How to Invoice International Clients from India

Every invoice to an overseas client is an export invoice, so how to invoice international clients from India mostly comes down to the invoice fields.

An export invoice names the client and their country, states the agreed currency, shows your SAC (Services Accounting Code) and carries a printed export line.

With a valid LUT you bill it at 0% IGST (integrated GST) when your work meets the export conditions.

The rules in short: an export of services is zero-rated when it meets the export conditions. A Letter of Undertaking (LUT) filed before you invoice lets you bill at 0% IGST instead of paying and claiming a refund.

Under rules in force from 1 October 2026, the money must reach you within 9 months of the invoice date, or 12 months if you invoice or settle in rupees.

Once you are paid, your bank issues a FIRA, the certificate that proves the money came from abroad. Freelancers and small IT or design firms with overseas clients follow the same steps below, from the first check to that proof.

Most of the work happens before you send the invoice and after the money arrives, so follow these steps in order.

1. Check that your work counts as an export: all five legal conditions must hold, including that your client sits outside India.
2. File your LUT for the financial year: submit it on the GST portal before the first export invoice, so you can bill without paying IGST.
3. Raise the invoice within 30 days of the work: GST rules set this limit from the date you supply the service.
4. Pick the currency and note the deadline: a foreign-currency invoice gives you 9 months to receive the money, while a rupee invoice gives you 12.
5. Send payment details your client can use: add your account details, the reference to quote and who pays the bank charges.
6. File the EDF with your bank: the Export Declaration Form is due within 30 days from the end of the month you invoiced in.
7. Keep the proof of payment: save the FIRA or eFIRA your bank issues, the eBRC if you need one, and a copy of the invoice.

An export invoice looks much like a domestic GST invoice, with three changes: you show your client's country instead of an Indian state, you add a fixed export line, and you can bill in a foreign currency.

Everything else, from your GSTIN (GST identification number) to the invoice number, follows the usual GST rules. If you ship physical goods, a commercial invoice for export applies instead.

Fields every export invoice needs, for you and your client

Rule 46 of the GST rules lists the fields every tax invoice needs, and an export invoice swaps a few of them.

Set them once in your template and change only the client, date, number and amount on each new invoice.

Two extras help you get paid on time, though the rules do not ask for them: your client's tax number, such as a VAT number or EIN, and a due date such as Net 15 or Net 30. For more on each field, see what an export invoice is.

Add the export endorsement and country of destination to the invoice

Rule 46 says an export invoice must carry an endorsement and, in place of the buyer's state, the client's name and address, the address of delivery and the country of destination.

For online work, the delivery address is usually your client's office.

The endorsement wording depends on whether you hold an LUT. Copy it exactly as written, in capitals, near the tax line:

• With an LUT: "SUPPLY MEANT FOR EXPORT/SUPPLY TO SEZ UNIT OR SEZ DEVELOPER FOR AUTHORISED OPERATIONS UNDER BOND OR LETTER OF UNDERTAKING WITHOUT PAYMENT OF INTEGRATED TAX".
• If you pay IGST instead: "SUPPLY MEANT FOR EXPORT/SUPPLY TO SEZ UNIT OR SEZ DEVELOPER FOR AUTHORISED OPERATIONS ON PAYMENT OF INTEGRATED TAX".

Older templates carry a shorter 2017 line that was replaced, so update yours if needed.

SAC code by service for IT, design and consulting work

The SAC code is the six-digit number that tells the tax office what kind of service you sold. Pick the closest match and use it on every invoice for that service.

Up to ₹5 crore turnover the rules ask for at least four digits, and six above that, so printing all six is always safe.

No, as long as your work qualifies as an export and you hold an LUT. The law treats an export of services as a zero-rated supply, so the invoice carries IGST at 0%, and you still report it in your GST returns.

If the LUT is missing, you would pay IGST and claim a refund (conditions apply). We cover export of services under GST in more depth separately.

The five conditions that make your service a zero rated supply

Section 2(6) of the IGST Act sets five conditions, and all five must hold for each invoice:

• You are in India: the supplier of the service is located in India.
• Your client is abroad: the person receiving the service is located outside India.
• The place of supply is outside India: for most online services this follows where your client is.
• You are paid in foreign currency, or rupees where RBI allows: the money must arrive in convertible foreign currency, or in rupees wherever the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) permits it.
• You and your client are not one legal person: a branch billing its own head office abroad fails this test.

The last condition trips up agencies. Under a 2021 circular from the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), an Indian company billing its foreign parent still exports, but a branch of the same legal entity does not.

File an LUT before you invoice, and what happens without one

An LUT is a yearly promise to the tax office that you will meet the export rules, so you can bill without paying IGST. File it on the GST portal as form RFD-11, with two witnesses and your digital signature or electronic verification code (EVC); it counts as accepted after three working days.

It is valid for the financial year it is filed in, so file a fresh one each April, as our letter of undertaking guide explains.

Without a valid LUT, you would pay IGST at the rate for your service and claim it back in form RFD-01 (conditions apply).

Keep the papers you need for an FIRC for GST refund claim, since your money stays locked up until it is paid.

You can invoice in any currency your client agrees to, as GST asks only that the money arrives in foreign currency, or in rupees where RBI allows it. The currency does change how long you have to receive the money.

The 9- and 12-month periods come from RBI's new export rules under FEMA, the Foreign Exchange Management Act, in force from 1 October 2026. Treat the 9-month date as your last safe day.

If a client is running late, ask your bank for more time before that date, because the bank may extend it when you give reasons.

For your GST return, convert the foreign amount into rupees at a generally accepted rate for the time of supply. Use one source, such as the RBI reference rate, every time so your invoice, return and refund match.

Once the money arrives, your bank needs the right purpose code, it issues a certificate for each payment, and you file one form, the EDF, to declare the month's exports. The EDF replaced the older SOFTEX process.

Behind the scenes, the bank closes each invoice in RBI's EDPMS system, the export tracking database. For invoices up to ₹10 lakh, or the same in foreign currency, it can do so on your own declaration.

Your bank, not you, updates the EDPMS entry, and it will ask questions if one stays open.

Which RBI code matches which service you invoice

The purpose code is a five-character RBI code that tells your bank, or the platform receiving the money, what the payment was for.

Each code has its own page with examples: P0802 for software and app work, P0803 for data processing and P0804 for maintenance. For accounting work see P1005, for consulting P1006 and for marketing P1007.

These codes come from an older RBI list, so confirm yours with your bank before the first payment, or check the purpose code for freelancers list.

FIRA, eFIRA and eBRC and when each one is used

• FIRA: the advice your bank issues for each payment, showing the sender, amount, rate and purpose code. See what a FIRA contains.
• eFIRA: the same advice in electronic form, which you download instead of collecting paper.
• eBRC: a certificate you generate on the DGFT portal from your bank's messages, used mainly for export benefits. Compare BRC vs FIRC before a GST refund claim.

EDF replaces SOFTEX and is due within 30 days of month-end

From 1 October 2026 the Export Declaration Form, or EDF, replaced the old SOFTEX process for services.

You file it within 30 days from the end of the invoice month, and one EDF can cover all that month's invoices, even to several clients.

For an invoice dated 16 November 2026, the month ends on 30 November, so the EDF is due by 30 December 2026.

Exporters of services other than software may instead file on or before the day payment arrives. Design can count as software, so designers should keep to the month-end date.

Software exporters file with their bank or with Software Technology Parks of India (STPI). The history of the SOFTEX form explains what changed.

When you invoice foreign clients, print the account name, account number, bank name, SWIFT or BIC code and the IBAN or routing number their bank needs.

Ask them to quote the invoice number as the reference, and say who pays the bank charges.

Whichever method you pick, make sure the money comes in as an export payment, so you get a FIRA and the right purpose code. Here is how we handle it:

• Invoicing with us: Xflow Invoicing is free, with branded templates, payment options embedded automatically, bank transfer details added and reminders for overdue invoices. You can create an invoice from your dashboard.
• Where your client's money lands: your overseas clients pay into our local USD, EUR, GBP and CAD receiving accounts, or by SWIFT in other currencies, and you get a free eFIRA within 24 hours of each withdrawal.
• What it costs: we use the mid-market rate, and on our Starter plan, an invoice up to USD 2,000 costs a flat USD 12, with a variable fee charged as an FX mark-up above that. Our pricing page lists every plan.

If you want to weigh other tools as well, we compare the best platforms to invoice international clients from India.

Both examples follow the same rules for a single freelancer and for a small agency billing two clients in one month.

Every name, GSTIN, LUT number and exchange rate is a placeholder.

The rupee figures use illustrative rates of 1 USD = ₹90, 1 GBP = ₹115 and 1 EUR = ₹100, not market quotes, so use your own bank's rate on the day.

Example for a freelancer billing a US client in USD

In this example, Priya, a freelance product designer in Pune, bills Brightline Labs in Austin for the UI design of a mobile app.

Priya gives her bank purpose code P0802, since app UI design usually fits software consultancy (confirm with your bank).

She files her EDF by 30 December 2026 and must receive the money by 16 August 2027. The invoice is under ₹10 lakh, so her bank can close the EDPMS entry on her declaration.

She keeps the eFIRA, EDF copy and LUT acknowledgement with the invoice.

Example for an agency billing a UK and a German client

In this example, Kite Digital, a private company in Bengaluru, bills two clients in November 2026.

Both invoices fall in November, so one EDF covers both, due by 30 December 2026. If Rheinblick were Kite's foreign parent, this would still be an export; if Kite were only its Indian branch, it would fail the fifth condition.

These three slips usually surface months later, at refund time or when your bank asks about an open EDPMS entry.

Missing export endorsement or an LUT that was not renewed

Without the endorsement an invoice looks like a domestic supply, and an expired LUT means you cannot bill at 0%. Set a late-March reminder to file the next year's LUT, and check your template still prints the full endorsement.

Picking a purpose code that does not match the service

A wrong code mislabels your payment in the bank's reporting and on your FIRA, which can stall a refund. Match it to RBI's description of your actual work, using the RBI purpose code for inward remittance list if nothing fits.

Letting the nine-month deadline pass without asking the bank

A late payment leaves your export open in the bank's records, and FEMA breaches can lead to penalties. Write to your bank before the deadline with the reasons and your chasing emails, and ask for an extension.