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B W
Bill Wise
Legal Costs

Draft Bills of Costs
accurately and efficiently

A self-service drafting tool for Zambian advocates. Enter the work done and time spent while Bill Wise applies the built-in rates and schedules under S.I. No. 6 of 2017, checks the entries and calculates the totals.

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Built for Zambian practiceAutomatic calculationsYour work stays private

Simple monthly pricing

Choose the plan that suits your practice. Every seat includes the complete Bill Wise drafting tool, secure saving and document exports.

Individual
K750 / month

For an individual advocate preparing and managing Bills of Costs.

  • One user seat
  • Up to five active Bills
  • Word and PDF exports
Start 7-day free trial
Best value
Team
K1,800 / month
  • Three user seats
  • Five active Bills per seat
  • Up to fifteen active Bills
  • Word and PDF exports
Start 7-day free trial

7 days free. No payment details required. Cancel at any time after subscribing.

About

Bill Wise is a drafting tool for advocates who draw their own bills of costs. A bill is slow, repetitive work: every item multiplied out by hand, every page retotalled whenever an entry changes, every scale head looked up in the Order. Bill Wise does that arithmetic and that looking-up.

What it does not do is decide the bill. Which work to claim, under which head, and for how long remain matters for the advocate. The tool applies the Order to the entries you make, shows its workings, and flags what looks wrong — the judgement stays with you.

Your bill stays on your own machine. Nothing is uploaded, and you save and reopen your work as a file you keep.

What it works out

  • Profit costs and fee units, from hours and the advocate's standing
  • Standing taken at the date of each item, not today's date
  • Page totals carried forward, and a page-by-page summary
  • 10% allowance and 15% general charges — only when you confirm them
  • Disbursements, and VAT if the bill attracts it

What it checks

  • Work dated on a weekend
  • Items with no advocate, no time or no scale head
  • A schedule that disagrees with the scale head under the Order
  • Scale heads that are flat fees, not hourly items
  • Rates the Order does not provide — flagged, never guessed

Rates — S.I. No. 6 of 2017 1 fee unit = ZMW 0.40

Standing at the BarSchedule IISchedule III
State CounselZMW 2,664.40 / FU 6,661ZMW 2,466.80 / FU 6,167
15 years or moreZMW 2,269.60 / FU 5,674not provided
More than 10, not more than 15ZMW 1,776.40 / FU 4,441ZMW 1,973.60 / FU 4,934
More than 5, not more than 10ZMW 1,480.40 / FU 3,701ZMW 986.80 / FU 2,467
Less than 5 yearsZMW 986.80 / FU 2,467ZMW 592.40 / FU 1,481

Part III of the Order gives no rate for fifteen years or more. Those items are flagged for you to deal with by hand.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need payment details to start the trial?

No. You can use Bill Wise for 7 days without entering payment details. At the end of the trial, select a monthly plan to continue.

What is an active Bill?

An active Bill is one that is currently being drafted or amended.

What happens when I reach five active Bills?

Delete a completed Bill from your account to free up a slot for a new one.

Can I export my Bill?

Yes — on both the free trial and any paid plan, you can export the completed Bill to Microsoft Word.

Do I need to manually format the table?

No. Once you export to Word, your Bill of Costs is already formatted and ready for filing.

Can I cancel my subscription?

Yes. Both plans are billed monthly and may be cancelled before the next billing period.

Prepare your next Bill with Bill Wise.

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A drafting aid. The advocate remains responsible for the bill as filed.

Professional & Reliable

1. Matter Details

VAT applies to this bill
Add 10% Taxing Master's allowance
Add 15% general charges
Both are applied by default. Untick either one if it does not belong in this bill.

2. Advocates

Standing is worked out automatically for each item of work from the advocate's date called to the Bar — so if a matter runs for several years, entries correctly move from one bracket to the next on their own. If a State Counsel date is set, any item dated on or after it uses the State Counsel rate regardless of years standing.
NameCalled to the BarCategory (today)Sch. II rate (ZMW/hr)Sch. III rate (ZMW/hr)

3. Bill Entries

Weekend dates are highlighted in red and flagged in the error checker. Taxed Off and Reasons for Objecting are left off this screen to save space — both still appear as columns in the Word export, ready for the Taxing Master to complete.
Show only entries with an issue
In automatic mode each row is measured at true print size (A4 portrait, Times New Roman 10pt, fixed column widths), so a page total is never pushed onto the next page. 273 mm suits A4 portrait with 12 mm margins — reduce it if your printer still breaks a page early.
Scale Head is now a dropdown of the actual codes in the Schedule to S.I. No. 6 of 2017. Choosing a code auto-sets the correct Schedule (II/III) as fixed by law — you can still override the Schedule manually if you believe a specific code needs it, but the code's default is taken straight from the S.I.
Item Date Work Done Time (hrs) Scale Head Schedule Disbursements (Kwacha) Advocate Profit Costs ZMW Fee Units

4. Error Checker

5. Final Taxation Summary