What is e-invoicing?

Not invoicing by email. Reporting each invoice to a government portal and getting it back signed.

Last checked 20 September 2026

E-invoicing is not invoicing by email. It means reporting each invoice to a government Invoice Registration Portal in a fixed format, which validates it and returns a unique Invoice Reference Number and a digitally signed QR code. Only then is the invoice valid for GST.

What it is not

Not generating the invoice on a government website. You still raise it in your own software.
Not emailing a PDF to your customer. That is just a delivery method.
Not a different invoice format for your customer. The bill they receive looks much the same, with an IRN and a QR code added.

How the process actually runs

1
You raise the invoice in your own billing software, as usual.
2
The software produces a JSON file in the prescribed schema and sends it to the Invoice Registration Portal.
The schema is fixed — field names, types and mandatory items are all specified.
3
The portal validates it and checks the invoice has not been reported before.
4
It generates the IRN, digitally signs the invoice, and returns the signed payload with a QR code.
5
Your software prints the IRN and the QR on the invoice you give the buyer.
6
The reported data flows onward — to your GSTR-1 and to the buyer’s statements — without being keyed again.

The invoice number is still yours

You keep your own series. The IRN is an additional identifier the portal assigns, not a replacement for your numbering. See invoice numbering rules.

Why the government did it

Reporting at the moment of invoicing, in one machine-readable format, means the department sees the sale as it happens rather than at return time. Three things follow: returns can be pre-filled from data already reported, buyer and seller records match by construction, and invoices cannot easily be invented after the fact to support a credit claim.

For businesses, the honest benefit is the second one — far less reconciliation, because the buyer sees what you reported, not what you told them you reported.

What it covers

Covered	Not covered
B2B supplies to registered persons	B2C supplies to consumers
Supplies to government departments
Exports and deemed exports
Supplies to SEZ units
Credit and debit notes for the above

Whether any of it applies to you at all depends on your turnover — see is e-invoicing mandatory for my business.

What it means for your software

If e-invoicing applies to you, your billing system has to produce the JSON, talk to the portal, store what comes back, and print it. That is an integration, not a setting.

TracEasy does not do e-invoicing today

It raises compliant GST invoices, but it does not report them to the IRP. If e-invoicing applies to your business, you need a system that does. We would rather say so plainly than have you find out at filing time.

What happens if a covered invoice is not reported?

An invoice that should carry an IRN and does not is not treated as a valid document. The practical consequence lands on your buyer, who cannot claim the credit — which is why customers subject to e-invoicing check for the IRN.

Is the portal available all the time?

There are multiple IRPs and they are generally reliable, but outages happen. Any serious integration needs a retry path and a way to see what has not yet been reported.

Do I still file GSTR-1?

Yes. Reported e-invoice data pre-fills it, which is a large saving, but the return is still yours to check and file.

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