GSTR-6: distributing and filing Input Service Distributor credit

GSTR-6 is the monthly return of an Input Service Distributor (ISD): the registration that receives tax invoices for services shared across your business, such as audit, advertising or head-office software, and passes the input tax credit (ITC) on to your other registrations under the same PAN. In xMatix, a GSTR 6 record is created for each ISD registration every month. You run three steps on it — Process GSTR6 reads the credit you received from your tax ledger, Distribute ISD Credit issues the ISD invoices and credit notes that split it between your registrations, and Calculate ITC checks that everything received was distributed. You then either file through your GSP integration or file on the government portal yourself and use Record Manual Filing. An ISD registration files GSTR-6 instead of GSTR-1, GSTR-2B and GSTR-3B, and does not file the annual GSTR-9.

Overview

Each GSTR 6 record covers one ISD GSTIN and one monthly return period. The standard record page has five tabs:

• ISD Source Document — the credit received in the month: one row per inward invoice or note, with its eligible and ineligible tax and, once the GSTR-6A has been pulled, its match with what the supplier reported.
• ISD Distribution — the ISD invoices and ISD credit notes that pass the credit on: one per received document and credit pool, each with its ISD serial (see The ISD distribution documents).
• ISD Recipient Allocation — how each distribution document was split between your registrations: the ratio, the tax as received and the tax as passed on.
• Detail — the header fields: Name, ISD Account, ARN, Status, Total Documents, Total ITC Distributed, Total ITC Received, Filed At and Period.
• Reconciliation — the return summary by form table, and your books compared with the auto-drafted GSTR-6A on the portal.

The page header shows the record's Name, Period, Total ITC Received and Total ITC Distributed, and carries the buttons Record Manual Filing, Process GSTR6, Distribute ISD Credit and Calculate ITC.

When to use it

Use GSTR-6 every month for each GST Registration that has Enable ISD switched on. A registration without it files GSTR-1, GSTR-2B and GSTR-3B instead (see GSTR-3B). Work on a month's GSTR-6 once the month's purchase bills for the ISD GSTIN are posted, so their input tax is in the ledger.

How xMatix handles it

Records are created for you. The Provision GST returns scheduled job, or the Provision GST Returns action on a GST Registration or a GST fiscal period, creates one Draft GSTR-6 per active ISD registration per month. It is named after the GSTIN and period and labelled, for example, "GSTR-6 Aug 2026". Running provisioning again never creates a duplicate. See The GST console.

Three steps, in order. Each step moves the record's Status forward:

Rebuilding is safe and repeatable. Process GSTR6 and Distribute ISD Credit replace only the rows they built last time; rows imported from the portal are never touched. Running Process GSTR6 again takes the return back to Computed, and Distribute ISD Credit back to Distributed. Both clear Computed At, so run Calculate ITC again afterwards. Processing again keeps what you decided on the previous build: a document's attributed recipient and its GSTR-6A Accept or Reject decision are carried over to the rebuilt row, matched by supplier GSTIN, document number and type.

The GSTR-6A decides what is reported. An ISD may distribute only credit its suppliers reported. Before the month's GSTR-6A has been pulled, every received document counts. Once it has been pulled, each document in your books is marked Matched (the portal has the same supplier GSTIN and number, with every tax head and the value within ₹1), Partial (the portal has it with different amounts) or MissingInGstin (the portal does not have it). Only Matched documents, and Partial documents you have accepted, are reported and distributed. The rest are held back: they stay on the ISD Source Document tab but are left out of Total ITC Received, the distribution and the GSTN save. A document you rejected is never reported.

How the credit is split (Rule 39).

• Who receives it. The recipients are the ISD Recipient Turnover records that are Is Operational, carry a Recipient GSTIN with the same PAN as the ISD (a record without a GSTIN is also included), and are effective in the return month by their Effective From and Effective To dates (a blank date is open). When one GSTIN has several such records, only the one with the latest Effective From, then the latest Financial Year, counts. Records without a GSTIN are never merged in this way: each one that is operational and effective counts as a separate recipient.
• Turnover is worked out for you when none is on file. If no such record exists for the ISD and month, Process GSTR6 and Distribute ISD Credit create them from your books. The recipients are your other active GST Registrations under the ISD's PAN that do not have Enable ISD. Each one's turnover is the taxable value of its outward invoices and debit notes, less credit notes, excluding tax. xMatix uses the previous financial year when every recipient had sales in it, and the record is effective for the whole current year. Otherwise it uses the last quarter in which every recipient had sales, falling back to the quarter just before the return month, and the record is effective for the return month only. The records are named "Auto", followed by the GSTIN and the year. They are never created when a record you entered is already in scope, so turnover you enter or correct always wins. This works for all recipients at once: a single record in scope for the ISD and month, for any unit, stops xMatix creating records for the others, which then receive nothing. If you enter turnover yourself, enter it for every unit.
• Pro-rata. Each pool is split in proportion to each recipient's Turnover: its turnover divided by the total turnover of all recipients in scope. A recipient whose Turnover is blank or zero gets an allocation of ₹0 when any other recipient has a turnover. Only when no recipient has a turnover on file is the pool split equally.
• Attributed. If a received document names an Attributed Recipient, its whole credit goes to that recipient. Process GSTR6 sets it for you when a purchase bill's Shipping Address carries the GSTIN of one of the recipients: the service was received at that unit, so its credit is that unit's. A shipping address with the ISD's own GSTIN, or with a GSTIN that is not a recipient, attributes nothing.
• Tax heads. IGST stays IGST. A recipient in the same state as the ISD receives CGST as CGST and SGST as SGST. A recipient in another state, or one marked Is SEZ, receives CGST and SGST as IGST. Each allocation keeps both the amounts as received and the amounts as distributed.
• Eligible and ineligible credit stay apart. Credit you blocked in the ledger is distributed as ineligible (form table 5B), so the recipient cannot claim it. Eligible credit is distributed under table 5A.

ISD document serials (Rule 54). Every ISD invoice and ISD credit note gets a serial of at most 16 characters: the Prefix of the active ISD Document Series for the financial year and document type, followed by its next number. The series' Last Serial Number and Next Serial Number move on. If the financial year has no active series, Distribute ISD Credit creates one: "ISD invoices 2026-27" with the prefix ISD/2627/ and "ISD credit notes 2026-27" with the prefix ISDCN/2627/, each starting at 1. Running Distribute ISD Credit again on the same return re-issues its own earlier serials first, so redistributing does not use up numbers or leave gaps. The series has no GSTIN, so if your tenant has more than one ISD registration, their returns draw from the same counter for the year.

Filing through the GSP is a staged exchange. The GSTN save and submit are asynchronous. Save to GSTN queues the return, Check Save Status fetches GSTN's verdict, Submit to GSTN freezes the saved return at GSTN, and Submit File to GSTN files it. None of these buttons talks to GSTN directly. Each one prepares the request on the return, and your tenant's GSP integration flows send it and write the answer back.

The received documents

Each row on the ISD Source Document tab is one invoice, credit note or debit note on which the ISD received credit in the month. The tab lists Name, Supplier GSTIN, Taxable Value, Filing Period and Document Type. A row's record page shows Name, Cess, CGST, Document Date, Document Number, Document Type, Filing Period, IGST, Is ISD Eligible, Match Status, SGST, Supplier GSTIN, Taxable Value, GSTR 6 and Total Tax, and has no buttons in its header. The eligible and ineligible split, the attribution and the GSTR-6A decision are kept on every row but are not on the standard record page (see Fields).

• Two kinds of row. Rows built by Process GSTR6 come from your books: one per source document, such as a bill or a note, whose input tax lines are for the ISD GSTIN and dated in the return month. A document whose tax adds up to zero gets no row. Rows imported by Pull From GSTIN come from the GSTR-6A: one per invoice or note your suppliers reported. Each kind is deleted and rebuilt only by its own action, and only rows from your books carry the eligible and ineligible split and are distributed. The tab shows both kinds together, so a document that is in your books and in the GSTR-6A appears twice.
• Amounts. IGST, CGST, SGST and Cess are the tax on the document, and Total Tax is their sum, eligible and ineligible together. Total ITC Received on the return is the sum of Total Tax over the rows from your books that the return reports. Taxable Value adds up the document's taxable lines, and Invoice Value is taxable value plus tax (for a GSTR-6A row, the value the supplier reported).
• Eligible and ineligible pools. A tax line counts as eligible only when its ITC eligibility is Eligible. The eligible tax goes to Eligible IGST, Eligible CGST, Eligible SGST and Eligible Cess, everything else to the four Ineligible fields, and Ineligible Reason shows the first blocked reason found on the ineligible lines. Is ISD Eligible is on when any of the document's tax is eligible; a document can be eligible and still carry an ineligible pool.
• Match Status. Every row from your books starts as MissingInGstin. Once a GSTR-6A has been pulled for the month, each row is paired with the GSTR-6A row that has the same supplier GSTIN and document number (spaces and letter case ignored) and marked Matched when taxable value, every tax head and invoice value agree within ₹1, Partial when they differ, and MissingInGstin when there is no GSTR-6A row. Before any pull the status gates nothing, so MissingInGstin on every row is normal at that point. GSTR-6A rows are not marked.
• Portal Action holds your GSTR-6A decision on a row from your books: Accept or Reject, blank or Pending when you have not decided. Accepting or rejecting one row applies to every row of your books with the same supplier GSTIN and document number. GSTR-6A rows are imported as Pending, and the value has no effect on them.
• Reverse charge. Is Reverse Charge is on when any of the document's input tax lines is reverse charge, and RCM Transfer Source GSTIN then holds the party GSTIN of those lines. Reverse-charge credit is pooled and distributed exactly like any other credit.
• Tax Rate is the rate of the document's first tax line, or of the first slab of a GSTR-6A row. A document with several rates shows only one of them.
• Do not edit the rows. Every Process GSTR6 deletes the rows from your books and builds them again, so changes you make by hand are lost. Only the attribution and the GSTR-6A decision are carried over to the rebuilt row. A row you add to the return with New counts as a row from your books, so the next Process GSTR6 removes it too. Until then it can count as received credit, but without an eligible or ineligible pool nothing is distributed for it, so Calculate ITC does not reach Validated. Correct the bill, its tax lines or its shipping address, and process again.

The ISD distribution documents

Each row on the ISD Distribution tab is one ISD invoice or ISD credit note: the document through which the ISD passes one credit pool of one received document on to the recipients. Distribute ISD Credit builds it, and its split between recipients is on the ISD Recipient Allocation tab. The rows have no buttons of their own and are rebuilt every time you distribute, so do not change them by hand; correct the source (the bill, the turnover records or the attribution) and distribute again.

The document's record page shows its Name, Distribution Method, dates, number, type, source document, Total ITC and Status. The serial, pool and tax-head fields below are kept on every document but are not on the standard record page (see Fields).

• One per document and pool. A received document with both eligible and blocked tax produces two documents: one with Is Eligible on and Table Ref 8, reported as 5A, and one with Is Eligible off and Table Ref 9, reported as 5B. A pool of zero produces nothing.
• Type. A received credit note becomes an ISDCreditNote; an invoice or a debit note becomes an ISDInvoice.
• Amounts. IGST, CGST, SGST and Cess are the pool as received, and Total ITC is their sum. The converted amounts each recipient receives are on its allocation row.
• Method. Distribution Method reads Attributed when the whole pool went to one recipient and ProRata when it was split by turnover.
• Dates. Document Date and Filing Period are both the date of the received document. Document Date is what GSTN receives as the ISD document date.
• Numbers. Document Serial and Document Number both hold the ISD serial that GSTN receives. The record's Name comes from the ISD Distribution Name Setting and is only an internal reference.
• Status always reads Distributed. The return's progress is the Status on the GSTR 6 record.

The recipient allocations

Each row on the ISD Recipient Allocation tab is one recipient's share of one ISD invoice or ISD credit note. Distribute ISD Credit builds them together with the distribution documents and deletes and rebuilds them on every run, so do not add or change them by hand. Their record page shows Name, ISD Distribution, Is Eligible, Recipient GSTIN, Recipient State Code, Ratio and the IGST, CGST, SGST and CESS the recipient receives. It has no buttons, and the allocations are in no standard app.

• Who gets a row. An attributed document gets one row, for the attributed recipient, with Ratio 1. Any other document gets one row for every recipient in scope (see How the credit is split), and each row points to the ISD Recipient Turnover record it used.
• Ratio. The recipient's turnover divided by the total turnover of all recipients in scope, or an equal share when no recipient has a turnover. It is shown rounded to 4 decimals; the amounts are worked out from the exact share.
• Rounding. Each tax head of each share is rounded to the paisa separately and nothing absorbs the remainder, so the shares of a pool can differ from it by a few paise. Calculate ITC allows 2 paise per allocation for this.
• As received and as passed on. Source IGST, Source CGST, Source SGST and Source Cess are the share as received. Distributed IGST, Distributed CGST, Distributed SGST and Distributed Cess are what the recipient receives after conversion, and the IGST, CGST, SGST and CESS fields repeat them. For a recipient in the ISD's state the two sets are the same. For a recipient in another state or an SEZ, Distributed IGST is the sum of the three received heads and Distributed CGST and SGST are zero. Cess is never converted. The Source and Distributed fields are not on the standard record page.
• Is Cross State is on when the tax was converted. The state is read from the first two digits of the Recipient GSTIN, not from Recipient State Code, so a recipient with no GSTIN counts as being in the ISD's state unless it is marked Is SEZ.
• What GSTN receives. Save to GSTN groups the allocations by recipient, in separate lists for eligible and ineligible credit. A recipient with a GSTIN is reported as registered under that GSTIN; one without is reported as unregistered under its Recipient State Code. For each ISD document it sends the amounts as received, placed against the head they were distributed as.
• Calculate ITC adds the four Distributed heads of each document's allocations and checks them against the document's Total ITC.

Prerequisites

• The GST Registration for the ISD GSTIN is active, has a GSTIN and has Enable ISD switched on, and the month's GSTR-6 has been provisioned.
• The month's purchase bills for the ISD GSTIN are posted, with the right ITC eligibility on each tax line. For a service received at one unit only, the bill's Shipping Address carries that unit's GSTIN.
• Either ISD Recipient Turnover records for every registration that should receive credit (same PAN as the ISD, Is Operational on, a Turnover, and effective dates covering the month), or GST Registrations for those units whose sales are posted in xMatix, so the turnover can be worked out.
• Optionally, an active ISD Document Series for the financial year for ISD invoices and one for ISD credit notes, if you want your own prefixes or need to continue numbers you issued before using xMatix. Otherwise xMatix creates them. The series has no standard screen, so your administrator sets this up (see Configuration).
• To file through the GSP: your administrator has configured the GSTR-6 integration flows and placed the GSP buttons on the form (see Configuration), you have the GSP action permissions, and the ISD GSTIN's GST Registration has a live GSTN session.

Procedure

Step 1 — Open the return

Open the month's GSTR-6 from the GST console filing card, or from the All GSTR 6 list. On Detail, check the Name, Period and Status. A newly provisioned return is Draft.

Step 2 — Process the received credit

Click Process GSTR6. The ISD Source Document tab now lists one row per inward document for the month, with its supplier GSTIN, document number, taxable value, tax and the eligible and ineligible split. Status becomes Computed, and Total Documents and Total ITC Received are filled.

If your administrator scheduled the Process GSTR-6 data job, this step may already have run overnight.

Step 3 — Pull the GSTR-6A and settle the differences

If your filers use the GSP, do this before you distribute, because the GSTR-6A decides which documents are reported.

1. Click Pull From GSTIN to fetch the auto-drafted GSTR-6A, then click it again once the fetch has finished to import it.
2. Open the Reconciliation tab. Each received document is shown as Matched, Partial, MissingInBooks or MissingInGstin. Amounts within ₹1 count as matching.
3. For a Partial document whose figures in your books are right, accept it so it is reported. For a document you do not want to report this month, reject it. These buttons are not on the standard form; your administrator adds them (see Configuration).
4. A MissingInGstin document usually means the supplier has not reported it yet. It is held back until they do. A MissingInBooks document is one your books do not have: post the bill, then click Process GSTR6 again.

If you file on the portal yourself and never pull the GSTR-6A, every processed document is reported.

Step 4 — Distribute the credit

Click Distribute ISD Credit. The ISD Distribution tab lists one ISD invoice or ISD credit note per document and pool, and ISD Recipient Allocation shows each recipient's share. Status becomes Distributed and Total ITC Distributed is filled.

Check that documents meant for one unit show Attributed in Distribution Method. If one shows ProRata, its bill's Shipping Address does not carry that unit's GSTIN.

If any pool has no recipient to go to, the whole run is refused and the previous distribution is left as it was (see Common problems).

Step 5 — Calculate ITC

Click Calculate ITC. When the ITC received and distributed agree within ₹1, and every distribution has been allocated in full, Status becomes Validated and Computed At is stamped. If they do not agree, Status stays Distributed (a return that was Validated goes back to Distributed) and the return cannot be saved or recorded as filed.

Step 6 — Review the summary

On the Reconciliation tab, the summary shows, with integrated, central, state/UT tax and cess for each line:

• 3 - ITC Received for Distribution — the documents the return reports;
• 4 - Eligible / Ineligible ITC to be Distributed — how that credit divides into the two pools;
• Held back — not reported — documents left out after the GSTR-6A pull, when there are any;
• 6 - Amendments (Received) — amended documents, when there are any;
• 5 - Distribution of ITC — 5A - Eligible ITC distributed and 5B - Ineligible ITC distributed.

Click a line to see the records behind it.

Step 7 — File through the GSP: save, check, submit, file

1. Make sure the ISD GSTIN has a live session: on its GST Registration, click Request GSTN OTP, then Submit OTP with the code you receive, and wait for Auth Status to show Authenticated. A session is treated as expired 6 hours after authentication.
2. On the GSTR-6, click Save to GSTN. The received invoices and notes and the distribution to each recipient are queued for GSTN. Save Status becomes SaveRequested, then Submitted once the gateway issues a GSP Reference Id.
3. Click Check Save Status and reopen the return a few seconds later. Save Status becomes Accepted, or RejectedByGstn with the reasons in GSTN Response. If it is back at Submitted, GSTN is still processing; click again.
4. When Save Status is Accepted, click Submit to GSTN. This freezes the return at GSTN. Save Status becomes FreezeQueued. Click Check Save Status again until it shows Frozen.
5. Click Submit File to GSTN. The first click fetches GSTN's summary of the return. Click it again once the summary has arrived (Save Status SummaryFetched) to file. When GSTN answers, the ARN is filled, Status becomes Filed, Is Filed is set and Filed At is stamped.

Once the return is frozen at GSTN, the three processing steps and the GSTR-6A decisions are refused, so make every correction before step 4.

Step 8 — Or record a filing you made on the portal

If you filed GSTR-6 directly on the government portal, click Record Manual Filing on a Validated return. Enter the ARN (from the GSTN portal) (required, at most 120 characters) and Filed On (defaults to now if left empty). The return becomes Filed. This button sends nothing to GSTN; it only records the outcome.

Step 9 — After filing

A Filed return is a frozen statutory snapshot. Process GSTR6, Distribute ISD Credit and Calculate ITC are refused on it, it cannot be saved or filed again, and the scheduled job skips it. Corrections go through a later period's return.

Fields

Save Status values

ISD source document fields (the ISD Source Document tab). The rows down to Total Tax are on the document's record page. The rest are kept on every row but are not on the standard record page; an administrator can add them, or show them as list columns.

ISD distribution document fields (the ISD Distribution tab). The first ten are on the document's record page, in this order. The rest are not on the standard record page; an administrator can add them, or show them as list columns.

ISD recipient allocation fields (the ISD Recipient Allocation tab). The first eight rows are on the allocation's record page; the rest are kept on every allocation but are not on the standard record page.

ISD recipient turnover fields. These records are not part of a return; they are shared by every GSTR-6 in your tenant. They have no standard screen (see Configuration), so the order of the fields depends on the form your administrator builds.

The full field lists are in the GSTR 6 entity reference, the ISD Distribution entity reference, the ISD Recipient Allocation entity reference and the ISD Recipient Turnover entity reference.

Business rules

• GSTIN check. Saving a GSTR-6 with a malformed GSTIN is refused: "'…' is not a valid 15-character GSTIN."
• Processing reads the ledger by document date. Process GSTR6 reads input tax lines whose own GSTIN is the ISD GSTIN and whose document date falls in the return month. The month comes from the linked GST fiscal period, or from Period when none is linked. Lines are grouped into one received document per source document.
• Eligible or ineligible. A tax line counts as eligible only when its ITC eligibility is Eligible; every other line goes to the ineligible pool, with the first blocked reason found.
• Attribution order. On each Process GSTR6, a bill's shipping-address attribution comes first; otherwise the attribution from the previous build of the same document is kept.
• The GSTR-6A gate. Once the month's GSTR-6A has been pulled, only Matched or accepted documents count towards Total Documents, Total ITC Received, the distribution, Calculate ITC and the GSTN save. Rejected documents never count.
• GSTR-6A decisions. Accept is refused before any GSTR-6A has been pulled ("no GSTR-6A has been pulled for this month, so there is nothing to accept against") and for a document the supplier has not reported ("the supplier has not reported it in GSTR-6A, so its credit cannot be distributed yet"). A decision on a portal-only document is refused ("in GSTR-6A but not in your books — book the bill, then Process."). A decision on a Distributed or Validated return takes it back to Computed and clears Computed At; run Distribute ISD Credit and Calculate ITC again.
• Recipient coverage comes first. Distribute ISD Credit checks that every pool has a recipient before it changes anything. If one does not, nothing is rebuilt.
• Serials are reused, not burned. Redistributing a return re-issues its earlier serials before drawing new ones from the series.
• Table 4 equality. Calculate ITC sets Validated only when ITC received and distributed differ by at most ₹1 and every distribution reconciles to its allocations (allowing ₹0.02 per allocation for rounding).
• Saving needs Validated. Save to GSTN is refused unless Status is Validated, when the return has nothing to send, when the GSTIN has no GST Registration or no live GSTN session, and while a save, submit, summary or status check started less than 5 minutes ago. Amendment rows (tables 6A, 6B, 6C) are not sent.
• Submitting needs Accepted. Submit to GSTN is refused unless Save Status is Accepted.
• Filing needs Frozen. Submit File to GSTN is refused unless the return is Frozen at GSTN (or its summary is being fetched, or a previous file attempt failed). It is never repeated automatically while a filing is in progress.
• Rebuilding voids a save. Processing, distributing or a GSTR-6A decision after a save that is Submitted, Accepted, RejectedByGstn or SubmitFailed clears Save Status and GSP Reference Id; GSTN Response reads "The books were rebuilt after the last save to GSTN; save the return again."
• Frozen means frozen. From Submit to GSTN onwards, the three processing steps and the GSTR-6A decisions are refused and the scheduled job skips the return.
• Record Manual Filing is refused when the return is already Filed, has no valid GSTIN, is not Validated, has no ARN or one longer than 120 characters, or while a GSP filing is in progress (Save Status FileRequested).
• Filed is one-way. Nothing in the product turns a Filed return back to an earlier status.
• Pulling the GSTR-6A. The first click on Pull From GSTIN requests the portal's invoices, notes, ITC and late fee for the period; the second imports them. Invoices and notes become portal-side source documents, replacing only the earlier portal rows of the same section, and Total Documents and Total ITC Received are recalculated. The pull does not change Status. The late-fee section sets Late Fee Payable. A section the portal refused is not imported and its earlier rows are left alone. Amended sections are not pulled. Authenticating an ISD registration also requests the pull for its open-period return.

Example

A company has a head office ISD registration, GSTIN 29AAAAA0000A2Z4, and two operating registrations under the same PAN: 29AAAAA0000A1Z5 in the same state and 27AAAAA0000A1Z3 in another state. Their ISD Recipient Turnover records show turnovers of ₹60,00,000 and ₹40,00,000, both operational and effective for the year. An ISD Document Series for 2026-27 ISD invoices has the prefix "ISD/26-27/" and Next Serial Number 14.

1. In August 2026 the head office posts an audit firm's bill with CGST ₹9,000 and SGST ₹9,000, all eligible. Its shipping address is the head office's own.
2. On "GSTR-6 Aug 2026" the accountant clicks Process GSTR6. One ISD source document appears; Total ITC Received is ₹18,000 and Status is Computed.
3. They pull the GSTR-6A. The audit bill is Matched on the Reconciliation tab, so it stays reported.
4. They click Distribute ISD Credit. One ISD invoice, ISD/26-27/14, appears on the ISD Distribution tab with Distribution Method ProRata, Table Ref 8 and Total ITC ₹18,000. The allocations are:
   • 29AAAAA0000A1Z5, ratio 0.6: CGST ₹5,400 and SGST ₹5,400, kept as received because it is in the same state.
   • 27AAAAA0000A1Z3, ratio 0.4: received as CGST ₹3,600 and SGST ₹3,600, distributed as IGST ₹7,200 because it is in another state.
5. They click Calculate ITC. Received and distributed are both ₹18,000, so Status is Validated.
6. The finance manager authenticates the ISD GSTIN, saves, checks until Accepted, submits, checks until Frozen, and clicks Submit File to GSTN twice. The ARN appears and Status is Filed.

Had the bill's Shipping Address carried 27AAAAA0000A1Z3, the whole ₹18,000 would have gone to that unit as IGST, with Distribution Method Attributed.

Training

Practice exercise

In a sandbox tenant with no ISD Document Series for 2026-27:

1. Switch on Enable ISD on a GST Registration and run Provision GST Returns on it.
2. Create two ISD Recipient Turnover records with GSTINs under the same PAN, Is Operational on, turnovers of 3,00,000 and 1,00,000, and effective dates covering the current month. The records have no standard screen, so first add a list view and form as described under Configuration, or ask your administrator to.
3. Post a purchase bill for the ISD GSTIN in the current month with ₹1,000 of eligible IGST.
4. On the month's GSTR-6, click Process GSTR6, Distribute ISD Credit and Calculate ITC.
5. Note the ISD invoice's Document Number, then click Distribute ISD Credit and Calculate ITC again on the return.

Expected result:

• After step 4, Status is Validated. The ISD Distribution tab shows one ISD invoice with Document Number ISD/2627/1, Distribution Method ProRata and Total ITC ₹1,000, and its allocations are IGST ₹750 and ₹250.
• After step 5, the rebuilt ISD invoice still has Document Number ISD/2627/1, not ISD/2627/2, because redistributing re-issues the return's own serials. Status is back to Validated. Behind the scenes xMatix created the series "ISD invoices 2026-27", whose Next Serial Number is still 2.

Quick reference

• GSTR-6 records are created by provisioning for registrations with Enable ISD.
• Always run Process GSTR6 → Distribute ISD Credit → Calculate ITC, in that order. The statuses are Computed → Distributed → Validated.
• Pull the GSTR-6A before you distribute: after the pull, only Matched or accepted documents are reported.
• Recipients come from ISD Recipient Turnover: operational, same PAN, effective in the month. Without any, xMatix works out the turnover from your other registrations' sales.
• Cross-state and SEZ recipients receive CGST and SGST as IGST.
• A bill shipped to one unit's GSTIN sends its whole credit to that unit.
• One ISD invoice or credit note per received document and pool; serials come from the year's ISD Document Series.
• Only a Validated return can be saved to GSTN or recorded as filed.
• Save → Check Save Status → Submit → Check Save Status → Submit File to GSTN (twice).
• Once frozen at GSTN, the books can no longer be rebuilt for that month.

Permissions

Each button is a server action that a security profile must grant. In the standard profiles:

A user whose profile lacks an action does not get that action. Because the GSP actions transmit a real return to GSTN, grant them deliberately, and only to the finance profile that files returns. The GSTR-6A Accept and Reject decisions are not in the standard profiles; grant them when your administrator adds them. Reading the record also depends on the profile's access to the GSTR 6 entity; see Why can't a user see a record?.

Configuration

• GST registrations.
  • Switch on Enable ISD on the GST Registration of each ISD GSTIN. It then gets a monthly GSTR-6 instead of GSTR-1, GSTR-2B and GSTR-3B, and no GSTR-9.
  • Provision GST Returns on the registration creates the current month's return on demand; on a GST fiscal period it creates that month's returns.
  • Request GSTN OTP and Submit OTP establish the GSTN session that the GSP actions need. A session lasts about 6 hours.
  • Keep a GST Registration, without Enable ISD, for every unit that receives ISD credit. These are the recipients xMatix uses when it works out turnover for you.
• ISD Recipient Turnover. One record per recipient registration and period: Recipient GSTIN, Account, State Code, Turnover, Financial Year, Quarter, Effective From, Effective To, Is Operational, Is Registered and Is SEZ (see the turnover fields).
  • No standard screen. The entity is in no standard app and has no standard list view or form. To review the records xMatix created, or to enter your own, add a list view under Setup → Design Studio → Entities → ISD Recipient Turnover → Experience → Views, a form under Experience → Layouts, and a menu item under Setup → Design Studio → Apps → Manage Items (see Create an entity). In the standard profiles, System Admin, Standard User and Sales Executive have full access to these records.
  • Letting xMatix work it out. Most tenants need nothing here: keep a GST Registration for each receiving unit, without Enable ISD, and post its sales in xMatix. A previous-year record serves the whole financial year. A quarter's record serves one month only, so when a unit had no sales in the previous financial year, xMatix creates new records every month for the rest of the year.
  • Entering it yourself is needed when a unit's sales are not in xMatix, for example sales from before you started using xMatix. Enter a record for every unit under the ISD's PAN, not just the missing one, because one record in scope stops the automatic records for the whole month. Switch Is Operational on and set Effective From and Effective To to cover the months it applies to.
  • Correcting an automatic record. Records named "Auto …" were created from your books and are never overwritten, so you can change their Turnover. To replace one with a record of your own, give the automatic record an Effective To before the months your record covers, or switch its Is Operational off. Two records for the same GSTIN with the same Effective From and Financial Year leave no clear winner.
  • A new year's turnover. When it takes over, give the old record an Effective To. Otherwise only the latest record per GSTIN counts.
  • SEZ units. Switch Is SEZ on, including on records xMatix created, so the unit receives IGST.
  • Units without a GSTIN are never checked against the ISD's PAN and never replaced by a newer record. Close an old one with Effective To or Is Operational, or it keeps receiving a share.
• ISD Document Series. One active record per financial year and Series Type, with a Prefix and the Last and Next Serial Number. If the year has none when Distribute ISD Credit first needs it, xMatix creates the ISD/2627/ and ISDCN/2627/ series itself, and most tenants need nothing more.
  • No standard screen. The series is in no standard app and has no standard list view or form. To see the counters, or to create your own series, add a list view under Setup → Design Studio → Entities → ISD Document Series → Experience → Views, a form under Experience → Layouts, and a menu item under Setup → Design Studio → Apps → Manage Items (see Create an entity). In the standard profiles, System Admin and Standard User have full access to the series.
  • Your own series. Create it before the year's first distribution. Type Financial Year exactly as the Financial Year of your GST fiscal periods (for example 2026-27), type Series Type exactly ISDInvoice or ISDCreditNote, switch Is Active on, and set Next Serial Number to the first number to issue. A series that does not match exactly is ignored and xMatix creates its own beside it.
  • Prefix. Keep it short: prefix and number together are cut to 16 characters, so a long prefix can make two serials identical. A changed prefix applies to numbers issued from then on.
  • Keep the counter moving forward. Never lower Next Serial Number below a number already issued, never keep two active series for the same year and type, and do not switch the year's series off mid-year: the next distribution then creates a new series that starts at 1 again. Each of these can issue a serial twice, which Rule 54(1) does not allow.
  • A new financial year needs nothing: the first distribution of the year creates its series, starting at 1.
• Attribution. The reliable way to send a bill's credit to one unit is the bill's Shipping Address: pick an address whose GSTIN is that unit's GSTIN. The Attributed Recipient field of a received document is not on the standard form and has no picker, so it is not practical to set by hand.
• GSTR-6A decisions. The Accept and Reject actions exist on GSTR 6 but are not part of the standard setup. To offer them:
  • In Setup → Design Studio → Entities → GSTR 6 → Actions, add two server actions with Server Action Name exactly Accept6ADocument and Reject6ADocument, and grant them on the profiles that reconcile.
  • In the form designer, select the statement widget on the Reconciliation tab of the GSTR 6 record layout and add them to Mismatch actions (Partial documents), and add the reject action to Matched actions and Missing in GSTN actions if your filers should be able to leave those out.
• Scheduled jobs (Setup → Administration → Jobs):
  • Provision GST returns creates the Draft returns for the current month in India time.
  • Process GSTR-6 data runs Process GSTR6 on unfiled returns in Open periods, or for a month or GSTIN you name. It does not distribute or calculate. It skips Filed returns and returns frozen at GSTN, makes up to 3 attempts and runs one at a time per tenant.
  • Both run only when a schedule is set for them. Because a nightly reprocess takes a return back to Computed and voids an unsubmitted save, run Distribute ISD Credit and Calculate ITC again before saving.
• Numbering. Distribution documents are named from the ISD Distribution Name Setting (series ISD). This name is internal; the ISD serial comes from the ISD Document Series. See Templates and numbering.
• GSP integration (Setup → Platform → Integrations). Filing through the GSP needs, in one integration app, a connection to your GSP gateway and its secrets, and six flows with an entity-event trigger on GSTR 6 updates:
  • the save flow, for Save Status SaveRequested;
  • the submit flow, for FreezeRequested;
  • the return-status flow, for StatusRequested;
  • the summary flow, for SummaryRequested;
  • the file flow, for FileRequested;
  • the pull flow, for Pull Status PullRequested.

  The return-status flow must use the same GSP partner credentials as the save flow, because only the partner that received a reference can redeem it. Without the flows the buttons still respond, but nothing reaches GSTN and Save Status stays at the requested value. See Outbound integrations.

  • The form. The standard page header shows Record Manual Filing, Process GSTR6, Distribute ISD Credit and Calculate ITC. If your filers use the GSP, add Save to GSTN, Check Save Status, Submit to GSTN, Submit File to GSTN and Pull From GSTIN to the header, and Save Status, GSTN Response and Pull Status to the Detail tab, in the form designer. Adding Match Status, Portal Action and Source to the ISD Source Document list shows which documents are held back and which rows came from the GSTR-6A.
  • Received documents. The ISD Source Document rows need no setup and are in no standard app; users reach them from the GSTR-6 record. The standard profiles System Admin, Standard User, Sales Manager and Sales Executive have full access to them, including New, Edit, Clone and Delete, although the next Process GSTR6 rebuilds the rows from your books and the next Pull From GSTIN rebuilds the GSTR-6A rows, undoing any change. Their names come from the ISD Source Document Name Setting (series ISD); see Templates and numbering.
  • Security profiles. Grant the GSP actions on GSTR 6 to the profile that files returns (see Permissions).
  • Mobile. The GSTR 6 record has a mobile layout showing the header fields. Whether it is reachable in the field app depends on your mobile app configuration.

  Common problems

  "… ITC pool(s) have no recipient to distribute to"

  Distribute ISD Credit found a pool with nothing to land on. If the message says "no operational ISD recipient under this ISD's PAN is effective for the period", check the ISD Recipient Turnover records: Is Operational on, a Recipient GSTIN with the ISD's PAN (characters 3 to 12), and Effective From and Effective To covering the month. xMatix could not work the turnover out either: there is no other active GST Registration under the ISD's PAN, or none of them had sales in the last year or quarters. If the message says "its attributed recipient is not an operational ISD recipient", the document is attributed to a unit with no operational turnover record for the month.

  The split between recipients looks wrong

  An older turnover record for the same GSTIN may still be open. Only the latest record per GSTIN counts, but check that the right one is effective and give the old one an Effective To. If the records are named "Auto …", they were worked out from your posted sales; correct the Turnover if needed. Also check Is SEZ and the state in each Recipient GSTIN, which decide whether CGST and SGST become IGST.

  A unit received no credit, or one unit received all of it

  Check the ISD Recipient Turnover records in scope for the month. If you entered a record for one unit only, xMatix did not create records for the others, so they are not recipients at all: add a record for each of them, then click Distribute ISD Credit and Calculate ITC. If the unit has a record but its allocations are ₹0, its Turnover is blank or zero while another unit has one. This happens to records xMatix creates when a unit had no sales in the quarter it used; enter the unit's turnover. Also check that the unit's record has Is Operational on and Effective From and Effective To covering the month.

  A recipient in another state received CGST and SGST instead of IGST

  Its ISD Recipient Turnover record has no Recipient GSTIN. xMatix reads the recipient's state from its GSTIN only, so a recipient without one counts as being in the ISD's state, whatever its State Code. Enter the GSTIN on the turnover record (or switch on Is SEZ for an SEZ unit), then click Distribute ISD Credit and Calculate ITC. Is Cross State on the allocation shows whether the tax was converted.

  The recipients' shares differ from the pool by a few paise

  Each share is rounded to the paisa per tax head, and nothing absorbs the remainder. Calculate ITC allows for this, so the return still reaches Validated. Do not correct the allocations by hand; they are rebuilt on the next distribution.

  A bill's credit was split instead of going to one unit

  Its Shipping Address has no GSTIN, has the ISD's own GSTIN, or has a GSTIN that is not an operational recipient for the month. Correct the address on the bill, then click Process GSTR6, Distribute ISD Credit and Calculate ITC.

  Every received document shows Match Status MissingInGstin

  No GSTR-6A has been pulled for the month yet. Process GSTR6 marks every document MissingInGstin and leaves it until there is a GSTR-6A to compare against; before the pull every document is still reported and distributed. After Pull From GSTIN has imported the GSTR-6A, a document that still shows MissingInGstin is one your supplier has not reported, or has reported under a different number or GSTIN.

  The ISD Source Document tab lists the same document twice

  One row comes from your books and the other from the GSTR-6A. Both kinds are kept on the same tab so they can be reconciled; only the row from your books is distributed. Your administrator can add Source to the list to tell them apart; meanwhile, use the Reconciliation tab to compare them.

  Calculate ITC does not reach Validated

  The ITC received and distributed differ by more than ₹1, or a distribution was not fully allocated. Run Distribute ISD Credit again and then Calculate ITC. If you processed again, pulled the GSTR-6A or accepted or rejected documents after distributing, the distribution no longer matches the reported documents.

  Total ITC Received dropped after Pull From GSTIN

  Documents your suppliers have not reported, or that differ from what they reported, are now held back. See the Held back — not reported line of the summary. Accept the Partial documents whose figures are right, then run Distribute ISD Credit and Calculate ITC again. The pull does not change Status by itself, so do not save a return that read Validated before the pull without recalculating it.

  "Nothing was accepted or rejected."

  Every document you selected was refused, with the reason for each. Accept needs a GSTR-6A pulled for the month and a document the supplier reported; a portal-only document has to be booked and processed first.

  "… is Filed and cannot be re-processed; create an amendment instead of regenerating the filed period."

  The return is Filed and frozen. Corrections go through a later period's return.

  "… has no GSTIN; set the filer GSTIN before processing." or "… has no return period"

  The record is missing its GSTIN or its period. Provisioned returns always have both; a record created with New or cloned may not, because the standard form has no GSTIN field. Work on the provisioned return for that GSTIN and month.

  "… is not authenticated with GSTN. Request an OTP on its GST registration and complete authentication first."

  The ISD GSTIN has no GSTN session, or it has expired ("The GSTN session for … has expired"). Run Request GSTN OTP and Submit OTP on its GST Registration, then try again. "No GST registration found for …" means the GSTIN on the return has no GST Registration record.

  "This return is '…'. Run Process GSTR6 Data, Distribute ISD Credit and Calculate ITC until it reaches Validated, then save it to GSTN."

  Save to GSTN needs Status Validated. Run the three steps until Calculate ITC sets it.

  "… run CalculateITC and reach Validated before filing."

  Record Manual Filing needs Status Validated. Run Calculate ITC until it sets it.

  "A push is already in progress for this return."

  A save, submit, summary or status check started less than 5 minutes ago. Wait. If Save Status is still at a requested value after 5 minutes, the integration flow did not run or did not write back. Your administrator should check the flow's trigger and run history. You can then click again.

  "GSTN will only freeze a return it has committed."

  Submit to GSTN needs Save Status Accepted. Click Check Save Status until it reports Accepted.

  "Only a return frozen at GSTN can be filed."

  Submit File to GSTN needs the return Frozen. Submit it and check the status until it shows Frozen.

  "… has been submitted to GSTN … and is frozen there; its books can no longer be rebuilt"

  Expected after Submit to GSTN. File the return, and carry corrections into a later period.

  "A filing is already in progress for this return."

  A file request has already been sent. Check the return's status on the government portal before doing anything else, because a second request could file it twice.

  Save Status went blank and GSTN Response says the books were rebuilt

  Someone, or the scheduled job, processed or distributed the return, or changed a GSTR-6A decision, after it was saved, which voids the save. Run the steps to Validated and save again.

  The ISD serials do not use our prefix

  Distribute ISD Credit found no active series whose Financial Year and Series Type match exactly, so it created and used its own (ISD/2627/ or ISDCN/2627/). Check your series' spelling (for example 2026-27, not 2026-2027, and ISDInvoice) and that Is Active is on. To switch to your series, correct it, set its Next Serial Number above the highest serial already issued, and switch the series xMatix created off. New serials then come from your series. Serials already issued keep their prefix, even when you redistribute their return, because redistributing re-issues a return's own serials.

  Two ISD documents in the same year have the same serial

  The year's counter went backwards. Someone lowered Next Serial Number, switched the year's series off so that a new one restarted at 1, or kept two active series for the same year and type. A prefix so long that prefix and number exceed 16 characters has the same effect. Correct the series so that Next Serial Number is above the highest serial issued, so that new serials are unique again. Redistributing does not renumber a return: it re-issues the return's own serials, duplicates included.

  Pull From GSTIN imported nothing

  The message "The portal response is an error, not data" means GSTN refused that section; the earlier portal rows were kept. Check the session and try again later.

  Common questions

  Who can receive ISD credit?

  Only registrations under the same PAN as the ISD. xMatix enforces this by comparing the PAN inside each Recipient GSTIN with the ISD's GSTIN, and ignores operational turnover records under another PAN. A recipient record without a GSTIN cannot be checked this way and is included. The recipient must also be operational and effective in the return month. Keep the ISD Recipient Turnover records accurate, because they decide both who receives credit and in what proportion, and the same records are shared by every ISD in your tenant.

  Do I have to enter the recipients' turnover?

  No. When no operational turnover record is in scope for the ISD and month, xMatix creates one for each of your other active GST Registrations under the ISD's PAN, from their posted sales: the previous financial year when every unit sold in it, otherwise the latest quarter in which they all did. You can still enter the turnover yourself, for example when a unit's sales are not in xMatix, through a screen your administrator adds. A record you enter that is in scope always takes precedence, and xMatix never overwrites one. Enter one for every receiving unit, because any record in scope stops xMatix creating the others.

  Why are some received documents not distributed?

  Once the month's GSTR-6A has been pulled, xMatix distributes only documents your suppliers reported with the same amounts (Matched), and Partial ones you accepted. The others are held back so you do not pass on credit your recipients might have to reverse. They are listed on the Held back — not reported line of the summary and stay on the ISD Source Document tab. When the supplier reports the document, pull the GSTR-6A again and redistribute.

  What is the difference between Submit File to GSTN and Record Manual Filing?

  Submit File to GSTN files the return through your GSP integration. It is available only after GSTN has frozen the return, and it writes back the ARN itself. Record Manual Filing transmits nothing: it records a filing you already completed on the government portal, using the ARN you type in. Both end the same way, with Status Filed, Is Filed set, Filed At and ARN. Use one route per return; Record Manual Filing is refused while a GSP filing is in progress.

  Why did my Status go back from Validated?

  Processing again rebuilds the received documents and takes the return back to Computed; distributing again takes it back to Distributed; accepting or rejecting a GSTR-6A document takes a distributed return back to Computed. In each case the earlier check no longer applies and Computed At is cleared. The scheduled Process GSTR-6 data job does this to every unfiled, unfrozen return in an Open period. Run Distribute ISD Credit and Calculate ITC again. If you had already saved the return to GSTN, save it again too, so GSTN holds what you will file.

  Does ISD credit reach the recipients' GSTR-3B automatically?

  Not from this return. GSTR-6 records what the ISD distributed. Each recipient sees the credit through its own GSTR-2B statement from the portal, which xMatix loads into the recipient's GSTR-2B; from there it feeds the recipient's GSTR-3B.

  Can I un-file a GSTR-6?

  No. Filed is one-way in xMatix, as it is at GSTN. Processing, distributing, calculating, saving and filing are all refused on a Filed return, and nothing in the product moves it back. If you find an error after filing, correct it in a later period's return. Before using Record Manual Filing, check the ARN against the portal, because a wrong entry cannot be undone from the screen.

  Related topics

  • The Tax Center
  • The GST console
  • GSTR-2B — inward supplies and ITC
  • GSTR-3B — the summary return
  • Input tax credit management
  • Tax Center troubleshooting
  • GSTR 6 entity reference
  • ISD Distribution entity reference
  • ISD Document Series entity reference
  • ISD Recipient Allocation entity reference
  • ISD Recipient Turnover entity reference
  • Security profiles