Above a turnover threshold, a GST invoice is not valid until it has been registered on the government’s Invoice Registration Portal and given an IRN — an Invoice Reference Number. This page is about where that fits.
What is automated, and what is not
Being straight with you is more useful here than a feature list, because getting this wrong has a penalty attached.
| Job | Where it happens |
|---|---|
| Building an invoice the portal will accept | Here. The checks below are the point of it. |
| Registering it and getting the IRN | Not here. On the IRP, or through your GSP or e-invoicing agent. |
| Recording the e-way bill number and the transport details | Here. On the document. |
The document carries reserved fields for the IRN, the acknowledgement number and date, and the signed QR — and the customer portal will display an IRN when one is present. Nothing in the product writes them yet, so treat e-invoice registration as a step you do outside JAI CRM. We would rather say so than let you find out at a filing deadline.
Why registration usually fails, and what stops it here
Rejections are almost never about the money. They are about small fields being wrong, and several decisions in the product exist only to prevent them.
| The usual rejection | What the product does |
|---|---|
| A unit of measure the portal will not accept | The 33 unit codes offered on a line are exactly the set GSTR-1 and an e-invoice accept. A rejectable one is not on the list. |
| A missing or wrong HSN / SAC | HSN or SAC sits on every line, and the item master fills it in so nobody types it. |
| A state code that will not resolve | All 38 state and union territory codes are held, including the spellings people actually type. |
| A malformed GSTIN | A GSTIN is checked across all fifteen characters, including its checksum — not just its length. |
| A tax split that does not match the place of supply | CGST/SGST against IGST is decided from the place of supply and your own state, not chosen by hand. |
The practical effect: the JSON you hand your GSP is built from a document that has already been stopped from containing the five things that get invoices bounced.
E-way bills and transport
Goods above a value threshold need an e-way bill for the journey. Six fields on the document record it.
| Field | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| E-way bill number | The number the portal issued. |
| E-way bill date | When it was raised. |
| Vehicle number | The registration of the vehicle carrying it. |
| Transporter | Who is carrying it. |
| Transport mode | Road, rail, air or ship. |
| LR number | The lorry receipt or consignment note. |
Vehicle and E-way bill are columns on the delivery challans list, so when somebody rings to ask where a consignment is, you answer from the list without opening anything.
These are recorded against the document rather than printed on it. They are for your own lookup and your own records; the e-way bill itself is the document the driver carries.
A sensible way to work
- Raise the invoice here, with the HSN, units and GSTIN filled from the masters.
- Register it with your GSP or on the IRP and get the IRN.
- Raise the e-way bill if the consignment needs one.
- Come back and record the e-way bill number, vehicle and transporter on the document, so the despatch is answerable from the list.
Where to go next
- Delivery challans and despatch
- How the GST itself is worked out
- Exports, where GST works differently
Something missing or wrong here? Tell us. A question that needed asking usually means a page that needed writing.