QuickBooks Online
The Sri Lanka tax invoice, from your QuickBooks Online data
Every VAT-registered business in Sri Lanka now has to issue its tax invoices in the prescribed format. QuickBooks Online has no Sri Lankan edition, and its invoice form was not built for it. Missing Toolkit: Templates fills a Word template laid out for the tax invoice with the invoice you already recorded in QuickBooks.
What the tax invoice has to show
The Inland Revenue Department's tax invoice format (Gazette Extraordinary No. 2481/22, as amended by No. 2500/106, and IRD Circular SEC/2026/E/03) applies to every VAT-registered business from 1 October 2026. In plain terms, each tax invoice carries:
- The words Tax Invoice, prominently, at the top.
- The supplier's name, address, TIN and VAT registration number.
- The purchaser's name, address and TIN.
- The invoice date, the date of supply, and a serial number in the prescribed format.
- Each item with its description, quantity and unit price.
- The value excluding VAT, the VAT amount, and the total including VAT, each stated separately.
Why the QuickBooks Online invoice falls short
QuickBooks Online is sold in Sri Lanka without a Sri Lankan edition, so nothing in it knows about this format. Custom form styles lets you choose a layout, a color and which columns appear. It does not let you place a TIN block for the supplier and another for the purchaser, rename the totals, or bring a layout of your own.
The information is already in QuickBooks: the customer, the lines, the tax, the dates. What is missing is a document that puts it where the format needs it. Missing Toolkit: Templates reads the invoice, never writes to your books, and fills a Word template you can change as the rules or your accountant require.
What the finished tax invoice looks like
This is the free starter template below, filled with an invoice from QuickBooks Online.
Tax Invoice
Supplier
Ceylon Harvest Imports (Pvt) Ltd
No. 42, Galle Road
Colombo 00300
011 234 5678
TIN: 114523871
VAT reg. no: 114523871-7000
Purchaser
Hill Country Fresh Mart
No. 18, Peradeniya Road
Kandy 20000
TIN: 409873215
Details
Invoice no: 26OCT_BR03_1
Invoice date: 14/10/2026
Date of supply: 15/10/2026
Due: 13/11/2026
| Item | Description | Qty | Unit price | Amount excl. VAT |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black Pepper | Whole, 25 kg sack | 4 | 38,500.00 | 154,000.00 |
| Cinnamon Quills | Alba grade, 10 kg carton | 2 | 52,750.00 | 105,500.00 |
| Delivery | Colombo to Kandy | 1 | 6,500.00 | 6,500.00 |
Payment method: replace this line with how you accept payment, such as your bank account details.
Amounts are in your QuickBooks home currency. The VAT rate prints when the invoice carries a single rate and is left blank when it carries several.
Free Sri Lanka tax invoice template
A Word document with the supplier and purchaser blocks, both TINs, the date of supply, and the three totals already laid out. Enter your TIN once in Team settings, replace the VAT registration number with your own, and it's ready to generate.
No email required. Your company name and address fill in from QuickBooks when you generate — open it in Word first if you want to make it your own.
Sri Lankan companies also get starters for IRD's VAT Schedule 01 and Schedule 04 when they connect. The Sri Lanka guide covers setting up TINs, the credit memo fields Schedule 04 needs, and the schedule file names.
What's in the template
Every placeholder below is filled from the QuickBooks invoice you pick. The row holding the
LINE_
placeholders is repeated once per line on the invoice.
| Placeholder | Filled with |
|---|---|
| ${COMPANY_NAME} | Your company name |
| ${COMPANY_LINE1} | Your company street address |
| ${COMPANY_CITY_LINE} | Your company city, state and postal code on one line |
| ${COMPANY_PHONE} | Your company phone number |
| ${COMPANY_TAX_ID} | Your company tax ID, from Team settings |
| ${CUSTOMER_NAME} | Customer display name |
| ${BILLING_LINE1} | Billing address line 1 |
| ${BILLING_LINE2} | Billing address line 2 |
| ${BILLING_CITY_LINE} | Billing city, state and postal code on one line |
| ${CUSTOM_TIN} | The purchaser's TIN, from a custom field on the customer in QuickBooks. Rename this to match what you called yours. |
| ${INVOICE_NUMBER} | The invoice document number |
| ${INVOICE_DATE} | The transaction date |
| ${SHIP_DATE} | The ship, delivery or supply date |
| ${DUE_DATE} | The payment due date |
| ${LINE_NAME} | Product/service name (place in a table row — row will be cloned per item) |
| ${LINE_DESCRIPTION} | Description (place in a table row — row will be cloned per item) |
| ${LINE_QUANTITY} | Quantity |
| ${LINE_RATE} | Unit price |
| ${LINE_AMOUNT} | Total amount |
| ${SUBTOTAL} | Subtotal before tax |
| ${TAX_RATE} | The tax rate, such as 18%, when the invoice has a single rate (blank when it has several) |
| ${TAX_AMOUNT} | Total tax amount |
| ${TOTAL_AMOUNT} | Total invoice amount |
| ${CUSTOMER_MESSAGE} | Message displayed on invoice |
Serial numbers stay in QuickBooks
The format prescribes how an invoice serial number is built, for example
26OCT_BR03_1 for an
invoice from a branch. Turn on custom transaction numbers in QuickBooks Online and number your
invoices that way there. Missing Toolkit: Templates prints the invoice number exactly as QuickBooks
holds it, and does not create or check serial numbers itself.
Check it with your accountant
The template is built around the published tax invoice requirements. Published summaries still differ on some details, such as whether amounts are shown in whole rupees and whether the total in words is required. Confirm the layout with your accountant before you issue invoices from it. The template is a Word document, so anything they ask you to add or change is yours to edit.
Common questions
- Can QuickBooks Online produce a Sri Lanka tax invoice?
- Not with its own invoice form. There is no Sri Lankan edition of QuickBooks Online, and Custom form styles cannot add supplier and purchaser TIN blocks or restate the totals the way the format requires. Missing Toolkit: Templates fills a Word template laid out for the tax invoice with the invoice data you already keep in QuickBooks.
- Where does the purchaser's TIN come from?
- From a custom field on the customer in QuickBooks Online. QuickBooks only shares the last few characters of its own tax registration field with other applications, so add a customer custom field called TIN, record each customer's TIN in it, and it fills in on every tax invoice to them. If your field has another name, rename the placeholder in the template to match.
- Where does my company's TIN come from?
- QuickBooks Online doesn't share your company's tax ID with apps, so you type it once in Team settings. It then prints wherever a template asks for it, including on your tax invoices and in the VAT schedule file names. Your VAT registration number is typed into the tax invoice template once, in Word.
- Does this replace invoicing in QuickBooks Online?
- No. You create and track invoices in QuickBooks exactly as you do now, including payments and VAT. Missing Toolkit: Templates only ever reads your QuickBooks data and only produces the document you send, so your books are never touched.
- Can I get a PDF instead of a Word file?
- Yes. Every document can be generated as Word or PDF. The PDF is rendered from your template, so it matches the layout you and your accountant agreed.
- What goes into the VAT Schedule 01 file?
- One row for every invoice and sales receipt in the period, under IRD's exact column headers: Serial No, Invoice Date, Tax Invoice No, Purchaser's TIN, Name of the Purchaser, Description, Value of supply and VAT Amount. The file is named the way IRD asks, with your company TIN and the period. Schedule 04 does the same for your credit memos, with amounts shown as positive.
- What does Schedule 04 need from my credit memos?
- Schedule 04 asks for the number and date of the invoice each credit note corrects, and QuickBooks Online has no field for either. Add two custom fields in QuickBooks under Settings, Custom fields: a text field called Original invoice and another called Original invoice date, both turned on for credit memos. Fill them in on each credit memo, with the date as MM/DD/YYYY. If you name them differently, rename the placeholders in the Schedule 04 template to match.
- What if one of my customers has no TIN?
- Before you download, the period summary lists every row where a column the template prints is blank, including a customer with no TIN, so nothing goes out with a gap you didn't know about. What to enter for a buyer who isn't VAT registered is a question for your accountant.
- Can the VAT schedules run every quarter on their own?
- Yes, on the Advanced plan. Set the schedule to quarterly and choose the quarter before the run. It runs in January, April, July and October, straight after each quarter ends, and the person who set it up gets an email with a link to the file. Monthly works the same way. Nothing is ever sent to your customers.
- Can I print amounts in words in rupees?
- Yes. Any template can print an amount in words in LKR, which is useful on receipts and cheques, along with date formats, upper or lower case and rounding. You set these in the template itself, so there's no need to change anything in Word each time.
Issue the tax invoice from the data you already keep
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