Step 4.1

MONITORING BUSINESS CREDIT REPORTS

"A business that monitors its business credit reports is 40% more likely to be approved for a bank loan ." - NAV

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Get Business Credit Monitoring to see your D&B, Experian and Equifax reports and scores on one platform!

See what credit issuers and lenders are seeing so you can directly improve your scores and get the business credit and financing you need.

Step 4.2

IS YOUR COMPANY MONITORING YOUR DUN & BRADSTREET (D&B) REPORT?

It is important to monitor your business credit.

Get trained ... learn how to prepare your D&B report

What are you looking for?

• Precision

• Late payments

• All credit is reported

• Other filings, including UCC, Liens, Judgments, and Bankruptcies

• Use this information to strategically build your business credit

• First, sign up for D&B credit monitoring.

For more details on which monitoring package to select, review the D&B credit monitoring segment.

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Once you have monitoring, log in and view your most recent D&B report.

Time to dissect the D&B business credit report:

Business credibility

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• The first element that defines credibility on your business credit report is your business information.

• You can see the company name and address first.

• Make sure the name and address are correct.

• Then you scroll down to see the company phone number, CEO; start year, some employees, financial statement date, state finance data, SIC Code and line of business.

• As we proceed to History and Operations, you will find the date the information was reported, the officers, the year the business was started, and the percentage of stock ownership. You can also see a brief summary of each officer.

• Next, they list the affiliation relationships in Corporate Family. This names businesses that are directly affiliated, generally those owned by the same officers.

• The business registration section describes the information found in your business entity's Secretary of State filing, including entity type, incorporation date, status, filing date, shares, etc.

• The following section describes operations, overview, additional phone numbers, employees, facilities, location, and branches.

• Lastly, you can view your SIC and NAICS. The number identifies your general business industry.

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Paydex score:

• You can view your 12-month D&B Paydex score.

• Business credit is different from personal credit. Your D&B score simply defines whether you pay your bills on time.

• In the pay rate section of your D&B report, you will see your three-month and 12-month D&B pay rate scores.

• The report then compares your business pay index score to other businesses within your industry.

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The following is a graph that maps your Paydex score by month:

• The next section compares your pay rate to the industry in more detail, including quarters.

• You can also view your payment habits by comparing the amount of credit extended, the number of payment experiences, and the percentage of payments within the terms.

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The last part summarizes your payment summary:

• Business credit bureaus do not list the actual creditor you are reporting , but the overview of the creditor's reports does. For example, "custom programming" could be John's programming store. You can see the number of payment experiences received, the dollar amount, the highest credit, and the% of payments paid within the terms. Like personal credit, the D&B report defines how much beyond the terms the payment was paid, including 30, 60, 90, etc.

• Next, you get the payment details . The section above generally lists who is reporting and the payment details break down each payment. You can see the amount that is late and the agreed terms.

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Credit Score Class Summary:

• This score predicts the probability that a company will pay severely delinquent, beyond 90 days.

• First, the business is assigned a class and then a credit score percentile . These are calculated based on the payment history of the companies compared to the industry standard.

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Summary of financial stress:

• This predicts the probability that a business will go out of business without paying creditors or seeking help.

• Then the financial stress class of companies is compared to other companies in the industry.

• The D&B viability rating identifies the likelihood that the business will fail in the next 12 months and then compares the business with similar companies in the same industry .

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Public presentations:

• This section describes all bankruptcies , judgments, liens, lawsuits, and UCCs.

• Each one describes the filing type, status, identifier, type, dates, and lists the parties involved.

• Negative elements, whether liquidated or not, can damage the credibility of companies . A UCC is not usually a negative element. It is a way for lenders to essentially title the equipment and other items taken as collateral. In this way, lenders communicate with each other what financing has been made and the collateral that has been used.

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Banking and finances:

• This is the last section of the D&B credit report. Please note that a company is not required to submit financial information to D&B. We recommend that you do not provide the data unless you have strong financial data that you would like to include in your business credit report.

• D&B can make it appear that this financial data needs to be submitted.

• If financial data is submitted, D&B summarizes the data that lists assets, liabilities, ratios, working capital, net worth, and net earnings.

• This concludes the reading of your D&B report segment.

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Configure Business Experian Monitoring

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Business Experian offers 3 different monitoring options.

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To purchase commercial monitoring from Experian, you will first search using your business name and information. The search will show the closest matches to your business.

Select your business profile.

If you have multiple profiles or inaccurate information listed, use our additional training segments to learn how to combine or modify business credit report.

Select the business credit monitoring package that is best for your business, once you click next to your business profile to continue:

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1) The Business Credit Score report offers your least expensive monitoring option. It is a complete report but does not include business line information or inquiries.

2) Profile plus report includes basic monitoring, but includes business line information and inquiries.

3) The Business Credit Advantage subscription plan includes basic monitoring, business line information, inquiries, alerts and allows unlimited report updates.

A report update means you can get a new updated business credit report at any time throughout the year.

The first two options are a single and unique report.

For long-term monitoring, we recommend the Business Credit Advantage subscription plan.

Once you make your purchase, you will continue to monitor your Experian business report.

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Recommended

Step 4.4

Let's start with Business Credibility.

In the first section of the Equifax report.

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• List the Equifax business name, phone, and ID.

• Equifax has the least amount of business information in its reports.

• It is very basic and received from credit reporters.

• Towards the end of the report, describe the names of the owners and guarantors, the names of the DBAs, and the date the business was established.

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The report describes various scores.

Creditors are more interested in companies making their payments on time. That said, credit risk describes several factors, including timely payments. Oldest account length, credit limits, and business size.

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Equifax is the only business credit report with a 3-digit score.

Looking at the heat color index reflects the average time it takes for a business to make payments. Lastly, the business builder score describes the likelihood that the business will fail.

Equifax gives us the least amount of payment data by simply adding all the experiences together in the data summary section of the office.

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Financial and non-financial are separated.

Financial includes bank financing, and non-financial refers to business accounts. Business accounts are stores or credit accounts.

For example: a business account and Staples Office Supply is considered a business business account.

You will see that the oldest account date, number of cancellations, total past due, most severe status, highest credit limit, total credit exposure, average balance, and average open balance are listed. Then all the public items are added together, listing bankruptcies, judgments, and liens.

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To expand for more details, you can click show.

Keep in mind that even if the articles are older or downloaded, they can still have a negative impact on the creditors' decision.

You can dispute any item directly from your monitoring and reporting.

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The Equifax Business Credit Report is the simplest of the top 3 credit bureaus.

Now you know, and knowledge is power.

Monitor your Business Equifax Report.