Fee notes from draft to issued: numbers and terms

How a law practice sets fee-note numbering and terms in Achekam, what issuing a fee note changes, and how an issued one is corrected.

By Achekam · 11 October 2026 · 5 min read · For Legal businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya

In a small practice, the fee note is often the only document a client reads closely. They check the number against their records, the date against when the work was done, and the total against what they were told. A gap in the numbering, a fee note that quietly changed after it was sent, or a heading that says something the practice is not entitled to say all invite questions nobody has time for.

Achekam draws a firm line between a fee note that is still a draft and one that has been issued. Knowing where that line is, and what happens when you cross it, saves a great deal of correction work later. This article explains it for law practices in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya.

Drafts you can still change or delete

A business creates customer invoices, which a practice calls fee notes, as drafts it can change or delete. A draft has no number from the sequence and has not touched the ledger. It is a working document.

Use the draft stage for everything that needs checking:

• the client and the matter reference are right;
• each fee and disbursement line is described in words the client will recognise;
• the amounts agree with time recorded, the fee estimate or the mandate;
• the VAT on each line is what your adviser says it should be;
• the date is the date you intend the fee note to carry.

A second person reviewing drafts before they are issued is cheap insurance. Once the fee note is issued, every fix becomes a formal correction.

Issuing takes the next number and posts it

Issuing a fee note takes the next number in the practice's sequence and posts the fee note to the ledger as debtors, sales and output VAT. From that moment the client owes the amount, the practice's income for the period includes it, and the VAT on it is due.

When a line states no rate, VAT is taken at the rate in force on the fee note's date. Because the number comes from the sequence only at issue, deleted drafts leave no gaps, and the numbers your clients see run in order.

Setting the number format and the payment terms

The number format is set in Settings. Decide it once, before the first fee note is issued, and keep it. A format that carries a short practice prefix is easy for clients to quote on a payment and for the bookkeeper to search. Changing formats part way through a year makes statements harder to read and invites questions about missing numbers.

Default payment terms are 30 days. If your mandate or fee agreement gives clients a different period, check the terms shown on each draft against what was agreed before you issue. The period in the signed mandate is the one that matters if a client disputes when payment was due.

The PDF on letterhead, e-mailing it, and failed sends

An issued fee note can be downloaded as a PDF on the practice's letterhead and e-mailed from the fee note, with or without a pay link. A failed send is reported as not sent. Make it someone's job to look at that report: a fee note that never arrived cannot be paid, and the client will be right to say they never received it. Setting up the letterhead itself is covered in your letterhead on fee notes and documents, and adding a link the client can pay from is explained in taking a fee deposit with a pay link.

Why the PDF made on the invoice screen always reads Tax Invoice today

The heading on a fee note is not decoration. A practice enters its VAT registration number in Settings under Firm Profile, and documents made by the server print it and are titled Tax Invoice only when a VAT number is set.

There is one current defect to work around. The invoice PDF downloaded or e-mailed from the invoice screen is always headed TAX INVOICE and cites the South African VAT Act, whatever the business's country or VAT number. The server's own template handles this correctly; the browser-made PDF does not.

Who is affected:

If you are in the second or third group, check each PDF before it goes out and take advice on how to send fee notes until the defect is fixed. In South Africa, SARS's page on the obligations of a VAT vendor explains what a registered vendor must do, including issuing tax invoices and keeping records.

Fixing an issued fee note: a void or a credit note, never an edit

An issued fee note cannot simply be edited, and that protects the practice as much as the client. There are two routes.

1. Void. An administrator can void an issued fee note that has no payments or credits, which reverses its journal. Use it for a fee note that should never have been issued: the wrong client, a duplicate.
2. Credit note. A credit note is issued from the fee note it corrects, in full or for chosen lines, and posted to the ledger; it can be downloaded or e-mailed, and leftover credit is held for the client. There is no credit note without a fee note behind it. A credit note uses its original fee note's date and tax codes, so the VAT reverses on the same basis it was charged.

After a void or a full credit, issue a fresh fee note with the right details. Fee notes for work in a month that has already been closed raise a further question, covered in fee notes for a month already closed.

Before the next fee note goes out

Set the number format, enter or check the VAT number, and agree who reviews drafts. Then issue fee notes only when they are right, and treat every later change as a credit note or a void, never as a quiet edit.

General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.