Invoice Management System explained: this guide covers what it means, who it applies to, the step-by-step process, documents required, fees, due dates and penalties in India — so you can stay compliant with confidence and avoid costly mistakes.
The Invoice Management System, or IMS, is where a buyer decides, invoice by invoice, what will flow into GSTR-2B and from there into the ITC claim in GSTR-3B. Invoices you do nothing about are treated as accepted. So a monthly IMS routine is now part of claiming credit correctly, not an optional extra.
IMS was launched on the GST portal on 1 October 2024. For each supplier document the recipient can accept, reject or keep pending. Accepted and deemed-accepted records enter GSTR-2B, rejected ones do not, and pending ones are held back for a later month. Actions can be changed and GSTR-2B recomputed any number of times until GSTR-3B is filed.
What IMS covers
The Background Material lists who and what is in and out of IMS.
| Item | Position |
|---|---|
| Who | Normal taxpayers including SEZ units and developers, and casual taxpayers. Composition taxpayers are excluded |
| Included | Original invoices saved or filed in GSTR-1, GSTR-1A or IFF; amendments; debit and credit notes |
| Excluded | Reverse-charge records, ICEGATE (import) documents, ISD documents, and invoices where ITC is ineligible under place-of-supply rules or section 16(4) |
| Where | Dashboard, then Services, Returns, Invoice Management System |
| Views | Inward supplies view for recipients; outward supplies view for suppliers to see what buyers did |
IMS sits on top of the supplier's GSTR-1 data and feeds GSTR-2B. If your books and the portal do not agree, GSTR-2B and books reconciliation is where the gap is found and closed.
What each action does
| Action | Effect on GSTR-2B and GSTR-3B |
|---|---|
| Accept | ITC flows into GSTR-2B and auto-populates in GSTR-3B |
| Reject | Excluded from GSTR-2B; no ITC; listed under "ITC Rejected" |
| Pending | Held in IMS, not in the current month's GSTR-2B; can later be accepted or rejected |
| No action | Treated as deemed accepted when GSTR-2B is generated |
Acting is done before GSTR-3B is filed, otherwise records are considered deemed accepted. The draft GSTR-2B is generated on the 14th of each month from accepted or deemed-accepted records, and the taxpayer can recompute it after changes. Actions can be reset at any time before GSTR-3B using the reset button. Bulk actions and an Excel download are available for offline reconciliation.
Pending records and the section 16(4) clock
A pending invoice is not lost. If you later accept it, it flows into the GSTR-2B of the tax period in which you took the action. But pending does not stop the section 16(4) time limit: the Background Material says pending actions must adhere to the section 16(4) deadline. See the ITC time limit for the 30 November cut-off.
Illustration (October 2026 invoices, all intra-State, credit shown in full):
- Invoice A, ITC Rs. 18,000, goods received: accept.
- Invoice B, ITC Rs. 9,000, goods not yet received: pending.
- Invoice C, ITC Rs. 5,400, billed to the wrong party: reject.
- Invoice D, ITC Rs. 3,600, no action.
Draft GSTR-2B shows A and D, so ITC of Rs. 21,600 flows into GSTR-3B. If B is accepted in December 2026, it appears in the December GSTR-2B. Credit also depends on the supplier having furnished the invoice details (section 16(2)(aa)); the related restriction is covered in Rule 36(4).
Credit notes, amendments and quarterly filers
- Credit notes: until September 2025 a credit note could not be kept pending. From October 2025 original and upward-amended credit notes can be marked pending, for a maximum of one tax period after the applicable GSTR-2B period (one month for monthly filers, one quarter for QRMP filers). If nothing is done, they are deemed accepted. A rejected credit note increases the supplier's liability in the next period. On accepting a credit note the recipient can now state the exact ITC amount to be reversed. See credit notes and the buyer's reversal.
- Amendments: act on the original record first, then the amended record. An amended record's action prevails over the original if both fall in the same GSTR-2B period.
- Supplier edits: if a supplier edits an invoice before filing GSTR-1, the edited record replaces the saved one and the recipient's action is reset.
- Quarterly filers: GSTR-2B is not generated for the first two months of a quarter. GSTR-2BQ is generated on the 14th of the month after the quarter.
If you reject an invoice by mistake
The Background Material addresses a rejection noticed after GSTR-3B for that period is filed. The recipient asks the supplier to report the same record, without change, in GSTR-1A for the same period or in the amendment table of a later GSTR-1 or IFF. The recipient then accepts it in IMS and recomputes GSTR-2B. ITC is available in the GSTR-2B of the concerned tax period, for the full value of the amended record, as the original was rejected.
The supplier's liability does not increase: the amendment tables take the difference only, and with identical values the difference is nil. This route depends on the supplier's cooperation, so do not treat rejection as a casual test of an invoice. The supplier can see the rejection in the outward supplies view.
Need help with IMS and credit matching?
An IMS routine works only if purchase books are compared with the portal every month and exceptions are chased with suppliers. Our team can set this up and do the comparison through GSTR-2B and books reconciliation. For a wider review of claimed credit, see ITC reconciliation advisory.
Key takeaways
- IMS began on 1 October 2024 and covers most supplier invoices, debit notes and credit notes.
- Accept and no action both lead to ITC in GSTR-2B. Reject does not. Pending holds the record.
- Change or reset actions and recompute GSTR-2B as many times as needed until GSTR-3B is filed.
- Pending does not extend the section 16(4) deadline.
- A wrong rejection is fixed by the supplier re-reporting the same record, not by the buyer alone.
Read next
- The Invoice Management System and how GSTR-2B is built
- GSTR-1A: amend GSTR-1 before filing GSTR-3B
- Credit note under section 34
- Rule 36(4): ITC only as per GSTR-2B
Disclaimer: Positions stated as on 30 September 2026, based on the CGST and IGST Acts and Rules as amended, the Finance Act 2026, and the ICAI Background Material on GST (14th Edition, July 2026). Verify current notifications before acting.