Start a business today. Here's the whole journey — and where BillForge meets you at every stage.
Forget what's "new." This is the full picture: every stage an Indian business actually goes through — billing, getting paid, buying, paying tax, filing — and exactly what BillForge does at each one, as it stands today.
Free during launch · no card required · export your data any time
The penalty isn't for owing tax. It's for getting it wrong.
Compliance in India is a chain — and it breaks at the weakest link, usually the moment you raise an invoice.
Wrong invoice = wrong return
A missing GSTIN, a gap in your invoice numbers, or CGST charged where it should have been IGST — each one quietly breaks your GSTR-1 and invites a query. The mistake is made the moment you bill, long before you file.
Lost Input Tax Credit is real money gone
Every rupee of GST you paid on a genuine business expense is yours to claim back. Miss the bill, mis-tag it, or claim something ineligible under Section 17(5), and you either overpay tax or hand the department a reason to disallow it.
Books that don't match the bank
When your recorded income doesn't tie to what actually landed in your account, your CA can't sign off and you can't trust your own numbers. Reconciliation is where most spreadsheets and invoice apps fall apart.
A deadline you didn't see coming
GSTR-1, GSTR-3B, TDS deposit, TDS return, MSME-1 — five clocks, different dates, late fees and 18% interest if you miss one. The penalty isn't for owing tax; it's for being late.
The five jobs every Indian business has to get right
Here's what the law expects — and how BillForge does each one for you.
Day one: your first invoice
What the law wants
A tax invoice needs a gap-free serial number (Rule 46), the right GSTIN, the correct place of supply, and CGST+SGST or IGST split accordingly — get any of these wrong on invoice #1 and you're compounding the mistake on every invoice after it.
What BillForge does
BillForge numbers your invoices gap-free per financial year automatically, picks CGST+SGST vs IGST from the place of supply, validates the GSTIN, and adds the right HSN/SAC code. Proformas, tax invoices, credit notes and debit notes are all first-class documents — including proper amendment support when an issued invoice needs correcting later. You can't accidentally issue a non-compliant invoice from day one.
First month: money starts moving — and it has to match
What the law wants
Your declared income has to match the money in your bank. Cash receipts of ₹2 lakh or more (Section 269ST) are not allowed, and every rupee you record as "paid" needs a real transaction behind it.
What BillForge does
Import your bank statement, PayPal and Razorpay settlements and BillForge matches each payment to its invoice — splitting out gateway fees, currency conversion and TDS withheld so the figure that settles the invoice is exact, in INR or a foreign currency. Advance payments before an invoice even exists get their own tracking and apply cleanly once the invoice is raised. What's left unmatched is shown plainly so nothing slips through as unaccounted income.
First purchase: claim your Input Tax Credit — and pay vendors on time
What the law wants
ITC can only be claimed on eligible business purchases, with a valid supplier invoice, not on the blocked items in Section 17(5) — and if your supplier is a registered MSME, Section 43B(h) requires you to pay them within 45 days or lose the expense deduction entirely.
What BillForge does
Record vendor bills and expenses, and BillForge tracks the GST you can claim, flags Section 17(5) ineligible credit, and rolls it into your tax position — so you claim everything you're owed and nothing you're not. Every vendor bill's payment status is tracked against the real 45-day MSME window (Section 43B(h)), with the MSME-1 half-yearly return ready to export the moment it's due.
First payment to a professional or contractor: deduct and deposit TDS
What the law wants
Pay a professional or contractor and you may have to withhold TDS (e.g. under Section 194J or 194Q), deposit it, and report it quarterly on Form 26Q — with higher rates if their PAN is inactive.
What BillForge does
BillForge's TDS engine works out what to withhold, records it against the payment, tracks your TDS challans, and exports a portal-ready Form 26Q — instead of you reverse-engineering it at quarter-end from a spreadsheet.
Every month and quarter, for as long as you're in business: file on time
What the law wants
GSTR-1 (your sales), GSTR-3B (your summary and payment), TDS deposits and returns, MSME-1 — each on its own deadline, forever, for as long as the business exists.
What BillForge does
Your GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B are built from the same clean data you billed and reconciled — including credit-note excess correctly carried forward into a later period instead of vanishing, and CDNR amendments reflected in Table 9A. Ready to review and file, not rebuilt from scratch, every single period. Filing-due reminders land in your inbox before the date, not after.
What the government wants vs what most tools give you
The gap between “tracked” and “handled” is exactly where BillForge lives.
| The government wants | Most tools | BillForge | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Invoice numbering | Consecutive, gap-free, unique per year. | Let you type any number — gaps and duplicates slip through. | Issues the next number for you. A gap is impossible by design. |
| GST split | CGST+SGST within your state, IGST across states. | You pick the tax type and hope it's right. | Derives it from the place of supply automatically. |
| Money vs books | Declared income must match bank receipts. | Invoicing and bank live in separate worlds. | Reconciles bank, PayPal and Razorpay to each invoice. |
| Vendor payments | Registered MSME vendors must be paid within 45 days (Sec 43B(h)) or the expense is disallowed. | No visibility into which bills are ageing toward the deadline. | Tracks every vendor bill's 45-day window and exports MSME-1. |
| Returns | GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B, accurate and on time. | Export a CSV and let your CA assemble it. | Builds both from your real data, ready to review. |
| Your accountant | Wants a clean, verifiable trail. | Email a pile of files back and forth. | A read-only, PIN-protected link to everything, always current. |
The safety net that lets you sleep
Correct books are the floor. These are the things that keep them correct.
A read-only link for your CA
Share one secure, PIN-protected link. Your accountant sees invoices, bank, expenses, vendor bills, GSTR-1, GSTR-3B and a ledger — and can raise queries against any month. No exporting, no version chaos, no giving away your password.
MSME payment tracking, not just an afterthought
Section 43B(h)'s 45-day clock on registered-MSME vendor payments runs quietly in the background from the moment you record the bill — long before it becomes a year-end scramble to explain a disallowed expense.
Reminders before the deadline
GST, TDS and MSME-1 due dates arrive by email before they're due, so a missed filing is one less thing that can happen to you.
An always-on health check
BillForge continuously checks its own books for things that shouldn't be there — duplicate payments, numbers that don't reconcile, broken links — and surfaces them before your CA (or the department) does.
Your data is yours
Export everything — invoices, payments, vendor bills, ledgers — to CSV any time. No lock-in, no holding your records hostage.
Why founders switch to BillForge
Whatever you're using today, here's the honest comparison.
Instead of
A spreadsheet + your CA
Cheap, until a typo flows into a return or a deadline slips. Every month is manual, and your CA is reconstructing your business from screenshots.
With BillForge
The same low effort, but the numbers are correct at the source and your CA reviews instead of rebuilds.
Instead of
A generic invoice app
Makes a pretty invoice, then stops. No reconciliation, no ITC, no vendor tracking, no returns — the hard 80% is still on you.
With BillForge
Takes you from your first invoice all the way to a filed return, with the money matched and the vendors paid on time in between.
Instead of
Heavy accounting software
Powerful, but built for trained accountants. You'll pay for a consultant just to set it up and keep using it.
With BillForge
Plain English, made for the founder doing it themselves — without dumbing down the compliance.
Built for the way you actually work — see the version for freelancers, agencies and digital sellers.
Questions founders ask
Do I need to understand GST to use BillForge?▾
No. BillForge applies the rules for you — gap-free numbering, the CGST/SGST/IGST split, HSN/SAC codes, ITC eligibility and TDS. You bill and record payments in plain language; the compliance happens underneath.
Will my books actually match my bank?▾
Yes — that's the point. Import your bank statement, PayPal and Razorpay data and BillForge reconciles each payment to its invoice, separating fees, conversion and TDS so the settled amount is exact. Anything unmatched is shown clearly so you can resolve it.
What happens when I start paying vendors, not just billing clients?▾
Record the vendor's bill and BillForge tracks it the same way it tracks your sales side: GST you can claim back, TDS you may need to withhold, and — if the vendor is a registered MSME — the 45-day payment clock under Section 43B(h), with the MSME-1 return ready when it's due.
Can my chartered accountant work with it?▾
Share a read-only, PIN-protected link and your CA sees invoices, bank, expenses, vendor bills, GSTR-1, GSTR-3B and a ledger — always up to date — and can raise queries by month. No password sharing, no emailing files.
What about GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B?▾
Both are built from the same data you billed and reconciled, ready to review and file — including credit-note excess correctly carried forward to a later period instead of disappearing. Filing-due reminders reach you before the deadline.
Is my data locked in?▾
Never. Export your invoices, payments, vendor bills and ledgers to CSV whenever you want. Your records belong to you.
Stop tracking your compliance. Start trusting it.
Correct GST and TDS, reconciliation that matches your bank, returns ready to file, and a read-only link your CA will thank you for.