Checking your business credit reports on a regular basis can help you set your business up to get financing when needed, and better manage and grow your business for the long term.
Just like an individual credit report assesses your credit as a consumer, a business credit report shows where your business credit stands.
Staying on top of information in your business credit reports is crucial to growing your business, since a good credit rating can mean a better chance of qualifying for a loan or access to good financing terms. You may also find mistakes and inaccuracies that could keep you from getting loans or credit accounts with vendors.
Here’s what you should know:
Why you should check your business credit reports
How to pull your business credit reports
What’s on a business credit report
Why you should check your business credit reports
Unlike with personal credit reports, anyone can buy a copy of your business credit report to help decided whether to work with you. It’s a good idea to check your business credit reports regularly to keep an eye on the information lenders and service providers see when they purchase your report.
A lender may want to check whether your business has a history of loan repayment and is on solid financial ground. A business may get your business credit reports to make sure your company is a solid bet for lending credit or for working together on a project.
Knowing what’s on your business credit reports also gives you the chance to dispute any errors that could ding your financial reputation.
How to pull your small business credit report
While there’s a federal program requiring each of the three major consumer credit bureaus to give you one free credit report annually, there’s no such law for business credit reports.
You can buy a copy of your small business credit report through each of the major bureaus that offer business reports:
If these major bureaus don’t have credit reports for your business, you may not have established your business credit yet.
What’s on a small business credit report?
Your business credit profile and credit scores are based largely on information that banks and companies you trade with send to credit bureaus that generate business credit reports.
A business credit report collects information on your business, such as general company information, business size and industry risk.
It also includes information directly related to your business credit, including:
Payment history
Account details, usually including when you opened each account
Public records such as liens, judgments and bankruptcies
Outstanding debts
Company information including number of employees, sales, ownership, and subsidiaries
Many of those factors are the same ones used to determine your individual credit reports. And, just as with your personal credit reports, you may find different information on reports from different bureaus.
But there are also important differences between a personal and a business credit report.
For one thing, personal credit scores can range from 250 to 900, depending on the credit scoring model (you’ll often see a range of 300 to 850 for general consumer scoring models, like FICO® Score 8 or VantageScore 3.0).
But business credit scores use different ranges, such as Dun & Bradstreet’s PAYDEX® score of 1 to 100.
Also, while your Social Security number identifies you on a personal credit report, a business report uses your business employer identification number, which you can apply for online from the IRS, to collect information.
Bottom line
Your business credit reports can give you an idea of what creditors will see when they’re deciding whether to lend to you and help you find ways to build your business credit.
Knowing what’s on your small business credit reports is just one crucial part of operating your business.
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