Managing invoices and following the prescribed rules is vital to export under GST. The registration process is mandatory for goods or services exported to places not included in the domestic territories. Registration allows exporters to leverage the schemes in terms of the current taxation policy.

Generally, when you export under GST, it is considered as a zero-rated supply. In other words, GST will not be imposed on any goods or services you provide that are registered under GST.

To claim the benefits of export goods or services, exporters must adhere to the government’s options.

• Exporters can provide a Letter of Undertaking (LUT) without paying IGST fees. But, LUT is valid only for one fiscal year. Therefore, Exporters must apply for a new LUT each FY.
• Exporters may also include the IGST payment details and later entitle a refund for the same.

Necessity seeds innovations. The COVID-19 pandemic has stirred the economic crisis globally. It made India believe in “Aathma nirbhar.” The government of India has notified various tax relaxations to increase the export of goods and services in India. Thus, several tax benefit regimes are introduced to avoid the burden of domestic taxes on exporters.

Besides, exporters are requested to follow specific rules and procedures. Maintaining accurate documentation can help exporters avail of the tax benefits. Imprezz.in, the best GST billing software in India, enables exporters to be GST compliant concerning the GST updates. You can file your GST annual returns under the specified rules with zero hassles. In this article, we have listed the rules to follow when you export under GST.

Rules to Be Followed on Exports Under GST

Rule – 1

PAN (Permanent Account Number) is legalized as the symbol of import and export by the DGFT (Directorate General of Foreign Trade). Exporters will have to create their quotes for the same. It is applicable if the exporter deals either with goods exempt under GST or products outside the GST system.

Rule – 2

Invoicing with GSTIN on shipping bill is mandatory when exporting products concerning GST for domestic clearance.

Rule – 3

In case of exports carried out by special agencies under the United Nations Organization or notified Multilateral Financial Institutions, Embassies, and deputations, the exporter can quote Unique Identity Number (UNI) instead of GSTIN, in the Shipping Bill.

Rule – 4

Without GSTIN/PAN/UIN, the shipping bill cannot be filed.

Rule – 5

The claim for refund on IGST or Input Tax Credit paid, inputs consumed in exported goods cannot be processed without GSTIN and GST Invoice details in the Shipping Bill.

Rule – 6

Exporters must provide information on Commercial Invoices in the Shipping Bill. Wherever Commercial Invoice is different from a Tax Invoice, details of both have to be provided in the Shipping Bill.

Rule – 7

GSTIN numbering scheme includes the state code. However, in the Shipping Bill concerning the field “State code of origin,” exporters must declare the state code from where export goods originated. The process remains the same as it was being done before.

Rule – 8

The taxable value and Tax amount should be mentioned against each item in the Shipping Bill for processing the refund amount. The same GSTIN holder issued multiple tax invoices are allowed only in one Shipping Bill for the same consignee.

Documents and Procedures for Exports Under GST

Export of Goods

• Exports under the new GST rule must acquire an IEC (Import Export Code).
• Businesses exporting goods that are exempt of IGST payments have to furnish LUT or a relevant bond.
• Documents of export must be attached to the relevant PO’s (purchase orders).
• While filing the Shipping Bill, exporters must include details as per the information mentioned in a tax invoice.

Any tax invoice furnished by an exporter must contain the details mentioned below:

• Furnish an endorsement specifying that the supply is for export either with or without integrated tax payment.
• Name, GSTIN, and address of the supplier.
• Date and invoice number.
• Details of the recipient including the name, address, delivery address, and designation.
• Include the (HSN) Harmonized System of Nomenclature Codes of goods exported. Alongside, furnish an appropriate description.
• Include the quantity of the goods and specify the units count.
• Add the gross value of the goods, breakdown of costs into the price per unit.
• Signature of the authorized signatory of the supplies.

Shipping Bills can be used to claim refund provided that:

• The person carrying the export goods files an export manifest; and
• The applicant has filed forms GSTR-3 or GSTR-3B appropriately.

Export of Services

Under Section 2(6), IGST Act, 2017, services qualify as exports only under the following circumstances.

• The suppliers of services are from India.
• The recipients of services are located in a foreign country.
• The services are supplied to a foreign country. Unless mentioned specifically, the default place of supply for cross-border transactions will be the location of the recipient.
• It is qualified as exports when suppliers of such services have received payment in convertible foreign exchange rates.
• Suppliers and recipients of services are not merely establishments of a distinct person.

Documents Required to Export Under GST

On exports carried out without the payment of IGST, furnish the LUT or a relevant bond. Maintain the Foreign Inward Remittance Certificate or Bank Realisation Certificate to avoid incurring GST charges. You can furnish them as proof of receipt within the prescribed period of one year from the date of export. Otherwise, GST is applicable to transactions in which exporters do not take this step.

Any document furnished under GST must include a service agreement. The issued tax invoice document must contain the following details:

• An endorsement, specifying whether the supply is meant for export with or without payment of integrated tax.
• Name, address, and GSTIN of the supplier.
• Invoice number and date.
• Name and address of the receiver.
• HSN Code of services and a relevant description.
• The total value of services with a stage-wise breakdown (if any).
• Signature of the supplier or authorized signatory.

As mentioned earlier about “Aatma nirbhar,” Imprezz.in is the best cloud accounting software, effectively helping India’s small businesses. The software is programmed with GST compliant invoices and quotations that enables self-employed and small business owners to create their invoices, quotes, and reminders. The cloud-based accounting software allows businesses to file GST returns directly on the portal in just a few clicks.

Conclusion

Amidst the on-going pandemic crisis, several businesses have failed to file GST returns on time despite the GST audit extension. Not staying GST compliant can harm growing business to a greater depth. By following these rules and documentation, exporters and young entrepreneurs can be relieved of the new taxation policy.

Instead of running all the errands, businesses can switch to Imprezz accounting software. Automate GST invoice processing and returns filing to avail benefits and to make life better for oneself and your employees. Stay updated with GST rules and other relaxations, subscribe to Imprezz invoicing software.

We offer a 14 days free trial software program for small businesses in India. Log in to start exporting under GST rules.

Small businesses in India must prioritize leveraging account management to drive massive business growth. Many startups often tend to operate with a motive to sustain. Thereby, they overlook that having formal systems and design at an initial stage can take the business to a new level in no time.

The difference between businesses that succeed and don’t is the ability to scale their strategic execution. Each business, irrespective of its size, must focus on building ideal customer relationships. It is easier to generate strategic accounts from loyal customers. Because selling to an existing customer is much easier and profitable than otherwise.

As a business owner, you need to acquire resources as you expand. For instance, when the customer base increases, you need to hire more professionals to serve them. Scaling primarily refers to adding adequate revenue, while businesses add resources at a marginal rate.

Retaining customers in today’s competitive world can be devastating for businesses. One way to achieve this aspect is to scale account management. The strategic accounts represent at least 40-50% of revenue and margin of an enterprise. Thus, businesses must reassess the systematic approach towards top customers.

This article is a comprehensive guide to small business owners in India. After having done thorough research, we have laid out key strategic methods. Find out how you can grow your business without over complicating account management.

What is Account Management? – Importance

Account Management is an extension of the sales process. It starts once the sales transaction is carried out successfully. Strategic management helps to handle customer accounts regularly. It is a process of building long-term relationships with valuable customers. They drive more profit to the enterprise, and account management helps convert them into business partners.

A key account manager who carries out the management processes provides necessary resources, periodic meetings, and offers. Modern businesses automate financial management processes from inception to keep track of each transaction. Current online accounting software for small businesses in India, provides financial analytics and business solutions that help businesses stand out among their competitors.

Automate Account Management with Imprezz.in

Growth of sales for small businesses in India begins with analyzing and understanding purchase and preference patterns. Most buyers these days are sophisticated in making purchase decisions, bids, and negotiations. It is where Imprezz cloud-based accounting software comes to play.

The integrated software runs all the accounting errands for small businesses. It not only helps retain current customers but enables to poach new clients though customizable quote creator. Imprezz automation tools reduce the workload for account managers and other employees, eventually streamlining the organizational workflow.

Strategies to Scale Account Management to Drive Business Growth

Traditional Account Management strategies can hurt the growing business. Here are five strategic methods that can transform a small business into a successful organization.

Method – 1: Increase Renewals

Increasing your renewal rates doubles your income base and gross revenue growth. Adding points to the renewal rates and improvising it over time can be a twisted process. Lower renewals hamper revenue growth and scalability. A renewal rate of 85% will consume at least 15% of the growth in new business bookings to maintain revenue growth.

Most companies struggle to overcome renewal rates, while the best companies never drop lower than 95% renewal rates. Imprezz cloud-based software counters the problems and provides tools to improve renewal rates.

Taking a “land and expand” approach to sales could positively affect renewal rates. For instance, you can aim to capture half of the target growth rate of expansions by demonstrating value in one area of ​​your client’s business and then expanding to others. As your platform or solution becomes more stable and long-term, the customer (renewal) will likely stay with you.

Method – 2: Hire Creative Minds That Understand Your Goals

Most SaaS and Tech companies fail to employ product strategists or marketers. Commonly, not many CEO’s have experience working with them. It is one of the mains reasons why businesses are not able to scale their growth. Here’s how hiring creative minds can bring about a change in an entity.

• Passionate employees understand the organizational goals and thus work by customer centralization.
• They are well experienced in aligning products as per market needs and demands. It substantially helps product development and sales.
• They are determined to generate significant sales.
• They focus on the effectiveness and efficiency of delivery that ensures customer satisfaction.
• They work with a holistic perspective towards defining, developing, operating and launching a product.
• They ensure end-to-end cross-functions, which helps launch a product successfully and scale product development.

Hiring ideal employees is a strategic function laid out to generate market reports that guide the CEO’s to make business decisions. They help prioritize and group technical requirements for business sales and customer retention.

Method – 3: Offering Value-Added Services

Whether you seek each project to be a professional service (as if it were unique) based on business hours, sell one-size-fits-all services, or, worse yet, provide free service hours, these practices are not scalable. Provide packages on the services or products that you render. You can offer a project-based, annual or timely subscription for your customers. Here are a few examples.

         1. Implementation

Examine what it takes to implement your solution in one customer profile versus another. Inspect in terms of roles or types of service required, such as discovery, integration, QA, architect, and project management. Look into the hours of each kind of service you offer.

Incorporate this into production deployment packages at a total flat rate compared to the software’s annual cost. It allows your sales representatives to sell your price list rather than looking for resources to define each deal’s scope. The implementation strategy also leads to the aligned organization of services in terms of lifetime expectations (revenue recognition).

         2. Creating & Managing Reports

Do your account managers provide regular reports?  Are they responding to custom report requests from clients? How many hours a month do you dedicate to this? Can these interactive service requests be turned into a value-added proactive reporting or analytics service for a fee?

         3. Optimization

Set and Forget. Offer an upgrade package for a fixed annual fee. Ensure that your solution is actively launched and used so that it is consistently aligned with your customers’ business needs and that they get the most out of their deployments.

Method – 4: Integrate Product Management Ownership with Delivery of Services

Integrating product management and product delivery keeps the money roadmap in place. Keep the customer experience at the center of the roadmap and focus on revenue generation. It lends not only a scalable service offering but also a more scalable end product.

Especially for startups and small businesses, product managers need to see how products are implemented, merged, improved, etc. If done so, they will be better positioned to produce capabilities that would otherwise require customization work and service hours to activate.

Method – 5: Launch Sales & Marketing Engines Across Multiple Cylinders

Multifaceted market models tend to present the best opportunities for growth and scalability when implemented effectively. Here’s what launching sales and marketing engines across multiple cylinders mean.

• Sell ​​to multiple industries at the same time, such as retail, financial services, and travel.
• Sell ​​to multiple market segments, such as large enterprises, medium-sized businesses, and small businesses.
• Sell ​​through more than one channel—for instance, direct, online, VAR.

Successful businesses seize the opportunity to shoot multiple cylinders in an early stage of their journey. It helps in the optimum utilization of resources. In case you plan to expand to mid-markets, you can extend the base of target buyers. In this way, you can leverage existing tactics of lead generation and resources.

Conclusion

Of course, there are many ways to scale a growing business. What are your strategies and methods for expanding growth? Embrace failures and learn from your mistakes. Focus on bringing the right system in place. Implement a strategic account management plan. Allow your account managers to shape the future of your growing business.

Better yet, go for cloud accounting software that can automate it all for you. Rid of the challenges of implementing your account management plans. Imprezz.in, the best accounting software enables businesses to gain internal support and advocacy. Utilize the analytical solutions to measures the success of your account plans.

At Imprezz, we offer a 14 days free trial software program for small businesses in India. Log in to start your accounting today! Grow with us.

As we all know, the whole world is suffering from a substantial financial loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, India, with its vast population, is trying to bring in the best solutions to counter the crisis. Be it ‘Atma Nirbhar’ or “Vocal for local,” the government has notified several changes under the new GST return format relaxations and taxation policies to encourage many young and innovative minds of India.

By providing GST audit extension on due dates to file the GSTR-4, the government has given itself and the composition taxpayers a time of relief and recovery till 31st August 2020. If not for COVID-19, it would not have been possible for the government to overcome the confusion that previously existed due to multiple amendments and technical glitches on the GSTN portal.

In this article, you will know about the new GST return format declared on the 31st GST council meeting that came into force from April 2020 onwards. For more Invoice and GST related queries, reach out to us on Imprezz.in. We are an Indian company helping entrepreneurs emerge by programming GST invoices and quotations that enable self-employed, small scale businesses to create their invoices, quotes, and reminders directly on the cloud. Reduce the compliance risk and stay GST compliant with Imprezz accounting software for small businesses.

Rules to Be Followed Under the New Gst Return Format Relaxations

Generally, in the old GST return format, depending upon taxpayers’ category, people had to fill and file multiple forms of return, such as GSR-1(Goods and Service Tax Rate-1), GSTR-2, GSTR-3, GSTR-4, etc. Thanks to the new GST return format, only one easy return form, “GST RET-1,” is to be filed by all the taxpayers. The “GST RET-1” consists of 2 annexures, namely “GST ANX-1, GST ANX-2”.

GST ANX-1

The form primarily consists of the section that deals with inward and outward supplies. It typically consists of 4 sections in the form to be filled. The first two sections are about the taxpayer’s details, that is, his and his company’s registered name, date of filing, and ARN (Application Register Number).

The third section deals with all the exports’ details, inward and outward supplies carried out during a particular tax period, which attracts a reverse charge. The last section deals with all the e-com operated supplies that are accountable for collecting tax.

The taxpayers must be well aware that the inward supplies accountable to RCM (Reverse Charge Mechanism) must be acknowledged at the GSTIN level in the GST ANX-1.

GST ANX-2

The form mainly consists of 5 sections of inward supplies that are auto-drafted. The GSTIN has to be provided by the recipient in the first section, and the third person will automatically fill the second section.

In the third section, the recipient will be providing the details about the inward supplies received from the registered person, imports, and SEZ (Special Economic Zone) unit on BOE (Bill of Entry).

The fourth section of this form deals with Input Tax Credit: the rebates that the government provides in case of exceptional circumstances surrounding a person.

The fifth section primarily determines eligible credit received from ISD (Input Service Distributor). Via this, the recipient will also be provided with an HSN (Harmonized System of Nomenclature) to submit details at a document level.

New Return Filing System

When it comes to the changes made to bifurcate between small taxpayers and large taxpayers, in the old return format, the taxpayers whose turnover is up to 1.5 crores are regarded as small taxpayers and above that are considered to be large taxpayers. Wherein, in the new GST return format, the taxpayers whose turnover is up to 5 crores are regarded as small taxpayers and above that are considered to be large taxpayers.

Immediate Cancellation

The taxpayers have to file the GST returns until their registration has been canceled through an application for cancellation. Wherein as per the new GST return format, on the application of the form of cancellation, the GST return will be canceled immediately, after which you are exempted from filing the returns of that period.

The Remake of Amendment Returns

If in case the taxpayer loses his amendments or invoices, according to the new GST returns system, on filing an amendment return, it can be remade, instead of waiting for a specific tax period as in the old GST return format.

Claiming ITC

If the taxpayer provides or uploads debits or invoices within a certain period, he/she can claim ITC on returns except for the first ten months of visibility. Thereby, on the eleventh month, it will be posted on the ITC table. It will be published in the concerned department of the recipient’s return for the subsequent month.

Resolved GST Return Filing Complications

When the taxpayers filed invoices in GSTR-1, its month of the amendment could not be seen due to which many complications started arising. It had left many taxpayers worried. But, the release of the new format has successfully resolved the significant parts of the issue.

Visibility of Input Credits

With the introduction of GSTR-2B, the information of the input credit available on the imports will be shown. Unlike the old GST return format, the GST returns on the imports were not reflected anywhere in the GSTR-2A.

Easy Returns Filing

In the new GST return format, the government has made specific changes to make the procedure of the GST returns filing easy and encouraging for the business and professional communities throughout India.

GST E-Invoicing

Also, from 1st October 2020, under the GST arrangement and applicability of QR codes, the implementation of GST e-invoicing of bills has been made definite.

Conclusion

The changes implemented by the government of India have undoubtfully been for a better tomorrow and under the citizens’ favor. However, with the simplified format of the new GST return format, the procedure and the complications that made taxpayers concerned have now been relieved.

The new budding businesses all over India can now aim towards a higher level of progress by these changes. For more exciting education and a helping partner in terms of GST, invoices, and quotations, subscribe to Imprezz.in, the best accounting software in India.

We offer a 14 days free trial software program for small businesses in India. Stay GST compliant with updated invoice rules and format. Log in to start your accounting today.