GSTZen E-Invoice – Database Connector Live Demo

With GSTN mandating E-Invoicing since 1st October, a constant question we get asked by our customer is How do I create an electronic invoice?

GSTZen is developing an E-Invoice software that will help you create E-Invoices through an Excel connector or your ERP.

This article provides an answer to the question - How does E-Invoice work? This article explains in detail, how you may create an E-Invoice through SAP Business One.

GSTZen E-Invoicing Integrations

GSTZen supports a variety of methods through which you may generate E-Invoices:

• GSTZen Billing application - You may directly punch-in invoices in GSTZen's E-Invoice Billing Application

• E-Invoice Excel Connector - Import invoices from Excel

• Custom ERPs - Should you have a custom or in-house ERP in your organization, GSTZen will fetch invoices directly from your database and create E-Invoices

• GSTZen will also be able to integrate with popular ERPs such as Tally, SAP, Oracle, Microsoft NAV/Dynamics and fetch your invoices directly from your current ERP to create E-Invoices

E-Invoicing portal account

Kindly register your GST number at the E-Invoicing portal and obtain a Username, Password, Client ID and Client Secret. These credentials are essential to creating an E-Invoice.

Please refer to the article on How to create E-Invoicing portal account for information on creating an account with the E-Invoicing portal

You may also watch the video to understand how to create an account with the E-Invoicing portal.

Schematic Representation of the Database Connector

ERP Setup

• All invoice related information users create using their front end ERP software is stored in the ERP database.
• GSTZen's On-Prem ERP Connector that will run locally on your network. This will ensure that you do not expose your database to the internet.

GSTZen On-Prem ERP Connector

E-Invoice creation process

• Step 1 - GSTZen connector will pull invoice data from your ERP.
• Step 2 - GSTZen connector will validate the invoice and create a JSON file as per the schema and push it to the IRP and register E-Invoice.
• Step 3 - Once GSTZen receives the IRN number from the government IRP portal, GSTZen will push the IRN number to your database.

GSTZen On-Prem ERP Connector with Cloud Integration

E-Invoice creation process

• Step 1 - GSTZen connector will pull invoice data from your ERP.
• Step 2 - GSTZen connector will validate the invoice and create a JSON file. The connector will now push this data through GSTZen Cloud to the IRP to register the E-Invoice. This will provide you access to the other benefits of GSTZen software such as Reconciliation, Return filing and other reports.
• Step 3 - Once GSTZen receives the IRN number from the government IRP portal, GSTZen will push the IRN number to your database.

Benefits of the Database Connector

• Works with any ERP

If the ERPs are created in-house, by a small scale IT company or by an organization outside of India, it may not be feasible to incorporate E-Invoicing services into the ERP in the near future.

Using GSTZen's database connector, users do not have to configure their ERP specifically for E-Invoicing.

• Invoice creation workflow will remain unchanged

Users creating invoices using the ERP will experience no change in the invoice creation procedure. This will eliminate the process of training front end employees.

• No additional process

E-Invoice integration will only require the initial one-time setup and hence, this integration will not add steps in your current invoice creation process.

• High data quality

Since invoice data is directly pulled from the ERP there are no chances of errors in the invoice data.

The process to install Database Connector

• Understand your Database

It is vital that you have a clear understanding of where your invoices are stored, how the fields are linked together, etc.

• Map all mandatory fields

For your compliance requirement, map all the mandatory fields as per E-Invoice Schema.

• Map optional fields as per business requirements

Fields such as BarCode number, Batch Number, Warranty period, Product Serial/Model number, etc may be mandatory for your business; however not as per the E-Invoice schema. Map any and all such fields that are your business requirements.

• Sync invoices at a push of a button

Once the configuration is done, you may choose to sync invoices with GSTZen using a push of a button or configure auto-sync to fetch data from your database periodically.

Database Integration with GSTZen to create E-Invoices

1. Add GSTIN

• On the E-Invoicing Dashboard, click on the tab GSTINs
• Click on Add a new GSTIN

• Enter the GSTIN and Registered Name

• Once you enter the GSTIN details, you will be re-directed to the Dashboard tab. Click on Home

2. Login to API Portal

• Click on Login

• Enter the API Portal Username, Password, Client ID, and Secret Key
• Click on Login

• Click on Home

3. Connect to your Database

• Click on Settings at the top-right corner of the dashboard

• Under Data Source Settings, click on your Database Type

• Enter your Database information and click on Save changes and Test Connection

• You will now see that the database is successfully connected with GSTZen. You may click on Change Data Source Settings if you would like to connect to a different database

4. Map Database Settings

• Click on Click here to map your database against the E-Invoice schema

• GSTZen will display a list of all tables in your database. For E-Invoice creation, GSTZen has created a table named invoices_for_irn. Click on Use this View against it to access the E-Invoice table

• You will now be able to map columns from your database to the E-Invoice Schema for all sections of data

• You will now be required to enter the source of each E-Invoice field. This is a one-time activity and will allow GSTZen to fetch invoice information from your database

• Once you enter the source for all required fields, click on Save Column Mapping Configuration

• Click on Go Back to view the status of the Data Mapping. GSTZen will consider that the mapping is complete if all mandatory fields as per E-Invoicing Schema are provided.

• You may update the column mapping anytime by clicking on Change Mapping

5. Sync Invoices

• Click on Home
• Click on the Sync Invoices tab
• Click on the Sync Invoices button to sync all invoices from the database with GSTZen

• Click on the Dashboard tab to view and verify the status of e-invoices

• Click on the Invoices tab to view the status of each E-Invoice

• You may refresh the page after some time to view the updated status.

• Under the Invoices tab, you may click on the Invoice Number to view the invoice. E-Invoice PDF format with the IRN and QR Code is also available for download.