Lesson 17: Dun & Bradstreet The Bible For Your Business Credit Applications Part 2

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2 Lesson 17: Dun & Bradstreet The Bible For Your Business Credit Applications Part 2 THE COVETED PAYDEX SCORE Dun & Bradstreet provides your company a PAYDEX score based upon how your company pays its bills to its suppliers or vendors. When four vendors supply Dun & Bradstreet its payment experience with your company, Dun & Bradstreet will create a PAYDEX score for your company. When all four vendors report a prompt payment, your company s PAYDEX score will be 80. Lenders like to see a PAYDEX score of 80. Your goal is create a complete Dun & Bradstreet report for your company with a PAYDEX score of 80. You can create a complete report through Dun & Bradstreet s Credit Builder Service. Create a complete Duns file with an 80 PAYDEX score by ordering the Credit Builder service from Dun & Bradstreet. Upon ordering the Credit Builder service, Dun & Bradstreet will create a Duns number for your company. Dun & Bradstreet will also build your company s credit file to include pertinent information such as your company s start date, officers, owner(s), business location, sales figures, line of business, and PAYDEX score. When providing your company s start date, give the original file number and date of

3 the sole proprietorship. If the incorrect start date is listed on the report, call Dun & Bradstreet to have the correct date updated on the report. SELECTING YOUR SUPPLIERS Dun & Bradstreet will only allow you to submit a certain type of vendor when you order their Credit Builder service. Dun & Bradstreet will not allow you to submit trade-tape suppliers in connection with the Credit Builder service because tradetape suppliers report account holder information automatically. Trade-tape suppliers are large companies that report financial activity on each account holder to Dun & Bradstreet automatically via trade tape. Examples of tradetape suppliers include Staples, Home Depot, FedEx Kinko s, Office Max, etc. The suppliers you furnish need to be smaller companies who do not have a trade-tape relationship established such as your attorney, accountant, computer service company, cleaning service, contractors, or other suppliers from whom you order supplies or services. However, some of these smaller suppliers may only have a marketing file, meaning Dun & Bradstreet lacks sufficient information on them to consider the companies reliable enough to serve as a reference. Since you can neither use a trade-tape supplier nor a company with a marketing file, you may be wondering whom you can use. You can submit non-trade-tape suppliers that have a complete file with Dun & Bradstreet. If you think you do not have four such suppliers, look through your checkbook or vendor list (if you use QuickBooks) to make a list of potential vendors to submit. Contact Dun & Bradstreet at

4 3867 to confirm which of your vendors has a complete file. If you make a list of eight suppliers and only two of them have a complete file, then you need to find two additional suppliers that have a complete file. Sometimes if you go back through your records, you may find two more suppliers that you did not previously think of with whom you have had payment experiences. If you lack sufficient suppliers for a PAYDEX score after thoroughly reviewing your records, search the yellow pages to create a list of potential suppliers or vendors. Check to see if those suppliers have a full or complete Duns file. Contact the vendors that have a full file to ask them if they will provide you with a payment reference to Dun & Bradstreet if you order products or services from them and pay your invoices promptly. Examples of vendors you can search include print shops, maid services, computer services, etc. When dealing with print shops, perhaps you can order some business cards and/or stationary for your business. Another possibility is to have your house cleaned with a maid service. Establish an account in the name of your business so that the maid service company can provide a reference for your company. If you need your computer serviced, set up the account in the name of your company. The point of this exercise is to establish accounts with local suppliers who have a full Duns file and who can provide references about how you company pays its bill to each of them. Prior to contacting a potential supplier for a reference, first verify that the supplier has a complete Duns file with Dun & Bradstreet. You can perform a preliminary search by clicking

5 on the advanced search link in the upper right corner of Search by company phone number, NOT by company name. If the result of the search by phone number shows the name and address of your potential supplier, then at least you will know that the vendor has some sort of Duns report; you will not know if the report is a complete file or just a marketing file. There are two possibilities for searching for potential suppliers simple search and advanced search. Call Dun & Bradstreet to confirm whether or not each potential supplier has a complete file. Do not mention that the suppliers are potential, as you do not want to give Dun & Bradstreet the information that you have yet to establish an account with them. Once you have found a couple that have complete files, contact the owner or manager of the supplier to confirm that he/she would be willing to report a prompt payment to Dun & Bradstreet, assuming you order and pay the invoice promptly. Once you receive such confirmation, place an order, and pay the bill on time. If a supplier does not wish to cooperate, simply find another supplier who will. A Duns representative will contact each of your vendors within a few days of ordering the Credit Builder service by phone or fax. The representative will ask each of your vendors for seven bits of information: 1) high credit, 2) current amount owed, 3) past due, 4) payment terms, 5) payment history (late or prompt), 6) contact person at the vendor, and 7) phone number. High credit refers to the total amount of credit extended or in some cases, the credit limit set. The current amount owed is

6 obvious; as is past due. Payment terms refer to the amount of time you as the customer have to pay the bill from the date of invoice. Payment history refers to how your company paid its invoices prompt or late. Your goal is to have each vendor report nothing currently owed, which means you must pay your invoice in full prior to submitting your vendors to Dun & Bradstreet. In addition, you want your vendor to report N/A (not applicable) for past due, net 30 for payment terms, and prompt for payment history on the Dun & Bradstreet payment reference form that your vendors will receive. Your business credit history would be particularly impressive if at least one of your vendors reports a high dollar amount for the high credit. For example, I had a contractor rehab four properties within the same month. The invoice for the four properties was a little over $35,000. This particular contractor s company had a complete Duns file and provided a credit reference that included a prompt payment with a high credit amount of $35,000. Having four suppliers report prompt payments with low dollar amounts will get you a PAYDEX score of 80, but will not provide the creditability necessary to get approved for business credit lines with credit limits as high as $50,000. Banks want to see that your company not only has an 80 PAYDEX score, but also has experience serving high dollar amounts of at least $35,000. Dun & Bradstreet will insert the dollar amount that your vendors report as the "high credit." Be careful because a Dun & Bradstreet representative will normally investigate any

7 reference provided in connection with the Credit Builder service whose high dollar amount is over $20,000. Once any of your references are investigated, the representative will often investigate every other item listed on your company s Duns report. If the Duns representative does not feel comfortable about an item on your report such as your company s start date, sales, or otherwise questions any particular item on your report, that representative can, and often will without any prior notice, insert comments on your report that make your company look unfavorable to potential creditors. Since Dun & Bradstreet is not regulated by the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you are presumed guilty until you can prove your innocence. If your company gets an 80 PAYDEX score but not have a reference with a high dollar amount, it does not mean that your company will not get business credit lines, but it does mean that the credit limits for each ac-count may be substantially less than if your company had a least one supplier with a high dollar amount. NOTICE: It is imperative that the information you submit to Dun & Bradstreet or any lender, for that matter, be truthful and accurate. Dun & Bradstreet will provide you with a dnbi update password once your file becomes a complete file. An dnbi update password allows you to view your company s Duns report free of charge. To view the report, visit Type your DNBI Id password in the appropriate boxes to view the report.

8 Verify for yourself that you have an 80 PAYDEX score and look at all of the information on your company s report including the company s start date. If any information needs correcting, call Dun & Bradstreet update department at If for example, your company s start date is not listed accurately, provide the representative with the file number and date of the sole proprietorship as well as the name and location (usually through a government website) of the appropriate agency where the representative can verify the filing. Duns representatives are notorious for not following through on updating information, such as the company s start date. If possible ask to remain on the line while the representative verifies the sole proprietorship s filing date and number by visiting the website where the sole proprietorship was filed. Get the representative s name, extension and address. The start date will be updated the day after the change is made. Check your report the next day via the e-update website. If your company s start date has not been changed, the representative who promised to change the date. You may have to send a couple of s, as representatives do not always respond. If you do not get a response and the start date is not changed, call back the e-update department to have another representative process the change. Follow up until the date is changed. IMPORTANT NOTE: Dun & Bradstreet will verify that your company s phone number is published in the 411 directory. Thus, it is extremely important that you personally verify that your company s phone number, street address, city, state, and zip code are published in the 411 directory.

9 You can verify the listing by calling 411 and asking the operator for the city, state, zip, and phone number for your company. If the operator con-firms that your address (the number and street name) and the phone number appear, then you have verified the listing. If not, call the phone company to get the information listed. Copyright 2007 by Jeremy Zigman. All Rights Reserved

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