What Is a Dun & Bradstreet Rating?

Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) is a business reporting company that provides rating information about companies to investors and other types of business groups. The company develops a financial rating for businesses that gives an indication of their financial health. D&B provides special reports that include information a company can use to assess the risk of doing business with another company.

Information Provided

The D&B Supplier Evaluation Report (SER) contains information about a supplier's business. This includes payment records, public filings and other financial information. The report also contains events that can affect the condition of a business and a description of the operations of a business.

Report Uses

The SER has many uses depending on the type of information that is required. One use of the report is to confirm basic information that already exists for a company, such as its official business name, current address and volume of sales. The report can also be used to confirm details about a company's activities, such as bankruptcies that can affect its business performance.

Risk Summary and Profile

The risk summary of the report is a rating that is assigned for a company's financial strength. This rating is based on information obtained from financial records, public records and descriptions of a company's operations. Rating are assigned based on a scale of 1 to 9. The summary includes the factors that were used to determine the rating that was assigned, such as sales and payment information.

Financial Profile and Operations

The financial profile section of the report shows information about solvency and profitability. This section also includes a financial appraisal ranking scale with a range of 1 to 4. The operations section includes a description of the business, number of accounts, number of employees, number or branches and where they are located.

History and Federal Governemnt

The history section of the SER includes information about the business background of a company's management. The date the business was incorporated or the date in which the business began operations is also included. The federal government section contains information about any business activities with the federal government.

Payment Trends and Summary

The payment trends section has information that shows a comparison of monthly payments with other types of similar companies for a two-year period. The payment summary section includes information about the company's credit and how a company's bills are paid based on the types of payment terms that exist with other companies.

References

• Dun & Bradstreet
• Dun and Bradstreet Rating