How GST invoicing actually works on Shopify.

Three things, once. Enter your business details and GSTIN in Settings. Set an HSN code and GST rate against each product. Then dispatch an order. From that point the app runs on its own — there is no daily task and nothing to do at month end.

It starts from the moment you install. Esby works from live order events, so orders that were already dispatched before you installed are not invoiced retroactively. If you need documents for earlier orders, email support and it can be discussed.

Not correctly. Esby reads the amounts from your store's base currency, so a store based in dollars produces invoices with rupee symbols over dollar figures. The app warns you loudly if it detects this. Change your store's base currency to INR in Shopify settings first — and note that Shopify relabels your prices rather than converting them, so you will need to retype them.

Yes. Esby validates the GSTIN's checksum before saving it, so an invented or mistyped number is rejected rather than quietly printed on your invoices. You do not need an Indian business address — a business abroad holding an Indian GSTIN is fine.

From the place of supply, which for goods is the delivery address. If the buyer's state is the same as the state of the GSTIN you are billing from, the invoice shows CGST and SGST at half the rate each. If the buyer is in any other state, it shows a single IGST line at the full rate. You never set this per order.

It is the state the sale is treated as happening in, and it decides which taxes apply. Get it wrong and you have charged the wrong kind of tax — which is awkward to unwind, because the money goes to different governments. It is printed prominently on every Esby invoice so you can check it at a glance.

From you. You set an HSN code and a GST rate against each product once, on the Products screen. Esby applies exactly what you entered, per line, so an order containing an 18 percent item and a 12 percent item keeps both rates rather than averaging them.

That order waits for you instead of producing a wrong invoice. Esby holds it, flags it on the Products screen under 'Needs HSN', and issues the invoice as soon as you fill the code in. It deliberately does not guess, and it does not print a blank.

Shipping is apportioned across the order's lines in proportion to their value, so freight on an 18 percent item is taxed at 18 percent and freight on a 12 percent item at 12 percent. It is not dumped onto a single line or swept into the round-off.

Yes. If your Shopify prices already include GST, Esby works backwards to the taxable value and the tax amount, so the invoice total matches what the customer actually paid to the paisa. There is a setting for this and new stores default to tax-inclusive, which is how most Indian stores price.

When the order is dispatched, not when it is paid. Under section 31 the tax invoice is tied to the goods being removed for delivery, so raising it at payment can put it in the wrong month and the wrong return. Orders with nothing to dispatch — digital goods and services — are invoiced when they are paid instead, because they are never fulfilled.

One order gets one invoice. The first dispatch raises it and the second is ignored, so a split shipment does not produce two invoices for the same sale.

In an unbroken sequence per financial year, restarting at 1 on 1 April. Numbers are never reused and never skipped. Credit notes run in a completely separate series, so refunding an order does not punch a gap in your sales numbering — which is one of the first things an officer looks for.

You can set the prefix. GST caps an invoice number at 16 characters including the prefix, financial year and serial, so Esby limits what you can enter rather than letting you build a number that is not legal.

Yes, on any paid plan. If you are registered in several states, map each warehouse or location to the GSTIN registered there. Esby then invoices each order from the registration that actually dispatched the goods, and each GSTIN keeps its own number series.

It retries by itself, and anything still outstanding is listed on a Sync health screen inside the app. Silent failures are the most common complaint about invoicing apps — this one shows you rather than hoping you do not notice.

A credit note is raised automatically against the original invoice, referencing its number and date, and reversing tax at the rate originally charged. A partial refund produces a credit note for the part refunded. This is a legal requirement on a refund, exactly as the invoice is on a sale, so it happens on every plan including Free.

Esby still credits it. No refund happens because no payment was ever taken, but the invoice was already raised at dispatch — so the cancellation raises a credit note to cancel it out. Without that, you would be left declaring a sale that never happened.

Not by deleting it — GST does not allow an issued invoice to simply disappear, because that leaves a gap in your numbering. The correct instrument is a credit note, which is what Esby raises. There is also a setting for keeping part of the money on a cancelled order, at a rate you choose, for cases where you retain a cancellation charge.

No. Esby produces the GSTR-1 worksheet for any month — B2B, B2C, credit notes and an HSN summary — which you or your accountant use to file. It does not connect to the government portal and does not file on your behalf.

Yes, on any paid plan. Export a month as Tally-ready XML and import it — the sales vouchers arrive with their ledgers and tax classifications already set, instead of being retyped.

Yes. Any month can be downloaded as a single archive containing every invoice PDF, and the same for credit notes. If any PDF in that month is missing, the archive says so in its own filename and includes a note listing which ones — rather than handing you an incomplete set that looks complete.

No. If your turnover means you must register invoices with the government's IRP portal, Esby does not do that. It is planned but not built, and it is not charged for.

Your products (to map HSN codes and rates), your orders (to build the invoice), and your locations (to route multi-GSTIN billing). It is read-only and it never writes anything back to your store. It does not request access to your full order history — only orders that happen while it is installed.

Invoice records are held in a managed database and the PDFs in encrypted object storage. Full detail — what is kept, for how long, and how to have it erased — is in the privacy policy.

Email support and you get the developer, not a ticket queue. Replies usually come within one working day and often much sooner.

No. Esby applies the rates and HSN codes you enter, correctly and consistently. Choosing them, and deciding how your business should be registered, is between you and your accountant.