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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