If your repair or service business is registered under GST, every bill you hand a customer has to follow the tax invoice rules. Get a field wrong and your business customers can’t claim input tax credit, which is the fastest way to lose them. Here is what a GST invoice for repair work must show, with a sample layout.
Do you need to issue a GST invoice?
- Registered under GST (regular scheme): yes, a tax invoice for every taxable job.
- Composition scheme: no. You issue a bill of supply and can’t charge GST on it.
- Not registered (turnover below the threshold, usually ₹20 lakh for services, ₹10 lakh in some states): you give a normal bill without any GST and without a GSTIN.
For services, the invoice should be issued within 30 days of finishing the work.
What a GST tax invoice must include
These are the fields the GST invoice rules ask for, in the order they usually appear:
- Your business name, address and GSTIN.
- Invoice number: consecutive, unique for the financial year, up to 16 characters. Letters, numbers, hyphens and slashes are allowed, e.g.
INV/26-27/0123. - Invoice date.
- Customer name and address, and the customer’s GSTIN if they are registered (for example, an office or shop you service).
- Place of supply with the state name, when the customer is in another state.
- Description of the work, e.g. “Service and gas charging of 1.5 ton split AC”.
- SAC or HSN code. Repair and maintenance services fall under SAC heading
9987; parts you sell have their own HSN codes. - Quantity for parts, and the value of each line.
- Taxable value after any discount.
- GST rate and amount: CGST + SGST for a customer in your state, or IGST for one in another state.
- Total invoice value, in figures and preferably in words.
- Whether tax is payable on reverse charge (almost always “No” for repair work).
- Signature or digital signature of you or an authorised person.
Sample repair invoice layout
| # | Description | SAC / HSN | Qty | Rate (₹) | Taxable (₹) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AC service and gas charging (labour) | 9987xx | 1 | 1,500.00 | 1,500.00 |
| 2 | Capacitor 35 µF (part) | HSN of the part | 1 | 350.00 | 350.00 |
| Taxable value | 1,850.00 | ||||
| CGST @ 9% | 166.50 | ||||
| SGST @ 9% | 166.50 | ||||
| Total (Rupees Two Thousand One Hundred Eighty-Three only) | 2,183.00 | ||||
The rates above are only an example. GST rates for services and for each part can differ and change from time to time, so confirm the current rate and the full six-digit codes with your accountant.
Common mistakes on repair invoices
- Gaps or repeats in invoice numbers, often from writing bills in two books or two computers.
- Charging CGST + SGST to a customer in another state, where IGST applies.
- No customer GSTIN on a bill to a registered business, so they can’t claim credit.
- One lump sum with no split between labour and parts, which makes it hard to apply the right codes.
- Handwritten totals that don’t match the lines above them.
Print invoices straight from the job
Retyping job details into a separate billing book is where most invoice mistakes start. In Nova RCMS you set your logo, GSTIN, address and invoice prefix once in the company profile. Every complaint with a bill amount can then print an A4 invoice with a number taken from the complaint, the customer and product details, and the amount in figures and words. See invoices in the documentation.