Reverse Charge Self-Invoices and IRP Reporting for Indian Businesses
When a registered Indian business buys from an unregistered domestic vendor, or imports services from an overseas provider, the business itself must issue the GST invoice under reverse charge. That document is called a self-invoice. AiStaffo sets up automation that reads your purchase records, drafts these self-invoices, checks them against the applicable rules and prepares them for reporting on an Invoice Registration Portal. Filing on the portal is limited today. The GST Network issued an advisory on 16 October 2026 introducing two supply types for these self-invoices, but it is in sandbox testing and the production date has not been announced. Until that date, the service keeps each self-invoice ready and logged to the purchase ledger, so filing can start without rework.
In short
- Reverse-charge self-invoices are the recipient's duty, separate from the supplier's own invoice.
- IRN reporting for these self-invoices is in sandbox testing; the live date is not yet announced.
- Rule 47A gives a 30-day window from receipt of the supply to issue the self-invoice.
- Portal reporting applies above the Rs 5 crore aggregate turnover threshold; the drafting work applies to all.
- Every unclear classification goes to a named person, not into a filed invoice.
What this service does
Reverse-charge self-invoicing is a recipient-side task. Under the CGST Act, a registered person who receives a notified supply from an unregistered vendor, or who imports services, must issue the invoice and pay the tax. The task is routine and repetitive, which makes it a good fit for automation. The difficulty is that each purchase has to be classified correctly before anything is drafted, and a wrong classification affects your input tax credit (ITC) later.
AiStaffo designs and runs a workflow that does the reading, drafting and checking. A person keeps the decisions that depend on judgement, such as whether a purchase is a notified supply at all.
Who this is for
The service suits any Indian business with a GSTIN that books purchases from unregistered vendors or pays for foreign software, cloud hosting, consultancy or advertising. It is useful for a five-person firm that buys from a few local suppliers, and equally for a group with several GSTINs under one PAN and thousands of purchase lines a month.
Reporting to the portal is only required where aggregate annual turnover is above Rs 5 crore, the e-invoicing threshold set by Notification No. 10/2023-Central Tax, effective 1 August 2023. Businesses below that line still get the drafting, checking and ledger work, because the self-invoice itself is required by law whatever the turnover.
What is included
- A review of purchase ledger entries to flag possible reverse-charge items from unregistered vendors and from overseas service providers.
- Draft self-invoices with the fields the law requires, including supplier details, the place of supply, HSN or SAC codes, taxable value and the tax split between IGST and CGST with SGST.
- Checks against the reverse-charge rules and the e-invoice schema before any draft is marked ready.
- A 30-day tracker for each self-invoice, measured from the date of receipt of the supply under Rule 47A of the CGST Rules, effective 1 November 2024.
- Reporting preparation for the RCMDOM and RCMIMP supply types once they go live on the Invoice Registration Portal, with the returned IRN and QR details written back to the purchase ledger.
- A reconciliation list that matches self-invoices to the payment vouchers required under Section 31(3)(g) of the CGST Act.
- An exceptions queue for every entry the workflow cannot classify with confidence, with the reason written next to it.
- A monthly summary for your accountant showing what was drafted, what was reported, and what is waiting for a decision.
How the service runs
- Audit. We look at a sample of purchase records from the last two or three financial years, the vendor master, the GSTIN list under your PAN, and your current books software. We identify how many entries fall into each reverse-charge category.
- Process map. We write down each step from purchase entry to filed self-invoice, including who approves what and where the exceptions go. You approve the map before anything is built.
- Build. We configure the workflow to read your purchase data, apply the classification rules agreed in the map, draft the self-invoices and run the checks. Nothing is sent to the portal during the build.
- Run. The workflow runs on each new batch of purchases. Clean drafts move to the ready state. Exceptions go to your named reviewer. Filing starts only when the portal accepts the new supply types for your account.
- Support. We monitor rejections, update the rules when the notifications change, and handle schema updates from the portal provider. You receive a short written note each time the rules change.
What the client provides
You provide access to your purchase ledger and vendor master, the GSTINs and PAN details, the list of notified services your business receives, and read access to your books software. You also name one reviewer in finance who can make classification decisions within a day. Your statutory auditor or tax adviser should sign off the classification rules in the process map. We can draft the map, but we do not give tax advice.
Typical timeline
| Stage | Typical length | What you receive |
|---|---|---|
| Audit | 1 to 2 weeks | Entry count by category and a list of data gaps |
| Process map | 1 week | Written workflow with approval points |
| Build and parallel run | 3 to 4 weeks | Drafts checked against your manual self-invoices for one or two cycles |
| Go-live and run | From week 6 onward | Monthly operating report and exception log |
These durations are planning estimates for a standard setup. A business with several GSTINs or a large number of overseas vendors will usually need the longer end of the range.
What the service does not cover
Automation can classify a purchase only as well as the rules it is given. It cannot decide, on its own, that a vendor is notified or that a supply qualifies for ITC. Those calls stay with you and your adviser, and the workflow sends them to the exceptions queue rather than guessing.
The service does not file your GSTR-1 or GSTR-3B returns, pay the tax from your electronic cash ledger, or handle assessments and notices. It also does not cover the production filing of RCMDOM and RCMIMP self-invoices before the GST Network opens them to live taxpayers. The advisory issued on 16 October 2026 says the scope and effective date still depend on forthcoming statutory notifications, so any date we give you would be a guess. Until then, the service prepares and logs each self-invoice so that filing can start on the day the portal opens.
Sources
- GSTN Enables Sandbox Testing for RCM Self-Invoices Across Six IRPs
- E-Invoicing For Reverse Charge Transactions
- India GST Reverse Charge (RCM) and Self-Invoice Rules
- GSTN Enables e-Invoicing for RCM Self-Invoices: RCMDOM and RCMIMP Go Live in Sandbox
- GST e-Invoicing Update: Self-invoices under Reverse Charge
How AiStaffo would automate this
AiStaffo connects to your purchase ledger and vendor master, then reads each new purchase for signs of an unregistered domestic supplier or an imported service. The workflow drafts the self-invoice, runs the rule checks, and holds a ready copy in your books with its 30-day deadline. When the portal opens these supply types to your account, the same workflow files the self-invoice and writes the reference number back to the purchase line. Your finance reviewer handles only the items the workflow could not classify, and approves the classification rules at the start. Book a free automation audit
Questions people ask
What is a reverse charge self-invoice?
Do I need to report reverse charge self-invoices on the IRP?
How long do I have to issue a self-invoice?
Does every purchase from an unregistered vendor need a self-invoice?
Will the service file my GST returns?
What does the work cost to set up?
Book a free automation audit
Thirty minutes. We look at one process you run every week and tell you exactly what an AI worker would take off your desk, and what it would not.
