GSTR-6: distributing and filing Input Service Distributor credit

GSTR-6 is the monthly return of an Input Service Distributor (ISD): the registration that receives tax invoices for services shared across your business, such as audit, advertising or head-office software, and passes the input tax credit (ITC) on to your other registrations under the same PAN. In xMatix, a GSTR 6 record is created for each ISD registration every month. You run three steps on it — Process GSTR6 reads the credit you received from your tax ledger, Distribute ISD Credit splits it between your registrations, and Calculate ITC checks that everything received was distributed. You then either file through your GSP integration or file on the government portal yourself and use Record Manual Filing. An ISD registration files GSTR-6 instead of GSTR-1, GSTR-2B and GSTR-3B, and does not file the annual GSTR-9.

Overview

Each GSTR 6 record covers one ISD GSTIN and one monthly return period. The standard record page has five tabs:

• ISD Source Document — the credit received in the month (form tables 3 and 6): one row per inward invoice or note, with its eligible and ineligible tax.
• ISD Distribution — one ISD invoice or ISD credit note per received document and credit pool, with its serial number and the form table it reports under (8 for eligible credit, 9 for ineligible credit).
• ISD Recipient Allocation — how each distribution was split between your registrations: the ratio, the tax as received and the tax as passed on.
• Detail — the header fields: Name, ISD Account, ARN, Status, Total Documents, Total ITC Distributed, Total ITC Received, Filed At and Period.
• Reconciliation — the return summary by form table, and your books compared with the auto-drafted GSTR-6A on the portal.

The page header shows the record's Name, Period, Total ITC Received and Total ITC Distributed, and carries the buttons Record Manual Filing, Process GSTR6, Distribute ISD Credit and Calculate ITC.

When to use it

Use GSTR-6 every month for each GST Registration that has Enable ISD switched on. A registration without it files GSTR-1, GSTR-2B and GSTR-3B instead (see GSTR-3B). Work on a month's GSTR-6 once the month's purchase bills for the ISD GSTIN are posted, so their input tax is in the ledger, and once the recipient turnover figures for the period are on file.

How xMatix handles it

Records are created for you. The Provision GST returns scheduled job, or the Provision GST Returns action on a GST Registration or a GST fiscal period, creates one Draft GSTR-6 per active ISD registration per month. It is named after the GSTIN and period and labelled, for example, "GSTR-6 Aug 2026". Running provisioning again never creates a duplicate. See The GST console.

Three steps, in order. Each step moves the record's Status forward:

Rebuilding is safe and repeatable. Process GSTR6 and Distribute ISD Credit replace only the rows they built last time; rows imported from the portal are never touched. Running either step again takes the return back to Processed or Distributed and clears Computed At, so run Calculate ITC again afterwards.

How the credit is split (Rule 39).

• Who receives it. The recipients are the ISD Recipient Turnover records that are Is Operational, carry a Recipient GSTIN with the same PAN as the ISD (a record without a GSTIN is also included), and are effective in the return month by their Effective From and Effective To dates (a blank date is open). When one GSTIN has several such records, only the one with the latest Effective From, then the latest Financial Year, counts.
• Pro-rata. Each pool is split in proportion to each recipient's Turnover. If no recipient has a turnover on file, the pool is split equally.
• Attributed. If a received document names an Attributed Recipient, its whole credit goes to that recipient. The recipient must be an operational recipient for the period, matched by its Account.
• Tax heads. IGST stays IGST. A recipient in the same state as the ISD receives CGST as CGST and SGST as SGST. A recipient in another state, or one marked Is SEZ, receives CGST and SGST as IGST. Each allocation keeps both the amounts as received and the amounts as distributed.
• Eligible and ineligible credit stay apart. Credit you blocked in the ledger is distributed as ineligible (form table 9), so the recipient cannot claim it. Eligible credit is distributed under table 8.

ISD document serials (Rule 54). Every ISD invoice and ISD credit note gets a serial of at most 16 characters. If an active ISD Document Series exists for the financial year and document type, the serial is its Prefix followed by the next number, and the series' Last Serial Number and Next Serial Number move on. Without one, xMatix numbers the run ISDIN1, ISDIN2… for invoices and ISDCN1… for credit notes, starting from 1 on every run.

Filing through the GSP is a staged exchange. The GSTN save and submit are asynchronous. Save to GSTN queues the return, Check Save Status fetches GSTN's verdict, Submit to GSTN freezes the saved return at GSTN, and Submit File to GSTN files it. None of these buttons talks to GSTN directly. Each one prepares the request on the return, and your tenant's GSP integration flows send it and write the answer back.

Prerequisites

• The GST Registration for the ISD GSTIN is active, has a GSTIN and has Enable ISD switched on, and the month's GSTR-6 has been provisioned.
• The month's purchase bills for the ISD GSTIN are posted, with the right ITC eligibility on each tax line.
• ISD Recipient Turnover records exist for every registration that should receive credit: same PAN as the ISD, Is Operational on, a Turnover, and effective dates covering the month.
• Optionally, an active ISD Document Series for the financial year for ISD invoices and one for ISD credit notes, so serials continue across months.
• To file through the GSP: your administrator has configured the GSTR-6 integration flows and placed the GSP buttons on the form (see Configuration), you have the GSP action permissions, and the ISD GSTIN's GST Registration has a live GSTN session.

Procedure

Step 1 — Open the return

Open the month's GSTR-6 from the GST console filing card, or from the All GSTR 6 list. On Detail, check the Name, Period and Status. A newly provisioned return is Draft.

Step 2 — Process the received credit

Click Process GSTR6. The ISD Source Document tab now lists one row per inward document for the month, with its supplier GSTIN, document number, taxable value, tax and the eligible and ineligible split. Status becomes Processed, and Total Documents and Total ITC Received are filled.

If your administrator scheduled the Process GSTR-6 data job, this step may already have run overnight.

Step 3 — Attribute documents to a single recipient (optional)

If a received document relates to one registration only, open it on the ISD Source Document tab and set its Attributed Recipient to that registration's account. Its whole credit then goes to that recipient. Do this after Process GSTR6, because processing again rebuilds the documents and clears the attribution.

Step 4 — Distribute the credit

Click Distribute ISD Credit. The ISD Distribution tab lists one ISD invoice or ISD credit note per document and pool, and ISD Recipient Allocation shows each recipient's share. Status becomes Distributed and Total ITC Distributed is filled.

If any pool has no recipient to go to, the whole run is refused and the previous distribution is left as it was (see Common problems).

Step 5 — Calculate ITC

Click Calculate ITC. When the ITC received and distributed agree within ₹1, and every distribution has been allocated in full, Status becomes Computed and Computed At is stamped. If they do not agree, Status stays Distributed (a return that was Computed goes back to Distributed) and the return cannot be saved or recorded as filed.

Step 6 — Review and reconcile

Open the Reconciliation tab. The summary shows table 3 (eligible and ineligible ITC received), table 6 (amendments, when there are any) and tables 8 and 9 (distribution), with integrated, central, state/UT tax and cess for each line. Click a line to see the records behind it.

To compare with the suppliers' filings, click Pull From GSTIN to fetch the auto-drafted GSTR-6A, then click it again once the fetch has finished to import it. The reconciliation then pairs your documents with the portal's by supplier GSTIN and document number and shows each as Matched, Partial, MissingInBooks or MissingInGstin. Amounts within ₹1 count as matching. A missing document usually means the supplier has not reported it yet, or it is not posted in your books.

Step 7 — File through the GSP: save, check, submit, file

1. Make sure the ISD GSTIN has a live session: on its GST Registration, click Request GSTN OTP, then Submit OTP with the code you receive, and wait for Auth Status to show Authenticated. A session is treated as expired 6 hours after authentication.
2. On the GSTR-6, click Save to GSTN. The received invoices and notes and the distribution to each recipient are queued for GSTN. Save Status becomes SaveRequested, then Submitted once the gateway issues a GSP Reference Id.
3. Click Check Save Status and reopen the return a few seconds later. Save Status becomes Accepted, or RejectedByGstn with the reasons in GSTN Response. If it is back at Submitted, GSTN is still processing; click again.
4. When Save Status is Accepted, click Submit to GSTN. This freezes the return at GSTN. Save Status becomes FreezeQueued. Click Check Save Status again until it shows Frozen.
5. Click Submit File to GSTN. The first click fetches GSTN's summary of the return. Click it again once the summary has arrived (Save Status SummaryFetched) to file. When GSTN answers, the ARN is filled, Status becomes Filed, Is Filed is set and Filed At is stamped.

Once the return is frozen at GSTN, the three processing steps are refused, so make every correction before step 4.

Step 8 — Or record a filing you made on the portal

If you filed GSTR-6 directly on the government portal, click Record Manual Filing on a Computed return. Enter the ARN (from the GSTN portal) (required, at most 120 characters) and Filed On (defaults to now if left empty). The return becomes Filed. This button sends nothing to GSTN; it only records the outcome.

Step 9 — After filing

A Filed return is a frozen statutory snapshot. Process GSTR6, Distribute ISD Credit and Calculate ITC are refused on it, it cannot be saved or filed again, and the scheduled job skips it. Corrections go through a later period's return.

Fields

Save Status values

The full field list is in the GSTR 6 entity reference.

Business rules

• GSTIN check. Saving a GSTR-6 with a malformed GSTIN is refused: "'…' is not a valid 15-character GSTIN."
• Processing reads the ledger by document date. Process GSTR6 reads input tax lines whose own GSTIN is the ISD GSTIN and whose document date falls in the return month. The month comes from the linked GST fiscal period, or from Period when none is linked. Lines are grouped into one received document per source document.
• Eligible or ineligible. A tax line counts as eligible only when its ITC eligibility is Eligible; every other line goes to the ineligible pool, with the first blocked reason found.
• Recipient coverage comes first. Distribute ISD Credit checks that every pool has a recipient before it changes anything. If one does not, nothing is rebuilt.
• Table 4 equality. Calculate ITC sets Computed only when ITC received and distributed differ by at most ₹1 and every distribution reconciles to its allocations (allowing ₹0.02 per allocation for rounding).
• Saving needs Computed. Save to GSTN is refused unless Status is Computed, when the return has nothing to send, when the GSTIN has no GST Registration or no live GSTN session, and while a save, submit, summary or status check started less than 5 minutes ago. Amendment rows (tables 6A, 6B, 6C) are not sent.
• Submitting needs Accepted. Submit to GSTN is refused unless Save Status is Accepted.
• Filing needs Frozen. Submit File to GSTN is refused unless the return is Frozen at GSTN (or its summary is being fetched, or a previous file attempt failed). It is never repeated automatically while a filing is in progress.
• Rebuilding voids a save. Processing or distributing again after a save that is Submitted, Accepted, RejectedByGstn or SubmitFailed clears Save Status and GSP Reference Id; GSTN Response reads "The books were rebuilt after the last save to GSTN; save the return again."
• Frozen means frozen. From Submit to GSTN onwards, the three processing steps are refused and the scheduled job skips the return.
• Record Manual Filing is refused when the return is already Filed, has no valid GSTIN, is not Computed, has no ARN or one longer than 120 characters, or while a GSP filing is in progress (Save Status FileRequested).
• Filed is one-way. Nothing in the product turns a Filed return back to an earlier status.
• Pulling the GSTR-6A. The first click on Pull From GSTIN requests the portal's invoices, notes, ITC and late fee for the period; the second imports them. Invoices and notes become portal-side source documents, replacing only the earlier portal rows of the same section. The late-fee section sets Late Fee Payable. A section the portal refused is not imported and its earlier rows are left alone. Amended sections are not pulled. Authenticating an ISD registration also requests the pull for its open-period return.

Example

A company has a head office ISD registration, GSTIN 29AAAAA0000A2Z4, and two operating registrations under the same PAN: 29AAAAA0000A1Z5 in the same state and 27AAAAA0000A1Z3 in another state. Their ISD Recipient Turnover records show turnovers of ₹60,00,000 and ₹40,00,000, both operational and effective for the year. An ISD Document Series for 2026-27 ISD invoices has the prefix "ISD/26-27/" and Next Serial Number 14.

1. In August 2026 the head office posts an audit firm's bill with CGST ₹9,000 and SGST ₹9,000, all eligible.
2. On "GSTR-6 Aug 2026" the accountant clicks Process GSTR6. One ISD source document appears; Total ITC Received is ₹18,000 and Status is Processed.
3. They click Distribute ISD Credit. One ISD invoice, ISD/26-27/14, reports under table 8. The allocations are:
   • 29AAAAA0000A1Z5, ratio 0.6: CGST ₹5,400 and SGST ₹5,400, kept as received because it is in the same state.
   • 27AAAAA0000A1Z3, ratio 0.4: received as CGST ₹3,600 and SGST ₹3,600, distributed as IGST ₹7,200 because it is in another state.
4. They click Calculate ITC. Received and distributed are both ₹18,000, so Status is Computed.
5. They pull the GSTR-6A and see the audit bill as Matched on the Reconciliation tab.
6. The finance manager authenticates the ISD GSTIN, saves, checks until Accepted, submits, checks until Frozen, and clicks Submit File to GSTN twice. The ARN appears and Status is Filed.

Training

Practice exercise

In a sandbox tenant:

1. Switch on Enable ISD on a GST Registration and run Provision GST Returns on it.
2. Create two ISD Recipient Turnover records with GSTINs under the same PAN, Is Operational on and turnovers of 3,00,000 and 1,00,000.
3. Post a purchase bill for the ISD GSTIN in the current month with ₹1,000 of eligible IGST.
4. On the month's GSTR-6, click Process GSTR6, Distribute ISD Credit and Calculate ITC.
5. Switch Is Operational off on both turnover records and click Distribute ISD Credit again.

Expected result:

• After step 4, the allocations are IGST ₹750 and ₹250, and Status is Computed.
• In step 5, the run is refused because no operational recipient is effective for the period, and the earlier allocations are still there.

Quick reference

• GSTR-6 records are created by provisioning for registrations with Enable ISD.
• Always run Process GSTR6 → Distribute ISD Credit → Calculate ITC, in that order.
• Recipients come from ISD Recipient Turnover: operational, same PAN, effective in the month.
• Cross-state and SEZ recipients receive CGST and SGST as IGST.
• Set an Attributed Recipient after processing, not before.
• Only a Computed return can be saved to GSTN or recorded as filed.
• Save → Check Save Status → Submit → Check Save Status → Submit File to GSTN (twice).
• Once frozen at GSTN, the books can no longer be rebuilt for that month.
• Record Manual Filing is only for a return you filed on the portal yourself.

Permissions

Each button is a server action that a security profile must grant. In the standard profiles:

A user whose profile lacks an action does not get that action. Because the GSP actions transmit a real return to GSTN, grant them deliberately, and only to the finance profile that files returns. Reading the record also depends on the profile's access to the GSTR 6 entity; see Why can't a user see a record?.

Configuration

• GST registrations.
  • Switch on Enable ISD on the GST Registration of each ISD GSTIN. It then gets a monthly GSTR-6 instead of GSTR-1, GSTR-2B and GSTR-3B, and no GSTR-9.
  • Provision GST Returns on the registration creates the current month's return on demand; on a GST fiscal period it creates that month's returns.
  • Request GSTN OTP and Submit OTP establish the GSTN session that the GSP actions need. A session lasts about 6 hours.
• ISD Recipient Turnover. One record per recipient registration and period: Recipient GSTIN, Account, State Code, Turnover, Financial Year, Quarter, Effective From, Effective To, Is Operational, Is Registered and Is SEZ. When a new year's turnover takes over, give the old record an Effective To, or both may be considered and only the latest counts. Is SEZ makes the recipient receive IGST.
• ISD Document Series. One active record per financial year and Series Type (ISDInvoice or ISDCreditNote), with a Prefix and the Last and Next Serial Number. Keep the prefix short: prefix and number together are cut to 16 characters.
• Scheduled jobs (Setup → Administration → Jobs):
  • Provision GST returns creates the Draft returns for the current month in India time.
  • Process GSTR-6 data runs Process GSTR6 on unfiled returns in Open periods, or for a month or GSTIN you name. It does not distribute or calculate. It skips Filed returns and returns frozen at GSTN, makes up to 3 attempts and runs one at a time per tenant.
  • Both run only when a schedule is set for them. Because a nightly reprocess takes a return back to Processed and voids an unsubmitted save, run Distribute ISD Credit and Calculate ITC again before saving.
• GSP integration (Setup → Process Studio → Integrations). Filing through the GSP needs, in one integration app, a connection to your GSP gateway and its secrets, and six flows with an entity-event trigger on GSTR 6 updates:
  • the save flow, for Save Status SaveRequested;
  • the submit flow, for FreezeRequested;
  • the return-status flow, for StatusRequested;
  • the summary flow, for SummaryRequested;
  • the file flow, for FileRequested;
  • the pull flow, for Pull Status PullRequested.

  The return-status flow must use the same GSP partner credentials as the save flow, because only the partner that received a reference can redeem it. Without the flows the buttons still respond, but nothing reaches GSTN and Save Status stays at the requested value. See Outbound integrations.

  • The form. The standard page header shows Record Manual Filing, Process GSTR6, Distribute ISD Credit and Calculate ITC. If your filers use the GSP, add Save to GSTN, Check Save Status, Submit to GSTN, Submit File to GSTN and Pull From GSTIN to the header, and Save Status, GSTN Response and Pull Status to the Detail tab, in the form designer.
  • Security profiles. Grant the GSP actions on GSTR 6 to the profile that files returns (see Permissions).
  • Mobile. The GSTR 6 record has a mobile layout showing the header fields. Whether it is reachable in the field app depends on your mobile app configuration.

  Common problems

  "… ITC pool(s) have no recipient to distribute to"

  Distribute ISD Credit found a pool with nothing to land on. If the message says "no operational ISD recipient under this ISD's PAN is effective for the period", check the ISD Recipient Turnover records: Is Operational on, a Recipient GSTIN with the ISD's PAN (characters 3 to 12), and Effective From and Effective To covering the month. If it says "its attributed recipient is not an operational ISD recipient", the document's Attributed Recipient has no operational turnover record for its account.

  The split between recipients looks wrong

  An older turnover record for the same GSTIN may still be open. Only the latest record per GSTIN counts, but check that the right one is effective and give the old one an Effective To. Also check Is SEZ and the state in each Recipient GSTIN, which decide whether CGST and SGST become IGST.

  Calculate ITC does not reach Computed

  The ITC received and distributed differ by more than ₹1, or a distribution was not fully allocated. Run Distribute ISD Credit again and then Calculate ITC. If you processed again after distributing, the distribution no longer matches the documents.

  "… is Filed and cannot be re-processed; create an amendment instead of regenerating the filed period."

  The return is Filed and frozen. Corrections go through a later period's return.

  "… has no GSTIN; set the filer GSTIN before processing." or "… has no return period"

  The record is missing its GSTIN or its period. Provisioned returns always have both; a record created with New or cloned may not, because the standard form has no GSTIN field. Work on the provisioned return for that GSTIN and month.

  "… is not authenticated with GSTN. Request an OTP on its GST registration and complete authentication first."

  The ISD GSTIN has no GSTN session, or it has expired ("The GSTN session for … has expired"). Run Request GSTN OTP and Submit OTP on its GST Registration, then try again. "No GST registration found for …" means the GSTIN on the return has no GST Registration record.

  "This return is '…'. Run Process GSTR6 Data, Distribute ISD Credit and Calculate ITC until it reaches Computed, then save it to GSTN."

  Save to GSTN needs Status Computed. Run the three steps until Calculate ITC sets it.

  "A push is already in progress for this return."

  A save, submit, summary or status check started less than 5 minutes ago. Wait. If Save Status is still at a requested value after 5 minutes, the integration flow did not run or did not write back. Your administrator should check the flow's trigger and run history. You can then click again.

  "GSTN will only freeze a return it has committed."

  Submit to GSTN needs Save Status Accepted. Click Check Save Status until it reports Accepted.

  "Only a return frozen at GSTN can be filed."

  Submit File to GSTN needs the return Frozen. Submit it and check the status until it shows Frozen.

  "… has been submitted to GSTN … and is frozen there; its books can no longer be rebuilt"

  Expected after Submit to GSTN. File the return, and carry corrections into a later period.

  "A filing is already in progress for this return."

  A file request has already been sent. Check the return's status on the government portal before doing anything else, because a second request could file it twice.

  Save Status went blank and GSTN Response says the books were rebuilt

  Someone, or the scheduled job, processed or distributed the return after it was saved, which voids the save. Run the steps to Computed and save again.

  Pull From GSTIN imported nothing

  The message "The portal response is an error, not data" means GSTN refused that section; the earlier portal rows were kept. Check the session and try again later.

  Common questions

  Who can receive ISD credit?

  Only registrations under the same PAN as the ISD. xMatix enforces this by comparing the PAN inside each Recipient GSTIN with the ISD's GSTIN, and ignores operational turnover records under another PAN. A recipient record without a GSTIN cannot be checked this way and is included. The recipient must also be operational and effective in the return month. Keep the ISD Recipient Turnover records accurate, because they decide both who receives credit and in what proportion, and the same records are shared by every ISD in your tenant.

  What is the difference between Submit File to GSTN and Record Manual Filing?

  Submit File to GSTN files the return through your GSP integration. It is available only after GSTN has frozen the return, and it writes back the ARN itself. Record Manual Filing transmits nothing: it records a filing you already completed on the government portal, using the ARN you type in. Both end the same way, with Status Filed, Is Filed set, Filed At and ARN. Use one route per return; Record Manual Filing is refused while a GSP filing is in progress.

  Why did my Status go back from Computed to Processed?

  Processing or distributing again rebuilds the return's rows, so the earlier check no longer applies. Status goes back to Processed or Distributed and Computed At is cleared. The scheduled Process GSTR-6 data job does this to every unfiled, unfrozen return in an Open period. Run Distribute ISD Credit and Calculate ITC again. If you had already saved the return to GSTN, save it again too, so GSTN holds what you will file.

  Does ISD credit reach the recipients' GSTR-3B automatically?

  Not from this return. GSTR-6 records what the ISD distributed. Each recipient sees the credit through its own GSTR-2B statement from the portal, which xMatix loads into the recipient's GSTR-2B; from there it feeds the recipient's GSTR-3B.

  Can I un-file a GSTR-6?

  No. Filed is one-way in xMatix, as it is at GSTN. Processing, distributing, calculating, saving and filing are all refused on a Filed return, and nothing in the product moves it back. If you find an error after filing, correct it in a later period's return. Before using Record Manual Filing, check the ARN against the portal, because a wrong entry cannot be undone from the screen.

  Related topics

  • The Tax Center
  • The GST console
  • GSTR-2B — inward supplies and ITC
  • GSTR-3B — the summary return
  • Input tax credit management
  • Tax Center troubleshooting
  • GSTR 6 entity reference
  • Security profiles