GST IMS: Accept, Reject or Pending — A Practical Guide

Every invoice your supplier reports in GSTR-1 now passes through the Invoice Management System (IMS) on the GST portal before it reaches your GSTR-2B. The recipient can accept, reject or keep each record pending. Whatever you choose there decides how much input tax credit (ITC) auto-populates in your GSTR-3B. A rejected credit note can also raise your supplier's tax liability.

IMS has been live since the October 2024 tax period. GSTN changed how credit notes are handled from the October 2025 tax period. At its 57th meeting on 8 October 2026, the GST Council recommended putting IMS formally into the CGST Rules. This guide covers how IMS works today, the common mistakes, and what is proposed.

What IMS Is and Where to Find It

IMS is a facility on the GST portal (Services → Returns → Invoice Management System (IMS) Dashboard). Invoices, debit notes, credit notes and amendments that your suppliers save or file in GSTR-1, GSTR-1A or IFF show up there as soon as the supplier saves them. You don't have to wait for the supplier's due date.

IMS is available to normal taxpayers, including SEZ units and developers, and to casual taxpayers. A supplier also gets an outward-supply view showing what each recipient did with their documents.

Records that do not pass through IMS

The following go straight to GSTR-2B without any IMS action:

• Reverse charge (RCM) records
• Import documents received from ICEGATE (bills of entry)
• Documents from GSTR-5 (non-resident taxpayers) and GSTR-6 (input service distributors)
• Documents where ITC is ineligible because of the place of supply rule or the time limit in Section 16(4) of the CGST Act. These go to the "ITC Not Available" section of GSTR-2B.
• Documents requiring reversal under Rule 37A (supplier has not filed GSTR-3B)

The Four Statuses

If you do nothing, IMS assumes you agree with every record. "No action" counts as acceptance. For most invoices that is harmless. For a wrong invoice or a credit note you dispute, it can cost you money.

How GSTR-2B Is Now Generated

• The system creates a draft GSTR-2B on the 14th of the following month. It includes accepted, deemed-accepted and rejected records. Rejected records are shown for information only.
• You can keep changing actions until you file GSTR-3B. The latest action replaces the earlier one.
• If you change any action after the draft GSTR-2B is generated, you must recompute GSTR-2B from the IMS dashboard before filing GSTR-3B. Otherwise the change won't appear in the return. There is no limit on how many times you can recompute.
• If the previous period's GSTR-3B has not been filed, no draft GSTR-2B is generated on the 14th. You generate it from the IMS dashboard after filing that earlier return.
• Quarterly (QRMP) filers get no monthly GSTR-2B for the first two months. A combined quarterly GSTR-2B is generated on the 14th of the month after the quarter.
• When you file GSTR-3B, actions are frozen. Accepted and rejected records for that period are removed from IMS.

Using "Pending" Properly

Pending is useful when goods haven't arrived, the invoice value is disputed, or you are waiting for the supplier to correct something. Two limits apply:

1. Invoices and debit notes can stay pending only until the Section 16(4) cut-off: 30 November after the end of the financial year, or the date you file the annual return, whichever is earlier. After that they drop out of IMS, and the ITC is lost.
2. Credit notes, and certain amendments, can be kept pending for one tax period only. That is one month for monthly filers and one quarter for quarterly filers. This option has existed since the October 2025 tax period. Before that, credit notes could not be kept pending at all.

The same one-period limit applies to:

• downward amendments of invoices or debit notes you already accepted and reported in a filed GSTR-3B
• downward amendments of credit notes whose original you rejected

Credit Notes: The Area That Needs the Most Care

When you accept a credit note, your ITC goes down by the tax amount on it. Until the October 2025 change, accepting a credit note reversed the full tax amount automatically, even if you had never claimed that credit or had already reversed it.

GSTN has since added a facility to declare how much ITC you actually need to reverse when you accept a credit note. The choices are:

• Full reversal, if you claimed the full credit on the original invoice
• Partial reversal, limited to the amount you actually claimed
• No reversal, if you never claimed the credit or have already reversed it in an earlier return

You can also add remarks when you reject a record or keep it pending. Those remarks appear in your GSTR-2B and on the supplier's outward-supply dashboard.

Rejecting a credit note affects the supplier. If you reject a credit note and file your GSTR-3B, the tax on it is added back to the supplier's liability in their next GSTR-3B. Suppliers can see the rejection on their dashboard and should expect a question about it.

A worked example

This is a hypothetical illustration. Suppose a hardware trader in Raipur buys goods worth ₹5,00,000 plus ₹90,000 GST in July and claims the full ₹90,000 as ITC. In October, the supplier issues a credit note for ₹50,000 plus ₹9,000 GST for goods returned. The credit note appears in the trader's IMS.

• The trader agrees and accepts. The trader declares a full reversal, so ₹9,000 of ITC is reduced through GSTR-3B. The supplier's output tax falls by ₹9,000.
• The trader had claimed only ₹81,000 on the original invoice. The trader accepts and declares the reversal actually needed. Without that declaration, the full ₹9,000 would be reversed even though only part of the credit was claimed.
• The trader disputes the return of goods. The trader can keep the credit note pending for one tax period while the matter is sorted out. Rejecting it instead would add ₹9,000 back to the supplier's liability.
• The trader does nothing. The credit note is treated as accepted, and the reversal flows through on the system's terms.

Effect on Suppliers

If a recipient rejects an invoice:

• Before the supplier files GSTR-1, the supplier can edit the record and file it with corrected details. The corrected record reappears in the recipient's IMS for fresh action.
• After the supplier files GSTR-1, the supplier has to correct it through GSTR-1A or a later GSTR-1/IFF.

Suppliers should check the outward-supply view in IMS every month. Rejections usually mean a commercial dispute, a wrong GSTIN, or a duplicate invoice, and each of these is easier to fix early than at the annual return stage.

Common Mistakes

• Leaving everything on "No Action", so wrong, duplicate or disputed invoices are deemed accepted and claimed as ITC.
• Acting after the 14th without recomputing GSTR-2B, so the change never reaches GSTR-3B.
• Accepting a credit note without declaring the actual reversal, which reverses more ITC than needed.
• Keeping invoices pending indefinitely and missing the Section 16(4) deadline.
• Rejecting an invoice when the dispute is only about value or timing. Pending is often the better choice while you speak to the supplier.
• Not matching IMS actions with the purchase register, which later shows up as a GSTR-2B vs GSTR-3B mismatch or a Rule 88D intimation in Form DRC-01C.

What the GST Council Has Proposed

At its 57th meeting on 8 October 2026, the GST Council recommended a broader mechanism for reconciling returns. It includes:

• a new sub-rule (6A) in Rule 60 of the CGST Rules, which would give IMS formal legal backing, including conditions on how long a credit note can stay pending
• a new Rule 86C, an "Electronic Credit Reversal and Reclaim Statement"
• a circular on how to report ITC and reversals in GSTR-3B

The Council indicated these may apply from the April 2027 return period, after public consultation. They are recommendations only. Until the rules are notified, the current IMS process described above continues.

Practical Monthly Routine

1. Download IMS data, either from the portal or with the IMS offline tool GSTN released in 2026.
2. Match it against your purchase register and goods receipt records.
3. Accept clean records, reject wrong ones with remarks, and keep genuinely disputed ones pending.
4. For credit notes, check how much ITC you actually claimed before declaring the reversal.
5. Recompute GSTR-2B if anything changed after the 14th, then file GSTR-3B.

This guide reflects the IMS FAQs and advisories issued by GSTN up to October 2026 and the recommendations of the 57th GST Council meeting. GSTN changes portal features through advisories, and the Council's proposals still have to be notified. Confirm the current position on the GST portal before acting.

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Related Advisory Services & Practice Guides

• Assistance with GST return filing and monthly ITC reconciliation in Chhattisgarh and Odisha.
• Responding to GST notices and appeals, including DRC-01C mismatch intimations.
• Background reading: GSTR-2B vs purchase register reconciliation under Rule 36(4).
• Year-end matching: GSTR-9 and GSTR-9C reconciliation checklist.