What’s in your business credit report? Knowing what lenders see when they’re making financing decisions about your business can help you better prepare before applying for credit.
Here are a few things to know about your business credit report. Plus, we cover seven websites that offer reports, including five where you can get a free report.
What is in a Business Credit Report?
Credit bureaus track business credit activity through your EIN (employee identification number); or, if you have one, your D.U.N.S. number. Business credit reporting agency, Dun & Bradstreet, issues this identification number, and it’s free for businesses that have to register with the federal government to receive contracts or grants.1
This information helps build your credit report, which contains details on reported past and current borrowing arrangements. These include loans, credit lines, credit cards, and mortgages. The report may also include information on judgments, liens, and any accounts that may have gone to collections agencies. Your business credit report will also include a credit score, which generally represents how the issuing agency views your business’ ability to make payments on time and in full.2
How Lenders Use a Business Credit Report
Lenders use the information in your business credit report to help inform financing decisions for credit applications from businesses. They may take into account your business credit score, payment history, length of credit history, and any derogatory or negative information.
Why You Should Request Yours
It’s important to see the information on your business credit report to ensure that it is accurate. If you find that it is not, contact the reporting companies to have it corrected. Incorrect information could negatively impact your next loan application.
Seeing what lenders will see on your report can also give you the opportunity to prepare to explain any unusual or less-than-desirable information on your business credit report. And it also gives you an idea of areas for improvement, such as paying bills on time or keeping credit card balances within limit. These steps will make it easier to qualify for business financial vehicles like a term loan or business line of credit.
7 Business Credit Report Providers
If you’re curious about what’s in your business credit report, check out these seven providers. We’ve included five that offer reports for free.
#1. Experian
One of the better known personal credit bureaus in North America, Experian, also offers paid business credit reporting services. Experian offers a one-time business report which includes a credit summary report, credit score, and business summary for one business. Or, you can choose a monthly or annual service with the ability to check your own business credit reporting and business information. Through the service, you can also check details on other businesses (such as your existing or potential customers).
#2. Equifax
Operating across the globe, Equifax offers an entire suite of business credit reporting services for businesses large and small. While they don’t currently offer a free report checking service, their Business Risk Monitor for Small Business Service provides Public Record, Credit, and Risk Score email alerts to notify customers of activities and inquiries impacting their business credit in these areas.
#3. Dun & Bradstreet
The CreditSignal site operated by business credit bureau giant, Dun & Bradstreet, lets you monitor changes to your Dun & Bradstreet business scores and ratings — for free. It also notifies you either through email notifications, or via an app, when someone else requests access to your business score. However, take note — to get your actual business credit score you’ll need a paid subscription.
#4. Nav
Credit monitoring system, Nav, gives both individuals and businesses access to free credit summaries. Check your business report summaries from Experian and Dun & Bradstreet — you don’t even need to provide a credit card number to do so. Yet, bear in mind that these are only summaries. If you want access to more detailed business credit information, you’ll need the paid service.
#5. Credit.net
Although free access to your report through the Credit.net website is limited to a seven-day free trial, it’s a good place to start if you want to get a look at your current business credit situation, plus check credit summaries on others. During this time you’ll have access to seven reports. With the extra reports, you may want to consider checking credit reports on customers looking for credit terms with your own business.
#6. CreditSafe
Here’s another online option that lets you access a free report before committing to a longer-term paid arrangement. With a customized CreditSafe free trial, you’ll have access to credit scores and limits, company financials, adverse credit insights and more for not only your own business, but other businesses as well.
#7. Tillful
Tillful is on a mission to help small businesses reach their full potential by giving them free access to their credit score so owners know where they stand when it’s time to get business financing. With the Tillfull business credit reporting ecosystem, you can access your credit score and learn how it’s measured. You can also connect as many bank and business credit accounts that you want to get a holistic view of business credit. You can access this system as often as you’d like and you can even sign up for email monitoring alerts to let you know in real-time when a change has been made.
https://kapitus-plus.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/7-sites-to-see-your-business-credit-report-and-5-of-them-are-free-scaled.jpg17232560Bernadette Abelhttps://kapitus.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Kapitus_Logo_white-220.webpBernadette Abel2021-04-14 09:00:002023-10-03 10:07:287 Sites to See Your Business Credit Report
One of the main reasons small businesses fail is lack of cash. And it’s possible to have no cash even if your business is making a profit. That’s because assets, like accounts receivables, are not cash until you’re able to collect what’s owed to you by your customers. Profit, in this case, will not pay your bills. This is why it’s essential to keep an eye on cash flow at your plumbing business. Doing so will ensure that the amount of cash generated by your business is sufficient to pay your immediate operating expenses, such as business loans, payroll, and rent.
Here are some key steps every plumbing business owner should take in order to optimize their cash flow.
Automate Invoices
Choosing to automate your invoices is beneficial to your plumbing business because you’ll get paid faster. This can be done easily by using accounting software, which can automate time and expense tracking, recurring invoices, late payment reminders, billing, appointment scheduling and more for your plumbing services. For instance, FreshBooks, an all-in-one accounting plumbing software solution, can manage all your bookkeeping needs — everything from creating invoices to managing cash flow and tracking employee time.
Overall, the faster you receive payments, the better. Anything that can help you maintain a steady cash flow to pay your employees and cover your business expenses is something worth looking into.
Forecast Your Cash Flow
Be sure to draft a forecast of your cash flow to ensure you have enough money to pay all upcoming bills. This will allow you to plan a cash flow budget, which should include an estimate of all cash receipts and all cash expenditures that are expected to occur at your plumbing business during a specific time period. You can make these estimates on a monthly, bimonthly or quarterly basis. Your cash flow budget should show you when money is coming in, when it will go out and what money remains each month after you’ve paid your expenses and recorded your income. To help with this task, you can use acash flow management software solution. Many of these solutions integrate with various accounting software platforms if needed.
Outsource When Needed
Outsourcing allows you to leverage outside expertise for certain workflows, such as payroll, accounting, taxes, office cleaning, marketing and more, which can benefit your plumbing business in many ways. By choosing to outsource, you can save money by converting fixed costs into a variable expense. With outsourcing, you can decrease the labor costs of full-time employees, reduce overhead and increase plumbers cash flow. Outsourcing partners are essentially subject matter experts, so they will already have the tools and know-how for specific tasks. In turn, they can reduce the learning curve and improve workflow efficiency, saving you valuable time to focus on your core business. Additionally, outsourcing can help you grow your plumbing business by freeing-up capital to secure small business funding.
Cut Operating Costs
There are several ways to reduce costs and increase cash flow without negatively affecting your core plumbing business. You may want to start with the following:
Hire an accountant to prepare your taxes. An accountant can help you discover tax breaks and deductions to keep your business growing.
Review your insurance policies to make sure deductibles, premiums and liability coverage are both affordable and appropriate for your current business needs.
Further, evaluate your advertising campaigns to determine if they are effective enough to justify the cost.
Decrease paper filing work and paper storage at your office by using free or low-cost cloud storage.
Overall, to optimize your cash flow, prioritize your needs and cut costs in places where you’re not finding value.
Offer Flexible Payment Options
Flexible payment options – such as allowing clients to pay by cash, checks and credit cards – will make it easier for your customers to pay for your plumbing services. In addition to traditional payment methods, be sure to consider online payments or mobile payment options, which have become increasingly popular over recent years. Online payment options give your business an inexpensive, faster and reliable way to do business while offering your customers convenience and security.
There are also secure credit card payment processing solutions. EMSmobile, for instance, is specifically geared toward plumbers, roofers, electr
icians and other traveling business professionals. With this particular solution, you can accept payments right on the job.
Keep in mind, as with any payment method, there are advantages and disadvantages. However, to optimize your cash flow, you should offer your customers payment options that will work best for them. Doing so will allow you to get paid on time, every time.
Stay on Top of Accounts Receivable
It’s imperative to keep up-to-date on your customers’ accounts and inquire about unpaid invoices in order to promote a positive cash flow. Do this by reviewing all of your accounts receivable on a regular basis.
For customers paying for your plumbing services in installments, send reminders for payment when necessary. You can also try installment payment software to streamline this process. Installment payment software can facilitate your business’s ability to offer your customers the option to purchase an item over time through a set number of regular payments. You then have the choice to implement the software yourself or utilize a SaaS tool to provide installment payment capabilities. In those instances, the service will pay your business the full price of the item upfront and then remit the installment payments from the customer. This will help eliminate unnecessary strain on your cash flow.
Stall Your Supplier Payments
Delaying payments to your suppliers when you are able to can help increase your cash flow.
In fact, many U.S. companies are holding back payments to their suppliers for longer than at any point in the past decade, according to The Wall Street Journal. This allows them to keep more cash on hand that otherwise would be tied up in their businesses.
To keep a good relationship with your supplier, it’s important to be sure that you’re not breaking any agreements before you decide to delay any payments.
Request Deposits
Ask for a deposit when taking on a long-term contract to help maximize your cash flow. For instance, you can ask for a 10 percent deposit upfront, and after the job has begun, the remaining amounts can be paid per your agreement. This allows you to have some additional cash flow while waiting for, let’s say, the electrician or general contractor to finish up on items that they need to do in order to pass a plumbing rough-in inspection.
Raise Your Pricing
Raising your prices won’t necessarily affect your customer base, but it can make a big difference to your bottom line and cash flow. Play around with the numbers and try to predict what will happen if you raise your prices by 10 percent or 20 percent. Then, evaluate the market to ensure you remain competitive. You may even realize that you’re pricing your services too low to begin with.
By considering these cash flow tips, you’ll be on the right track to having the necessary cash to sustain or grow your plumbing business. Keep in mind, you can always work with your accountant to review how cash circulates through your business if you’re having trouble developing a solid system to track cash flow.
Kelley Katsanos is a freelance writer specializing in business and technology. She has previously worked in business roles involving marketing analysis and competitive intelligence. Her freelance work appears at IBM Midsize Insider, Houston Chronicle's chron.com, and AZ Central Small Business. Katsanos earned a Master of Science in Information Management from Arizona State University as well as a bachelor's degree in Business with an emphasis in marketing. Her interests include information security, marketing strategy, and business process improvement.
What is in a Business Credit Report?
Credit bureaus track business credit activity through your EIN (employee identification number); or, if you have one, your D.U.N.S. number. Business credit reporting agency, Dun & Bradstreet, issues this identification number, and it’s free for businesses that have to register with the federal government to receive contracts or grants.1
This information helps build your credit report, which contains details on reported past and current borrowing arrangements. These include loans, credit lines, credit cards, and mortgages. The report may also include information on judgments, liens, and any accounts that may have gone to collections agencies. Your business credit report will also include a credit score, which generally represents how the issuing agency views your business’ ability to make payments on time and in full.2
How Lenders Use a Business Credit Report
Lenders use the information in your business credit report to help inform financing decisions for credit applications from businesses. They may take into account your business credit score, payment history, length of credit history, and any derogatory or negative information.
Why You Should Request Yours
It’s important to see the information on your business credit report to ensure that it is accurate. If you find that it is not, contact the reporting companies to have it corrected. Incorrect information could negatively impact your next loan application.
Seeing what lenders will see on your report can also give you the opportunity to prepare to explain any unusual or less-than-desirable information on your business credit report. And it also gives you an idea of areas for improvement, such as paying bills on time or keeping credit card balances within limit. These steps will make it easier to qualify for business financial vehicles like a term loan or business line of credit.
7 Business Credit Report Providers
If you’re curious about what’s in your business credit report, check out these seven providers. We’ve included five that offer reports for free.
#1. Experian
One of the better known personal credit bureaus in North America, Experian, also offers paid business credit reporting services. Experian offers a one-time business report which includes a credit summary report, credit score, and business summary for one business. Or, you can choose a monthly or annual service with the ability to check your own business credit reporting and business information. Through the service, you can also check details on other businesses (such as your existing or potential customers).
#2. Equifax
Operating across the globe, Equifax offers an entire suite of business credit reporting services for businesses large and small. While they don’t currently offer a free report checking service, their Business Risk Monitor for Small Business Service provides Public Record, Credit, and Risk Score email alerts to notify customers of activities and inquiries impacting their business credit in these areas.
#3. Dun & Bradstreet
The CreditSignal site operated by business credit bureau giant, Dun & Bradstreet, lets you monitor changes to your Dun & Bradstreet business scores and ratings — for free. It also notifies you either through email notifications, or via an app, when someone else requests access to your business score. However, take note — to get your actual business credit score you’ll need a paid subscription.
#4. Nav
Credit monitoring system, Nav, gives both individuals and businesses access to free credit summaries. Check your business report summaries from Experian and Dun & Bradstreet — you don’t even need to provide a credit card number to do so. Yet, bear in mind that these are only summaries. If you want access to more detailed business credit information, you’ll need the paid service.
#5. Credit.net
Although free access to your report through the Credit.net website is limited to a seven-day free trial, it’s a good place to start if you want to get a look at your current business credit situation, plus check credit summaries on others. During this time you’ll have access to seven reports. With the extra reports, you may want to consider checking credit reports on customers looking for credit terms with your own business.
#6. CreditSafe
Here’s another online option that lets you access a free report before committing to a longer-term paid arrangement. With a customized CreditSafe free trial, you’ll have access to credit scores and limits, company financials, adverse credit insights and more for not only your own business, but other businesses as well.
#7. Tillful
Tillful is on a mission to help small businesses reach their full potential by giving them free access to their credit score so owners know where they stand when it’s time to get business financing. With the Tillfull business credit reporting ecosystem, you can access your credit score and learn how it’s measured. You can also connect as many bank and business credit accounts that you want to get a holistic view of business credit. You can access this system as often as you’d like and you can even sign up for email monitoring alerts to let you know in real-time when a change has been made.