Reconcile your purchases with GSTR-2B

Why this matters now

GSTR-2B is the list of purchase documents your suppliers have reported to the government. If a purchase you paid for is not on that list, the tax credit on it is at risk — credit on a registered supplier’s bill (Table 4(A)(5)) can only be claimed for a bill your GSTR-2B shows (CGST Act, section 16(2)(aa)), on top of the Act’s other conditions, so a supplier who has not filed holds up your credit until they do.

Finding this out while you can still chase the supplier is the whole point. Finding it out after you file is a correction.

Get the file

The 2B file comes from the GST portal, not from us.

1. Sign in at gst.gov.in with your own credentials.
2. Go to Returns Dashboard, choose the month, and open GSTR-2B.
3. Download it in JSON format — not the Excel one.

It has to be the 2B for the GSTIN this business is registered under. A file for a different GSTIN reads perfectly well and would tell you every one of your suppliers had failed to file, so we check and refuse it.

Upload it

Go to GST, choose the period, and on the Returns tab follow Check your purchase bills against GSTR-2B (IMS). Upload the JSON there and choose Upload and match. If anything is wrong with the file we refuse the whole thing and tell you what was wrong — we never read half of it and save what we could, because a half-read file makes suppliers look like they did not file when they did.

Uploading the same month again simply replaces it. The most recent upload is the one you see.

Reading the result

Every purchase and every document in the file lands in one of six groups.

1. Matched — the document is in both places and the amounts agree. Nothing to do.
2. Amounts don't agree — the document is in both places but the totals do not match. Both figures are shown side by side.
3. Not in GSTR-2B — it is in your books but not in the file. This is the one that costs money: your supplier has probably not filed it.
4. Not in your books — it is in the file but not recorded here. Either a purchase you have not entered, or someone else's invoice against your GSTIN.
5. Your supplier has reduced this — your supplier reported a credit note against you, and your books have no matching purchase return. Until you record one, you are counting input tax your supplier has taken back.
6. We couldn't check these — a purchase with no supplier GSTIN or no supplier invoice number. There is nothing to match on, so we say so rather than calling it missing.

We allow a one-rupee difference before calling something a mismatch. Rounding differs between two systems and chasing a supplier over a rupee helps nobody.

Chasing a supplier

Where a supplier has documents missing from 2B and you have their phone number on file, there is a button that opens WhatsApp with the list already written out. You send it; we do not send anything for you.

We record that you opened it, so “when did we last chase them” has an answer next month.

What we do not do

The comparison itself changes nothing. It does not accept or reject anything in IMS — that happens on the portal, usually by your CA. It does not claim, adjust or reverse any tax credit, and matching moves no figure in your books or your returns.