Reconciliation habits that prevent notices later

Most of the GST trouble we are asked to fix did not begin with a difficult question of law. It began with a reconciliation nobody ran.

Where the gaps appear

• Credit claimed on an invoice the supplier never filed
• Sales recorded in the books but omitted from GSTR-1
• Debit and credit notes issued after the return was filed
• Branch transfers treated inconsistently between locations

Each is small in the month it happens. Twelve months later it is a demand with interest attached.

What a monthly routine looks like

1. Download GSTR-2B on the day it is generated
2. Match it against the purchase register, line by line, before filing 3B
3. List the mismatches and chase the supplier the same week
4. Keep the working papers — they are the answer to a future notice

The firms that never receive a scrutiny notice are rarely the ones with the cleverest positions. They are the ones whose records agree with themselves.

The credit deadline

Input credit for a financial year cannot be claimed indefinitely. Once the cut-off passes, a credit you were entitled to is simply lost — and no amount of reconciliation afterwards recovers it. That single fact is the argument for doing this monthly rather than at the year end.