Proforma invoice — a bill before the stay
What a company needs to raise a purchase order. Not a tax invoice, and it says so.
A company will not pay for a stay it has no paperwork for. A proforma invoice is that paperwork: what the stay will cost, who is to be billed, and how long the figure holds.
Open the booking and choose Proforma invoice. It can be raised at any point — including before the guest has arrived, which is the case it exists for.
What goes on it
- Before check-in it is built from the booking: the nights at the rate the booking was taken at, with the GST slab that tariff attracts, less any advance already received.
- During the stay you can raise one from a bill as it stands — useful when a company wants to approve the spend so far. After splitting a stay into several bills, each one can have its own.
- The bill-to comes from the company or agent on the bill, or the booking, and carries their GSTIN.
- It is valid until a date, seven days out by default. Say so when you raise it.
What it is not
It is not a tax invoice, and the document says so in the largest type on the page. No supply has happened yet, so:
- No GST liability arises from it and no input credit is available against it — the company claims credit from the tax invoice raised at check-out, not from this.
- It never appears on GSTR-1 or in the tax report. It cannot: raising one posts nothing to the folio, and every tax report is built from folio postings.
- It does not change the folio, the balance, or what the guest owes.
Afterwards
- The proforma stays on the booking, and shows as live, lapsed once its date passes, cancelled, or closed once the guest checks out and a real invoice exists.
- Cancelling needs a reason and keeps the number. A proforma has been sent to somebody's accounts department; a series with a number missing from it is a question, and one with a number meaning two different things is worse.
- If the stay changes, raise a new one and cancel the old. Do not expect the first to update itself — the copy in their inbox will not.
The tax invoice quotes it
When the stay is settled, the tax invoice carries the line "Against proforma <number>, dated <date>" — so the company that paid against the proforma can match the two without telephoning you. If the figure moved between the two documents, the invoice says so beside it.
A proforma raised from a particular bill is quoted on that bill's invoice only. One raised from the booking, before check-in, is quoted on the main bill. A cancelled proforma is never quoted — the company was told it was cancelled.
The tax invoice quotes it
When the stay is settled, the tax invoice carries the line "Against proforma <number>, dated <date>" — so the company that paid against the proforma can match the two without telephoning you. If the figure moved between the two documents, the invoice says so beside it.
A proforma raised from a particular bill is quoted on that bill's invoice only. One raised from the booking, before check-in, is quoted on the main bill. A cancelled proforma is never quoted — the company was told it was cancelled.