GSTR-1 Table 13 Documents Issued: Invoice Series Made Simple for Marketplace Sellers

Table 13 of GSTR-1 is a count of the documents you issued in the period: each invoice series with its first number, last number, total, cancelled and net issued. Credit notes go on their own line. Marketplace sellers have several series because each platform numbers invoices in your name. Without Table 13 the portal will not generate your GSTR-1 summary.

What does Table 13 ask for?

GSTR-1 is your statement of sales. Table 13, "Documents issued during the tax period", asks a simpler question than the rest: which numbers did you use?

The form lists twelve kinds of document. A seller of goods normally uses two: "Invoices for outward supply" and "Credit Note". The rest cover debit notes, revised invoices, receipt, payment and refund vouchers, invoices for purchases from unregistered persons, and four kinds of delivery challan.

Why does the government want this? Rule 46 of the CGST Rules says every invoice must carry a consecutive serial number of up to 16 characters, unique for the financial year, in one or more series. If numbers must run in order, a list of the first and last number tells an officer how many invoices should exist. Compare that with the invoices actually reported and a hidden sale has nowhere to sit.

Since when is it compulsory?

The table is as old as the form. For years the portal let you file with it blank, and many sellers did. That ended with the May 2025 return period, under a GSTN advisory of 1 May 2025 as reported. The portal's FAQ now says plainly that Table 13 is mandatory for generating the summary. If you have entered anything in Tables 4 to 10, 14 or 15, Table 13 must have entries too.

Why do you have several series?

A shop with one bill book has one series. You do not, and it is not your doing. When you sell on a marketplace, the platform generates the invoice in your name and gives it a number from a series it runs for you. Sell on three platforms and you have at least three invoice series, each with its own prefix and its own run of numbers.

A platform may also keep more than one series for you, for example by warehouse or by type of shipment. And if you bill customers from your own website or shop, that is one more.

The rule allows this: Rule 46 says "one or multiple series". What Table 13 needs is one row for each. Do not join two platforms into one row. Their numbers do not follow each other, so a single From and To would make no sense.

What to do next: open the invoice-level report of each platform, sort by invoice number, and note the prefix patterns you see. Each pattern is a series. For Meesho the numbers come from the Tax Invoice file, as described in our Meesho filing guide.

How do credit notes go in?

When an order is returned or comes back undelivered, the platform raises a credit note in your name. Credit notes have their own numbering, apart from invoices. In Table 13 they are entered under "Credit Note", one row per series, with the same six columns.

Do not mix them with invoices and do not net them off. If you issued 600 invoices and 150 credit notes, Table 13 shows 600 in one row and 150 in another. The money side of those returns belongs elsewhere: see returns and RTO in GSTR-1.

What about gaps and cancelled numbers?

These are two different things, and sellers often treat them as one.

A cancelled document was issued and then cancelled, for example an order cancelled after the invoice was generated but before it shipped. It counts in Total number and again in Cancelled. It has no value in your sales tables.

A gap is a number inside your range that was never issued to you at all. Your first number is 1201 and your last is 1430, which spans 230 numbers, but only 224 invoices exist. On some platforms this is normal. In our experience Flipkart's numbering in particular leaves gaps in a single seller's range.

How should you report a gap? Enter the real first and last numbers, and the real count of documents as Total number. Do not show the missing numbers as cancelled. They were never issued. Keep a note of them in case you are asked. If a gap surprises you, check that a report was not partly downloaded before you blame the platform.

A worked example with three series

You sell on Amazon, Flipkart and Meesho and file monthly. The invoice numbers below are made up for illustration. In December your reports show:

Read the Flipkart invoice row. The range FK/1201 to FK/1430 spans 230 numbers, but 224 invoices were issued. Six numbers are a gap. Two of the 224 were cancelled, so 222 are net.

The portal's summary tile then shows three totals across all rows: 1,445 documents, 8 cancelled, 1,437 net issued. Your sales tables should hold the value of 1,228 live invoices, less the 209 credit notes. If your Table 7 was built from 1,100 invoices, you now know that 128 are missing from it. That is the whole point of the table.

What happens if you skip it?

So a table with no tax in it can hold up the return that does carry tax, and interest at 18% starts on anything paid late.

The mistake sellers usually make

They type one row, 1 to 1,236, to get past the error. It works on the day. But the return now states a series that does not exist, and the count no longer agrees with your invoices. If an officer ever compares Table 13 with your invoice reports, the made-up row is the first thing to explain.

Two smaller ones: leaving out credit notes because "they are returns, not documents", and entering last month's numbers again because the file was not downloaded in time.

Can you do this yourself? Yes. It is sorting and counting, about fifteen minutes with three reports open. It gets tedious when a platform runs many series for you, and that is the point to hand it to software or a professional.

Frequently asked questions

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