GSTN launches offline Excel-based utility

• Sachin Chawla
• 22 Apr 2026
• 82 Views

The optional Invoice Management System (IMS) introduced a few years back to assist the GST-registered taxpayers in reconciling their input tax credit has been improved from time to time to better serve the needs of taxpayers. In accordance with this policy, GSTN upgraded the IMS tool once more and launched an offline Excel utility recently in April 2026.

On 17 April 2026, Infosys GSTN said, “GSTN Update: IMS Offline Utility (v 1.0) is here!

“Easily download, process, and upload your IMS data in offline mode with this Excel-based solution. Simplify compliance and ensure smooth filing—anytime, anywhere. Stay informed. Stay compliant.”

Ankit Joshi, who is Partner - Indirect Tax at N A Shah Associates LLP, mentioned to ET Wealth Online that the Invoice Management System (IMS) was introduced by the government w.e.f. October 2024, on an optional basis, to streamline input tax credit conciliation. He said that the IMS has allowed the taxpayers to accept, decline or keep pending the input tax credit records that their suppliers uploaded and then generate their GSTR 2B based on it.

However, in the beginning, the lack of an offline utility made things challenging because taxpayers had to look at and act on each invoice separately, which made the process tiresome. Joshi said that the majority of taxpayers chose not to implement the IMS facility as it was optional. He outlined, “However, with the introduction of a new IMS offline utility, it will encourage the taxpayers to adopt the IMS in a more efficient manner.”

How can IMS Facility assist GST-Registered Taxpayers?

The freshly launched IMS facility allows the taxpayers to take bulk actions like acceptance, rejection or marking invoices as pending across several records in a simultaneous manner, as per Joshi. 

He said, “This enhancement is expected to significantly reduce manual effort, improve operational efficiency and ensure greater accuracy in Input Tax Credit (ITC) claims.” Moreover, the new IMS utility is likely to encourage IMS’ wider adoption among taxpayers by trying to make the IMS framework’s implementation simpler and more user-friendly for them. 

News: MSN