Manpower Supply Bill Format with GST (Free Excel Sample)

What a manpower supply bill must show under GST

Download the free Excel bill format, no sign-up needed. Change the yellow cells and every line, the GST and the total update.

A monthly bill for manpower or security services is a GST tax invoice. Rule 46 of the CGST Rules lists what it must carry. On a manpower supply bill that means:

• Your details: name, address and GSTIN.
• Invoice number: a consecutive number of up to 16 characters (letters, numbers, hyphen or slash), unique for the financial year.
• Date of issue.
• Client details: name, address and GSTIN if the client is registered. For an unregistered client, give the name, address, address of delivery and the state with its code when the bill is Rs 50,000 or more.
• SAC code and description: Rule 46 calls it the HSN code for goods or services. Name the service, period and site, for example "Security guards, October 2026, Plant 2".
• Total value and taxable value, after any discount.
• Rate and amount of tax, shown as CGST and SGST, or as IGST.
• Place of supply with the state name, for an inter-state supply.
• Whether tax is payable on reverse charge: yes or no.
• Signature or digital signature of you or your authorised person. An electronic invoice under the IT Act, 2000 does not need one.

Also: a manpower contract that runs for more than three months with monthly payments is a continuous supply of services, so issue each invoice on or before the payment due date in the contract, or by the time you receive payment if the contract sets no due date (section 31(5) of the CGST Act). For a one-off job the limit is 30 days from supply (Rule 47). Issue it in two copies marked "Original for recipient" and "Duplicate for supplier" (Rule 48; this does not apply to an e-invoice). If your aggregate turnover in any year from 2017-18 crossed Rs 5 crore, you must issue e-invoices with an IRN and QR code for bills to registered clients (Notification 13/2020-Central Tax, as amended by Notification 10/2023-Central Tax, from 1 August 2023).

The law does not ask for an attendance sheet, but most clients will not pass a bill without one. Attach the month's attendance muster, plus EPF and ESI payment proof if the contract asks.

SAC code for manpower supply, security guards and housekeeping

GST classifies services under the Scheme of Classification of Services. Manpower, security and cleaning all sit in heading 9985, support services. These are the six digit codes you are most likely to need, as described in the official explanatory notes:

Many agencies print 998513 on every manpower bill because of its name, but the notes describe it differently and say the most specific description should be preferred. If your workers are on your payroll and work under the client's supervision, 998514 or 998515 usually fits better. Housekeeping sold as a cleaning service fits 998533. All of these carry the same GST rate, so the code does not change the tax, but agree one code with your GST practitioner and use it every month.

Four digits or six? Under Notification 78/2020-Central Tax, you must show 4 digits (9985) if your aggregate turnover in the previous financial year was up to Rs 5 crore, and 6 digits if it was more. Up to Rs 5 crore, you may leave the code off bills to unregistered clients.

Manpower supply GST rate and reverse charge for security services

Manpower supply, security and cleaning services are taxed at 18%: 9% CGST plus 9% SGST for a client in your state, or 18% IGST for a client in another state. The rate comes from the residual support services entry under heading 9985 in Notification 11/2017-Central Tax (Rate). The rate changes that took effect on 22 September 2025 did not include this entry. Two exemptions to watch, both in Notification 12/2017-Central Tax (Rate): pure services to a government department or local authority for a function entrusted to a Panchayat or Municipality (serial 3), and security, cleaning or housekeeping services performed in a school, from pre-school up to higher secondary (serial 66), are exempt, so check with your GST practitioner before you bill such a client.

GST is charged on the full taxable value of the bill: wages, statutory contributions, other costs and your service charge, not only your margin. Section 15 of the CGST Act takes the value as the price actually payable for the supply. See our answer on the GST rate for staffing agencies.

Reverse charge for security services. Entry 14 of Notification 13/2017-Central Tax (Rate), added by Notification 29/2018-Central Tax (Rate) from 1 January 2019, shifts the GST to the client when all three of these are true:

• the service is security services, meaning supply of security personnel;
• you are any person other than a body corporate, for example a proprietorship or a partnership firm;
• the client is a registered person in the taxable territory.

Reverse charge does not apply, and you charge GST as normal, if the client is a government department, local authority or government agency registered only to deduct tax under section 51, or a registered person paying tax under the composition scheme (section 10). "Body corporate" has the meaning in section 2(11) of the Companies Act, 2013, so a private limited security company charges GST itself. If your firm is an LLP, ask your practitioner how the entry applies to you. General manpower supply and housekeeping are not in this entry, so you charge GST on those bills.

On a reverse charge bill, show the taxable value, mark "Tax payable on reverse charge: Yes" and do not add GST to the total.

Sample bill: 10 security guards for 26 days, line by line

The figures below are an example only. The daily wage of Rs 500 basic plus Rs 150 VDA is made up and is not any state's notified rate. Start from the minimum wage notified for your state and category, for example the security guard minimum wage in Delhi. The example assumes a private limited agency (GST charged normally), a client in the same state, and a wage equal to the applicable minimum wage.

For a client in another state, rows 16 and 17 become IGST at 18%, Rs 43,058.79, and the total is Rs 2,82,274.29, one paisa less because CGST and SGST are each rounded. If a proprietorship sent this bill to a registered client that is not one of the exceptions above, reverse charge would apply: the bill total would be Rs 2,39,215.50 and the client would pay the Rs 43,058.79 GST directly.

The guard's own share of EPF (12%) and ESI (0.75%) is deducted from the guard's pay. It is not billed to the client.

Which lines are law and which are your contract

Every manpower bill mixes two kinds of lines. Statutory lines come from law; bill below them and you pay the gap yourself. Commercial lines are whatever you and the client sign.

The EPF ceiling changed in September 2026. By S.O. 5109(E), the wage ceiling for EPF, EPS and EDLI rose from Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000 a month from 17 September 2026. EPFO says the September 2026 wage month is worked out in two parts in a single ECR: 1 to 16 September on the old Rs 15,000 ceiling and 17 to 30 September on Rs 25,000. Workers whose EPF wages (basic plus DA plus retaining allowance) are up to Rs 25,000 must now be enrolled in EPF, EPS and EDLI, and the employer is responsible for enrolling them. If your rate card still assumes a Rs 15,000 cap, revise it and tell your clients. See EPFO's FAQs on the revised wage ceiling.

What counts as wages. Under the Code on Wages, wages means basic pay, dearness allowance and retaining allowance. HRA, conveyance and overtime are excluded, but if the excluded items exceed one half of total pay, the excess is added back.

Bonus ceilings. Section 26 of the Code on Wages leaves both bonus ceilings to the appropriate government. For central sphere establishments (railways, mines, major ports, banks and their contractors, among others), the Centre notified Rs 21,000 a month for eligibility (S.O. 4711(E)) and a calculation base of Rs 7,000 or the Central minimum wage, whichever is higher (S.O. 4710(E)), effective from 21 November 2025. For other clients the State Government decides, so check your state's notification. The bonus chapter applies where 20 or more persons are employed on any day in the accounting year. Bonus is paid yearly; billing it monthly is a contract choice.

Leave. Under the OSH Code, a worker who works 180 days or more in a calendar year earns paid annual leave. How you recover that cost, as a leave reserve or a relieving charge, is a contract term.

Clients check these lines closely because, if a contractor fails to pay wages, the OSH Code makes the principal employer pay the workers.

Download the Excel manpower supply bill format

The free Excel version of this manpower supply bill format carries every row of the sample bill above, in the same order. If you build your own sheet, copy those rows in that order. To use it:

Download the manpower supply bill format (Excel, free). No sign-up needed. The sheet has live formulas: change the yellow cells and every line, GST and the total update. A second tab lists the SAC codes.

1. Enter your inputs: workers, days worked from attendance, basic wage and VDA per day.
2. Check that basic plus VDA is at least the minimum wage notified for your state and category.
3. Enter your contract terms: leave and relieving charges, uniform and other costs, and your service charge.
4. Leave the statutory rates at their defaults unless the law changes, and record the date you last checked them.
5. Choose CGST plus SGST, IGST, or reverse charge, then copy the totals into your GST invoice with the Rule 46 fields.

Before you sign a contract, build the rate with our statutory cost sheet, then use this format each month.

Checks before you send the bill

1. Days billed match approved attendance for that site and month.
2. Basic plus VDA meets the current minimum wage, including the latest VDA revision.
3. The SAC code, place of supply and tax type (CGST plus SGST, or IGST) are right.
4. Reverse charge is marked "Yes" only when a supplier that is not a body corporate supplies security personnel to a registered client that is not a government TDS-only registrant or a composition taxpayer.
5. The invoice goes out on or before the payment due date in the contract, or within 30 days of the service for a one-off job.
6. TDS is not a line on your bill. Your client deducts it from the payment to you as a contractor. For payments from 1 April 2026 this falls under section 393(1) of the Income-tax Act, 2025 (table serial 6(i)), which keeps the old section 194C rates: 1% if you are an individual or HUF, 2% otherwise. Confirm thresholds with your CA.

How ZeniaHR helps with manpower billing

ZeniaHR's client billing software for manpower agencies turns approved attendance into a man-day invoice on each client's rate card. It applies your service charge and GST, accounts for the TDS your client will deduct from the payment, and reconciles every invoice against payroll for the same period, so you see margin per client and track what is outstanding. Billing and payroll share one worker record, so the days you bill match the days you paid.

ZeniaHR is free for up to 50 users. Paid plans cost Rs 15 to Rs 25 per user per month depending on team size, with 20% off on yearly billing. See pricing for the full rate card.

Key points

• A manpower supply bill is a GST tax invoice: Rule 46 of the CGST Rules lists its fields, including both GSTINs, the SAC code, the tax split and a reverse charge yes or no.
• Common SAC codes: 998514 or 998515 for staff on your payroll, 998519 for other labour supply, 998525 for guard services and 998533 for general cleaning.
• Show 4 digits of the code if last year's turnover was up to Rs 5 crore, and 6 digits above that.
• GST is 18% on the full bill, not only the service charge: 9% CGST plus 9% SGST, or 18% IGST.
• Security services from a supplier that is not a body corporate to a registered client are under reverse charge from 1 January 2019, so the client pays the GST, except for government TDS-only registrants and composition taxpayers.
• The EPF wage ceiling is Rs 25,000 a month from 17 September 2026; employer EPF is 12%, plus 0.50% admin charges and 0.50% EDLI.
• Employer ESI is 3.25% for employees earning up to Rs 21,000 a month, and statutory bonus is at least eight and one-third per cent (one-twelfth) and at most 20% of wages.
• How you bill leave and relieving charges, uniform costs and the service charge is a contract term, but paid annual leave itself is a legal entitlement under the OSH Code.

Frequently asked questions