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Business credit score
Also called commercial credit score, PAYDEX, Intelliscore, FICO SBSS.
A score describing a business entity's payment and credit behavior, kept separately from the owner's personal credit and calculated differently by each bureau.
Drafted with AI assistance. Not yet independently checked. Nobody has verified the claims on this page against a source, so treat the figures and legal points as a starting point rather than as settled, and confirm anything you are about to act on. How we check things.
What it means
There is no single business credit score. Dun and Bradstreet publishes PAYDEX, a payment-behavior score on a 1 to 100 scale built from supplier trade experiences. Experian and Equifax publish their own commercial risk scores on their own scales. FICO's Small Business Scoring Service blends business data, personal credit of the owners and application data into a single score on a 0 to 300 scale, and the SBA uses it to screen smaller 7(a) loans against a minimum published in its operating procedures, which has been changed over time.
The inputs differ from consumer scoring. Trade payment history reported by suppliers, public filings including liens and judgments, company age, size and industry risk all feed in. Personal credit of the principals is folded into some commercial scores and not others.
Business credit files are thin for most small companies because reporting is voluntary. A business can have a long, clean payment record and almost no file, because none of its suppliers report. Building a file means trading with vendors who report and paying them early enough to register.
For most alternative funding decisions, the business score matters less than the bank statements and the owner's personal FICO. It matters more as you move toward banks, SBA lenders, equipment lessors and trade credit.
Where this one catches people
PAYDEX rewards paying early, not paying on time. The scale is built so that settling exactly on terms sits below the top of the range, and only consistently paying ahead of terms reaches it. Businesses that pride themselves on never being late are often surprised by a middling score, and the fix is a change in payment timing rather than a dispute.
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Business credit score — common questions
What does business credit score mean?
A score describing a business entity's payment and credit behavior, kept separately from the owner's personal credit and calculated differently by each bureau.
Where does business credit score catch people out?
PAYDEX rewards paying early, not paying on time. The scale is built so that settling exactly on terms sits below the top of the range, and only consistently paying ahead of terms reaches it. Businesses that pride themselves on never being late are often surprised by a middling score, and the fix is a change in payment timing rather than a dispute.
Is business credit score the same as an interest rate?
Business credit score is defined above; if you are comparing it against a rate, check whether the two measures share a time dimension before you put them side by side.
Which products does business credit score apply to?
Working Capital, Term Loan, Business Line of Credit, SBA Loan, Equipment Financing.
Is there a worked example of business credit score?
Not on this entry. Where a term is arithmetic, the arithmetic is shown; this one is not primarily a calculation.
What else should I read alongside business credit score?
Credit box, Credit pull, Creditworthiness, Personal guarantee, Trade credit.
Has this definition been checked?
Not yet. This entry is drafted and live, and the notice at the top says so. Confirm anything you are about to act on.
Is this legal advice?
No. It is a definition. What a clause does in your contract, in your state, is a question for a lawyer licensed where you are.
Can I suggest a term?
Yes — [email protected]. The glossary grows from what people are actually shown in contracts.