How to File GSTR-1 for a Restaurant: A Step-by-Step Walkthrough
A practical walkthrough of preparing and filing GSTR-1 for a restaurant: reconciling invoices, B2B vs B2C, delivery-app orders, credit notes and due dates.
GSTR-1 is the return where you report your outward supplies — everything you sold in the period. For a restaurant that mostly means a large number of small invoices, plus a smaller set of business customers and any orders that came through delivery apps. Here is how the work breaks down, in the order it is easiest to do it. Due dates and formats are updated by the government from time to time, so confirm the current ones on the GST portal or with your CA.
Who files, and when
Regular (non-composition) registered restaurants file GSTR-1 either monthly, by the 11th of the following month, or quarterly under the QRMP scheme, where invoice details for the first two months go through an optional facility and the quarterly return is due shortly after quarter-end. Composition dealers do not file GSTR-1 at all; they follow a different, simpler return cycle.
Step 1: Close the period cleanly
Make sure every bill for the month is finalised. Open orders, unsettled tables and half-refunded bills all produce wrong numbers. If you use a POS, run its end-of-day or end-of-month close first.
Step 2: Check the invoice sequence
Invoice numbers should run in an unbroken sequence per financial year. Look for gaps and duplicates before you file. Cancelled or voided bills need to be accounted for rather than simply missing, because the return includes a summary of documents issued, and a mismatch there invites questions.
Step 3: Separate the customer types
- Business customers with a GSTIN (B2B) — reported invoice by invoice with the customer’s GSTIN. This is what lets them claim credit, so an error here hurts them first. Verify the GSTINs.
- Consumers without a GSTIN (B2C) — reported in summary form, grouped by tax rate rather than bill by bill, unless an individual invoice is above the threshold that requires it to be shown separately.
- Orders through delivery apps — the app collects and pays the tax on those under Section 9(5), so they are reported in their own section and should not be double-taxed.
Step 4: Handle refunds and corrections
A refund or a corrected bill needs a credit note or a debit note, reported in the return. Voiding a bill silently in the POS without a matching document is one of the commonest reasons a return does not tie back to the books.
Step 5: Prepare the HSN/SAC summary
The return asks for a summary by classification code and tax rate. Restaurant services fall under SAC 9963, so most of your summary should be a single line per rate, with the taxable value and the CGST and SGST for each.
Step 6: Reconcile before you file
Compare the totals against your books: taxable sales, tax collected, and credit notes. Also compare against your payment settlements. Any difference you cannot explain now becomes a problem when the GSTR-3B is filed and the department cross-checks the two returns.
Step 7: Preview, file and follow with GSTR-3B
Review the summary on the GST portal, file the return with your EVC or digital signature as applicable, and then file GSTR-3B, which reports the tax you owe and pays it. The two returns must agree; mismatches are a common trigger for notices.
Where software helps
Almost all of the above is assembly work that shouldn’t need a human if the data is clean at the source. In EasyBills, every bill is posted as an accounting entry with its tax split when it is created, so GSTR-1 can be prepared from your own invoices, and it can be filed from inside the app in one tap. GSTR-3B is prepared and reconciled too, then exported for you to upload on the portal. Whichever route you take, have your CA review the first few filings so you know the numbers are right.