Tax transactions: the GST ledger behind the returns

A Tax Transaction is one row of the GST ledger: the CGST, SGST, IGST or cess on one line of one posted document, with the line's HSN/SAC code, taxable value and rate. You don't type these rows. Posting an invoice, bill, credit note, customer debit note or expense voucher writes them. You read them to see what tax each document line carried and under which GSTIN. They sit between your documents and the GST returns. The general ledger posts tax in summary, while GSTR-1, GSTR-2B, GSTR-3B, GSTR-6 and the annual return build their tables from these line-level rows.

Overview

Each row records:

• What it came from: Source Entity Name (the kind of document), the document's number and date, the party and the party's GSTIN, and the item and HSN/SAC code of the line.
• Which tax it is: Direction (Output for tax on your sales, Input for tax on your purchases), Component (CGST, SGST, IGST, Cess or Exempt), the Rate of that component, the line's Taxable Value and the Tax Amount.
• Whose return it belongs to: your own GSTIN and GST Registration, the Place Of Supply, the Supply Type and the Supply Category (B2B or B2C).
• Input credit: on Input rows, whether the credit is Eligible, Blocked or Ineligible, the ITC Category, and whether the purchase is under reverse charge.

One document line gives one row per tax head it carries. An intra-state line at 18% gives two rows, CGST at 9 and SGST at 9. An inter-state line gives one IGST row. A line with cess adds a Cess row.

When to use it

• When a document is missing from a return, search for its number here. No rows means the return had nothing to pick up. Rows under another GSTIN or another month explain why it landed elsewhere.
• When a return figure looks wrong, list the period's rows for your GSTIN and compare them with the return table.
• Before filing GSTR-3B, check the Input rows marked Blocked or Is Reverse Charge. Only these rows tell GSTR-3B about blocked credit and reverse-charge purchases.
• When an auditor asks for line-level GST detail, export the list for the period, because the general ledger holds only the totals.

How xMatix handles it

Where the rows come from

Nothing else writes these rows. Draft or unapproved documents, purchase debit notes and goods receipts write none. Payroll writes none either.

Every capture replaces the document's earlier rows. A credit note that is saved again, or an expense voucher that is re-posted, gets a fresh set of rows. You never get two sets for one document.

What goes on each row

• Document Number and Document Date. For an invoice, credit note, debit note, voucher or claim, these are the document's own number and date. For a bill, they are the bill's Supplier Invoice Number and Supplier Invoice Date, because GSTR-2B matches on the supplier's invoice. When those are empty, the bill's own number and date are used.
• Own GSTIN and GST Registration. These come from the document's branch, using that branch's GST registration. When the branch names none, or there is no branch, the company's default active registration is used. When neither exists, both fields stay empty. See GST registrations.
• Party GSTIN. On an invoice, this is the invoice's GSTIN. On a bill or purchase return, it is the supplier account's GSTIN. On a sales credit or debit note, it is taken from the linked invoice, or from the customer account when there is no linked invoice. Supply Category is B2B when there is a party GSTIN and B2C when there is none.
• Place Of Supply and Supply Type. These are copied from the document's Place of Supply and Tax Supply Type. A customer debit note copies them from the invoice it increases. Expense vouchers and claims leave them empty.
• Component. This is read from the name of each tax on the line. A name containing CGST, SGST or UTGST (filed as SGST), IGST or CESS gives that head. A line with a taxable value but no tax, such as an exempt, nil-rated or zero-rated supply, gets one Exempt row with a Tax Amount of 0, so the supply still reaches the returns.
• Taxable Value. This is the line's amount, rounded to two decimals. It is repeated on every component row of the line.
• Is Reverse Charge. On a bill, this follows the bill's Is RCM. On an invoice, it follows Reverse Charge (eInvoice). It is always off on notes, vouchers and claims.
• ITC Eligibility and ITC Category are set on Input rows only. Eligibility comes from the bill line's ITC Eligibility. A blank or unrecognised value counts as Eligible. Only Eligible rows get a category: InputService for a line marked as a service, otherwise Input.
• Name. This is the document number, the component and a short unique suffix, for example INV-0425-CGST-3f9a1c2e. A document with no number uses TT- and the document date. No numbering setting applies.

Discount-item lines on an invoice write no rows, because they are not a supply. Lines with no value and no tax write none either.

Cancelling a document

Fully cancelling an invoice removes its tax rows, so it stops counting in GSTR-1 and the HSN summary. A voucher that is re-posted without any GST removes its earlier rows. For other documents, check the document's own page for what cancellation does.

Who reads the ledger

The returns select rows by your own GSTIN and the month of Document Date. A row with no Own GSTIN reaches no return. A bill dated by its supplier invoice lands in the month of that invoice, not the month you booked it.

Prerequisites

• GST registrations set up and linked to your branches, or a default registration for the company. See GST registrations.
• Tax groups whose tax names contain CGST, SGST, UTGST, IGST or CESS. See Tax groups.
• GSTIN filled in on customer and supplier accounts, and HSN/SAC codes on items.
• Access to the Tax Transaction entity in your security profile. See Permissions.

Procedure

Step 1 — Open the ledger

Open the App Launcher, type Tax Transactions in its search box and open the entity from All Entities. In the Payroll app, the list is also under Settings, in the Analytics group. The All Tax Transaction view shows Name, Source Entity Name, Document Number, Document Date, Direction, Component, Created, Own Gstin and Party Gstin.

Step 2 — Find a document's rows

• For one document, search the list for its number. Search a bill by its supplier's invoice number.
• For one return, filter on Own Gstin and on Document Date for the month. Then add a filter on Direction: Output for GSTR-1, Input for GSTR-2B and GSTR-3B credit.
• For one party, filter on Party Gstin.

Expect one row for each tax head on each line. An invoice with three intra-state lines shows six rows.

Step 3 — Read the record

Open a row. The header shows the name with Partner Account, Business Unit and Branch. Below it are three sections, and every field is read-only:

• Key Information: Blocked Reason, Direction and Taxable Value.
• Additional Information: Place Of Supply, Supply Type, GST Registration, Itc Category, Party Gstin, Itc Eligibility, Supply Category, Source Entity Name, Source Record and Is Reverse Charge.
• Item Details: Item, Hsn Sac Code, Rate, Is Service, Component, Own Gstin, Party Account, Source Line and Tax Amount.

Document Number and Document Date are in the list, not on the record page. The record page has no action buttons.

Step 4 — Check it against the document

Check that the Tax Amounts of a line's component rows add up to the tax on that line of the document. Check that Own Gstin is the registration you file under. On Input rows, check that Itc Eligibility matches the bill line.

Step 5 — Correct a wrong row

Correct the source, not the row:

1. Fix the cause: the bill line's ITC Eligibility, the account's GSTIN, the branch's GST registration, the item's HSN/SAC code or the tax group.
2. Re-capture the document. A credit note re-captures each time the approved note is saved. An expense voucher re-captures when it is re-posted.
3. Re-run the return's processing so it reads the corrected rows.

Editing or deleting a row by hand is possible with full access, but the next capture of the same document replaces your change. Until then, the change also moves the control-account reconciliation away from the general ledger.

Step 6 — Export or analyse

Export the list from the view for the period you need. For trends across periods, the Tax Transactions analytics dataset and dashboard summarise the same ledger.

Fields

Business rules

• One row per document line and tax head. A tax of zero writes no row. A line with value but no tax writes one Exempt row.
• Capture replaces all of the document's earlier rows.
• Capture never blocks posting. If capture fails, the document still posts and simply has no rows.
• Fully cancelling an invoice removes its rows.
• Output rows carry no ITC fields. Input rows default to Eligible.
• Rows from expense claims carry no Own GSTIN, GST Registration or Party Gstin, so the GST returns do not pick them up.
• Rows from invoices, bills and notes carry no Business Unit. See Business units.

Example

A trader posts invoice INV-0425 dated 12 August to a registered customer in the same state. It has two lines: 10 units of an item with HSN 8471 for 50,000 at 18%, and a description-only freight line for 2,000 at 18% with SAC 9965, marked as a service.

Posting writes four rows: INV-0425-CGST-… and INV-0425-SGST-… for each line. The item line's rows each show Taxable Value 50,000, Rate 9 and Tax Amount 4,500. The freight rows each show Taxable Value 2,000, Rate 9, Tax Amount 180 and Is Service ticked. All four show Direction Output, Supply Category B2B, Own Gstin from the branch's registration and Document Date 12 August.

When GSTR-1 for August is processed under that GSTIN, the invoice appears in its B2B table. The HSN summary shows a taxable value of 50,000, not 100,000, because the taxable value is counted once per line. If the invoice is later fully cancelled, the four rows disappear and the next processing leaves it out.

Training

Practice exercise

In a sandbox, post a vendor bill from a registered supplier with Is RCM ticked, with one line marked ITC Eligibility Blocked. Give it a Supplier Invoice Number and Supplier Invoice Date in the previous month.

Expected result: the Tax Transactions list shows the bill's rows under the supplier's invoice number and date, with Direction Input and Is Reverse Charge ticked. The blocked line's rows show Itc Eligibility Blocked and no Itc Category. The other lines show Eligible with Input or InputService. The rows belong to the previous month's returns, not the month you posted.

Quick reference

• One row per line per tax head: CGST, SGST, IGST, Cess, or Exempt for untaxed value.
• Rows are written at posting. Drafts have none.
• Output means sales tax and Input means purchase tax.
• Bills are filed under the supplier's invoice number and date.
• Returns select rows by Own Gstin and the month of Document Date.
• Taxable Value repeats on each component row, so count it once per line.
• Blocked and reverse-charge Input rows feed GSTR-3B 4B(1) and 3.1(d).
• Fix the source document, then re-capture. Don't edit the rows.

Permissions

The rows follow the Tax Transaction entity access in the user's security profile. In the seeded profiles, Standard User, System Admin, Sales Executive and Sales Manager have full access to Tax Transaction. Delete and Edit are also granted to Standard User, System Admin and Sales Executive. Only System Admin has the Payroll List app, which holds the list under Settings. Everyone else opens it from the App Launcher.

Because the returns read these rows, give most users view-only access. Remove create, edit and delete from the profiles of people who only need to look. A user without access to the entity cannot open the list. The returns still read the rows, because processing runs on the server.

Configuration

The ledger has no settings of its own. What it records depends on:

• GST registrations and the branch's GST Registration, which decide Own Gstin. Set a default active registration for the company when documents have no branch. See GST registrations.
• Tax groups, which decide the components. Name each tax so that it contains CGST, SGST, UTGST, IGST or CESS. See Tax groups.
• Account GSTIN on customers and suppliers, which decides Party Gstin and B2B or B2C.
• Item HSN/SAC codes, which are stamped onto document lines and carried to the rows.
• Bill line ITC Eligibility and the bill's Is RCM, which decide the Input classification.
• Expense claim lines marked ITC-eligible. See Expense claims.
• App placement. To show the list in another app, add the Tax Transaction entity to that app. See Apps, entities and records.

Common problems

A posted invoice or bill has no tax transactions

The capture runs at posting and never blocks it, so a failure leaves the document posted with no rows. Check that the document really reached the general ledger, and that its lines carry tax or a taxable value. Purchase debit notes and goods receipts never write rows. Fix the cause and re-capture the document. If the document cannot be re-posted, ask your administrator.

A document is in the wrong month's return

The month comes from Document Date. For a bill, that is the Supplier Invoice Date. Correct the date on the source document and re-capture it.

A document is missing from every return

The rows have no Own Gstin. The branch has no GST registration and the company has no default active registration. Link the registration and re-capture the document. Expense claim rows never carry a GSTIN, so they do not reach the returns.

The HSN summary or my own total shows double the taxable value

Taxable Value repeats on each component row. Group by Source Line, or count the value on one component per line.

Tax shows under a component name that is not a GST head

The tax's name on the tax group does not contain CGST, SGST, UTGST, IGST or CESS, so the name is copied as it is. Rename the tax in the tax group and re-capture.

Blocked credit is not in GSTR-3B 4B(1)

The bill line's ITC Eligibility was blank or Eligible when the bill was posted. Set it to Blocked and re-capture, then re-run Process GSTR3B.

Common questions

Can I create a tax transaction by hand?

Profiles with full access can, but don't. The returns read every row for your GSTIN, so a hand-made row changes your return figures without any document behind it. It also separates the ledger from the tax control account. Correct or post the source document instead. If you need an adjustment that no document covers, use the return's own manual or override rows. See GSTR-3B and Annual returns.

Why do I see two rows for one invoice line?

An intra-state supply is taxed as CGST plus SGST, and each head is its own row with its own rate and amount. An 18% line therefore shows two rows at 9 each. An inter-state line shows one IGST row. A line with cess adds a Cess row. Group the rows by Source Line to see the whole line.

Does the general ledger use these rows?

No. Posting writes the journal and these rows side by side from the same document. The journal holds the tax in summary on your tax accounts, while these rows hold the line detail the returns need. The control-account reconciliation compares the two totals, so a hand edit to a row shows up there as a difference.

Why does a bill show the supplier's number instead of ours?

GSTR-2B lists inward supplies by the supplier's invoice number and date. Recording the bill's rows under those values lets the books side be reconciled with the portal statement line for line. When the bill has no supplier invoice number or date, the bill's own number and date are used.

Related topics

• The Tax Center — the GST and TDS compliance area.
• GSTR-1, GSTR-2B, GSTR-3B, GSTR-6 and Annual returns — the returns built from these rows.
• Input tax credit management — how Input rows feed credit.
• GST registrations — where Own Gstin comes from.
• Tax groups — the tax components on each line.
• Troubleshooting — missing or unexpected return values.
• Tax Transaction entity reference.