GST Invoice Time Limit: By When Must You Issue It?
Written by Naresh, Founder of QWIK INVOICE · Last updated: 24 August 2026
Short answer: for services, you have up to 30 days from the date of supply to issue a GST tax invoice (45 days for banks, NBFCs and insurers). For goods, there's no days-based grace period at all — the invoice has to be issued at the point of removal or delivery. Missing either deadline isn't just a paperwork lapse: it's what determines when your GST liability actually falls due.
Why the invoice date isn't just administrative
Under GST, the time of supply — the date that fixes when tax becomes payable — is worked out using the invoice date as one of its inputs (alongside the date of payment, whichever comes earlier in most cases). Issue the invoice late and you don't get a later time of supply along with it; you get a mismatch between when GST was actually due and when you reported it, which is exactly the kind of gap a GSTR-1 reconciliation or a departmental audit is built to catch. Getting the invoice date right is what most of the rest of this guide is about.
Time limit for goods — Section 31(1)
Section 31(1) of the CGST Act ties the invoice to the physical event of supply, not to a countdown of days:
| Situation | Invoice must be issued |
|---|---|
| Supply involves movement of goods (courier, transport, delivery van) | Before or at the time the goods are removed for supply |
| Supply doesn't involve movement (handed over in person, e.g. over the counter) | Before or at the time the goods are delivered, or made available, to the recipient |
In practice: if you're shipping a product, the invoice has to exist by the time it leaves your premises — not whenever you get around to raising it afterward.
Time limit for services — Rule 47
Services get a fixed window instead of a point-in-time trigger, set by Rule 47 of the CGST Rules, 2017:
| Supplier type | Time limit from date of supply |
|---|---|
| Most service providers (freelancers, agencies, consultants, most businesses) | 30 days |
| Banks, NBFCs, financial institutions | 45 days |
| Insurers | 45 days |
This is the rule most freelancers and service businesses actually operate under, and it's more forgiving than the goods rule — but 30 days still passes faster than it sounds once a project wraps and invoicing slips down the to-do list.
Continuous supply of goods
Where a contract involves successive shipments and successive statements of account or payments (think a standing supply-of-materials contract), the invoice is tied to each statement or payment rather than each individual shipment: it must be issued before or at the time each statement is issued, or each payment is received, whichever applies under the contract.
Continuous supply of services — the retainer case
This is the scenario most relevant to freelancers on monthly retainers, and it has its own three-way rule, depending on what the contract actually says:
- Due date fixed by the contract — e.g. "payable on the 5th of every month." Invoice must be issued on or before that due date, whether or not payment has actually landed yet.
- No fixed due date, but payment is linked to an event — e.g. "on completion of the design phase." Invoice must be issued on or before the date that event is completed.
- Neither a due date nor an event is specified — invoice must be issued on or before the date the supplier actually receives the payment.
Case 1 is the most common setup for retainer freelancing, and it means the invoice date is really a contract term you're choosing when you agree payment terms — worth reading alongside our payment terms guide for how Net 15/30 due dates interact with this. For the actual month-to-month workflow of raising these invoices, see our recurring invoices guide.
What happens if you miss the deadline
There's no invoice-specific fine listed as a flat fee, but a late or missing invoice falls under the general penalty provisions of Section 122 of the CGST Act — up to ₹10,000, or the amount of tax involved if that's higher, for invoicing contraventions. The more common real-world consequence is upstream of any penalty notice: a late invoice date can shift your reported time of supply, which throws off the GST you declared as payable in that period versus when it was actually due, and creates a mismatch your accountant (or GSTN's own matching logic) will eventually have to explain.
Worked example
| Scenario | Date of supply | Invoice deadline |
|---|---|---|
| Freelance designer finishes a one-off logo project | 15 March | 13 April (30 days later) |
| Retainer contract: "payable on the 1st of each month" | Ongoing service through March | 1 April (the contractual due date) |
| Wholesaler ships furniture via transport | Goods handed to the transporter | Same moment — at removal, no days to spare |
| NBFC issuing a loan-processing service invoice | 10 March | 24 April (45 days later) |
QWIK INVOICE's invoice generator defaults the invoice date to today, so as long as you raise the invoice within the window above, the date itself is handled — the part worth building a habit around is not letting a finished project or a shipped order sit un-invoiced past the deadline in the first place.
Frequently asked questions
What is the GST invoice time limit for services?
Under Rule 47 of the CGST Rules, 2017, a tax invoice for a supply of services must be issued within 30 days from the date the service is supplied. Banks, NBFCs and insurers get a longer window — 45 days — because of the volume and reconciliation involved in their billing cycles.
What is the GST invoice time limit for goods?
For goods, Section 31(1) of the CGST Act sets the deadline at the point of supply itself, not a fixed number of days afterward: before or at the time of removal of goods (if the supply involves movement, e.g. dispatched by courier or transport) or before or at the time of delivery (if there's no movement, e.g. handed over at the shop). There's no 30-day grace period for goods the way there is for services.
What happens if I issue a GST invoice late?
Issuing an invoice outside the prescribed time limit is a contravention of the CGST Act's invoicing provisions. Beyond the general penalty under Section 122 (₹10,000, or the tax involved if higher, for invoicing offences), a late invoice can push back the time of supply itself — which is what determines when GST becomes due — creating downstream interest exposure and reconciliation mismatches in GSTR-1. It doesn't retroactively cancel the transaction, but it's a compliance gap worth avoiding rather than an academic one.
For a monthly retainer, is the invoice due within 30 days of the work or 30 days of the payment date?
Neither, directly — continuous supply of services runs on its own rule. If the contract specifies a due date for payment (e.g. "payable on the 1st of each month"), the invoice must be issued on or before that due date, regardless of when the work actually happened. If no due date is fixed but payment is linked to an event (e.g. "on completion of Phase 2"), the invoice is due on or before that event. Only where neither a due date nor an event is specified does it fall back to 30 days from when the supplier actually receives payment.
Does the 30-day limit apply to a proforma invoice or quotation?
No. Rule 47's 30-day window applies specifically to a GST tax invoice — the document that fixes your GST liability. A proforma invoice or quotation issued before the sale isn't a tax document under GST at all, so it doesn't start or stop this clock. See our proforma vs tax invoice guide for how the two differ.
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