GSTR-3B for June: the five reconciliations to finish before the July 20 deadline

Every month, the 20th arrives faster than anyone expects. And every month, the returns that trigger notices are rarely the ones filed late — they are the ones filed in a hurry. Before you press “Proceed to file” on your June GSTR-3B, our partners recommend closing out five specific reconciliations. None of them takes more than an hour if your books are current. All of them are cheaper than replying to a notice.

01GSTR-1 vs GSTR-3B: outward liability

Your Table 3.1(a) liability in GSTR-3B should tie exactly to the invoices you reported in GSTR-1 for June. Since the portal now auto-populates 3B from GSTR-1, differences usually mean one of three things: a credit note keyed into the wrong period, an amendment made after auto-population, or a B2C figure edited manually. Any manual edit to the auto-populated liability is tracked by the system — and persistent unexplained downward edits are among the fastest routes to a DRC-01B intimation.

02GSTR-2B vs your ITC register

Input tax credit must be claimed from GSTR-2B, not from your purchase register — the days of provisional credit are long gone. Run the matching three ways:

• In 2B, in books — claim it. This is your clean base.
• In books, not in 2B — park it. The supplier has not filed or has mis-keyed your GSTIN. Follow up with them; do not claim it this month.
• In 2B, not in books — investigate before claiming. It may be a genuine missed purchase, but it may also be an invoice raised against your GSTIN fraudulently.

03The RCM liability ledger

Reverse-charge liabilities — GTA freight, advocate fees, director sitting fees, security services, imports of services — do not appear in GSTR-2B, which is precisely why they get missed. Sweep your expense ledgers for RCM-attracting entries, discharge the liability in cash in Table 3.1(d), and remember the corresponding ITC is claimable in the same return. Missing RCM is doubly expensive: interest on the unpaid tax, and the credit you could have claimed sits unutilised.

04Cash and credit ledger balances

Before filing, reconcile your electronic cash ledger and credit ledger balances on the portal with your books. Check that last month's return actually debited what you expected, that no refund has been credited unnoticed, and that interest under Section 50 — now computed by the portal on delayed cash-paid liability — matches your own working. A ₹10 difference here is a bookkeeping note; discovering it three months later is a reconciliation project.

05The one most businesses forget: the ITC reversal tracker

This is the ledger we find missing in most first-year engagements. Rules 42 and 43 reversals for exempt supplies, Section 17(5) blocked credits, and — the big one — Rule 37 reversals for invoices unpaid beyond 180 days. If you claimed credit in January on an invoice you still have not paid by June, that credit must be reversed with interest, and re-claimed only when payment is made. Without a running tracker, nobody notices until the auditor does. Or worse, until the department does.

The thirty-minute pre-filing drill

• Tie GSTR-1 totals to auto-populated 3B; document any edit.
• Complete the three-way 2B match; park unmatched credit.
• Sweep expense ledgers for RCM; pay in cash, claim the credit.
• Reconcile portal cash and credit ledgers with books.
• Update the reversal tracker — Rules 42/43, 17(5), Rule 37.

File a day early. The portal on the evening of the 20th is not where careful work happens.