Dun and Bradstreet Rating
Dun and Bradstreet ratings are like good housekeeping sign of approval for businesses. Dun and Bradstreet is probably the best known business reporting agency in the world and its ratings are coveted by businesses and examined closely by financial institutions and investors who want to know the financial health of any business. The Dun and Bradstreet rating is prepared by a through examination of the financial records, statements and dealings of the business with its customers, clients, investors and shareholders.
The Dun and Bradstreet rating offers companies an opportunity to build their business credit, mitigate credit risks from other businesses, and ultimately improve their cash flow and ability to enhance profit. Dun and Bradstreet offers a number of other tools in addition to the basic Dun and Bradstreet rating to allow business and financial institutions to make good business decisions based on data and not just on guess work.
These products include interpretation tables to measure a business credit rating against others in the same field as well as companies operating in different countries and even on different continents. The Dun and Bradstreet rating Interpretation Table provides data on the net worth or equity of the business and then sorts these companies by number of employees to reflect the overall creditworthiness of the business.
The Dun and Bradstreet rating Interpretation Table measures both financial stability and the company’s payment record, public filings, trade payments, business age, and other factors to produce the most comprehensive report on a company’s creditworthiness that exists anywhere in the world.
Other subsidiary products that augment the Dun and Bradstreet rating are the Paydex Score, the Financial Stress Score and the Commercial Credit Score. The Paydex Score is a report and score that evaluates the payment record of a business to its suppliers and vendors. The Financial Stress Score makes a prediction on the possibility of a company going into some form of bankruptcy during the next year and the Commercial Stress Score evaluates the likelihood of a company making a late or delinquent payment during the next twelve months.
All of these additional information products still play second fiddle however to the Dun and Bradstreet rating. This one rating can not only assist or prevent a business from receiving a business loan or an extension to a business line of credit. The Dun and Bradstreet rating can also cause investors to vanish or panic, suppliers to cease shipments or vendors refuse to stock products. In other words keeping a good Dun and Bradstreet rating is essential to the good operation of any business. Many businesses, large and small have risen and fallen based on the Dun and Bradstreet rating so all smart companies keep one eye on their balance sheet and the other on maintaining a good Dun and Bradstreet rating.
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