be moved before the Go-live dates.
  3. Changes related to Invoice layout can be moved to the production system well in advance.
  4. All invoices which is created before the go-live date must be in completed status.
  5. Connection set up through integration channels must be completed.

Some of the frequently asked questions

1.Which Uom to be displayed in the XML while the Invoice line items are Consolidated?

Ans: SAP has taken care of it in the program it checks if the HSN Code starts with 99* then it is Services Material and it will not display the quantity and Unit of measure in the XML

2.In the eDocument cockpit the XML message is seen where does it get converted to JSON?

Ans: XML to JSON Conversion happens in the Cloud Platform Interface and it occurs in the background

  1. Whether e-invoice generated is also required to be signed again by the Supplier?

Ans: The e-invoice will be digitally signed by the IRP after it has been validated. The signed e-invoice along with QR code will be shared with creator of document as well as the recipient. Supplier digital signature is optional

  1. Can the seller place their LOGO in the e-Invoice Template?

Ans: There will NOT be a place holder provided in the e-invoice schema for the company logo. This can be achieved with the help of technical team in the Invoice layout. However, the Logo will not be sent to IRP. In other words, it will not be part of JSON file to be uploaded on the IRP.

  1. Will it be possible for bulk uploading of invoices for e-invoicing as well?

Ans:  Invoices must be uploaded on IRP one at a time because the API’s are designed that way.

The IRP will be able to handle many invoices for registration and validate them. A background job can be scheduled in eDocument cockpit to pick up all the invoices, but it will submit one by one.

There is a provision from the government to upload invoices manually in the IRP a separate set of OSS Notes to be implemented which will activate a set of standard tables which will capture the IRN and QR Codes.