What Kapda Stock really does about GST — and what your CA still does

GST is where a lot of shopkeepers lose sleep, and where a lot of CAs lose two full days every month. Most of that lost time is not the filing itself. It is the chase before it: finding the bill with the wrong GSTIN, working out why the tax on one invoice does not match the customer’s state, rebuilding an HSN summary from a stack of duplicates, and discovering that a large B2B sale went out without the buyer’s number on it.

Kapda Stock’s goal is to make that chase disappear. The correct tax is calculated the moment you ring up a sale, the month’s figures build themselves, and the common mistakes are flagged before the numbers reach your CA — not after the portal rejects the return.

We also want to be precise about where the app stops, because GST is the one area where a vague promise can cost you money. Kapda Stock does not file your returns, and it does not register e-invoices or e-way bills with the government. Those still happen on the official portals, by you or your CA. This post explains exactly what the app does, what it does not, and how the two halves fit together into a month-end that takes an hour instead of two days.

The short version

Read that table as the app doing the preparation and the checking, and the portals doing the legal registration. The rest of this post takes each row in turn. The reference version is the Compliance overview.

GST on every bill: the arithmetic you no longer do

You do not need to be a tax expert to bill correctly. You do need to be able to trust — and explain — the numbers on an invoice, so here are the rules the app follows. The full detail is in GST basics used by the app.

Prices are GST-inclusive

The price on a product is the price the customer pays. On a GST bill the app works backwards to split each line: taxable value = line amount ÷ (1 + GST rate), and GST = line amount − taxable value. So a ₹1,050 kurta at 5% shows a taxable value of ₹1,000 and GST of ₹50, and the customer still pays ₹1,050. That matches how Indian retail actually prices goods — nobody at a clothing counter quotes "₹1,000 plus tax".

CGST + SGST or IGST, decided by the GSTINs

The split is read from the first two digits of each GSTIN — the state code. `01` is Jammu & Kashmir, `27` is Maharashtra, and so on.

The consequence is worth underlining: the split is decided entirely by the GSTINs on file. An inter-state trade buyer saved without their GSTIN will be billed CGST + SGST, which is wrong for them and wrong in your return. Enter your own GSTIN in Shop details and your B2B customers’ in their profiles before you bill them — this is the most common source of GST errors in textile wholesale.

Discounts reduce the taxable value

A line discount comes off that line before tax is split out. A bill discount is spread across all lines in proportion to their value, so GST is always charged on what the customer actually pays. You never have to decide whether a discount was "before or after tax" at the counter.

Non-GST bills and proformas

A bill can be issued with GST not broken out — at POS, untick Charge GST. The customer pays the same total, but no tax is shown and the lines are recorded at 0%. Be careful with this: a non-GST bill is still a completed sale and still appears in your GST figures, as a supply with zero tax. Whether that sale is taxable, exempt or nil-rated is your CA’s call; the software does not hide it. Proforma invoices, by contrast, are estimates and are excluded from GST figures entirely.

HSN codes for textiles, pre-loaded

Every new workspace is created with a lookup table of every 4-digit HSN code from 5001 to 6310 — textile chapters 50 to 63 — each with a default GST rate per chapter. A product’s HSN code must come from this table.

Three things to know. First, the defaults are a starting point only — GST on garments and some fabrics depends on the sale value and changes with notifications, so set the rate your CA confirms. Second, the table holds 4-digit codes; if your CA gives you a 6- or 8-digit HSN, enter the first four. Third, and most important, a product’s HSN code and GST rate cannot be edited once the product is added, so choose them carefully up front. The full table and common examples — `5208` woven cotton, `6203` men’s suits, `6204` women’s suits, `6302` bed linen — are in HSN codes & GST rates.

The month on one screen

GST & Compliance is built around one promise: *your month, reconciled and ready to hand to your CA — with the mistakes found first.* Pick the month and year at the top and the screen fills in:

• Tiles for taxable value, CGST, SGST, IGST and total tax, with a summary line such as *September 2026 · 01/09/2026 to 30/09/2026 · 214 invoices (18 B2B, 196 B2C)*.
• Before this goes to your CA — the automatic pre-filing checks.
• HSN summary — quantity and tax per HSN code and rate.
• B2B sales by customer — per-GSTIN totals.
• Filing record — the returns your CA has filed, with ARNs.

Figures cover issued invoices dated in that month, using IST day boundaries. Drafts, cancelled invoices and proformas are excluded. The screen needs the Manager role or above.

Pre-filing checks: finding the mistakes before your CA does

This section earns its place more than any other. It reads every bill in the month and lists the problems — blocking ones first — each with a hint and example invoices. These are the checks it runs:

Fix problems at the source — usually the customer’s GSTIN on their profile — and reload. When everything is clean you see: *Every invoice in (month) has a valid GSTIN where one is needed, an HSN code on every line, and tax that matches the customer’s state. Download the pack and send it on.* That sentence is the whole point of the screen. See GST returns & filing pack.

HSN summary and B2B sales by customer

Two tables on the compliance screen map directly onto what your CA has to produce.

The HSN summary is *quantity and tax per HSN code and rate — table 12 of GSTR-1, built from the month’s bills.* Columns are HSN, description, UQC (unit), quantity, rate, taxable value, CGST, SGST and IGST. This is the table that used to be rebuilt by hand from duplicates.

B2B sales by customer lists GSTIN, customer, invoice count, taxable value and tax for each registered buyer. The screen’s own description of why it matters is blunt and correct: *these buyers will look for your invoices in their GSTR-2B — a mismatch here is the call you get next month.* If a trade buyer phones asking why their input credit does not match, this is the table you open.

For a lighter view outside month-end, the GST output report shows tax collected by rate slab for any period, and the Reports hub carries a GST snapshot of this month’s GSTR-3B headline figures. Note that both are output tax only — input tax credit on purchases is not deducted.

The CA pack: one file instead of a carrier bag

Download the CA pack exports the month as *one workbook: summary, invoice register, HSN summary, B2B ledger, checks and the raw GSTR figures.* That is what goes to your CA. No photographs of bill books, no retyping, no "can you send the missing week".

If your CA works in Tally

Tally export downloads vouchers for any period as Tally-importable XML — one sales voucher per invoice with CGST, SGST and IGST ledgers, plus payment vouchers for recorded expenditure. Two practical tips from the docs worth passing on to your CA: have the sales, party and GST ledgers created or mapped in Tally before the first import, and import each period exactly once, because importing the same file twice creates duplicate vouchers.

Recording what was filed

After your CA files on the GST portal, record it. In Filing record, click Record GSTR-1 or Record GSTR-3B and enter the ARN the portal gave for that month — two letters followed by 13–16 digits, for example `AA0107260012345`. Each return can be recorded once per month.

It sounds trivial and it is not. Twelve months later, when a notice arrives or a loan application asks for filing history, the question "did September’s 3B actually go in?" is answered in one screen rather than a week of emails with your CA.

E-invoices and e-way bills: on the government portals

Businesses above the government’s e-invoicing turnover threshold must register each B2B invoice on the Invoice Registration Portal (IRP), which returns an Invoice Reference Number (IRN), an acknowledgement and a signed QR code. Moving goods worth more than ₹50,000 needs an e-way bill from the e-way bill portal.

Working alongside the portals

The practical trick is to treat the bill in Kapda Stock as the master record and copy from it, never the other way round. The invoice number, date, buyer GSTIN, HSN codes, taxable value and tax are all on the issued bill, so whoever registers the e-invoice or raises the e-way bill reads them from there. When the numbers match exactly, the portal, your books and your buyer’s GSTR-2B all tell the same story, and nothing needs reconciling later.

• Issue the bill first. Register the e-invoice or raise the e-way bill only after the invoice is final, so the invoice number never changes afterwards.
• Use the same invoice number everywhere. A different spelling, prefix or year on the portal is the most common reason a buyer cannot match your invoice.
• Write the official numbers down. Add the IRN or e-way bill number to the invoice notes, or keep the portal PDF with your copy of the bill, so anyone in the shop can find it later.
• Check e-way bill validity before dispatch. Validity runs one day per 200 km or part of it; a delayed truck may need the portal to extend it before it lapses.
• Let your CA confirm the thresholds. Whether e-invoicing applies depends on your turnover, and the limits have changed over the years. Ask once a year rather than guessing.

Why the split is deliberate

It is fair to ask why the app prepares everything and then stops short of the portal. The honest answer is that filing and registration carry legal responsibility, require portal or GSP credentials, and are exactly where a trained human review earns its fee. What goes wrong in small-business GST is rarely the act of uploading. It is uploading numbers nobody checked.

So the app puts its effort where the errors actually are — the GSTIN typed wrong at the counter, the missing HSN code, the inter-state buyer billed as local — and hands your CA a clean, checked month. Your CA does the part that needs a CA. Neither of you does the part that used to take two days.

A one-hour GST month-end

1. In the first week of the new month, open GST & Compliance and select last month.
2. Work through Before this goes to your CA until it is clean. Fix GSTINs on the customer, not on the invoice.
3. Glance at B2B sales by customer — does every trade buyer you remember appear, with a GSTIN?
4. If you move goods above ₹50,000, confirm every official e-way bill was generated on the portal.
5. If e-invoicing applies to your turnover, confirm every B2B invoice was registered on the IRP within the window.
6. Download the CA pack and send it. Send the Tally XML too if your CA uses Tally.
7. When your CA files, record the ARNs for GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B.

The GST mistakes textile shops make most

• Billing a trade buyer as a walk-in. No GSTIN on the customer means no input credit for them and a B2C entry for you. The pre-filing check flags it above ₹2,50,000; below that, it is on you.
• Picking the chapter default for garments without checking. Garment rates can depend on the sale value. Confirm with your CA before adding products, because the rate cannot be edited later.
• Treating non-GST bills as invisible. They still appear in your GST figures, at zero tax. Discuss the treatment with your CA rather than assuming.
• Sending your CA the month in pieces. One pack, once, after the checks are clean.

“GST filing that used to take my CA two days is now a single file. That alone changed how I feel about month-end.”

Compliance you don’t have to chase

The theme running through all of it: you sell the way you always have, and the GST arithmetic, the checks and the paperwork assemble themselves in the background. The UPI QR on every bill, the right tax type from the GSTIN, the HSN summary, the CA pack and the reminders all happen without anyone at the counter thinking about tax.

If you are setting up, get the GST foundations right in the first week — shop GSTIN, invoice number format and product tax rates — following the 30-day switching plan. If the other month-end headache is money owed rather than money due to the government, read Never chase udhaar again. Compliance tools are included on every plan; see pricing or the full list of features.