HDFC EDF format: filling HDFC's Excel workbook

HDFC Bank built its own EDF format for services instead of reusing the RBI form. It's an Excel workbook called "Export declaration form and request letter_Services", and if you bank with HDFC, that workbook is what your branch expects. The HDFC EDF format has one rule that decides how many rows you fill, and it's not obvious from the sheet itself.

What's in the HDFC EDF workbook

Five sheets you can see:

• Request Letter, titled "Request letter for Export of Services & EDF Filing Cum Disposal Instructions for Credit". HDFC also publishes this letter as a PDF on its trade services pages.
• EDF Annexure, with one row per EDF.
• Invoice Details 1 and Invoice Details 2, listing the invoices behind annexure rows one and two.
• Instructions, which is HDFC's own guide to filling it.

Read the Instructions sheet once. It says not to change the structure, column headings, formulas or bank-populated fields. Cells marked "As per Bank records" or "Branch to auto populate" are HDFC's to fill.

One row per client and currency

In HDFC's annexure, every row is one EDF. Each row becomes one record in EDPMS, RBI's system for tracking export invoices until the money arrives. HDFC's instructions set out when invoices share a row:

• Three invoices to the same service recipient, for the same transaction, in the same currency: one row.
• Distinct service receipts or transactions: separate rows.
• The same client, but invoices in two currencies: separate rows, one per currency.

A month with these five invoices, for example:

becomes three annexure rows: Acme in USD (two invoices), Acme in EUR (one) and Beta in GBP (two). The invoices for each row go on its Invoice Details sheet with the number, date, amount, currency, net realisable value, contract number and date if any, description of services, SAC code and remarks.

You don't need a letter per row. HDFC allows one consolidated request letter for a bulk submission, so a normal month is one letter, the annexure, and the invoice sheets.

The request letter

The letter collects your details: AD code, IEC, GSTIN, PAN, the account to be credited and the purpose code. Then the export details: type of export, mode of transport ("Internet" for online services), category of exporter, mode of realisation, country of final destination, the description of services and the total in words. Then the invoice table.

The declarations are already printed: an OFAC declaration, a FEMA declaration-cum-undertaking, and your declaration that the details are true. There's a line authorising HDFC to debit its processing charges, and a box for the bank's certification at the bottom. That box is HDFC's; leave it.

The dropdowns

Several fields are dropdowns using HDFC's exact wording, and they come with defaults already chosen. Type of export is "Service", mode of delivery "Internet", category of exporter "Others (Specify)", type "Regular Export", dispatch "Non dispatch". Mode of realisation defaults to "Others (advance payment, etc. including transfer/remittance to bank a/c maintained overseas)".

Defaults are a starting point. Check each against your own case before you submit; an SEZ unit, for one, picks a different category.

Slips HDFC's instructions warn about

HDFC's General Instructions end with a short checklist, and each item maps to a mistake that's easy to make:

• Mandatory fields left blank.
• Dates not in the format the sheet asks for (DD/MM/YYYY in the annexure).
• Two currencies for the same client squeezed into one row.
• Annexure details that aren't consistent with the Invoice Details sheet.
• Anything changed in the structure, headings, formulas or bank fields.

Watch the fourth one most. It's the easiest to miss when you're editing two sheets by hand.

After you submit

HDFC processes each annexure row in EDPMS and fills in the EDF form number in the column marked for the bank. That number is how the invoice is tracked until your client pays. When the money lands, the bank matches it against the record and closes it.

Filling it without breaking it

Filled by hand, the workbook takes patience: merged cells, dropdowns that have to keep HDFC's spelling, and invoice sheets that must line up with the right annexure rows.

Ratify EDF fills HDFC's own workbook instead. Choose HDFC as your bank, type in the month's invoices, and it groups them by client and currency, writes each value into the cell HDFC expects, and leaves the layout and the bank's cells untouched. You also get the RBI form as a PDF. Free, and nothing you type leaves your browser.

October 2026 invoices are due by 30 November 2026, and each month after that within 30 days of the month ending.

Researched 9 October 2026, from HDFC Bank's EDF workbook for services (including its Instructions sheet) and HDFC's published request letter.