A post-dated cheque is a commitment, not a collection. Track every PDC to its deposit date, nudge the customer two days before deposit (it prevents bounces and preserves goodwill), deposit on the day, and treat any bounce as an immediate human escalation. In the books, cheques-in-hand and cash-in-bank must remain two separate truths.
Why PDCs persist
The GCC’s cheque culture survived digitization because a PDC splits the difference between trust and terms: the customer gets a payment schedule; the supplier holds an instrument with legal weight. For forwarders, PDC books covering months of receivables are still routine — which makes PDC tracking a core collections function, not an accounting footnote.
The working playbook
- Register on receipt: amount, bank, deposit date, invoices covered — a PDC that lives in a drawer is a risk, not an asset.
- Nudge before deposit: a two-day courtesy note prevents most bounces and reads as professionalism, not distrust.
- Deposit on the date: late deposits break your own cash forecast and can complicate the instrument's standing.
- Bounce = human, immediately: a bounced cheque changes the relationship's legal and commercial temperature — no automated reminder should touch it.
The reporting truth
The book must show three numbers separately: collected cash, PDCs in hand by deposit month, and open receivables — because a forecast that counts cheques as cash is a forecast that bounces with them. The desk’s bank feed shows exactly this separation in the method.
From reading to seeing.
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