GST invoicing and sales tax software in Pakistan

Who needs GST invoicing software

Many traders in Pakistan register for sales tax because their buyers ask for it. A distributor supplying a large retailer, or a wholesaler selling to companies, will often be asked for a proper sales tax invoice so the buyer can claim the tax. Once you are registered, your bills and records need to be in order every month, not only when a notice arrives.

Doing this by hand means keeping copies of every sales tax invoice, every supplier invoice, adding up the tax on each, and handing it all to your consultant. Mistakes in this work are expensive and slow to correct.

What a sales tax invoice usually shows

The exact requirements are set by FBR and can change, so confirm the details with your tax advisor. In general terms, a sales tax invoice carries:

• The seller's name and address, with the seller's NTN and STRN.
• The buyer's name and address, and their registration details when the buyer is registered.
• An invoice number and date.
• A description and quantity of the goods.
• The value before tax, the tax rate, the tax amount, and the value including tax.

Our guide on the sales tax invoice in Pakistan covers this in more depth.

Output tax and input tax, with an example

The basic idea of sales tax is that you collect tax on what you sell (output tax) and you have paid tax on what you bought (input tax). Broadly, what you pay to the government is the difference, subject to the rules that apply to your business. Here is an illustration using an assumed rate of 18%. The rate and rules for your goods may differ, so treat these numbers as an example of the arithmetic only.

A real business has hundreds of these lines a month. The difficulty is not the arithmetic. It is making sure every sale and every eligible purchase is recorded with the right tax, and that nothing is counted twice or missed. When the invoices and the tax report come from the same entries in Taajir, the totals match because they are the same data.

What Taajir does, and what it does not

Taajir gives you FBR-style GST reports built from your sales and purchase entries. You or your tax consultant use these to prepare and file returns. Taajir does not report invoices to FBR in real time and is not an FBR POS integration. If your business falls under rules that require real-time invoice reporting, discuss your situation with your tax advisor before choosing any software.

Taajir helps you keep records. It does not give tax advice. Rates, exemptions and filing deadlines should be confirmed with a qualified tax consultant.

Returns matter here too. A sale return is linked to the original invoice, and a purchase return is recorded with a credit note against the supplier, so returned goods do not sit in your records as completed sales or purchases. Keep the original supplier invoices as well. A report is only as good as the documents behind it, and your consultant may ask to see them.

A monthly routine that keeps you ready

1. Bill every taxable sale in Taajir at the time of sale, not later from memory.
2. Enter supplier invoices as they arrive, with their tax amounts, and keep the originals.
3. In the first week of the new month, pull the GST reports for the previous month.
4. Check that the GST number is filled in on every registered customer and supplier.
5. Share the reports with your consultant through a restricted login, or export them to PDF or Excel.

Price

GST reporting is included in Taajir at no extra charge. Standard is Rs 4,000 a month, or Rs 36,000 a year. Business, for multiple warehouses, is Rs 5,000 a month, or Rs 50,000 a year. Reports export to PDF or Excel for your consultant. Try it with your own invoices during the 7-day free trial.