How TemplateHub Checks a Spreadsheet Before It Goes Live
By Arshad Ansari, software engineer. About the editor
The publishing checklist behind every TemplateHub download: one job per file, Rule 46 or RCM fields, three-app formula tests, sample rows, and a written explainer.
This site is easy to mistake for a folder of random Excel files. The difference is a reject list. If a workbook fails the checks below, it does not get a URL. The same list is written in prose on how we build templates; this article is the "why" with examples from files that are already public.
I am Arshad Ansari. I design the sheets. There is no offshore bulk-upload queue.
One job per workbook
An early draft of the GST invoice had a cash-receipt column "because it would be useful". It made the document look like a cash book, and the place-of-supply box got shoved into a comment. That draft was deleted. The live GST invoice bills a supply. The cash book records money. The RCM file is only for inward Reverse Charge.
If you need both, download both. Do not ask one PDF to be three legal documents.
Legal fields before colours
The GST invoice was labelled to Rule 46 first: GSTIN, invoice number, place of supply, HSN, tax split. Teal headers came last. If a pretty template is missing place of supply, it is not a GST invoice.
The RCM file was labelled to Section 31(3)(f): recipient GSTIN, blank supplier GSTIN, Reverse Charge = Yes, separate SI- numbering.
Arithmetic you can audit without opening the formula bar
On the GST sample row, 10 × 1,200 = 12,000 taxable; 18% → 1,080 + 1,080. On the RCM GTA example, 18,500 × 5% = 925, split 462.50 + 462.50. If a reviewer cannot reproduce those numbers with a phone calculator, the sheet is not ready.
Three applications
Excel 365 is the source. Google Sheets must not turn GSTIN into a number. LibreOffice must not drop SUM because we used an Excel Table. Those two bugs already happened; they are documented in Excel vs Google Sheets for GST invoices.
Sample data that looks like a mistake if you skip the guide
Placeholders use [square brackets]. A GSTIN-shaped sample is obviously fake. We do not ship a real GSTIN of any business.
A page that says when not to use the file
The GST invoice page tells you not to use it for unregistered RCM. That sentence exists because people Google "GST invoice" when they needed a self invoice. Internal links are part of quality, not SEO decoration.
What we will not publish
- Fifty clones of the same invoice with a different H1.
- Locked sheets that require a password from a Telegram channel.
- Macros.
- "Coming soon" category URLs with no article. Empty HR/inventory/sales/business URLs were rewritten into actual Excel practice guides even before a downloadable file exists.
FAQ
Who do I email if a formula is wrong?
The contact page. Name the URL and whether you opened the file in Sheets.
Do you take guest templates?
Only if they pass this checklist and I can maintain them. Unmaintained guest files become the thin pages AdSense already rejected us for once.