Stage 1 · Manage
The DSO Reduction Programme — accounts receivable management with a deployed specialist and a system that enforces it.
For mid-size and large businesses whose revenue is earned but sitting in debtors.
What high DSO is costing you
Every extra day of DSO is interest-free credit you are giving your customers. These are the four things finance heads tell us before they call.
Our DSO has crept up for two years and nobody owns the number.
Revenue you have already earned sits in debtors while stock, salaries and growth are funded from borrowings and reserves. Working capital is locked, and the realised margin shrinks a little every month of delay.
Our salespeople are supposed to collect, and they can't.
The same person who needs next month's order cannot push for last month's payment. When target pressure peaks, collection calls are the first thing dropped. That is not a failing salesman; it is a structural conflict of interest.
Every unpaid invoice has three versions.
Accounts says the customer isn't responding. Sales says there's a rate issue they flagged last month. The customer says a credit note was promised. Nobody can be held responsible because nobody agrees on the facts — and prolonged unresolved issues become unpaid invoices.
The older the invoice, the less they want to settle.
As ageing climbs, disputes harden, paperwork goes missing and negotiating power shifts to the customer. Short supply, a rate difference or a missing credit note becomes an open-ended reason to hold the whole invoice, not just the disputed line.
What we actually do
We deploy a DSO reduction specialist — one person, one pointed focus — and give them a system that makes one specialist effective across your whole debtor book. The salesman sells. The specialist collects. The system keeps everyone honest.
The specialist drives
A Kenstone Capital practitioner, free of sales targets, customer relationships and month-end pressure.
- Runs the weekly rhythmDaily follow-ups and a weekly collection cycle with no divided attention and no sales conflict.
- Chases every dispute to closureEach dispute — product, delivery or invoice — gets a named owner and is followed until it is resolved, not parked.
- Holds promises to their datesSalespeople are held to recorded promise dates; silence and broken promises are escalated.
- Reports one version of the truthManagement gets a single weekly view — accounts, sales and customer on one screen.
The system enforces
Process automation at each step of the receivables lifecycle, built so nothing depends on memory.
- Every promise on recordPromise-to-pay captured through WhatsApp links, visible to sales, accounts and management.
- Proof of delivery tagged to the invoicePOD photos auto-tagged at delivery, so delivery disputes die at the source.
- DSO draggers rankedAccounts ranked by working-capital impact, with weekly lists per salesperson.
- Owner digest and escalation flagsDSO dashboard, cheque-bounce tracking and automatic escalation when an owner goes quiet.
Visibility creates awareness. Consequences create payment.
This is the layer most receivables tools skip. An overdue invoice has to cost something, or the best system is just a reminder service. These are policy decisions you make, powered by the programme's data.
Credit blocks
Cross the overdue limit and new orders go on hold automatically, released only when the account is cleared. The single strongest collection lever a business has — and it turns the sales–collections conflict into alignment.
Incentives on collected revenue
Sales incentives shift from billed revenue to collected revenue. We supply the salesperson-wise collection data that makes it administrable, so the month-end target and your DSO finally point the same way.
Broken-promise score
Every promise-to-pay is tracked — made versus kept, per salesperson and per customer. Repeat breakers surface automatically and escalate to management as an objective accountability metric.
From chasing reports to fixing responsibility
| Today | With the programme | |
|---|---|---|
| Follow-ups | Reactive and memory-driven | A weekly, system-driven collection rhythm |
| Ownership | A salesperson squeezed between two jobs | A deployed specialist with one pointed focus |
| Promises | Verbal, lost between sales and accounts | Recorded with dates; broken promises scored |
| Disputes | Unresolved for months, no owner | Named owner, visible age, automatic escalation |
| Delivery proof | Paper challans, easy to dispute | Photo tagged to the invoice |
| Management view | Three versions of every story | One view: accounts, sales, customer |
| Consequences | Overdue costs nobody anything | Credit blocks and incentives on collected revenue |
What this stage cannot do
The programme fixes ownership and consequence inside your business. It cannot make a customer pay who has decided not to. Some accounts will not respond to process — they ignore recorded promises, dispute everything and wait to see whether anything happens.
It also cannot resolve disputes you choose to leave open. If a rate difference or a credit note sits with a named owner for months, the invoice stays stuck regardless of how good the follow-up is.
How it connects and what it costs
Daily export
A daily export from your accounting system uploaded to the portal. Your accounts team spends a few minutes a day; nothing else changes.
Direct ERP integration
A direct connection to your ERP (SAP Business One and similar) so the sync runs automatically with no manual effort. Scoped during the diagnostic.
Documented cases
Published from engagement records with the client's written consent. Where a client asks, we withhold their identity and keep the figures.
Questions finance heads ask us
What is DSO and why does it matter?
Days sales outstanding (DSO) is the average number of days it takes to collect payment after a sale. Every extra day is interest-free credit you extend to your customers while you fund stock, salaries and growth from borrowings. DSO is the single best measure of how much of your earned revenue is sitting in debtors.
How does the DSO Reduction Programme reduce DSO?
By fixing the two things that keep DSO high: nobody owns collection, and nothing happens when a promise is broken. We deploy a specialist who runs a weekly collection rhythm with no sales conflict, and a system that records every promise, tags proof of delivery to invoices, ranks the accounts costing you most, and escalates silence and broken promises to management.
What is a DSO reduction specialist?
A Kenstone Capital practitioner deployed into your business to drive collections end-to-end. They carry none of the salesman's conflicts — no targets, no relationship to protect, no month-end pressure — and report one version of the truth to management every week.
Does the programme replace our accounts team or our salespeople?
No. The salesman sells, the specialist collects, your accounts team keeps the books, and the system keeps everyone honest. The programme removes collection from people who were never structurally able to do it.
What happens to accounts that still refuse to pay?
Some accounts do not respond to process. Under the programme, those accounts move into Kenstone Capital's recovery stage as pre-documented cases — every promise, dispute and delivery proof already on file — under a clause in your engagement, not a new sale.
How does the programme connect to our accounting or ERP system?
Two routes: a daily export uploaded to the portal, which takes your accounts team a few minutes a day, or a direct integration with your ERP so the sync is automatic. We scope which is right for you during the diagnostic.
Discuss your DSO
Tell us where you are on the curve. A practitioner — not a sales desk — reads every enquiry and replies within one working day.