Should You Reject or Mark Pending an Invoice You’re Unsure About in IMS?
GSTZone Desk · Updated 2026
Short answer
Mark it Pending if you’re genuinely unsure (goods not yet received, a discrepancy you’re still checking with the supplier) — Reject should be reserved for invoices you’re confident are wrong, duplicated, or don’t belong to your business.
In detail
These two actions carry meaningfully different weight, and treating them as interchangeable is where mistakes happen. Pending is a holding status — it keeps the invoice in limbo without permanently discarding it, giving you room to resolve a genuine query with the supplier before committing either way.
Reject is a more final, more consequential action — as covered elsewhere in this series, rejecting an invoice (especially a credit note) can have downstream effects on your own liability calculation, and reverses cleanly only if caught before you file.
A useful rule of thumb: if your uncertainty is about a FACT you can still verify (did we actually receive these goods, is this the right amount) — use Pending and go check. If your uncertainty is really closer to ‘I’m fairly sure this is wrong or not ours’ — that’s closer to a Reject situation, just backed with your reasoning.
GSTZone tip
Don’t let invoices sit in Pending indefinitely as a way of avoiding a decision — Pending status has its own time-bound limits for certain invoice categories, so treat it as a short-term holding action while you actively resolve the query, not a permanent parking spot.
Related questions
Does marking an invoice Pending delay my own return filing?+
A Pending invoice simply doesn’t flow into that period’s 2B/ITC until resolved — it doesn’t block your overall return filing, it just means that specific credit waits until you act.
Can I change a Pending status back and forth multiple times?+
You can change it as many times as needed before filing, though the goal should be resolving the actual query, not repeatedly toggling the status without addressing the underlying uncertainty.
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