- 13 Aug
Pre-Dunning Chasing Invoices Before Due Date
Pre-dunning is the practice of contacting a debtor, to confirm that payment is due to be made, before the debt has fallen due. This can form part of your normal credit control process to chase in outstanding debts.
Pre-Dunning
"Dunning" is the process of communicating with debtors regarding the collections of accounts receivable. "Pre Dunning" is when you communicate prior to the debt having fallen due.
Whilst many suppliers don't adhere to this practice, it can be helpful in confirming that there are no issues with your outstanding sales invoices, prior to them falling due.
Typically, a supplier that chases only once the invoice is due, will only surface any problems at that time, customers rarely contact suppliers to warn them of issues with debts. It is often the case that you only find out e.g. the shipment was late, the invoice is incorrect etc. when you finally get around to start chasing for payment.
Credit Control Invoice Collection Cycle
Pre-dunning can form part of your credit control process. See our guide to credit control to see how it can fit into your overall collections cycle. We also provide further details of how to manage your own credit control process. Alternatively, you can outsource your credit control activity, to save you time and - in some cases - money. This can be as part of a factoring arrangement (where you also get prepayments against your sales invoices), or on a standalone basis. Some clients use these services to improve the speed with which customers pay, or to just avoid the need to employ your own team of credit control staff, which can come at a considerable cost to your company.
Whilst not all businesses choose to undertake pre-dunning, it can be an effective way of improving your cash flow, by highlighting payment issues earlier.