If you run a small business, understanding your business credit matters
Keeping an eye on your business credit profile is important for a small business, especially when the need for financing arises. Having access to credit can be a lifeline for your business. It enables you to obtain the cash you need to grow, hire additional staff, invest into new technology, and deal with cash flow challenges.
Your business credit profile can influence how lenders, suppliers, and partners view your small business. Understanding the scores, ratings and information in your profile can provide useful context when preparing for financing, negotiating terms or planning for growth.
Keeping track of your business credit can also help you stay informed as information changes and better understand what others may see when evaluating your business.
Get a Clearer View of Your Business Credit
D&B Credit Insights helps you understand and monitor your business credit profile with trusted Dun & Bradstreet information. Depending on the solution you choose, you can access scores and ratings, alerts, payment and financial information, and additional insights to help you understand how your business may be viewed by lenders, suppliers, and partners. Explore your options to find the level of credit visibility and monitoring that fits your business.
Choose the right D&B Credit Insights for your business.
D&B Credit Insights Free2
D&B Credit Insights1
D&B Credit Insights Plus
This product is purchased on an annual subscription basis and the Licence is granted for an initial period of one year. The licence will automatically renew each year. At renewal for annual subscriptions, D&B may increase the fee by an amount not exceeding 5% of the then-current fee until the licence is cancelled and the agreement terminated by the customer by providing D&B with at least 14 business days’ notice prior to a renewal by filling out this cancellation form.
Got more questions about business credit?
Check out the following resources for more information.
Every business has a credit score. Whether you are a small business, start-up, or a micro business owner, we want to help you to understand credit on yourself – what information is held about you that others can access when qualifying your business as a potential partner.
Like your personal credit profile, your business credit file follows you everywhere, tracking your payment history, outstanding balances, business transactions, and more. Dun & Bradstreet uses this data to calculate a series of business credit scores and ratings. Business partners, like potential lenders and creditors, can get a glimpse into the financial health of your company by checking your Dun & Bradstreet business credit file. By nature, these scores and ratings can fluctuate often, changing regularly based on your financial activity
Regardless of where you are in your business journey – whether you are just starting out, trying to improve cash flow, or looking to expand – maintaining a strong business credit file is essential to your success. That is why it is important to know what is inside your business credit file.
Assigning a D-U-N-S® Number to businesses is at the heart of what we do. This unique nine – digit identifier forms the foundation of how we create business records and is central to D&B's Data Cloud, providing an in-depth view of corporate ownership and linkage. Like people, businesses grow, change and evolve, which makes it hard to be sure who you are doing business with, especially when operating internationally.
“D-U-N-S,” which stands for Data Universal Numbering System, is used to maintain up-to-date and timely information on hundreds of millions of global businesses. A D-U-N-S Number identifies a company’s Dun & Bradstreet business credit file, which may include firmographic data (company name, address, phone number, etc.), corporate family relationship data (headquarters, branches, subsidiaries, etc.), and scores and ratings that assess different financial health indicators.
The D-U-N-S Number can also help you to:
- Establish creditability with lenders and business partners
- Qualify for contracts and traditional loans
- Protect your business by monitoring other business files, informing decisions on who to partner with, and much more...
During the cost-of-living crisis, it is especially important to verify who you are trading with and who supplies you with goods and services.
Unpaid invoices and late payments are a crippling burden on many businesses. Your financial forecasting should take into consideration unexpected factors that could affect your revenue and allow you to plan for ‘rainy day’ scenarios that could impact your business. Protect your business by running credit checks on new customers before extending their credit and prepare to tackle late payments with the help of Dun & Bradstreet.
With the help of our survey partner Censuswide, we have conducted a survey of over 750 UK SME owners across the UK to gain insight into how SMEs are feeling, what is keeping them up at night, and where they see opportunities for future growth.
Amongst other issues, our survey results reveal unpaid invoices and subsequent cash flow challenges are a crippling burden for the UK SMEs. Britain’s small-and medium-sized businesses are owed an annual amount £147,141 in arrears in 2022. Learn more about the current small business landscape today.
Need Help?
Contact our small business team now to have your questions answered.
- Select 1 for Sales,
- Then, 1 for credit information on your own business
Need to submit updates to the business information in your Dun & Bradstreet credit file? You can view and request updates to your company’s information for free with D-U-N-S® Manager.
1By upgrading to D&B Credit Insights you will be able to view and monitor the following scores & ratings where available: Overall Business Risk, Failure Score, Delinquency Score, PAYDEX® score, and Maximum Credit Recommendation.
2D&B Credit Insights Free only shows Overall Business Risk. It also allows you to receive email and in-product alerts to range changes in the Overall Business Risk, Failure Score, Delinquency Score, PAYDEX® score & Maximum Credit Recommendation. To see the detail of the changes and your actual scores and ratings, or to receive notifications related to your company’s legal events, we recommend that you upgrade to D&B Credit Insights.
3D&B.AI-generated content is based on Dun & Bradstreet information available through your applicable subscription. AI-generated summaries, explanations, and guidance may not include every item available in the underlying profile or report and should be reviewed together with the source information. D&B.AI is designed to support, not replace, your own review and business decision-making. D&B.AI does not make credit decisions, approve transactions, or take action on your behalf.
4Customers must accept the in-product D&B.AI terms and conditions before using the D&B.AI capabilities. Availability and controls vary by capability. The existing D&B Credit Insights experience remains available if the customer does not accept the D&B.AI terms.
The information provided by Dun & Bradstreet Limited, and its Account Managers is provided “as-is.” Dun & Bradstreet Limited makes no representations or warranties, express or implied, with respect to such information and the results of the use of such information. Neither Dun & Bradstreet Limited nor any of its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates or their respective partners, officers, directors, employees, or agents shall be held liable for any damages arising from or in connection with a business’s use of or reliance on the information given.