Bills of exchange can be sorted according to various criteria. Bill of exchange law distinguishes bill of exchange and promissory note. From the simplified point of view, promissory note is a certain variant of a credit paper. Its substance is a promise of a drawer to pay to a creditor (payee) certain financial sum. As a rule, a promissory note therefore contains characteristic expression "I will pay". In its basic form it has only two participants - drawer and creditor (payee). The drawer of a promissory note is a direct debtor obliged by his sign to pay at the maturity.
This is not the case of a bill of exchange (draft). For a reader meeting the bill of exchange law for the first time it could seem that bill of exchange is a complication of a simple and clear scheme of a promissory note (which so clearly reflects relation debtor - creditor to a bill instrument). For a bill of exchange is usually used a term "trata".
The bill of exchange is distinguished from the note above all by the fact that, in its basic form, it requires higher number of participants. Speaking about a basic bill of exchange, there are drawer and payee again, but this once relations between them are "complicated" by another participant - drawee. Substance of a bill of exchange is in payment order of a drawer to a drawee to pay certain financial sum to a payee. As a rule, a bill of exchange therefore contains characteristic expression "Pay to".
On certain conditions, number of participants can be reduced, since drawer, drawee and creditor do not have to be 3 different persons. The BECA takes as valid two bills of exchange with reduced number of participants: a bill of exchange drawn on the drawer himself (Article I, Section 3 par. 1) and a bill of exchange payable to his order. The bill of exchange with only one participant is not valid.
Bill of exchange drawn on the drawer himself is a bill of exchange, where drawer declares himself as a creditor (by words "to my own order"). Drawer and payee is the same person in this case.
Bill of exchange payable to drawer's order is a bill of exchange where the drawer orders to himself to pay to a payee. Drawer and drawee is the same person here. To get a direct debtor, the bill of exchange has to bear an acceptation by the drawee.
In the following text we will not make a difference between a bill of exchange and a promissory note. Speaking about a bill of exchange, we mean promissory note as well, unless from the context arises something else. The Czech language has one expression for a bill of exchange as well as for promissory note: "smìnka". For a bill of exchange the expression "smìnka cizí" is used, for a promissory note the expression "smìnka vlastní" is used.