Equipment Leasing Solutions

How to Read a Dun & Bradstreet Report

Dun & Bradstreet reports provide detailed reports on millions of businesses internationally. These reports help companies decide who to do business with, making it important to know how to read a Dun & Bradstreet report to both evaluate other companies and to understand what is said about your own. Following are comprehensive summaries of some primary portions of a Dun & Bradstreet report.

• Business Summary – This summarizes basic business information, such as address, year started and names of primary managers. It also contains an SIC code, identifying what type of business the company is.

• Payment Analysis – The payment summary gives detailed information on the company’s payment history. It also provides a PAYDEX, measuring how punctual the company has been in paying its bills compared to others in the same industry.

• Credit Score Summary – This portion predicts the likelihood that a company will make late payments. It is calculated using the most recent payment information available to Dun & Bradstreet.

• Financial Stress Summary – Predicts the likelihood of a company to cease operation without paying back creditors. This is based on the individual company’s financial stress record and trends of other companies in the same industry.

• Business Background – Provides more detailed information on primary managers of the company such as history, as well as history of the business. Also provides information on company operation, telephone and fax numbers, and addresses of additional branches of the company.

• Financial Summary – Detailed information on company assets, loans and cash flow. This is useful in determining a company’s ability to afford debts.

• Public Filings Summary – This lists all public filings for a company, including judgments, suits, liens and UCC filings. Full information on these filings are not available in the D&B report.

Not all of these sections will be available on a Dun & Bradstreet report. Some of them have to be requested. It is nevertheless important to know how your company stands in all of these areas when you decide to go into business with another company, or to understand Dun & Bradstreet reports are available to evaluate those companies before you make agreements.