Kirana bill format for a basket with three tax rates in it
Loose grain at nil, packaged staples at 5%, soap and shampoo at 18% — a general store bill has to keep them apart and still print in ten seconds.
Make a kirana bill freeA kirana bill is deceptively hard. One customer buys loose rice, a packet of biscuits, a bar of soap and a bottle of oil, and those four lines can sit on three different tax rates. The bill has to separate them, total them correctly and still come out fast enough that the queue does not build.
On top of that sits the reality of neighbourhood trade: half the sales are by weight, a good share go on udhaar, and plenty of customers do not want a bill at all. This page covers the layout, the rate handling and the record-keeping that keeps a general store clean without slowing the counter.
What this format must carry
Every field below, with whether it is mandatory and what it is for.
| Field | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Shop name, address and GSTIN | Printed on the bill. If you are registered, the GSTIN must appear even on a small thermal slip. | |
| Bill number and date | Consecutive counter series, unique for the financial year. One series per billing counter avoids duplicates. | |
| Customer name and phone | Optional for cash sales, but essential for udhaar customers — the bill becomes the ledger entry. | |
| Item name with HSN | HSN per item, because rates differ across the basket. Group nil, 5% and 18% items so the summary is readable. | |
| Quantity with unit | Kg, gm, litre, packet or piece. Loose weighed items should show the actual weight, not a rounded guess. | |
| Rate per unit and line amount | MRP or your selling rate per unit, times quantity. Loose items usually bill per kg with a decimal quantity. | |
| Rate-wise GST summary | Taxable value and CGST plus SGST at each rate. This is the block a kirana bill most often gets wrong. | |
| Exempt goods shown separately | Nil-rated staples get their own subtotal with no tax against them, on the same invoice-cum-bill of supply. | |
| Grand total with round-off | Round to the nearest rupee and show the difference, so the cash drawer matches at close of day. | |
| Payment mode and balance | Cash, UPI or credit. For udhaar, print the running balance — it collects faster than a reminder call. |
Guidance only. GST rules and rates change by notification — confirm the requirements for your business on the CBIC portal or with your CA.
Loose, packaged and the rate that follows
For a general store the practical divide is between goods sold loose from a sack and the same goods sold in a retail pack that carries a label. Unbranded staples sold loose are generally nil-rated, while pre-packaged and labelled retail packs of many food items sit at 5%. Household and personal care lines — soap, shampoo, detergent, toothpaste — sit at 18%.
Because a single trolley mixes exempt and taxable goods, the right document for an unregistered customer is an invoice-cum-bill of supply: taxable lines with their tax, exempt lines listed separately with none. Keep the HSN and rate on the item master rather than deciding at the counter, or the same packet will be billed at two different rates in one week.
Weight billing without disputes
Loose selling means decimal quantities — 2.5 kg of dal, 750 gm of sugar. Bill in the unit you actually weighed rather than converting in your head, and print both the weight and the per-kg rate so the customer can check the arithmetic themselves.
A connected weighing scale removes the largest single source of counter argument. Where that is not practical, at least keep the printed rate list visible near the scale, so the number on the bill matches what the customer expects before it is totalled.
Udhaar, small bills and the ₹200 rule
Credit sales are the heart of a kirana business and the weakest point in its records. Every udhaar sale should still produce a bill with the customer name on it; the ledger is then a by-product of billing instead of a separate notebook that only one person can read.
For sales under ₹200 to unregistered customers who do not ask for a bill, you can raise one consolidated invoice at the close of the day rather than a slip per sale. Most shops print anyway. RetailDek's free invoice generator produces a clean mixed-rate kirana bill, including the exempt lines, that you can print or send on WhatsApp.
Skip the template — generate it
Filling a blank Excel sheet every time is where numbering gaps and missing fields creep in. Our free tool builds this document with the fields already in the right places, and you can download it as a PDF — no sign-up, nothing leaves your browser.
Make a kirana bill freeKirana Bill Format — FAQs
No. Many unbranded staples sold loose are nil-rated, most pre-packaged and labelled food items are at 5%, and household and personal care goods are at 18%. One bill routinely carries all three, which is why a rate-wise summary matters.
Make it the output, not the chore
Save your items and parties once, and every document comes out numbered, GST-correct and ready to print — with the stock and reports updating behind it.
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