The GSTN has issued an Advisory dated 21.04.2026, to informed about the introduction of an Offline Tool for the Invoice Management System (IMS) to enhance taxpayer convenience and streamline compliance. 

The IMS, originally launched from the October 2024 tax period, allows recipient taxpayers to accept, reject, or keep pending invoices uploaded by suppliers through GSTR-1, GSTR-1A, or IFF. Building on this functionality, the newly introduced offline utility provides an Excel-based interface enabling taxpayers to process invoice data both individually and in bulk, thereby improving efficiency and reducing dependency on the online portal.

The tool can be downloaded from the GST portal under the “Downloads → Offline Tools” section and is provided as a zip file, which requires extraction and enabling of macros before use. Taxpayers can also download their IMS data from the portal and perform offline actions, which can later be uploaded back to the system. Overall, this initiative reflects a continued move towards digitally assisted compliance, particularly benefiting taxpayers dealing with large volumes of invoices by simplifying reconciliation and decision-making processes.

The complete Advisory can be accessed at https://tutorial.gst.gov.in/downloads/news/advisory_on_ims_offline_tool_23rd_april_2026.pdf

Source: GSTN