My own take on this is that, for my Perms, you must tell me the ride date before you start, by email or text (or even write to me by snail-mail!) - even if it is just seconds to go.
This notification isn't for my benefit (chance are I won't pick up that text or email until you are well into your ride, or several days later). Rather it just waves the start flag for that particular event. Afterall, you can't define a DNS or DNF if there isn't an S.
A DNS would be further notification that the ride is off, sent before your originally planned start obviously. For a DNS you can have another go on another day free of charge.
If you DNF you need to send another entry. However, this would probably be free of charge if you can reuse the original route sheet and brevet card, as there would be no cost to me.
I prefer people to have a collection of entered Perm cards sitting there, possibly for years, rather than getting urgent entries for a Perm to be ridden at short notice. Please don't assume that I sit at home with nothing better to do than popping off Perm cards in the post, and it sometimes takes me days before I happen to go past my nearest post box anyway. You do need to be aware that, while old Perm cards never expire, they can become out of date, so I make my route sheets available online.
