How to track material sent for job work and file ITC-04
7 min read
By
TranZact Solutions Team
· Published
ITC-04 is the GST form where a principal declares inputs and capital goods sent to job workers and received back. If your turnover last year was above ₹5 crore, you file it every six months. Otherwise you file it once a year. Rule 45(3) sets the due date as the 25th of the month after the period, unless the Commissioner extends it. Confirm the current date on the GST portal before you file.
The filing is the easy part. The hard part is knowing, challan by challan, what went out, what came back and what is still at a vendor's shop.
The ITC-04 rules in one table
What | The rule (as of 22 Oct 2026) | Source |
|---|---|---|
Who files | The principal: the registered person who sends inputs or capital goods for job work | CGST Act s.143(1); GST portal ITC-04 manual |
How often | Every six months (Apr–Sep, Oct–Mar) if last year's aggregate turnover was above ₹5 crore; once a financial year otherwise | CGST Rule 45(3), from 1 Oct 2021 |
Due date | 25th of the month after the period, unless extended by notification. Confirm on the GST portal. | CGST Rule 45(3) |
Return deadline: inputs | Back to you, or supplied from the job worker's place, within 1 year of being sent out | CGST Act s.143(1), (3) |
Return deadline: capital goods | Within 3 years. Moulds and dies, jigs and fixtures, and tools are outside this limit | CGST Act s.143(1), (4) |
Missed the deadline | Treated as a supply to the job worker on the day the goods went out. Declare it in GSTR-1 and pay tax with interest | CGST Rule 45(4); s.143(3), (4) |
Extension | The Commissioner may extend the 1 year by up to 1 more year, and the 3 years by up to 2 more, on sufficient cause | CGST Act s.143(1), second proviso |
Due dates can be extended by notification. Check the GST portal for the current date for your period.
Words you will see in this guide
Job work: any treatment or process done by a person on goods that belong to another registered person (CGST Act s.2(68)). Plating, heat treatment and machining sent outside are common examples.
Job worker: the person who does the job work. The material is not theirs. They are paid for the process.
Principal: the registered person who sends the goods out and still owns them. That is you.
Job work challan: the delivery challan the goods travel on, in place of a tax invoice (CGST Rules 45(1) and 55).
ITC-04: the declaration of goods sent to, and received back from, job workers in a period.
Step 1: Send every lot out on a proper challan
Rule 45 says goods go to a job worker under a challan issued by the principal. That holds even when a supplier ships straight to the job worker. Rule 55 lists what the challan must carry:
challan date and serial number (up to 16 characters, in one or more series);
your name, address and GSTIN;
the job worker's name, address and GSTIN, if registered;
HSN code and description of the goods;
quantity;
taxable value;
place of supply, for inter-state movement;
signature.
If one job worker passes goods to another, either you or the sending job worker can issue the challan. A job worker can also endorse your challan with the quantity and description when goods move on or come back. Rule 55(3) also ties challan movements to the e-way bill rule (Rule 138).
Keep one challan per lot per job worker. It makes matching easy later.
Step 2: Keep one register: out, back, pending
Section 143(2) puts the duty to keep proper accounts of this material on the principal, not the job worker. So the register is yours. For each challan, keep five things:
what went out: item, quantity, value, date;
what came back: quantity and date, against the same challan number;
loss and waste reported by the job worker;
what is still pending at the job worker;
the age of the pending lot, counted from the date it went out.
Take a sheet-metal unit that sends 2,000 brackets for powder coating on 5 May. 1,960 come back on 20 May, and the vendor reports 15 rejected in process. That leaves 25 pieces unexplained. Without a register, nobody notices until a customer order runs short.
Age matters most. An input lot sent out on 5 May 2026 has to be back, or supplied from the job worker's place, by early May 2027. After that, the law treats it as sold to the job worker on the day it left.
Job work, from challan to ITC-04
Send every lot out on a job work challan
Log what went out, came back and is pending
Reconcile before you file ITC-04
Confirm the due date on the GST portal
Step 3: Reconcile before you file
ITC-04 has four tables, as the GST portal manual describes them:
Table 4: inputs or capital goods sent for job work, including goods sent straight to the job worker.
Table 5A: goods received back from the same job worker, with losses and waste.
Table 5B: goods received back from a different job worker, with losses and waste.
Table 5C: goods supplied from the job worker's premises, with losses and waste.
Before you open the portal, run this check for the period:
Count every challan raised in the period. Each one belongs in Table 4.
Match every receipt to its challan. If the job worker issued a fresh challan, note it. The portal accepts either one in Table 5A.
Get written loss and waste figures from each job worker, so sent = back + loss + pending.
List the pending lots older than 9 months (inputs) or 30 months (capital goods). Chase them now, not at the deadline.
Any goods sold from the job worker's premises go in Table 5C. The manual notes these supplies must also be in GSTR-1.
Split job workers into registered (by GSTIN) and unregistered (by state). The portal asks for this in every table.
The portal manual says you can prepare the form online, or use the offline upload when you have more than 500 challans. You file with DSC or EVC, and an ARN confirms the filing.
Where TranZact fits
The pain is rarely the form. It is material sitting at five vendors, tracked in a register, a sheet and a WhatsApp chat. TranZact is manufacturing AI software that runs operations from enquiry to dispatch, used by 10,000+ manufacturers.
On its live site, sub-contracting is a production management feature, next to multi-level BOM, work orders, process routing and production costing. On the inventory side, stock in, issue and multi-store run in the same system. On /pricing, "Routing and Sub-Contracting" is listed under Production Management for the Grow (₹8,333/month) and Scale+ (₹16,666/month) plans. Dominate (₹30,000/month) includes everything in Scale+. All prices are billed yearly, as of 22 Oct 2026.
TranZact works alongside Tally: operations run in TranZact, and accounts stay in Tally. Your GST filing stays with you or your CA. For the challan itself, see the delivery challan format and the subcontracting guide.
Frequently asked questions
Who has to file ITC-04?
The principal: the registered person who sends inputs or capital goods to a job worker. The job worker does not file it for your goods (CGST Act s.143; GST portal ITC-04 manual, as of 22 Oct 2026).
Is ITC-04 quarterly, half-yearly or yearly?
It was quarterly until September 2021. From 1 October 2021, it is half-yearly above ₹5 crore of last year's aggregate turnover. Below that, it is yearly (CGST Rule 45(3), as of 22 Oct 2026).
What happens if material is not back in time?
Inputs not back within 1 year, or capital goods within 3 years, count as supplied to the job worker. The supply date is the day they went out. You declare it in GSTR-1 and pay tax with interest (Rule 45(4); s.143, as of 22 Oct 2026).
Do moulds and dies count under the 3-year limit?
No. Section 143 keeps moulds and dies, jigs and fixtures, and tools outside the 1-year and 3-year limits (as of 22 Oct 2026).
Does TranZact file ITC-04 for me?
Its live site does not say so. It lists sub-contracting and stock movements such as issue and multi-store. The filing on the GST portal stays with you or your CA.
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