Northstar Creative Co.
Invoice
PAYMENT DUEBilled to
| Item & description | Qty | Rate | Discount | Taxable value | Tax | Amount incl. tax |
|---|
Tax breakup by rate
| Rate | Taxable value | CGST | SGST | Total tax |
|---|
Amount in words
Zero only
A note for you
Terms & conditions
Additional details
If you are not registered under GST, you can still bill your customers — you just do not bill them the way a registered business does. The editor above opens with tax switched off for exactly this reason, so nothing on the document asks for a GSTIN you do not have.
The tax setup starts at none, so there is no rate to clear, no tax column on the document, and no total quietly inflated by 18%.
With tax off, the tax ID fields are yours to use or ignore. Nothing prints an empty GSTIN label on a document that should not have one.
Your logo, your numbering, line items, a signature and payment details. Not registered is not the same as not professional.
No account, no watermark, no limit, and no copy kept on a server. The PDF or the draft file you download is the only copy.
This is the part most templates get wrong. A tax invoice is what a registered supplier issues when GST is chargeable, and it carries the GSTIN of both parties plus a tax breakup. If you are not registered, no GST is chargeable on your supply, so the document you issue is a bill of supply — the same information, minus the tax.
Calling it the right thing matters more than it sounds. A document headed "Tax Invoice" with an empty GSTIN and an 18% line on it is not a slightly imperfect invoice; it is a claim to have charged tax you are not entitled to charge. The safer document is the plainer one.
The same applies if you are registered under the composition scheme, or if what you supply is exempt. In all three cases the tax does not go on the document, and in all three cases the document is a bill of supply.
A bill of supply is short. Your name and address; a serial number that is unique within the financial year and runs consecutively; the date; your customer's name and address, along with their GSTIN if they happen to be registered; a description of what you supplied, with an HSN or SAC code if you use them; the value; and a signature or its digital equivalent.
What it must not carry is a tax rate, a tax amount, or a GSTIN of your own. If you are not registered you do not have one to print, and printing somebody else's, or an invented one, is a considerably worse problem than not having one at all.
Registration is driven mainly by turnover, and the commonly cited thresholds are ₹40 lakh a year for goods and ₹20 lakh for services, halved in the special category states. Those are not the whole rule. Selling through an e-commerce operator, supplying across state lines in some circumstances, or falling into one of the compulsory categories can require registration regardless of what you turn over.
Because the thresholds move and the exceptions are the part that catches people, treat the figures above as a prompt to check your own position rather than an answer. If you are anywhere near a threshold, that check is worth an accountant's hour.
From the effective date of registration you start issuing tax invoices instead: your GSTIN on the document, the place of supply deciding between CGST plus SGST and IGST, and the tax shown rate-wise. Most people begin a fresh number series at that point — nothing compels it, but keeping the two kinds of document apart is easier than explaining later which was which.
When that day comes, the GST invoice generator is the same editor with the Indian tax setup already in place. Your earlier bills of supply stay valid; registration changes what you issue next, not what you issued before.
A tax invoice is the document a GST-registered supplier issues when tax is chargeable, and it carries the GSTIN of both parties and a tax breakup. A bill of supply is what you issue when no tax is being charged on the supply — because you are not registered, because you are under the composition scheme, or because the supply itself is exempt. It looks much the same but it shows no tax and no GSTIN of your own, and it does not let your customer claim input credit.
No. Collecting tax without registration is not permitted, and an unregistered person who collects an amount described as tax has to pay it over. This is the part people get wrong when they copy a tax invoice template and leave the GSTIN blank: the template still adds 18% to the total. If you are not registered, the price you quote is the price, with no tax line beneath it.
Nothing forces you to restart, but most people do, because a tax invoice series and a bill of supply series are separate documents and it is easier to keep them apart from the day registration takes effect. Either way the rule is the same on both sides of the change: the number is unique within the financial year, consecutive, and no longer than sixteen characters. Keep the earlier documents; the change of status does not make them go away.
These notes are general guidance, not tax advice. Whether you need to register, and what your documents have to show, depends on your turnover, your state and what you supply — confirm your own position with your accountant.
