Avalara introduces fast, easy e-way bill creation

Technical glitches forced India’s government to postpone the e-way bill requirement under the new Goods and Services Tax (GST). Now, with the glitches corrected, the government is keen to implement the process beginning April 1, in part to help curb tax evasion. It’s likely to be a daunting task, however.

Data analysts estimate that taxpayers will generate close to 4 lakh of e-way bills for interstate goods transportation every day — a figure that will only grow once the government announces compulsory e-way bill generation for intrastate movement as well. At that point, the e-way bill portal will be hit with even more traffic, which may cause additional problems.  

Shortcomings of the e-way bill process

• Another portal to manage

Taxpayers must navigate two different portals, one for generating e-way bills and one for preparing GST returns. Users must feed invoice details into the two portals separately. With no crossover between the two systems, reconciling e-way bills with GST data is likely to be a difficult task.

•  Different logins for each state

State-by-state registration is required on the e-way bill portal, which means warehouses in each state will have separate logins. This may create confusion and result in duplication.

• No validation checkpoints

There will be no checkpoints available to validate HSN codes and tax rates. This will lead to differences between GSTR-1 and e-Waybills Data.

An easier, more integrated approach to e-way bills

Avalara, Inc., a leading provider of cloud-based tax compliance automation for global businesses, and a GST Application Service Provider (ASP) in India, has solved for many of the challenges by introducing a dynamic, user-friendly way to generate e-way bills within Avalara India GST.  

• Simple dashboard for easy tracking

Avalara India GST helps taxpayers track e-way bills through a simple interactive dashboard. Whenever taxpayers upload an invoice (sales or purchase), they will find the invoice displayed in the My Data section. From there it is easy to generate an e-way bill by simply clicking the Generate button. Once an e-way bill is generated, a green symbol replaces the Generate button, allowing the e-way bill to be downloaded. 

•   Eliminating duplication 

Invoices will only need to be uploaded once to the Avalara India GST application. Afterward, the invoice can be used to both generate an e-way bill and file form GSTR-1. This avoids the repetition of entering invoices multiple times and helps minimize duplication. 

 Easy retrieval of invoice data

After uploading an invoice, the application auto-populates the following details into the e-way bill generation screen: 

1. Transaction type (outward for sales transactions; inward for purchase transactions)

2. Document number

3. Document date

4. Consignor GST identification number (GSTIN) 

5. Consignee GSTIN 

6. Description

7. HSN

8. Quantity

9. Tax value

10. Tax rate (CGST, SGST, IGST, and cess)

11. Taxable amount

12. Tax amount (CGST, SGST, IGST, and cess)

• Bulk e-way bill generation

How about generating multiple e-way bills in a single go? With Avalara India GST, taxpayers can generate e-way bills for all invoices in a single consignment with just a few clicks. This reduces manual workload and helps ensure accuracy. 

• Validation checkpoints

Once the invoice has been uploaded, Avalara India GST has built-in validation checkpoints for cross-examining HSN codes and tax rates. The application fetches HSN codes and tax rates directly from the uploaded invoice, minimizing the chances of obtaining incorrect HSN codes or tax rates.

Generating e-way bills in Avalara India GST is beneficial from an operational point of view as well. The application provides various reports, which can be used for further data analysis and tracking. Because the e-way bill generator extracts most of the data from invoices — which is then also used for GSTR-1 filing — e-way bills and GSTR-1 data are auto-reconciled, helping users move one step closer toward business process automation. 

Avalara is an experienced application service provider (ASP) and partner of authorized GST Suvidha Providers (GSPs). To understand how our cloud-based application, Avalara India GST, can help you with GSTR-1 to -9, contact us through https://www1.avalara.com/in/en/products/gst-returns-filing.html.