Freelancers: how the screens work

Your first ten minutes

Start with Business and GST details. Your business name, address and GSTIN (if you have one) are printed on every invoice you issue, so an invoice is only as right as this screen.

Then add what you sell. Open New item for each service. A services item defaults to hourly pricing, and the services invoice template prints a SAC column for the code your client's accountant asks for.

Add each client under Clients with Add Client. If a client withholds TDS when they pay you, tick Deducts TDS on that client now, so the payment form already knows it.

• Business and GST details: confirm the name, address and GSTIN before you issue the first invoice.
• New item: one line for each service you sell, with its SAC code.
• Add Client: one record per client, with the Deducts TDS tick where it applies.

The daily loop: invoice, send, record the money

Create the invoice from New invoice, choose the client and the items, and put the date of each session or deliverable under Session date. Where the services switch is on, Session date prints on the invoice line.

Use Share on the invoice to send it on. If your business profile has a UPI ID, an INR invoice that is not an export prints the UPI ID and a scannable QR code on its PDF.

When the money arrives, choose Record payment on the invoice. Set the Payment Mode to the way it came in, one of UPI, Cash, Bank Transfer or Cheque, then select Save Payment.

• Quotes are the Estimate document type on Invoices; filter by Document type to see them.
• A client you bill on the same terms each month can be set up under Recurring invoices rather than retyped each time.
• The services pack adds an Engagement reference field to the invoice, for the reference your client's accounts team uses.

Clients who deduct TDS

When a client pays after deducting TDS, open Record payment on the invoice and turn on Client deducted TDS?. Enter the amount they withheld and choose its section. The payment form is where that amount is recorded.

The invoice is still marked paid at the gross amount, and the TDS shows on your annual summary. That is what the payment form says when you turn the switch on.

The year's total is on the TDS screen, under Deducted from you. Your CA uses it when you file your return. The screen records what was withheld; it does not decide whether the credit is right.

• Deducts TDS on a client marks that client. It does not change any invoice on its own; the amount is recorded on the payment.
• The TDS screen has a second tab for tax you deduct when you pay a vendor. Most freelancers do not need it.

Work for clients outside India

An invoice can be in the client's currency. When that client pays, the payment form asks for the Currency, and the payment must match the currency of the invoice. The form converts the amount to your home currency at the FX rate for the date it shows.

When a client outside India pays you, record the payment as usual and set the Payment Mode to how the money came, such as Bank Transfer. Then tick Received from abroad, and choose what it was for under Received as: Against invoice, Advance, Package or membership sale, or Retainer deposit.

Both are labels for your own records. Nothing here works out export proceeds, a FIRC or GST on an advance. Keep the bank's advice yourself and check the treatment with your CA.

When the bank credit is on your statement, attach the FIRA or FIRC advice on the Foreign remittances screen. The invoice it pays then shows an Export evidence (FIRA / FIRC) card that lists the advices filed for it. The card shows only on a non-INR invoice with a client. This part needs the IT services switch, which is separate from the services pack.

Practice records

Practice records holds the services pack's appointment types, rooms and staff, service plans, retainers, document requests and notices to clients, with the session packs, memberships, retainer billing and pack liability cards on the records they belong to. It is behind the pack's own switch and launch phase. While that phase is closed the screen says Coming soon, and where the pack is not set up in your workspace it says nothing can be read or saved there.

Where the screen is open, choose a record, select Edit, change what you need and select Save.

• A service plan carries a session count and validity. The Session packs card records sessions sold and used for each client, and Pack liability lists what is paid for and not yet used.
• A monthly retainer can start a schedule that drafts an invoice each cycle; you review and send each draft. This is set on the Retainer billing card.
• On the Rooms and staff tab, the day card Today's bookings by resource shows a calendar per room or staff member, and refuses a booking that clashes with another.

Hand the year to your CA

Open Hand to your CA, pick a period such as this quarter, year to date or your own dates, and download the ZIP. It holds every report and PDF for that period, with the Tally files your CA imports.

The page shows a checklist before anything is imported. Your CA takes a backup of the Tally company first, then imports the masters file before the vouchers file.

• Each file is imported once. Importing the same files again into a live company can duplicate vouchers.
• Open the right company in Tally before importing, because the files do not carry a company name.
• The same checklist travels inside the ZIP as a read-me file, written in plain English for your CA.

What is not built, or only a label

These are limits the code states. Read them before you promise a client something.

• Sessions and Valid for (days) on a service plan set how many sessions a pack holds and when they expire. Expired sessions are listed under Expired, not yet accounted; nothing is posted for them, and your CA decides how they are accounted.
• Received as is a tag. It does not issue a receipt voucher and does not work out GST on an advance.
• Engagement type and Retainer period are labels. Nothing bills a retainer from them.
• Buffer after (minutes) on an appointment type is kept clear after a booking on your booking page. Transferable on a service plan is a label only.

Who to ask

Your administrator switches the services pack on for your workspace and decides who on your team can see the books. The pack offers an accountant role for your CA; it is an offer you accept, not a grant.

Ask your CA about TDS credits, the treatment of an advance, export treatment and what goes into your return. This guide gives no tax advice and records no answer for you.