Changing a fee estimate the client already has
What happens in the Legal pack when a sent fee estimate must change: why it is frozen, how a revision works, and what the client's acceptance records.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Legal businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Launching soon. The Industry CRM add-on described in this article is launching soon. This article describes it as it will work at launch.
The fee estimate went to the client on Monday: an opposed application, priced on the assumption that the other side would file one set of answering papers. On Wednesday the other side files a counter-application. The work has roughly doubled, and the estimate the client is holding no longer describes it. The attorney's instinct is to open the estimate, change the figures and send it again.
In Achekam's Industry CRM with the Legal services pack, that is deliberately not possible. A sent fee estimate cannot be edited. This article explains why, how a revision works instead, and what the client's acceptance records, for law practices in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya.
A sent fee estimate is frozen
The pack uses a practice's own words: customers are Clients, records are Matters, leads are Enquiries and quotes are Fee estimates. Once a fee estimate has been sent, it is frozen. It is changed only by a revision.
The reason is evidence. If a fee dispute reaches a taxing master, a professional body or a court, the first question will be what the client was told and when. A document that can be changed after it was sent cannot answer that question; a frozen one can. Freezing protects the client from a moving target, and it protects the practice from the accusation that the figures were altered after the fact.
Making a revision instead of editing the original
When the scope or price changes, create a revision of the estimate. The original stays exactly as sent, and the revision carries the new scope and figures. Over the life of a matter, the revisions form a history: first estimate, revision after the counter-application, revision after the matter was postponed.
A good revision explains itself. Before sending it:
- describe what changed in the matter, in a sentence the client will understand;
- show which items changed: more professional fees, an added consultation with counsel, extra disbursements recovered;
- keep the items the client already accepted unchanged, so the difference is clear;
- check the prices against your catalogue.
The pack's starter catalogue lists consultations, professional fees, fixed-fee matters, retainers and disbursements recovered, without prices, posting to Legal fees (4310) and Disbursements recovered (4320). No starter item carries a price; the practice sets its own, so a revision is priced from the practice's catalogue, not from the pack.
What the client sees and accepts on the link
The client accepts a fee estimate on a link by typing their name and ticking a box. A revision goes to the client the same way: the client reads it on the link and accepts it there, or does not.
Until the client accepts the revision, the earlier accepted estimate is the last thing the client agreed to. Do not carry on with the extra work as if the revision were accepted. Call the client, explain the change, and then send the revision for acceptance, so the acceptance follows an informed conversation rather than replacing one.
The Industry CRM can also refuse to let a record move into certain stages until set conditions are met, such as an amount being set or a signature being done. A matter, for example, cannot reach Mandate signed until the conflict-check stage is done and a signature task is complete. Conflict checks before accepting instructions are covered in running a conflict check before accepting.
What acceptance records
When a client accepts, the pack keeps more than a yes:
| Recorded | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| The name the client typed | Who accepted |
| The ticked box | That they confirmed acceptance deliberately |
| The client's IP address and browser | Supporting evidence of where the acceptance came from |
| The version accepted | Which revision the acceptance applies to |
The link itself is protected: its token is stored only as a hash. Whether a typed name and a tick are enough for a particular agreement is a legal question. The UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Signatures sets out the reliability criteria many national laws draw on when treating electronic signatures as equivalent to handwritten ones; your own country's law decides the point.
The draft invoice, and who may issue it at once
Acceptance drafts the invoice in receivables. A draft is the default for good reason: someone in the practice checks it against the accepted revision and the mandate before it reaches the client's account. Issuing the invoice at once on acceptance needs an administrator's recorded authority, so a practice decides in advance, and on the record, whether any estimates may skip the draft stage.
For revisions, the draft step is especially useful. It is the moment to check that the invoice follows the accepted revision, not an earlier version. How accepted estimates reach the ledger is explained in from accepted fee estimate to legal fees in the books, and billing time recorded on the matter afterwards in billing the time recorded on a matter.
Keeping the mandate wording in step with the revised estimate
A fee estimate rarely stands alone. The mandate and fee agreement set the terms, and every contract or agreement in the industry packs is starter wording the practice must review before use. If the mandate refers to the estimate by date or amount, a revision can leave the two out of step.
Three habits keep them aligned:
- Word the mandate so it refers to "the fee estimate as revised and accepted from time to time", if your practice is comfortable with that approach.
- Where the change is significant, send an addendum to the mandate for signature along with the revision.
- File each accepted revision with the matter, beside the mandate it modifies.
When the next estimate changes, resist the edit button that is not there. Call the client, send a revision, and let the record show exactly what was agreed, and when.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
