If your fee notes come out of practice software rather than Xero or QuickBooks, you can still collect and chase them through a payment tool by sending the invoices to it by email or uploading the PDFs. In Adfin, each invoice you forward or upload becomes an invoice your clients can pay by SEPA direct debit, card or bank transfer, and it's chased automatically. You still raise the invoice in your practice software, and you still record the payment there.
In this article
The short version
- Fee notes from practice software can reach Adfin by email or PDF upload.
- Clients can then pay by SEPA direct debit, card or bank transfer from a link.
- Reminders go out automatically by email, SMS and WhatsApp at no charge.
- The fee note is still raised in your practice software.
- Payments still need recording in the practice system, matched by invoice number.
The manual chain behind a fee note
Many Irish practices raise their fees in practice management software, not in an accounting package. Systems such as CCH Practice Management from Wolters Kluwer and BrightManager from Bright record staff time and work in progress, and the fee note is raised from that. It's a sensible place to bill from, because the time, the client and the job are already there.
Many payment tools, though, are built around invoices that arrive from Xero or QuickBooks. So when the fee note is ready, a lot of practices end up running a chain that looks something like this:
- Fees agreed for the year sit in a spreadsheet, client by client.
- The fee note is raised in the practice system and exported as a PDF.
- Someone emails the PDF to the client, with the practice's bank details for a transfer.
- When the fee goes overdue, someone notices on the debtors report and writes a reminder by hand.
- Transfers arrive with whatever reference the client typed, and each one is matched to a fee note and posted in the practice system.
None of those steps is hard. The time goes on repeating them for every client, at the busiest points of the year, and on the steps that slip when nobody has time for them, which tends to be the reminders.
Get invoices into Adfin by email or upload
You don't need a direct link between your practice software and a payment tool to cut out most of that chain. Adfin can take invoices in two ways that work with any software able to produce a PDF.
By email, you get a private address for receiving invoices. You can add it as a BCC on the invoice emails your practice software already sends, or forward invoices to it from your own inbox, and each attached invoice is read for the client, invoice number, amount and dates.
If you'd rather work in batches, you can drag the PDFs in instead, one or several at a time, and check what's been read before anything goes to the client.
A few habits help:
- Keep one invoice per PDF, because a file holding several fee notes can't be split.
- Print the client's email address on the fee note, since a forwarded email doesn't carry it.
- Start with the setting that holds each invoice for your approval, and only switch to sending automatically once you're happy with what comes through.
- Use your practice system's invoice number as the reference throughout, so every payment points straight back to the fee note it settles.
Collect and chase once the invoice is in
Once a fee note is in, your client gets a way to pay it. They can pay by SEPA direct debit, card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, pay by bank or bank transfer to bank details unique to that client, and payment links go out by email, SMS or WhatsApp. Clients on a monthly fee can sign a SEPA mandate once and be collected on the due date, with notice before each collection.
Chasing then runs without anyone writing reminders. On Adfin's free Essential level, there's no cap on email, SMS and WhatsApp reminders, and you get statements and a debtors view across those clients. If your practice software already emails the fee note, you can let it keep doing that and have Adfin send only the reminders. It's worth switching off any reminders your practice system sends, so clients aren't chased twice.
If you want more than fixed reminders, Adfin's collection agents can adjust the timing, channel and tone of follow-up client by client, within rules you approve, and add statutory interest and compensation to overdue fees owed by business clients. That's Enhanced credit control, at 0.3% per paid invoice and only where an enhanced skill was used. Fees owed by individuals for personal work stay outside the late payment rules.
Payments cost 1% + 20c each, with the 1% part capped at €2 on SEPA direct debit and bank transfer, so a fee note of €2,000 or less paid that way costs no more than €2.20. Card payments aren't capped, and there's no monthly fee, set-up fee or contract.
What stays in your practice software
Getting invoices into a payment tool doesn't move your billing out of your practice system, and it's better to plan for that from the start. The fee note is still raised there, from the time and work in progress you've recorded, and it stays your record of what was billed.
Payments still need recording there as well. In Adfin, each payment sits against the fee note it paid, under the invoice number read from that fee note, and payouts are gross, with Adfin's fees invoiced separately, so no fee is taken off what the client paid. That should make posting the receipt against the right fee note a quick lookup, but it's still a step you or your bookkeeper take in the practice system.
If your fee notes already post through to the practice's own Xero or QuickBooks, you could connect Adfin to that organisation instead, and payments taken through Adfin are then marked paid there automatically.
Common questions
Can I use a payment tool if my practice bills from CCH or BrightManager? Yes, if the tool accepts invoices by email or PDF upload. Adfin takes fee notes forwarded or BCC'd to a private address, or uploaded as PDFs, from any practice software.
Do I still raise the invoice in my practice software? Yes, the fee note is raised in your practice system as it is now. Adfin collects and chases it once it arrives.
Will clients get two invoices? Not if you choose who sends it. Your practice system can keep sending the fee note while Adfin sends only reminders, or Adfin can send both.
How do payments get back into my practice system? You record them there yourself. In Adfin each payment sits against the invoice number from your fee note, and payouts are gross, so you can post it against the right fee note.
Which file types can I send to Adfin? PDF, JPEG and PNG invoice files, with one invoice in each file.
Can I add late payment interest to fees that came in by email? On fees owed by business clients, Enhanced credit control can add statutory interest and compensation automatically. Fees owed by individuals for personal work are outside the late payment rules.
Sources
- Adfin Help Centre - Get invoices into Adfin by email (accurate as of November 2026) https://support.adfin.com/en/articles/17734274-get-invoices-into-adfin-by-email-import-from-email
- Adfin Help Centre - Adding invoices to Adfin (accurate as of November 2026) https://support.adfin.com/en/articles/15073148-adding-invoices-to-adfin
- Wolters Kluwer - CCH Practice Management (accurate as of November 2026) https://wolterskluwer.com/en-gb/solutions/cch-central/cch-practice-management
- Bright - BrightManager (accurate as of November 2026) https://brightsg.com/en-ie/accountancy-manager
- Irish Statute Book - S.I. No. 580 of 2012, European Communities (Late Payment in Commercial Transactions) Regulations 2012 (accurate as of November 2026) https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2012/si/580/made/en/print
