Most of us have checked our personal credit report at some stage in our lives. But what about corporate credit reports: do you really know what information they provide?
In this article, we’ll step through the useful information held in the corporate credit checking system.
The Purpose of a Corporate Credit Report
It doesn’t really matter what the nature of your business is; at some stage, you’re going to need to work with clients and suppliers. In doing so, you could open yourself up to the risk of bad debt or cash flow problems.
In essence, a company’s corporate credit report is designed to help you quickly assess the credit risk of a business so that you can make an informed decision about three things:
- Whether to give them credit
- How much credit to extend
- Whether to impose any special payment terms
As such, the information in the corporate credit report is really very straightforward.
Contents of a UK/ Ireland Corporate Credit Report
The UK/ Ireland corporate credit report available though CheckMyClient is laid out in a clean, tabbed interface, helping you to find what you need to know very quickly. Anyone with a basic understanding of company accounts will understand it at a glance.
We’ll run through the basic features of a typical UK/Ireland report to give you an idea of its contents.
- A summary of the directors of the company: Vital if you want to know who’s in charge, and helps you to avoid doing business with rogue traders that set up businesses under different names.
- A balance sheet: The basics of the company’s financial standing. The data in a corporate credit report is taken from the company’s last reported accounts, so it’s official and reliable data.
- A summary of County Court Judgements: Much like individuals, companies can be served with CCJs for bad debts. A CCJ on a corporate credit report is a sign that the business may not be in the best health. Multiple CCJs close together is a definite danger sign.
- A recommended credit limit: Perhaps the most useful piece of information for new businesses. Use this limit when setting up a new client account; it will help you to avoid one business racking up too much debt that they can’t pay.
- A credit score: CheckMyClient will give you a recommendation based on the company’s past history and financial standing. Our score isn’t an official number, and you can ignore it if you wish, but we strongly advise our customers to take it into account.
Remember...
Often, small business owners are concerned about cash flow, but they presume corporate credit reports are going to be too complex to offer any value to them as a SME. The opposite is true. If you’re running a company that simply must get paid, the corporate credit report is the best tool available to you. It’s a cost-effective way to weed out high risk clients and limit your exposure to the rest.
- Order a company credit report in just 5 mins
- We look at the latest data available and have a 5 year credit history
- All Corporate Credit Reports emailed to you and stored online
- Improve your companies cashflow & reduce the risk of bad debt.
- Costs from just £10
Check your client, get a Company Credit Report now!