The 30-day e-invoice rule: who it applies to and how to count the days

The 30-day e-invoice reporting rule says that a business with annual aggregate turnover (AATO) of ₹10 crore or more cannot report an invoice, credit note or debit note to the Invoice Registration Portal (IRP) more than 30 days after the date on the document. It applies from 1 April 2025. Before that, from 1 November 2023, the same limit applied only to businesses with AATO of ₹100 crore or more. Businesses between ₹5 crore and ₹10 crore must still e-invoice, but as of November 2026 they have no reporting time limit.

Who the rule applies to

AATO (all GSTINs under one PAN)	Must e-invoice?	Time limit to report
Never crossed ₹5 crore	No	Not applicable
Crossed ₹5 crore, below ₹10 crore	Yes	None, but the invoice is not valid until it has an IRN
₹10 crore or more	Yes	30 days from the document date

The rule covers every document you report to the IRP: B2B invoices, credit notes, debit notes, and export and SEZ invoices. If you are unsure whether your AATO is ₹10 crore or more, check with your tax professional before assuming you have no limit. If you are new to e-invoicing, start with What is e-invoicing.

How to count the 30 days

Count the document date as day 1. The 30th day is the last day the IRP will accept the document. A quick way to find it: add 29 days to the document date.

Document	Document date	Last day to report	IRP refuses from
Invoice	1 November 2026	30 November 2026	1 December 2026
Invoice	15 October 2026	13 November 2026	14 November 2026
Credit note	20 December 2026	18 January 2027	19 January 2027
Invoice	10 February 2027	11 March 2027	12 March 2027
Invoice	31 March 2027	29 April 2027	30 April 2027

Two points people often miss:

• Month-end and year-end do not reset the clock. An invoice dated 31 March can still be reported in April, but only up to the 29th.
• The count runs from the document date, not the day you entered it in the books. An invoice typed into TallyPrime on 25 November 2026 with a date of 20 October 2026 is already past its last day, which was 18 November.

Example: a pharma distributor in Indore with AATO of ₹14 crore raises an invoice to a hospital on 28 September 2026. The last day to get its IRN is 27 October 2026. If the IRP rejects the first attempt because the hospital’s GSTIN was typed wrongly, the accountant has until 27 October to fix the party master and report it again.

Why invoices miss the window

• An IRN request failed (wrong GSTIN, HSN code or PIN code) and nobody followed up.
• Invoices were entered late in the books with an old date.
• E-invoicing was left for month-end, and month-end got busy with returns.
• The one person with portal access was on leave.
• Credit notes for returns or rate differences were dated but never reported.
• The software that generates IRNs was not running, or the Tally PC had not synced.

What happens if you miss it

The IRP refuses the document. There is no late-reporting option and no fee that unlocks it. Without an IRN:

• the invoice is not a valid tax invoice, so your buyer cannot claim input tax credit on it;
• the tax on the supply is still payable;
• penalties under the GST law can apply.

Changing the date on the old invoice to bring it inside the window is not a fix. The invoice date has to follow the time-of-supply rules. Speak to your tax professional about how to treat a missed document. The same applies to a missed credit note, which affects both your tax and your buyer’s credit.

What the rule does not change

• Cancellation is still limited to 24 hours after the IRN is generated, whatever your turnover.
• B2C invoices stay outside e-invoicing, so the rule does not touch them.
• E-way bills keep their own rules. The 30-day limit is about reporting to the IRP, not about how long goods can be on the road; see e-way bill rules.
• Your buyer still depends on your GSTR-1. Registered invoices flow into GSTR-1 automatically, but your buyer sees them in GSTR-2B only after you file it. Reporting on time and filing on time go together.

How to stay inside 30 days

1. Get the IRN when you bill, not at month-end. Treat it as part of making the invoice.
2. Check a days-left list every day. Anything older than 20 days goes to the top.
3. Fix rejections the same day. Most are master-data errors: GSTIN, state, PIN code or HSN code.
4. Keep masters clean. Verify a new party’s GSTIN before the first invoice, and keep HSN codes on stock items.
5. Train a second person to generate IRNs. Leave and illness should not stop billing.
6. Turn on automatic generation if your software supports it, and watch its failure alerts.
7. Review every week the B2B invoices and notes still without an IRN, oldest first.

For the other GST changes of the year, read GST compliance in 2025-26.

How Auditer helps

Auditer applies the 30-day count only when the Owner confirms, under Settings, that turnover is ₹10 crore or more. Each invoice waiting for an IRN then shows its days left, counted with the document date as day 1, and Auditer alerts you at 10, 5, 2 and 0 days, and again if the window closes. In Auto mode, new invoices are registered right after they sync from TallyPrime, and a failed one moves to Needs attention with the portal’s reason. Auditer also warns you if TallyPrime has not synced for more than a day, because new invoices are then not being watched. See GST compliance.

This article is general information, not tax advice. GST rules change; check the GST portal or your tax professional before acting.