When you actually need one
An e-way bill is required for the movement of goods worth more than fifty thousand rupees in most states, whether the movement is inter-state or within the state, and whether or not a sale is involved — a stock transfer to your own second godown counts. For a cement or steel dealer that threshold is crossed by a routine load, so this is a daily document rather than an occasional one. Some states set a higher intra-state threshold and a few exempt certain goods, so it is worth confirming the current limit with your CA for your own state.
The fields, already on your bill
The portal wants your GSTIN and the buyer's, the invoice number and date, the taxable value and tax amounts, HSN codes for each line, the place of despatch and delivery, the approximate distance, the transporter and the vehicle number. Every one of those is already recorded when you raise a MaterialBill invoice with a delivery attached — the vehicle number and driver are captured on the challan, the HSN codes come from the items, and the values come from the bill. You are reading from one screen and entering on another rather than hunting through paperwork.
Part B, vehicle changes and the practical problems
The part that catches people out is Part B. If the vehicle changes mid-journey — a breakdown, a transhipment at a transporter's godown — the e-way bill has to be updated with the new vehicle number or the consignment is travelling without valid cover. Because the delivery record here holds the vehicle against the load, you know exactly which bill and which vehicle to update rather than working it out from a driver's phone call. Validity is also worth watching: one day per two hundred kilometres, which matters on the long hill and north-east runs.
Keeping the paperwork consistent
Penalties in practice come less from not generating an e-way bill and more from the documents disagreeing — a vehicle number on the bill that does not match the one on the e-way bill, a quantity that differs from the challan, a value that does not tie to the invoice. When the invoice, the challan and the e-way bill data all come from one record, they cannot drift apart. That consistency is what makes a roadside check uneventful, and it is the whole reason to keep the delivery details on the bill rather than on a separate pad.