Questions
Straight answers.
The things people ask before they sign up, and the things they ask a month in. If yours is not here, write to us — the founder answers these himself.
Getting started
Do I need a GSTIN to use BahiSathi?
No. Leave the GSTIN blank while setting up your business and you can raise quotations and bills without one. Add it later in Settings and the tax columns appear on your documents.
Can I use it on a computer as well as my phone?
Yes, on one account. Sign up on either, then open app.bahisathi.com in any browser and the same business is there. Most people bill from the phone at the counter and do month-end work on a laptop.
Is there an iPhone app?
Not yet. In the meantime the web app runs in any modern mobile browser, including Safari, on the same account and the same data.
Can I move my existing customers and items in?
There is no bulk import yet, so customers and price-list items are added as you first bill them. After that they are saved and you pick them from a list.
Tax and compliance
How does BahiSathi decide between CGST, SGST and IGST?
It compares your state against the place of supply on the document. Same state means the tax splits evenly into CGST and SGST; different states mean the whole amount is IGST. Within a union territory the SGST half is UTGST instead.
Does the invoice PDF have everything the law requires?
The tax invoice carries the fields Rule 46 lists: both GSTINs, a serial number within the 16-character limit, the date, HSN or SAC per line, taxable value, the rate and amount of each tax head, place of supply, the total in words and a signature block.
What happens to my invoice numbers on 1 April?
The series restarts at 1 for the new financial year, which is what the rules require, and the old year’s documents keep their numbers. Each document type has its own series.
Can I file my GST return from BahiSathi?
Not directly. You export the month as GSTR-1 JSON and upload it to the government offline utility, or export CSV for your accountant. The export covers B2B, B2CL, B2CS, credit and debit notes, the HSN summary and the document series. Check the figures against your books before you file.
Do you support e-invoice (IRN) and e-way bills?
Not yet, though both are planned. If your turnover already crosses the e-invoice threshold, BahiSathi is not the right tool for those invoices today.
Price and limits
What happens when I reach 50 documents?
Drafting carries on exactly as before, so you will not lose work. Only issuing pauses. The count resets on 1 April with the new financial year, and Pro will lift the ceiling entirely.
Is the free plan a trial?
No. It is free for as long as you want it, with no card and no expiry date. The only ceiling is 50 issued documents in a financial year.
What will Pro cost?
It is still being built and the price will be announced before it goes live. Nothing that is free today is moving behind it — Pro adds unlimited documents, more than one business, and staff accounts.
Your data
Where is my data kept?
On servers in the Mumbai region, encrypted in transit. Only you and the people you invite to your business can see it. The privacy policy has the full detail.
Does the app work without internet?
Drafting, editing, browsing and previewing all work offline on Android, and your changes sync when you are back on a network. The one thing that needs a connection is issuing, because the serial number has to be reserved centrally so that no two devices can produce the same one.
Can I delete my account and everything in it?
Yes, from Settings in the Android app, or by writing to us from your registered email address. Export your issued documents first — GST law expects you to keep them, and deletion is permanent.
Longer answers
Some of these deserve more than a paragraph.
- CGST and SGST, or IGST? How place of supply decides Including the part most people get wrong — it is not the customer's billing address that decides.
- What Rule 46 requires on a tax invoice The full field list, and the ones that most often go missing.
- Turning a quotation into a tax invoice What changes, what carries over, and when the tax liability actually starts.
Still stuck?
There is no support queue and no ticket number. Send a message and you will usually get a reply the same day.