Top 5 ways to use Blue Book to get paid faster

If you’re not carefully watching days sales outstanding (DSO), i.e., how long it takes your customers to pay you, we hope someone at your company is!

Getting paid faster reduces the risk that you’ll never get paid. It also reduces borrowing needs and allows you to pay your customers faster, strengthening your credit profile and solidifying investor confidence in your company.

If your DSO has slipped, reducing it may be a worthy New Year’s resolution. Here are five ways you can use Blue Book to get paid faster in 2026.

#1 Include conspicuous language on invoices stating, “We report good pay practices to Blue Book Services”

By reminding your customers that you’re a Blue Book member and you share pay practices with Blue Book, your invoices are less likely to slip to the bottom of the pile. Rewarding the customers that do pay fast is a win-win for your company and theirs.

#2 Prioritize sales to companies that pay quickly

Many sellers have a minimum credit profile that must be met before extending credit without management approval. And while certainly this is a good best practice, is your company prioritizing the excellent payers over the good payers, and the good payers over the just okay payers? 

If you’re not targeting and prioritizing the A and B payers, your DSO is probably not as strong as it could be. 

#3 Send Courtesy Contacts when pay slows

We’re seeing more and more companies send Courtesy Contacts as a way of reminding customers that invoices are past due and need to be addressed.

Courtesy Contacts do not affect your customers’ credit profile (i.e., they do not appear in the Claims Activity Table), but they remind customers that you’re a Blue Book member and need to be paid in a timely manner.

Members have recovered approximately $5,000,000 in the last two years using Courtesy Contacts.

#4 Open a Blue Book claim when necessary

When debtors get overextended, they typically don’t stop paying everyone—they make choices. And one way to encourage prioritization of your invoices is to place a claim with Blue Book.

Claims are visible in real time to all Blue Book members in the Claims Activity Table maintained for all listed firms. Claims that go unpaid without proper support for any deductions (e.g., a USDA inspection showing a breach of the sales agreement) are flagged as meritorious and reported in our weekly Credit Sheet.

Blue Book claims tend to be processed within 45 days, allowing a later filing of a PACA complaint (as long as its within nine months of the date when payment was due) or to resort to outside collection and/or legal channels.   

#5 Familiarize yourself with Blue Book’s Trading and Transportation Guidelines

Not all slow pay reflects poorly on your customer. Bona fide disputes are a fact of life in the fresh produce world, but companies that understand trading and transportation best practices, customs, and rules experience fewer disputes and resolve them more quickly than firms that don’t.

Does your firm handle trouble loads efficiently? If not, this could be an opportunity to improve this year.  

As always, we appreciate your feedback. Please let us know how Blue Book can do more for you in 2026!