Prepare, approve, pay, and file GSTR-3B

Before you begin

Confirm the client, GSTIN, financial year, period, and filing frequency. Refresh GSTR-2B, outward data, and the electronic cash, credit, and liability ledgers. Resolve blocking tie-outs and confirm any cash deposit required. Keep an eligible partner, authorised signatory, and qualified portal session available. Use the secure filing field for the EVC OTP.

Prepare and review

Open the GSTR-3B period and verify scope/source freshness. Review system-generated and portal/filed values for Table 3.1, 3.1.1, 3.2, Table 4, Table 5, Table 5.1, and payment Table 6.1 where available. Check suppliers/ITC and outward tie-outs. Resolve blocking gate items and regenerate/review after changes. Open the File step. Its six stages sit on the page: Stage the return and obtain partner approval. Use self-approval only under the logged approved exception policy.

Credit rules and reverse charge

On the Compute step, beside Proposed GSTR-3B, two views list what the return may need that the books do not show by themselves. Each line is a suggestion: nothing reaches the return until you Accept it, Edit it with a note, or Reject it with a note. Undo takes a decision back. The help icon on each rule gives its law and the Table it goes to.

Credit rules has one section per rule:

Reverse charge lists purchases the books did not mark as reverse charge whose items, ledger or supplier point to an entry of the reverse-charge notifications: the tax for Table 3.1(d) at the list's estimated rate, and the same credit in 4(A)(3) unless you edit it (the credit can never be more than the tax). Purchases the books already mark are counted below the section and never suggested again. A line with no rate in the list needs Enter amount.

What you accept is part of the prepared return: the filing approval covers it. If a line's working changes after you accept it (a register re-imported, a related line decided), staging waits until you decide it again. Before filing a reclaim, check the portal's Electronic Credit Reversal and Re-claimed Statement: GSTN blocks a reclaim above its balance.

Table 3.2 from the November 2025 tax period

From the November 2025 tax period the GST portal fills Table 3.2 (inter-state supplies to unregistered persons, composition taxable persons and UIN holders, by state) from GSTR-1, GSTR-1A and IFF, and it cannot be changed in GSTR-3B.

Fetch the system-generated GSTR-3B after GSTR-1 is filed. In the preparation, open Table 3.2 — inter-state supplies to unregistered, composition and UIN holders. The return carries the portal's figures; the books' figures sit beside them. If a state differs, correct it through this period's GSTR-1A before filing GSTR-3B (or in the books, if the GSTR-1 was right), then fetch the system GSTR-3B again. Correct through GSTR-1A opens the period's GSTR-1A corrections; GSTR-1A itself is filed on the GST portal.

Staging waits when the books have Table 3.2 supplies but no usable system GSTR-3B is held: none fetched, one generated before GSTR-1 was filed, or one fetched before a GSTR-1A filed later.

File a GSTR-3B after its due date

The portal works out a late return's interest and late fee after it is filed and adds them to Table 5.1 of the next GSTR-3B, where the interest can be raised but not reduced. IndiaAuditLens therefore asks for a reviewed working before a late return is staged; it does not pay the charges inside the late return itself.

Open the late period's GSTR-3B. The Interest and late fee section shows today's figures: days late, the cash part of the tax the interest runs on (Rule 88B), interest at 18% a year, and the late fee per Act by last year's turnover band. Click Prepare working, choose the planned filing date and, if the band is not on the client profile, last year's aggregate turnover band. Add a note and confirm. Someone other than the preparer reviews and clicks Approve working. A Managing Partner may approve their own working alone by confirming it. Stage, approve and set off as usual. The set-off pays…

A working is for one filing date. If the return is not filed that day, prepare and approve a new one.

The three-year limit on filing

A return cannot be filed more than three years after its due date (CGST Act sections 37(5) and 39(11)). The period list, the year view and the month page show Last day … when the limit is within the warning window set in Platform admin, and Time-barred after it. The portal refuses a time-barred return unless an officer unbars it on the taxpayer's application; the barred returns must then be filed within 30 days. When IndiaAuditLens holds no filing evidence for a return, the warning starts "If it has not been filed".

Review ledgers and exact set-off

Under GST Payments, fetch/refresh the electronic cash, electronic credit, and return-liability ledgers for the correct period/date range. After return approval, click Calculate exact payment. Review the exact payment version, cash/credit/blocked credit, RCM, interest, head-wise set-off, cash deposit estimate, and recorded ledger snapshot/hash. The partner selects the review confirmation and clicks Approve exact set-off (partner).

If the ledger or return changes, recalculate and approve a new exact version. Prior payment approval must not silently carry forward.

Offset, OTP, and file

Confirm a current portal session and qualified live writes. Click Recheck ledger, set off & send OTP. Enter the EVC OTP only in the secure field. Select the final confirmation and click File now once. Wait for FILEDCONFIRMED and ARN; if pending, refresh status without duplicate submission.

Blocking conditions

Stop for missing session/capability, stale GSTR-2B, blocking tie-out, unapproved return/payment, insufficient cash, changed ledger version, wrong signatory, exposed OTP, or unknown portal result.

Expected result

The approved return and exact set-off use current source and ledger versions. Filing reaches FILEDCONFIRMED, and the ARN, actors, approvals, payment version, and provider result remain in the return history.

Related pages

• Prepare, approve, and file GSTR-1
• Prepare, review, and file GSTR-9