GST & taxes
GST in Ledgerly lives inside the accounting engine — it's applied when documents post, not patched on at export time.
How GST is applied
- Place of supply decides the split: same state as your company → CGST + SGST; different state → IGST. Ledgerly selects this automatically on every invoice.
- Transaction types get their statutory treatment: Export / SEZ is always IGST; Nil-rated, Exempt and Non-GST supply are always 0%. Those last three are separate choices rather than one, because GSTR-1 reports them in three different sections — the tax is the same, the return is not.
- Input vs output GST post to separate ledger accounts, so what you owe and what you can claim never blur together.
Set your GSTIN under Settings → Company Profile — it appears on invoices and in your GSTR-1 export.
GST summary
GST & Tax → GST Summary shows the period's position at a glance: output GST collected on sales, input GST paid on purchases, split by CGST/SGST/IGST.
Tax ledger
GST & Tax → Tax Ledger is the transaction-level view — every GST posting with its source document, if you need to trace a number.
GSTR-1 export
GST & Tax → GSTR-1 generates your outward-supplies return from posted invoices:
GST & Tax → GSTR-1 — B2B supplies grouped by GSTIN, with Excel and portal-JSON export.
- Pick the month or quarter.
- Review the breakdown — B2B (registered buyers, with GSTIN), B2C (consumers), plus export/SEZ and nil-rated supplies, each with the correct tax split.
- Export as JSON (upload it directly to the GST portal's offline tool) or Excel (for review or your accountant).
Before either export, Ledgerly checks every document in the period and shows you the result — how many were checked, and any errors or warnings found. Errors block the JSON export, because that is the file you actually file; the Excel export goes ahead so you can work through the problem rows in a spreadsheet. Typical checks: the company GSTIN must pass the GSTN check-digit test, every invoice needs a place of supply that maps to a real state code, a B2B invoice needs a valid customer GSTIN, and a reverse-charge invoice must not also be charging GST.
These are Ledgerly's own checks. The file is not validated against a schema published by GSTN — the portal's offline tool remains the final word on whether a return is accepted.
Tip: invoices only enter GSTR-1 once posted. Drafts are ignored, so post everything for the period before exporting.
Documents Ledgerly issues
The GST rules prescribe a different document for each thing that can happen, and getting the wrong document right is still wrong. Ledgerly issues these, each with the particulars its rule requires:
| Document | When you use it |
|---|---|
| Tax invoice | An ordinary taxable supply. |
| Bill of supply | Everything on it is exempt, nil-rated or non-GST, or you are not charging tax. |
| Invoice-cum-bill of supply | One unregistered buyer taking taxable and exempt goods together — one piece of paper instead of two. Ledgerly blocks this for a buyer with a GSTIN, who needs a tax invoice to claim credit. |
| Revised invoice | Supplies you made between your registration taking effect and your certificate being issued. It prints "Revised Invoice" prominently and must name the number and date of the document it revises — Ledgerly asks for both before it will post one. |
| Credit / debit note | A reduction or increase against an invoice already issued. |
| Receipt voucher | You took money before making the supply. Issue it when the advance arrives, not when the goods go. |
| Refund voucher | That advance is going back because the supply will not happen. The tax you paid on the advance is reversed with it. |
| Delivery challan | Goods are moving but not being sold — sent for job work, transferred between your own premises, or out on approval. Prints in triplicate, marked for consignee, transporter and consigner, as the rules require. |
Two things about the last three are worth knowing before you need them.
An advance is a liability, and it is taxed. GST on an advance is payable when you receive it, not when you supply. If you cannot yet tell what rate will apply, the rules set 18%; if you cannot yet tell whether the supply will be within your state or outside it, they treat it as inter-State. Ledgerly applies both fallbacks and prints on the voucher which one it used and why, so the figure is defensible a year later. The advance shows as unadjusted until you either release it against an invoice or refund it.
A delivery challan posts nothing to your books. Ownership has not changed — only location has — so there is no sale, no output tax and no journal entry. Raise a tax invoice when the supply actually happens. If you are sending goods for job work, note that they must come back within a year (three for capital goods) or the movement becomes a supply; Ledgerly counts your open job-work challans on the Delivery Challans screen for exactly that reason.
What Ledgerly does not do
Ledgerly prepares your outward-supplies position. Several GST obligations sit outside that, and it is better you know now than at an audit.
E-invoicing. Ledgerly does not report invoices to the Invoice Registration Portal, so it cannot produce an IRN or the QR code that must then appear on the invoice. Above the e-invoicing turnover threshold this matters a great deal: an invoice without an IRN is not a valid tax invoice, and your customer cannot claim input tax credit against it. Declare your aggregate turnover under Settings → Company Profile and Ledgerly will tell you where you stand.
E-way bills. Ledgerly does not generate them. Moving goods above the consignment-value threshold needs an e-way bill raised before the movement starts. Generate it on the e-way bill portal and record the number on the invoice — there is a field for it.
Payment vouchers for reverse charge. Where you owe the tax on a purchase, the rules require a payment voucher to your supplier. Ledgerly does not issue one yet — it does not model inward reverse charge at all.
Returns other than GSTR-1. GSTR-3B, the annual return (GSTR-9 / 9C) and the composition returns are not produced today.
Input tax credit rules. Ledgerly posts input GST to its own ledger accounts, but does not compute the reversals — unpaid suppliers at 180 days, or the apportionment of common credit between taxable and exempt supplies.
Registration types. Ledgerly assumes a regular registration. Composition dealers are not supported.
If any of these apply to you, use Ledgerly alongside your GST practitioner or portal workflow rather than in place of it.
Rounding
Invoice and bill totals are rounded to the nearest rupee, and the adjustment appears as a separate Round Off line on the document and in your ledger, posted to its own account. Tax amounts themselves are not rounded — the tax charged is the tax computed.
This is ordinary commercial practice and it means the document adds up to the amount your customer actually pays. It is a deliberate choice rather than a statutory requirement, and it is disclosed here because your accountant may want to know which convention you are on.