Invoices and GST for a rental business, in plain language

This is general information, not tax advice. Confirm what applies to your business with a tax consultant — rates and thresholds change from time to time.

Plenty of tent houses run without invoices and get along fine. The problem arrives with growth: schools, companies, government offices and larger hotels simply will not pay without one. The day you want that work, invoicing stops being optional.

What an invoice must carry

A hire invoice is short. It needs:

• Your business name, address and phone
• An invoice number and date — sequential, with no gaps
• The customer's name and address
• The item list: goods, quantity, number of days, rate, amount
• Transport and labour on their own lines
• Total, advance received, balance due
• Your GSTIN and tax shown separately, if you are registered

The sequence matters most. Broken numbering is the first thing anyone checking your books will notice.

When GST starts applying

GST does not apply to every business. There is an annual turnover threshold above which registration becomes compulsory, it differs between goods and services, and it varies by state.

Tent work is generally treated as a service rather than a sale — you are not selling the goods, you are letting someone use them. That affects both the rate and the classification.

Putting exact figures here would be unwise, because they change. Take your turnover to a consultant once; a single sitting settles it.

Invoice before you register, too

You can issue invoices without GST registration — they simply show no tax. This is usually called a bill of supply.

It buys you three things: customer confidence, proof of what is owed, and a clear picture at year end of how much work you actually did.

Keep the books separate

One mistake almost everyone makes: business money and household money in the same place. At month end it becomes impossible to say what the business earned.

Keep a separate business account and record expenses in it — diesel, labour, repairs, godown rent. Profit only becomes visible once the costs are written down too.

A practical order

1. From today, issue an invoice for every job, even handwritten
2. Keep the numbers sequential and keep a copy
3. Record expenses in the same place you record income
4. Once a year, show the whole thing to a consultant

The day a large customer asks for an invoice, you will be ready.