A negotiable instrument that represents an unconditional demand for payment. Together with the Bill of Lading it forms the basis for the
documentary collection procedures and together with the exporter’s commercial invoice it can be used to charge the importer for the goods.
Defined by the Bill of Exchange Act as: ‘An unconditional order in writing, addressed by one person to another, signed by the person giving it requiring the person to whom it is addressed to pay on demand, or at a fixed or determinable future time, a sum certain in money to or to the order of a specified person, or to a bearer’. A bill is signed by a drawer and addressed to a drawee, who becomes the acceptor by writing their name across the face of the bill. The person to whom the bill is payable is referred to as the payee.