Presently, businesses use various accounting/billing software, generating and storing invoices in their electronic formats. These different formats are neither understood by the GST System nor among the systems of suppliers and receivers.

For example, an invoice generated by the SAP system cannot be read by a machine using the ‘Tally’ system unless a connector is used. With more than 300 accounting/billing software products, there is no way to have connectors for all. In this scenario, ‘e-invoicing’ aims at machine-readability and uniform interpretation.

An invoice standard is a must to ensure this complete ‘inter-operability’ of e-invoices across the entire GST eco-system. By this, e-invoices generated by one software can be read by any other software, eliminating the need for fresh/manual data entry.

Since there was no such standard for e-invoice in the country, as a first step, a standard/format for e-invoice has been finalized after detailed consultations with Trade/Industry Bodies (CII, Ph.D., FICCI, ASSOCHAM, etc.), as well as the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI).

Though it is based on an international standard (UBL/PEPPOL), it has been customized to cater to Indian business practices and requirements. The Schema/Format was notified as Form GST INV-1.