Exploring the Former Trial E-Invoice Portal: einvoice1-trial.nic.in

The e-invoicing framework in India was introduced incrementally, initially establishing designated Invoice Registration Portals (IRPs) like the one operated by the National Informatics Centre (NIC). A trial e-invoice portal, einvoice1-trial.nic.in, was made available to taxpayers for practice and familiarization. This temporary platform was eventually decommissioned by the government because numerous users mistakenly began generating live e-invoices on it, leading to confusion with the official production system.

Latest Updates May 10, 2023 The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) announced the sixth phase of e-invoicing implementation. Consequently, taxpayers with an annual turnover exceeding Rs. 5 crore in any financial year since 2017-18 are mandated to issue e-invoices starting August 1, 2023.

May 6, 2023 The Goods and Services Tax (GST) department extended the seven-day deadline for reporting older e-invoices to IRP portals by three months. A new implementation date is yet to be announced by the department.

April 13, 2023 The GSTN issued advisories on April 12 and 13, 2023, stating that businesses with an annual turnover of Rs. 100 crore or more must submit tax invoices and credit/debit notes to the IRP within seven days of their issue date, effective from May 1, 2023.

What Was einvoice1-trial.nic.in?

The website einvoice1-trial.nic.in offered taxpayers an environment to test e-invoice generation, similar to the current testing integration platform at https://einv-apisandbox.nic.in/. This trial portal is no longer accessible, as many taxpayers confused it with the official production NIC website, https://einvoice1.gst.gov.in/.

The trial platform broadly supported the following e-invoicing functions:

• Generation of a unique Invoice Reference Number (IRN)
• Validation of IRNs
• Cancellation of IRNs
• Printing e-invoices
• Creation of MIS reports
• Authorization of sub-users to perform IRN generation, cancellation, or reporting.

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Features of the Trial Portal

The trial e-invoice portal provided various functionalities, both before and after user login.

Pre-Login Features

Before logging in, users could access several sections on the homepage:

• Updates: This section provided information on new features of the e-invoicing system.
• Laws: Users could find relevant rules, forms, notifications, and circulars pertaining to e-invoicing here.
• Help: This section offered user manuals, FAQs, and tools such as bulk generation utilities.
• Search: The search function allowed users to look up:
• Taxpayer details using their GSTIN.
• Product and service details via HSN Code.
• Verification of signed invoices.
• E-invoice status for specific taxpayers.
• Contact Us: This section contained contact information, including an email address and phone number for support.
• Registration: First-time users could register on the website to utilize the e-invoicing system. Registration options included SMS-based, mobile-based, GSP-based, and API-based methods, determining the allowed mode of e-invoice generation.
• Login: After successful registration, users could access the system by entering their credentials.

Post-Login Main Options

Upon successful login, the main menu displayed five primary options:

• E-invoice
• MIS Reports
• User Management
• Update
• E-Way Bill

E-invoice Menu Functions

The e-invoice menu featured several sub-menus to manage invoice-related activities.

Generating an IRN

Taxpayers could generate a unique IRN by manually inputting invoice, debit note, or credit note details. The portal facilitated the digital signing of the e-invoice JSON and provided a QR code for easy access to invoice information. Each 64-character IRN was unique to its respective invoice.

Bulk IRN Generation

For taxpayers with multiple invoices, the system allowed uploading numerous invoices in a single JSON file, generated using a bulk converter tool available on the website. Each invoice within the JSON would receive a distinct IRN.

Cancelling an IRN

Errors in uploaded invoice details could be rectified by canceling the generated IRN within 24 hours of its creation. While an IRN cannot be deleted, the IRN for a canceled invoice remains unique. Invoices for cancellation could be located by entering the acknowledgement number. A successful cancellation would display the message 'e-invoice cancelled successfully!!'.

Printing an E-invoice

To print an e-invoice, users simply needed to enter the relevant IRN or e-invoice number.

MIS Reports

This option enabled the generation of MIS (Management Information System) reports. It provided a list of uploaded invoices based on selected parameters and dates, which could also be exported to Excel format.

User Management Capabilities

For large businesses, the portal allowed administrators to control user access based on their organizational roles. Options included 'Create Sub-User', 'Freeze Sub-User', 'Update Sub-User', and 'Change Password'. Sub-users could be granted specific permissions:

• Generate Invoice Reference Number
• Cancel Invoice Reference Number
• Report Generation of Invoice Reference Number

Each sub-user received unique login credentials, with their user ID being the main user's ID plus a suffix.

Update Option

This feature streamlined the e-invoice creation process by enabling auto-population of certain business details. Data could be pulled directly from the GST common portal, reducing manual entry requirements.

E-Way Bill Integration

The 'e-way bill' option facilitated the completion of Part A of the e-way bill, requiring only the vehicle number to be entered in Part B.