GST billing for restaurants: a simple guide

GST trips up more small restaurants than almost anything else on the accounting side — not because it’s hard, but because it’s fiddly, and a wrong bill is a headache later. Here’s the plain version. (Rules change and your situation may differ, so treat this as a starting point and confirm specifics with your accountant.)

Which rate applies to you

For most standalone restaurants in India, the answer is simpler than people expect:

• 5% GST, without input tax credit — this is the standard rate for the vast majority of restaurants, whether you’re serving dine-in, takeaway, or delivery.
• 18% GST — applies if your restaurant operates inside a hotel where the declared room tariff is ₹7,500 or more per night.

The trade-off with the 5% rate is that you can’t claim input tax credit on your purchases. That’s already baked into the lower rate, so for most owners it’s not a decision to make — it’s just how restaurant GST works.

What a compliant bill actually needs

A GST invoice isn’t just a total with “+GST” scribbled on it. To be compliant, each bill should carry:

• Your business name and GSTIN
• A unique, sequential invoice number
• The date of the bill
• Line items with the amount for each
• The HSN/SAC code for the service
• The tax breakup — CGST and SGST shown separately (each is half of your total GST rate), not just a single lumped figure
• The final total including tax

If you’re handing customers a receipt that just says “Total: ₹610,” that’s not a GST bill — and at scale that becomes a real problem at filing time.

Set it up once, not every bill

The mistake is treating GST as something you calculate per order. You shouldn’t be doing arithmetic during a rush. The right setup:

1. Enter your GSTIN and rate once in your billing software.
2. Let every bill apply the tax and split CGST/SGST automatically.
3. Make sure HSN/SAC codes are attached to your items so they print on the invoice.
4. Keep bills sequentially numbered automatically — no gaps, no duplicates.

Done this way, GST stops being a daily chore and becomes something that just happens correctly in the background.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Charging 18% when you should charge 5% (or vice-versa) — get your rate right for your setup and stick to it.
• Not splitting CGST and SGST — a single combined line isn’t compliant.
• Skipping the GSTIN on the customer copy.
• Manual invoice numbers that end up with gaps or repeats.

None of these are hard to fix — they just need to be handled once, in software, instead of by hand every service.

Tournant applies your GST rate, splits CGST/SGST, attaches HSN codes, and numbers every invoice automatically — set it once and forget it. Start a free 30-day trial. See also: how to choose a POS for your small restaurant.