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GSTSettlr
v2Rules and input guide
Rule version 7
How GSTSettlr works
A plain-language guide to the required input, automatic standardization, lifecycle abbreviations, reconciliation checks, and physical rows the system may propose.
15
fixed input columns
11
documented rules
₹0.01
comparison tolerance
Workflow
Nothing moves forward silently. The user sees structural errors, automatic changes, rule findings, and every generated row before import.
- 1
Enter
Paste 15 columns or import the fixed CSV.
- 2
Normalize
Known safe formats are standardized and disclosed.
- 3
Evaluate
Rows are grouped into invoice lifecycles and rules run.
- 4
Approve
The user approves dates and every proposed physical row.
Fixed 15-column input
Column names and order are fixed. A pasted row with extra columns is rejected; missing columns are shown as blank and must satisfy the requirements below.
| Column | Requirement | Expected content |
|---|---|---|
| MY GSTTIN | Required | Your 15-character GSTIN. |
| INV NO | Required | Invoice or document number; formulas are rejected. |
| INV TYPE | Required | B2B, CN, DN, RCM, or IMPG. |
| INV DATE | Required | Complete invoice date; stored as YYYY-MM-DD. |
| Purchaser Document Number | Optional | Your source reference, such as GSTR2A. |
| Purchaser Date of Entry | Required | Complete date on which the purchaser recorded the document. |
| Month of Claim | Required | Complete claim date, despite the legacy column name. |
| GSTR3B | Optional | The applicable GSTR-3B disclosure label. |
| Claim Type-3B | Required | Canonical event: FC, TA, TR, RE, PRE, or PR. |
| SUPPLIER GSTIN | Usually required | May be blank only for RCM and IMPG rows. |
| NAME | Usually required | Supplier name; may be blank only for RCM and IMPG. |
| Supplier Total IGST | Amount | Signed IGST amount, normalized to two decimals. |
| Supplier Total CGST | Amount | Signed CGST amount, normalized to two decimals. |
| Supplier Total SGST | Amount | Signed SGST amount, normalized to two decimals. |
| Total | Required | Must equal IGST + CGST + SGST exactly. |
Input normalization
Safe, deterministic changes are highlighted in amber and retain the original value for review. Unknown categories are never fuzzy-matched.
Canonical date format: YYYY-MM-DD
Nulls
Treats -, --, N/A, NA, NIL, NONE, NULL, and NOT AVAILABLE as blank. Empty rows are removed and counted.
Dates
Stores INV DATE, Purchaser Date of Entry, and Month of Claim as complete YYYY-MM-DD dates. Excel serial dates are accepted.
Date order
Detects DD/MM/YY or MM/DD/YY when the batch contains unambiguous evidence. If every date is ambiguous, the user selects one order for the batch. Two-digit years map to 2000–2099.
Money
Removes ₹ signs, commas, spaces, leading plus signs, and converts parentheses to negatives. Values become signed two-decimal text.
Categories
Maps explicit aliases such as Fresh Claim → FC, Temporary availement → TA, Re-availed → RE, Credit Note → CN, and Import of Goods → IMPG.
Missing components
When any tax amount is supplied, blank IGST, CGST, or SGST components become 0.00. Total remains required.
Blocking checks
Rejects malformed GSTINs, formula-like invoice numbers, invalid dates or categories, non-numeric money, component-total mismatches, and exact duplicate rows.
User approval required: detected date conversions must be reviewed and approved. If the source date order cannot be determined safely, the user must choose DD/MM/YY or MM/DD/YY for the batch; missing or impossible dates still require manual entry.
Abbreviations
Event type and amount direction are separate facts. GSTSettlr does not infer the meaning of a row only from whether its amount is positive or negative.
- GSTIN
- Goods and Services Tax Identification Number
- ITC
- Input Tax Credit
- INV
- Invoice
- B2B
- Business-to-business invoice
- CN
- Credit note
- DN
- Debit note
- RCM
- Reverse Charge Mechanism
- IMPG
- Import of goods
- GSTR-2A
- Purchase-related GST statement used as a source reference
- GSTR-3B
- Summary GST return in which ITC is claimed or reversed
- IGST
- Integrated GST
- CGST
- Central GST
- SGST
- State GST
- FY
- Financial year
- FC
- Fresh Claim · expected positive direction
- TA
- Temporary Availment · expected positive direction
- TR
- Temporary Availment Reversal · expected negative direction
- RE
- Re-availed credit · expected positive direction
- PRE
- Pending for Reclaim · positive lifecycle balance
- PR
- Permanent Reversal · expected negative direction
Rule catalogue
Rules run after rows are normalized, grouped by your GSTIN, supplier GSTIN, normalized invoice number, and invoice financial year, then ordered by claim date.
R1Temporary availment must equal reversal
Review findingCheck: TA and TR totals must balance within a temporary cycle.
Current action: Review finding. A more specific rule may generate the physical row.
R2Reversal must be reclaimed or pending
Physical rowCheck: TR must equal RE plus PRE. An unreclaimed whole reversal cannot disappear.
Current action: Generates a positive PRE row when the whole reversal remains pending.
R3Reclaim requires an earlier reversal
Physical rowCheck: An RE must have eligible preceding TR capacity in the same document lifecycle.
Current action: With earlier document context, generates a negative TR for a whole unsupported reclaim. A single positive RE alone instead proposes a matched positive TA and negative TR (client case 3g), after the user confirms complete history.
R4Partial reclaim must leave pending balance
Human reviewCheck: When only part of a reversal is reclaimed, the remainder must stay as PRE.
Current action: Manual review in v2 because partial tax-head allocation must not be guessed.
R5Reclaim cannot exceed reversal
Physical rowCheck: Total RE cannot exceed the eligible TR balance.
Current action: Generates a negative TR row for a whole excess reclaim.
R6Reversal cannot exceed temporary availment
Physical rowCheck: Total TR cannot exceed its eligible TA capacity.
Current action: Generates a positive RE row to neutralize a whole extra reversal.
R7Event direction must be correct
Human reviewCheck: Each event amount must follow its configured positive or negative direction.
Current action: Human review in v2; the core engine can propose neutralize-and-repost entries.
R8First-time claim deadline
Review findingCheck: FC and TA purchase-entry dates are checked against the configured FY deadline.
Current action: Review finding. Deadline configuration remains provisional pending sign-off.
B1Duplicate permanent reversal
Core onlyCheck: For Section 17(5), PR must not exceed the blocked fresh-claim amount.
Current action: Core-engine rule; not yet emitted as a physical v2 row.
B2Fresh claim repeated after permanent reversal
Core onlyCheck: A blocked FC must not be claimed again after PR.
Current action: Core-engine rule; not yet emitted as a physical v2 row.
B3Temporary cycle used on blocked credit
Core onlyCheck: TA, TR, or RE must not be used for a Section 17(5) document.
Current action: Core-engine rule; not yet emitted as a physical v2 row.
Generated physical rows
V2 currently converts deterministic whole-row findings into the following physical records. They are proposals until the user approves them.
R2 → PRE
Positive pending-for-reclaim lifecycle row; GSTR3B stays blank.
R3 → TR
Negative reversal that neutralizes a reclaim with no eligible preceding TR.
R3 standalone RE → TA + TR
For exactly one positive RE, retain it and add positive TA plus negative TR of the same tax-head amounts. Both purchaser entry and claim use the approved posting date. Confirm complete history and approve both rows before import; this pair has zero net amount.
R5 → TR
Negative reversal that neutralizes a whole reclaim beyond available TR.
R6 → RE
Positive re-availment that neutralizes a whole reversal beyond available TA.
Download the prepared dataset
After approving every proposal and continuing to the final screen, choose Download CSV for the same 15 template columns, including all normalized input and approved generated rows in the displayed order. Canonical claim codes, complete dates and signed two-decimal amounts are preserved.
Download review details adds record type, source rows, rule ID, corrective-action label, explanation and approval. This expanded report is for review, not template re-import. Both files are UTF-8 CSVs with Excel-compatible encoding. Formula-like text is prefixed with an apostrophe for spreadsheet safety; negative tax amounts are not changed. CSV cannot enforce Excel cell types—import identifier columns as Text if leading zeros must be preserved. Drafts remain in browser memory, so download your results before leaving or refreshing.
Financial-data safeguards
These controls intentionally favor visible review over silent assumptions.
- Imported source rows are never changed or deleted by reconciliation.
- Generated rows carry their rule ID and supporting source-row numbers.
- The user chooses every generated-row posting date.
- Every proposed physical row requires explicit approval.
- A matching later physical row suppresses duplicate proposals.
- Partial tax-head allocations stay in human review instead of being estimated.
- Money uses exact decimal arithmetic; binary floating-point is not used.
- The same normalized input and rule version produce the same output.
Rule directions and statutory deadline configuration are versioned and provisional until practitioner or client sign-off. The active configuration is always applied consistently; it is never selected from the current clock.