You sent an invoice for ₹80,000. The client paid ₹72,000. They did nothing wrong, because the missing ₹8,000 is TDS. But your invoice still says ₹80,000 is due, so it sits there looking unpaid. Next month you cannot remember whether that client owes you ₹8,000 or not.
That mismatch is what the TDS line on a Riffit invoice is for. I built Riffit, so this post is a walkthrough of my own feature: what it does, a worked example with and without GST, and a clear list of what it does not do.
The quick answer
When you declare TDS on a Riffit invoice, the invoice shows the deduction and the net amount your client should transfer, worked out on your fee before GST. The Pay via UPI button on your client's invoice page, and the QR on the PDF, ask for that same net amount. When the money arrives, you record what was actually withheld and the invoice closes as settled in full. Your dashboard totals what was withheld across the financial year.
It does not work out what you owe, and it does not decide whether TDS applies. More on that below.
The mismatch problem
When a client deducts TDS, two numbers exist for the same invoice, the amount you billed and the amount that lands in your bank, and they never match because they are not supposed to.
Most invoices only show the first number. That creates three small problems that add up.
The client's accounts person has to do the sum. They see ₹80,000 on the invoice and have to work out the deduction and the transfer amount on their side. If you charge GST, they also have to remember that the deduction applies to the fee, not to the total. Sometimes they get it wrong.
Your UPI QR asks for the wrong amount. If the QR on the invoice requests the full total, a client who is deducting TDS cannot use it as is.
Your records never close. The invoice shows ₹72,000 received against ₹80,000. Is it part-paid? Is ₹8,000 still due? In a spreadsheet or a plain tracker, it sits as part-paid forever. Multiply that by a year of invoices and your list of pending payments stops meaning anything.
A short payment that turns out to be TDS is one of the four cases I covered in client paid less than your invoice. This feature is my attempt to make that case boring.
What declaring TDS on the invoice does
Step 1: Declare the deduction
When you create the invoice, you declare that the client will deduct TDS. On the dashboard invoice form, tap Add TDS, just under Add Discount. It asks What kind of work is this? and offers professional fees (10%), technical services (2%), contract work at 1% or 2% depending on whether you bill as an individual or as a company or LLP, and a 20% option for when your client does not have your PAN. Pick one and tap Apply TDS, and that rate is applied to your fee.
It works on Free and Pro. The in-chat WhatsApp form does not have it, so if you start an invoice in WhatsApp, open the draft on the dashboard and add TDS before you send it.
Which kind of work to pick is not something Riffit can tell you. Ask the client what rate they will apply before you invoice. I have a separate post with the five TDS questions to ask a client before invoicing and a message you can copy.
For context, as of October 2026, and confirm with a CA: tax is commonly deducted at 10% on professional fees and 2% on technical services once payments from one client go above ₹50,000 in the financial year. Once the total goes above that figure, the rate applies to the whole total so far, not only to the part above ₹50,000. For contractor-type work the rate is 1% when the payee is an individual or Hindu undivided family and 2% for anyone else, and the limits are different: ₹30,000 for a single payment or ₹1,00,000 across the year. From 1 April 2026 the Income-tax Act, 2025 groups these under Section 393, so "194J" and "194C" are the older names clients still use.
Step 2: The invoice shows the deduction and the net
The invoice your client opens now carries the full picture. It shows your fee, GST if you charge it, the TDS deduction, and the net amount the client should transfer.
The deduction applies to your fee before GST. When GST is shown separately on an invoice, that is the base for TDS, so the invoice does the sum the way the client's accounts person should.
On the invoice page, the line reads like "Less: TDS @ 10% on professional fees", followed by "Net payable". On the PDF the labels depend on the design you use, and the invoice total above them never changes. Riffit prints the kind of work and the rate, never a section number.
Step 3: The payment link asks for the same net
The Pay via UPI button on your client's invoice page asks for the net amount, not the invoice total, and so does the QR printed on the PDF. The payment goes straight to your own UPI ID. Riffit never touches the money.
A worked example, with and without GST
Say you bill Nikhil's company ₹80,000 for a brand identity project, and they have told you they will deduct 10%. The GST column uses 18% as an example.
| Without GST | With GST shown separately |
|---|---|
| Fee: ₹80,000 | Fee: ₹80,000 |
| GST: none | GST at 18%: ₹14,400 |
| Invoice total: ₹80,000 | Invoice total: ₹94,400 |
| TDS at 10% on the fee: ₹8,000 | TDS at 10% on the fee: ₹8,000 |
| Net the client should transfer: ₹72,000 | Net the client should transfer: ₹86,400 |
The TDS line is ₹8,000 in both columns because it applies to the ₹80,000 fee both times. In the GST column, the client still pays you the full ₹14,400 of GST.
Without this on the invoice, the common mistake is applying 10% to the ₹94,400 total. That holds back ₹9,440 and you receive ₹84,960, which is ₹1,440 less than you should.
What happens when the money arrives
Riffit does not detect or confirm payments. Nothing changes on the invoice until you say so. When the transfer lands, you record it yourself.
Step 4: Record what was actually withheld
When you record the payment, you also record the TDS that was actually withheld. This can differ from what you declared, and that is normal.
On the invoice, tap Mark As Paid, tick Client deducted TDS from this payment and enter the amount under TDS deducted. Riffit fills in what you declared, so change it if the client did something different.
Take the no-GST column above. You declared 10%, so the invoice asked Nikhil's company for ₹72,000. Their accounts person decided your work falls under the 2% rate, deducted ₹1,600, and transferred ₹78,400. You enter ₹1,600 as the TDS deducted, and Riffit shows ₹78,400 as received in your bank and ₹1,600 as held against your PAN. The figures you store are what happened, not what you expected.
Step 5: The invoice closes as settled in full
Cash received plus tax withheld covers the invoice, so the invoice closes as settled in full. It does not sit as part-paid with a phantom balance.
Your list of open invoices goes back to meaning one thing: money a client still has to send you.
If the gap is not TDS, nothing changes: a real part payment stays open with the balance tracked, and a settlement for less is a short close. TDS is its own case because the client did pay in full, with part of it meant to go to the government against your PAN instead of to your bank.
The financial-year total on the dashboard
Every amount you record as withheld adds to a running total on your dashboard for the financial year. It sits on the dashboard home, in the Financial Snapshot card, as TDS withheld, and it follows the financial year you pick.
That one number is useful at filing time. The tax your clients deducted should appear in your annual tax statement on the income tax portal, and you claim it as credit when you file. Each client should also give you a TDS certificate.
So you end up with three things to line up:
- What you recorded in Riffit, invoice by invoice, and the total for the year
- What your TDS certificates say
- What your annual tax statement shows
If your total says ₹46,000 was withheld across the year and your statement shows ₹38,000, you know ₹8,000 is missing before your CA asks. You can also go back through your invoices to find which client it was, and write to them with the invoice number and the amount.
I have covered the claiming side in TDS deduction on a service invoice and how to claim it back. I will not explain filing here. That part belongs with your CA.
Declare TDS on the invoice. Your client sees the deduction and the net to transfer, and the Pay via UPI button asks for the same amount.Try Riffit freeWhat it does not do
I would rather you hear this from me than discover it later.
Riffit applies a rate you pick and stores the figures you give it. That is the whole feature. Specifically:
- It does not work out what you owe. It does not calculate your tax, your refund or anything about your return.
- It does not know whether a client is obliged to deduct. Whether a particular client has to deduct TDS on a particular payment is their call and their CA's. Riffit shows a deduction because you declared one.
- It does not watch thresholds. It will not tell you that payments from one client have crossed ₹50,000 in the financial year, or that a deduction should start or stop.
- It does not check that the client deposited the tax. It has no link to your tax statement. The comparison with your annual tax statement is one you do yourself.
- It does not detect the payment. You record what arrived and what was withheld.
- It does not issue or collect TDS certificates. The certificate comes from your client.
It is also not tax advice. The rates and rules above are as of October 2026 and they change. Confirm with a CA before you rely on them.
FAQ
Show three figures on the invoice: your fee and total, the TDS deduction, and the net amount to transfer. On a Riffit invoice you declare the deduction by picking the kind of work, and the invoice shows the deduction and the net amount, worked out on your fee before GST. The Pay via UPI button and the QR on the PDF ask for the same net amount.
When GST is shown separately on the invoice, TDS should be worked out on the fee before GST. On an ₹80,000 fee with ₹14,400 GST, TDS at 10% is ₹8,000 and the client should transfer ₹86,400. Confirm with a CA, as rules change.
Record what was actually withheld. If you declared 10% on an ₹80,000 fee but the client deducted 2%, you enter ₹1,600 as the TDS deducted and Riffit shows ₹78,400 received. The invoice closes as settled in full, and your records show what really happened.
Because most trackers only compare the money received with the invoice total. With TDS declared on a Riffit invoice, you record the amount received and the amount withheld, and the invoice closes as settled in full instead of sitting as part-paid.
No. Riffit applies a rate you pick and stores the figures you give it. It does not work out what you owe, does not know whether a client is obliged to deduct, and does not watch thresholds. Ask the client what they will deduct and confirm with a CA.
No. TDS is declared on the dashboard invoice form, on Free and Pro. If you start an invoice in WhatsApp, open the draft on the dashboard and add TDS before you send it.
If you record the amount withheld on each invoice, the Riffit dashboard totals it across the financial year. Compare that total with your TDS certificates and your annual tax statement. Riffit does not check the statement for you.