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Glossary of D&B Terms

Alphabetical Listing - To find terms starting with a specific letter, click on the letter you would like to see.

Or if you know the term you want to look up, select it from the drop-down menu below to view its definition.

Index

A

Account

A customer of your company. You can import accounts in your A/R system into DNBi.

DNBi Account Manager Homepage that organizes Accounts by status (e.g., Credit Review Required) to help you identify which Accounts need your attention.

Automated evaluation of your accounts by DNBi based on rules that your DNBi administrator sets up.

The outcome of an Account Review based on your Account Review Rules. Account Review Outcomes include Credit Hold Advised, Credit Review Required, Collections Required, and Credit Increase Recommended.

An account setting that specifies whether the account will be reviewed by DNBi (e.g., always review, never review or review after a specific date).

Key information about an Account Review Outcome, including recommended credit terms, analyst instructions, and reasons for the outcome.

A set ofconditions defined by your DNBi administrator that triggers a specific Account Review Outcome when true (e.g., Credit Review Required, Credit Hold Advised).

A specific decision you can make in DNBi when processing a credit application (e.g., Approve or Decline) or reviewing an account (e.g., Place on Credit Hold, Send to Credit Manager).

Relationshipï¿½between unpaidï¿½suppliers'ï¿½billsï¿½and theï¿½sales revenueï¿½in anï¿½accounting period. It is consideredï¿½highï¿½if it approaches 1.0 and, in someï¿½industries, may be aï¿½signï¿½that the firm is havingï¿½liquidityï¿½problems

Money owed by customers (individuals or corporations) to another entityï¿½in exchange for goods or services that have been delivered or used, but not yet paid for.

Accumulated amortizationï¿½is the cumulative amount of allï¿½amortizationï¿½expense that has so far been charged against anï¿½intangible asset. Amortization is used to indicate the gradual consumption of an intangible asset over time

An Action taken on an Account to add it to a folder.

Measure the percentage change between the current values (today) and the aging values as of a date in the past. Aging Trends can be either positive (increasing) or negative (decreasing).

D&B's credit limit recommendation is intended to help you more easily manage your credit decisions. It provides two recommended dollar guidelines: A conservative limit, which suggests a dollar benchmark if your policy is to extend less credit to minimize risk. An aggressive limit, which suggests a dollar benchmark if your policy is to extend more credit with potentially more risk. The dollar guideline amounts are based on a historical analysis of credit demand of customers in D&B's U.S. payments database who have a similar profile to the business you are evaluating in respect to employee size and industry.

A status in the Account Inbox for all Accounts in DNBi. Clicking on All Accounts displays all accounts that have been imported into DNBi.

A status in the Application Inbox for all Credit Applications in DNBi. Clicking on All Applications displays all credit applications that have been submitted.

The deduction of capital expenses over a specific period of time (usually over the asset's life).ï¿½More specifically,ï¿½this methodï¿½measures the consumption of the value ofï¿½intangibleï¿½assets,ï¿½such asï¿½a patent or a copyright.

Reasons entered by an analyst that indicate why an application was approved or declined or why an account was put on credit hold or had its credit limit changed.

Specific instructions set for a rule that guide credit analysts on how to process credit applications and accounts.

Set of conditions in a rule that must all be true to trigger a Decision Outcome or Account Review Outcome.

Automated evaluation of your credit applications by DNBi based on rules that your DNBi administrator sets up.

Authority levels set by your DNBi administrator that limit the amount of approved credit for each DNBi role.

An Action taken on a Credit Application to approve it for credit.

A Status in the Application Inbox for Credit Applications automatically approved in Application Decisioning or manually approved by a DNBi user.

A Status in the Application Inbox for Credit Applications that have been automatically approved in Application Decisioning with an approved credit limit below the requested amount on the Credit Application (e.g., Requested Amount=$25,000 and Recommended Credit Limit=$10,000).

Rates sales to the total investment that is used to generate those sales. If percentage is abnormally high, it indicates that a business is not being aggressive enough in its sales efforts, or that its assets are not being fully utilized. A low ratio may indicate a business is selling more than can be safely covered by its assets. Calculated as Total Assets ï¿½ Net Sales

Credit Applications or Accounts that are assigned to you for review.

Associations tab allows you to view and assess risk across different companies which may or may not have financial or legal responsibility for the other business. Unlike Corporate linkage in the D&B database where there is a pre-defined Headquarters/Branch or Parent/Subsidiary relationship within the corporate hierarchy, Associations displays the user generated view of related companies.

A history log of all users and system events associated with a Credit Application or Account.

Line of Credit = Current Credit Line minus Current Balance

Credit Card / Revolving Acct. = Current Credit Line minus Current Balance

B

Bank Debt

Bank debt represents a group of loans that a corporation must repay to a bank. A bank debt is usually a secured loan--that is, a borrower must provide collateral, or financial guarantees, before receiving loan proceeds. In case of bankruptcy, bank debt is repaid before other lender claims.

This section may include information on a company's access to additional financial capital, such as accounts, loans and specific banking relationships, as well as bank evaluations (when available) of whether the relation(s) are satisfactory. Content may not represent the full extent of the firm's banking relationships, nor the primary bank used by the business.

A proceeding under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, in which either a debtor files a bankruptcy petition and voluntarily seeks protection from creditors, or creditors file a bankruptcy petition against a debtor to force the debtor to pay debts owed to them.

An Action taken on an Approved Credit Application to designate that the credit applicant has been entered into your A/R system as a new Account.

A Status in the Application Inbox for Credit Applications that have been booked by a DNBi user (see Book).

A branch is a secondary location of a business. It has no legal responsibility for its debts, even though bills may be paid from the branch location. It will have the same legal business name as its headquarters, although branches frequently operate under a different trade style. A branch may be located at the same address as the headquarters if it has a unique trade style and unique operations. In such cases, the branch will appear to be a duplicate of the headquarters record.

Information filed by a corporation or limited liability company with the Secretary of State or other state agency in order to obtain a state charter to do business within that state as a corporation or limited liability company.

The Business Summary section displays basic company profile information, such as name, trade style, address, phone number, parent company name and location, chief executive officer name, sales volume, net worth, number of employees, line of business and the D&B D-U-N-S Number. Use this summary of the full report to get a quick view of the business, and locate areas to investigate more closely. This section may include the following terms: Branch | D&B Rating | Division | D&B D-U-N-S Number | Employs | Financial Condition | Financing | History | Sales | Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) | Started (Control Date) | Worth

C

Cancel

An Action taken on a Credit Application to cancel it.

A Status in the Application Inbox for Credit Applications that have been cancelled.

Funds used by a company to acquire or upgrade physicalï¿½assetsï¿½such as property, industrial buildings or equipment. This typeï¿½ofï¿½outlayï¿½isï¿½made by companies toï¿½maintain or increase theï¿½scope of their operations. These expendituresï¿½can include everything from repairing a roof to building a brand newï¿½factory.

Equity which cannot otherwise be classified asï¿½capitalï¿½stock or retained earnings. It's usually created from a stock issued at a premium over par value

A category in the cash flow statement that accounts for external activities such as issuing cash dividends, adding or changing loans, or issuing and selling more stock.

An item on the cash flow statementï¿½that reports the aggregate change in a company's cash position resulting from any gains (or losses) from investments in theï¿½financialï¿½marketsï¿½and operating subsidiaries, and changes resulting fromï¿½amounts spent on investments in capital assets such as plant and equipment.

Cash Flow from Operating Activities is an indication of the cash a company brings in from ongoing regular business activities. It provides information regarding the cash-generating abilities of a companyï¿½s core activities. It does not include long-term capital or investment costs.

An Action taken on an Account to change the account's credit terms.

Any increase or decrease in the cash a company is owed by its customers .

The difference between last periodï¿½s ending inventory and the current periodï¿½s ending inventory.

Changes take place in liabilities period over period.

Changes take place in other operating activities period over period.

Sum count of all Charge-Offs Recorded per Account

MM/DD/YY

Sum of all Charge-Off Amounts Recovered per Account

An Action taken on an account to clear the DNBi-recommended action.

A DNBi feature that allows a DNBi administrator to remove Account Inbox statuses in bulk (e.g., remove Credit Hold Advised status from all Accounts).

An Action taken on an Account to clear it from credit hold.

This maybe - Voluntary or Involuntary.

A quantitative metric that focuses on the quality of collection efforts over time by determining the percentage of open receivables an organization is able to recover within a given time period. The higher the Index, the better the organization is doing at collecting receivables.

The number of days, on average, that a firm requires for collection of a credit sale

A Status in the Account Inbox for Accounts requiring collections follow-up based on your Account Review Rules.

The Commercial Credit Score (CCS) predicts the likelihood of a business paying its bills in a severely delinquent manner (91 days or more past terms). D&B defines severe delinquency as a business with at least 10% of its payments 91 days or more past due, based on the information in D&Bï¿½s commercial database. The score ranges from 101 to 670, where 101 represents the highest probability and 670 represents the lowest possibility of delinquency.

The Commercial Credit Score Percentile illustrates where a company falls among businesses in the D&B information base, and is most effectively used to rank order portfolios from highest to lowest risk of business failure. There is a 1-100 ranking where a percentile of 1 has the highest probability of severe delinquency and a percentile of 100 has the lowest probability of severe delinquency.

The Commercial Credit Score Risk Class enables a customer to quickly segment their new and existing accounts into various risk segments to determine appropriate marketing or credit policies. The Class ranges from 1 to 5 where a one (1) represents businesses that have the lowest probability of delinquency, and five (5) represents businesses with the highest probability of delinquency. Note: Commercial Credit Scores are not calculated for those businesses designated as "Discontinued at This Location", "Open Bankruptcy", or "Higher Risk". These records are automatically assigned a score of zero (0).

The Commercial Credit Score uses statistical probabilities to classify companies into three risk classifications, which provide different views of the same underlying data. In most cases, the Credit Score Class is your best choice for at-a-glance risk assessment. The more detailed percentile and score classifications provide more granular views of this information, which can provide a more specific classification when you want to see precisely where a business falls on the spectrum of risk. One of the classifications is:

A "Score" of 101 - 670, where a 101 represents businesses that have the highest probability of severe delinquency, and a 670 represents businesses with the lowest probability of severe delinquency. This score classification enables you to use more granular cutoffs if you are using the data from DNBi as part of a more automated decision-making process.

Company Profile is the fourth of four components within the D&B Viability Rating. The Company Profile describes a company based on a combination of 4 categories:

Financial Data
Trade Payments
Company Size
Years in Business

A company is characterized by a letter which ranges from A ï¿½ X; with each letter representing a combination of the 4 categories that make up the companyï¿½s profile. For example, A describes a company with a comprehensive level data, which has been in business 5+ years, with 50+ employees or $500K+ in Sales, while X reflects a company with a minimal data, in business <5 years, with <10 employees and <$10K in Sales. Y and Z reflect a Branch and Subsidiary, respectively.

Company Profile Rating	Financial Data	Trade Payments	Company Size	Years In Business
A	Available	Refer to Data Depth	Large : Employees:50+ or Sales : $500K+	Established: 5+
B	Available	Refer to Data Depth	Large : Employees:50+ or Sales : $500K+	Young: < 5
C	Available	Refer to Data Depth	Medium : Employees:10-49 or Sales: $100k-$499K	Established: 5+
D	Available	Refer to Data Depth	Medium : Employees:10-49 or Sales: $100k-$499K	Young : < 5
E	Available	Refer to Data Depth	Small : Employees : < 10 and Sales : < $10K or Missing	Established : 5+
F	Available	Refer to Data Depth	Small : Employees : < 10 and Sales : < $10K or Missing	Young : < 5
G	Not Available	Available (3+Trade)	Large : Employees:50+ or Sales : $500K+	Established : 5+
H	Not Available	Available (3+Trade)	Large : Employees:50+ or Sales : $500K+	Young : < 5
I	Not Available	Available (3+Trade)	Medium : Employees:10-49 or Sales : $100K-$499K	Established : 5+
J	Not Available	Available (3+Trade)	Medium : Employees:10-49 or Sales : $100K-$499K	Young : < 5
K	Not Available	Available (3+Trade)	Small : Employees : < 10 and Sales : < $10K or Missing	Established : 5+
L	Not Available	Available (3+Trade)	Small : Employees : < 10 and Sales : < $10K or Missing	Young : < 5
M	Not Available	Available (1-2 Trade)	Large : Employees : 50+ or Sales : $500K+	Established : 5+
N	Not Available	Available (1-2 Trade)	Large : Employees : 50+ or Sales : $500K+	Young : < 5
O	Not Available	Available (1-2 Trade)	Medium : Employees : 10-49 or Sales : $100K-$499K	Established : 5+
P	Not Available	Available (1-2 Trade)	Medium : Employees : 10-49 or Sales : $100K-$499K	Young : < 5
Q	Not Available	Available (1-2 Trade)	Small : Employees : < 10 and Sales: < $10K or Missing	Established : 5+
R	Not Available	Available (1-2 Trade)	Small : Employees : < 10 and Sales: < $10K or Missing	Young : < 5
S	Not Available	Not Available	Large : Employees :50+ or Sales : $500K+	Established : 5+
T	Not Available	Not Available	Large : Employees :50+ or Sales : $500K+	Young : < 5
U	Not Available	Not Available	Medium : Employees :10-49 or Sales : $100K-$499K	Established : 5+
V	Not Available	Not Available	Medium : Employees :10-49 or Sales : $100K-$499K	Young : < 5
W	Not Available	Not Available	Small : Employees : < 10 and Sales : < $10k or Missing	Established : 5+
X	Not Available	Not Available	Small : Employees : < 10 and Sales : < $10k or Missing	Young : < 5
Y	Branch
Z	Subsidiary

Numerical rating of one to four assessing the overall credit-worthiness of a company. Part of the Apparel Trades Book Rating.

Corporate linkage is the relationship between different companies within a corporate family. Linkage occurs in the D&B database when one business entity "controls" another business entity because it has financial or legal responsibility for another business, creating a Headquarters/Branch or Parent/Subsidiary relationship

An online form in DNBi for new credit requests. Your DNBi administrator can customize your Credit Application with pages and questions required by your company.

A supplier of credit reports summarizing credit information on a business or a person.

A Status in the Account Inbox for Accounts with a system-recommended credit hold based on your Account Review Rules.

A Status in the Account Inbox for Accounts with a system-recommended credit increase based on your Account Review Rules.

A DNBi feature that allows a DNBi administrator to define recommended credit limits for Credit Applications and Accounts that meet the Conditions of a specific Decision Rule or Account Review Rule.

The D&B Credit Limit Recommendation is intended to help you more easily manage your credit decisions. It provides two recommended dollar guidelines: A conservative limit, which suggests a dollar benchmark if your policy is to extend less credit to minimize risk and an aggressive limit, which suggests a dollar benchmark if your policy is to extend more credit with potentially more risk.

The dollar guideline amounts are based on a historical analysis of the credit demand of customers in D&B’s U.S. payments database who have a similar profile to the business you are evaluating in respect to employee size and industry. The guidelines do not address whether a particular business can pay that amount or whether a particular customer’s total credit limit has achieved (based on their total trade experiences and outstanding balances). Each set of limits is accompanies by an assessment of the risk category a business falls into, or D&B’s assessment of how likely they are to continue to pay their obligations within terms and their likelihood of undergoing financial stress in the next 12 months. The risk category is created using D&B’s risk modeling methodology and is based on the company’s credit and financial stress scores.

Generally speaking, D&B’s standard limit recommendations are less applicable for very large credit lines – over one million dollars – and when assessing very large organizations, which may pay slowly as a rule. You are most likely to the find the recommended limits useful for small to medium-large size decisions. The recommended limits also are useful when you are dealing with a new customer or prospect, one with whom you do not have a previously established credit record. The recommended limits, while not customized to every situation, create useful default starting point.

Percentage of the authorized credit limit currently in use by the customer.

The set of all Decision Rules and Account Review Rules that your company uses to evaluate new Credit Applications and to review existing Accounts.

A summarization of credit information on a business or a person reported by a credit bureau. The information may include trade information on both open and closed accounts, legal items and credit scores.

A Status in the Account Inbox for Accounts with an advised credit review based on your Account Review Rules.

Credit Application or Account credit terms, including payment terms (e.g., Net 30), early payment discount (e.g., 1% Net 10) and credit limit (e.g., $10,000)". Please add it back in.

Total Outstanding Balance for the Account.

Sum of Current Balance for all Account Types

Line of Credit = Assigned Credit Limit

Credit Card /Revolving Acct. = Assigned Credit Limit

This is calculated as Total Current liabilities ï¿½ inventory

Indicatesï¿½relianceï¿½on theï¿½equityï¿½forï¿½paymentï¿½ofï¿½debt. It is one of theï¿½measuresï¿½of theï¿½solvencyï¿½of a firm and, as aï¿½rule of thumb, should not exceed 60ï¿½percent; higherï¿½percentagesï¿½meanï¿½significantï¿½pressureï¿½on futureï¿½cash flows

Indicates the amount due creditors within a year as a percentage of the owners' or stockholders' investment. Measures the funds creditors are risking with a business temporarily against the funds permanently invested by its owners. Normally a business starts to have trouble when this relationship exceeds 80%. Calculated as Current Liabilities ï¿½ Current Net Worth

Measures the degree to which current assets cover current liabilities. The higher the ratio, the more likely the company will be able to meet its liabilities. A ratio of 2 to 1 (2.0) or higher is desirable. Calculated as Current Assets ï¿½ Current Liabilities.

D

D&B D-U-N-S Number (Data Universal Numbering System)

A non-indicative, nine-digit number assigned to each business location in the D&B database having a unique, separate, and distinct operation, and is maintained solely by D&B. The D&B D-U-N-S Number is used by industries and organizations around the world as a global standard for business identification and tracking. For additional information about D&B D-U-N-S Numbers, click here.

Use this key to help you interpret the D&B PAYDEXï¿½ Score.

Key to the D&B PAYDEXï¿½ Score
PAYDEXï¿½	Payment
100	Anticipate
90	Discount
80	Prompt
70	15 Days Beyond Terms
60	22 Days Beyond Terms
50	30 Days Beyond Terms
40	60 Days Beyond Terms
30	90 Days Beyond Terms
20	120 Days Beyond Terms
UN	Unavailable

The PAYDEX score is a unique weighted numerical indicator of how a firm paid its bills over the past year, based on trade experiences reported to D&B by various vendors. The score ranges from 1 to 100, with higher scores indicating better payment performance. A reflection of whether a company pays its bills on time. A score of 80 denotes that payments reported to D&B have generally been made within terms. Scores over 80 indicate that payments reported to D&B have been made earlier than terms. A minimum of three experiences are needed to calculate a PAYDEX score, with a minimum of two unique trade suppliers. D&B retains up to 24 months of payment experiences in the trade repository.

The D&B Rating can help you quickly assess a firm's size and composite credit appraisal, based on information in a company's interim or fiscal balance sheet and an overall evaluation of the firm's creditworthiness.

The "5A" to "HH" Rating Classifications reflect company size based on worth or equity as computed by D&B. Company size can be an effective indicator of credit capacity. These Ratings are assigned to businesses that have supplied D&B with a current financial statement.

The Composite Credit Appraisal is a number ranging from 1 to 4 that makes up the second half of the company's rating and reflects D&B's overall assessment of that firm's creditworthiness. The Composite Credit Appraisal is based on D&B analysis of company payments, financial information, public records, business age and other important factors (when available).

The D&B Viability Rating uses D&Bï¿½s proprietary analytics to compare the most predictive business risk indicators and deliver a highly reliable assessment of the probability that a company will go out of business, become dormant/ inactive, or file for bankruptcy/insolvency within the next 12 months. The D&B Viability Rating is made up of 4 components:

Viability Score is a high-level risk indicator that assesses the probability that a company will no longer be in business within the next 12 months, compared to businesses in the same country within the D&B database. The Viability score may include some or all of the following elements, based on the country: available financial data, trade payments, firmographics and other business activity.

Portfolio Comparison is a more detailed risk indicator that assesses the viability of a company, compared to similar businesses within the same model segment for specific country. Each company will be placed in 1 of the 4 model segments which are determined by the amount and type of data available.

Data Depth Indicator presents the level of data that is used to generate the Viability Score and Portfolio Comparison. Data depth assists in the assessment of whether a company will no longer be viable and may include some or all of the following elements, based on the country: financial attributes, commercial trading activity and firmographics.

Company Profile describes a company based on a combination of 4 categories: Financial Data, Trade Payments, Company Size and Years in Business.

The first navigation tab of DNBi that includes an overview of your portfolio, such as the current risk, trends in your portfolio's risk, the top riskiest companies in your portfolio, and latest company news and alerts.ï¿½ The dashboard is completely customizable per user.

Data Depth Indicator is the third of four components within the D&B Viability Rating. The Depth of Data Indicator presents the level of data that is used to generate the Viability Score and Portfolio Comparison. Data depth assists in the assessment of whether a company will no longer be viable and may include the following (data depth attributes will vary by country):

Financial Attributes
Commercial Trading Activity
Firmographics

The level of data is represented by a letter on a scale of A ï¿½ G where A reflects the greatest level of predictive data to make a highly reliable assessment of company viability, and G reflects a minimal level of data which can be considered descriptive. The more comprehensive the data, the more precise the overall D&B Viability Rating becomes. If a company has been placed in the Special Category, a letter ranging from H-N will be assigned to identify the specific reason. Reference the chart below for details:

Rating	Definition for US Businesses	Definition for Canadian Businesses
A	Rich Firmographics, Extensive Commercial Trading Activity and Comprehensive Financial Attributes	Rich Firmographics Extensive Commercial Trading Activity
B	Rich Firmographics, Extensive Commercial Trading Activity and Basic Financial Attributes	Rich Firmographics Partial Commercial Trading Activity
C	Rich Firmographics, Extensive Commercial Trading Activity and No Financial Attributes	Basic Firmographics Partial Commercial Trading Activity
D	Rich Firmographics, Partial Commercial Trading Activity and No Financial Attributes	Rich Firmographics Sparse Commercial Trading Activity
E	Rich Firmographics, Sparse Commercial Trading Activity and No Financial Attributes	Basic Firmographics Sparse Commercial Trading Activity
F	Basic Firmographics, Trace Commercial Trading Activity and No Financial Attributes	Rich Firmographics Only
G	Basic Firmographics and No Financial Attributes	Basic Firmographics Only

Rating	Special Category Description
H	Out of Business - Business is considered inactive due to Bankruptcy, Insolvency, Merger/Acquisition or absence of confirmed location.
I	Unable to Confirm Designation - D&B is unable to confirm active operations at a specific location due to the business showing limited to no business activity and multiple signs of inactivity (e.g. disconnected phone, vacant address, no longer in a telephone directory etc.).
J	Bankruptcy - Business has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and the plan of reorganization is not yet confirmed (Not applicable to Canadian businesses).
K	High Risk(Severe Risk) - Business displays characteristics of misrepresentation.
L	Self Reported Duns Support Record - Business' request for a DUNs number requires an investigation or confirmation of information from D&B (Not applicable to Canadian businesses).
M	Business Deterioration (Severe Risk) - Business displays characteristics of financials distress, including signs of current or imminent business failure or operating difficulty (Not applicable to Canadian businesses).
N	Insolvency - Business or Management has insufficient assets to meet debts and obligations. See Public Records for further details (Not applicable to US businesses).

Date account was reported closed .

Date the account was reported open

Date of Experience / "As Of" Date

The number of days that a customer is delinquent paying you based on the customer's Credit Terms. Days Beyond Terms (DBT) is calculated by DNBi and displayed in the Aging tab.

The overall number of days that a customer takes to pay invoices. Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) can be imported into DNBi and is displayed in the Aging tab.

This is calculated as Total debt ï¿½ Earning before income taxes

A measure of a company's financial leverage calculated by dividingï¿½its total liabilitiesï¿½byï¿½stockholders' equity. It indicates what proportion ofï¿½equityï¿½and debt the company is using to finance its assets.

A measure of a companyï¿½s financial leverage calculated by dividing its total debt by net income.

DNBi Decision Maker Homepage that organizes Credit Applications by status (e.g., Analyst Review Required) to help you identify which Credit Applications need your attention.

The outcome of Application Decisioning based on your Decision Rules. Decision Outcomes include Approved, Declined, and Further Review Required.

Key information about a Decision Outcome, including Recommended Credit Terms, Analyst Instructions, and the Decision Rules that triggered the Decision Outcome.

A set of conditions defined by you that trigger a specific Decision Outcome for Credit Applications (e.g., Approve).

The data elements that make up a Decision Rule or Account Review Rule (e.g., Business Structure, Commercial Credit Score Percentile).

An Action taken on a Credit Application to decline it for credit.

A Status in the Application Inbox for Credit Applications automatically declined in Application Decisioning or manually declined by a DNBi user.

Decision Outcome rendered if no Decision Rules are triggered. Default Outcome is normally set to Further Review Required but can also be set to Declined or Approved.

Anï¿½expenditureï¿½that is considered anï¿½assetï¿½until it becomes relevant to theï¿½businessï¿½atï¿½hand, such as prepaidï¿½rentï¿½that is considered an asset until the rent is officially due. Opposite ofï¿½deferred revenue.

A collection of future company liabilities that will typically be summed up and shown as one line item on the balance sheet.ï¿½The charges are most often made up of deferred-tax liabilities that are to be paid more than one year in the future; depending on the company, they can also be comprised of forward contract obligations (like,ï¿½swap contracts or derivative products)

An Action taken on a Credit Application or Account to delete it.

A DNBi feature that allows an administrator to delete Accounts in bulk.

An Inbox status for Accounts that have been deleted.

An Inbox status for Credit Applications that have been deleted.

A method of allocating theï¿½costï¿½of a tangible asset over its useful life. Businesses depreciate long-term assets for both tax and accounting purposes.

A segment of a company's business that has been sold, disposed of or abandoned. Discontinued operations can range from a certain product line to an entire line of business.

Aï¿½taxableï¿½paymentï¿½declared by aï¿½company'sï¿½board of directorsï¿½and given to itsï¿½shareholdersï¿½out of the company's current orï¿½retained earnings, usuallyï¿½quarterly. Dividends are usually given asï¿½cashï¿½(cash dividend), but they can alsoï¿½takeï¿½the form ofï¿½stockï¿½(stock dividend) or otherï¿½property.

A division is an operating unit of a business entity with a specific divisional name performing a specific activity normally different than the activity performed at the Headquarters. A division is different than a branch in that the division is operated like a separate and unique entity (it may have divisional officers; however, it is not legally a separate entity).

A dollar-weighted measure of Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) for your portfolio of Accounts that weights each Account in proportion to its amount of total outstanding receivables.

The D-U-N-S Number belonging to the highest level family member within a specific country.

E

EBT

An adjustedï¿½calculationï¿½ofï¿½earnings, and a measure of theï¿½company'sï¿½performance, equivalent to earnings (revenueï¿½minusï¿½expenses) before theï¿½deductionï¿½ofï¿½income taxes. also calledï¿½profitï¿½beforeï¿½tax.

An indicator of a company's profitability, calculated as revenue minus expenses, excluding tax and interest. EBIT is also referred to as "operating earnings", "operating profit" and "operating income",

A ratio between EBITDA and EBIT that measures the financial leverage of a company.

The effect that occurs over the rate at which one currency can be exchanged for another.

Appear on a companyï¿½s financial statements whenever accounting principles change and impact net income from previous reporting periods.

The Company, Account, or Credit Application details screen. Contains detailed information, including credit terms, DUNSRight(tm) information, financials, scores, audit trail, and notes.

Total number of employees and if noted, at this location.

Aï¿½financialï¿½indicatorï¿½that measures aï¿½company'sï¿½use ofï¿½stockholders' equityï¿½toï¿½financeï¿½operations. Theï¿½ratioï¿½is calculated by dividing theï¿½total equityï¿½in theï¿½companyï¿½by itsï¿½total assets. A highï¿½equityï¿½ratioï¿½indicatesï¿½more reliance onï¿½equity financingï¿½thanï¿½debt financing.

A Status in the Account Inbox for Accounts that cannot be imported or processed in an Account Review due to a system error.

A Status in the Application Inbox for Credit Applications that cannot be processed in Application Decisioning due to a system error.

The order in which Decision Rules and Account Review Rules are evaluated. This order is important because once a rule is triggered, no other rules are evaluated.

F

Finance Section

The finance section includes balance sheets, financial income statements and management estimates or projections when available. If provided, up to three years of comparative summaries may be displayed here. This data can help you to assess:

A company's ability to meet current debt by comparing all liquid assets to current debt, or all liquid assets plus inventory to current debt.
The amount of capital provided by creditors compared to capital invested by the owners.
The amount of sales compared to total assets of the company.

Commentary on absence of financial information may also appear in this section, for example, "A financial statement was declined by management." An explanation of the financial information may also be provided and include narrative indicating the source of the data (i.e. "Submitted by ..."), as well as an explanation of certain financial statement items. The company may also add other comments in this section, such as "Current cash is low because a recent expansion was financed with cash rather than loans." For additional help, see Understanding Financial Statements.

Provides an overview of a company's financial statement with a designation of - Strong, Good, Fair and Unbalanced. Financial Condition is calculated by reviewing up to 11 financial ratios and comparing them to industry averages for each of the company's lines of business.

D&B defines a financially stressed company as one that:

Ceased operations following assignment of bankruptcy
Ceased operations with loss to creditors
Voluntarily withdrew from business operation leaving unpaid obligations
Is in receivership, reorganization, or has made an arrangement for the benefit of creditors

Note: Voluntary discontinuance involving no loss to creditors is not defined as financially stressed.

The Financial Stress Class enables you to quickly segment new and existing accounts into risk groupings to determine appropriate marketing or credit policies. The classes range from 1 to 5, with lower classes indicating less risk of financial stress.

The Financial Stress Score predicts a business's potential for failure, identifying the likelihood that a company will obtain legal relief from creditors or cease operations without paying all creditors in full over the next 12 months. The score uses the full range of D&B information, including financials, comparative financial ratios, payment trends, public filings, demographic data and more.

D&B defines a financially stressed company as one that:

Ceased operations following assignment of Bankruptcy

Ceased operations with loss to creditors

Voluntarily withdrew from business operation leaving unpaid obligations

Is in Receivership, Reorganization, or has made an arrangement for the benefit of creditors.

Voluntary Discontinuance involving no loss to creditors is not defined as financially stressed.

The Financial Stress Score is classified in classified in three ways, from the broadest (the class) to the most specific (the numerical score.).One of them being the Financial Stress Score - "Class"

This is a "Class" of 1 - 5, which is a segmentation of the scoreable universe into five distinct risk groups where a one (1) represents businesses that have the lowest probability of financial stress, and a five (5) represents businesses with the highest probability of financial stress. This Class enables you to quickly segment new and existing accounts into risk groupings to determine appropriate marketing or credit policies.

"0" class denotes open bankruptcy, out of business at the location or higher risk situations. The Failure Rate is the average for all firms in the United States that discontinued operations with loss to creditors, based on the information in D&B's database. The average failure rate is .48%. This is based on businesses in D&B's database and is provided for comparative purposes.

The Financial Stress Score Percentile is a 1-100 ranking where a percentile of 1 has the highest probability of severe delinquency and a percentile of 100 has the lowest probability of severe delinquency. This Percentile shows you where a company falls among businesses in the D&B information base, and is most effectively used to rank order a portfolio from highest to lowest risk of business failure.

The Financial Stress Score is classified in classified in three ways, from the broadest (the class) to the most specific (the numerical score.).One of them being the Financial Stress Score - "Score"

A "Score" of 1,001 - 1,875, where a 1,001 represents businesses that have the highest probability of financial stress, and a 1,875 which represents businesses with the lowest probability of financial stress. This score provides a direct relationship between the score and the level of risk and enables more granular cutoffs typically used in a more automated decision-making process.

Designated as

Secured - A portion or all of the following assets have been pledged as collateral; inventory and/or accounts receivable, capital stock in the company or capital stock the company owns in a subsidiary
Secured/Unsecured - In addition to any of the 'Secured' provisions, there are also unsecured loans outstanding which may be guaranteed or co-signed by a third party, but are not collateralized by specific assets

This offers a quick picture of credit already extended to the company, and if assets are available to be pledged to you as a creditor. See the Public Filings, Banking and Finance sections for details.

Shows the percentage of assets centered in fixed assets compared to total equity. Generally the higher this percentage is over 75%, the more vulnerable a concern becomes to unexpected hazards and business climate changes. Capital is frozen in the form of machinery and the margin for operating funds becomes too narrow to support day-to-day operations. Calculated as Fixed Assets ï¿½ Net Worth .

The Fraud Risk Score is an early-warning screening tool designed to identify a small percentage of new business applicants that have characteristics and behaviors that are similar to previously identified business frauds. This empirically derived and statistically validated score includes analytical development based on a common definition of business fraud, a cross-industry set of "bads" and DUNSRight including newly available predictive data, Entity Matching and Predictive Scoring expertise. Collectively this capability cannot be duplicated due to these unique data sources and DUNSRight processes. Unlike other D&B data solutions, the Fraud Risk Score can be generated on 100% of business applicants providing fraud detection on all of your potential customers.

Aï¿½measure of financial performance calculated as operating cash flow minus capital expenditures. Free cash flow (FCF) represents the cash that a company is able to generate afterï¿½laying out the money required to maintain or expand its asset base.

A Status in the Application Inbox for Credit Applications that have been processed by DNBi but require further review by an analyst before being Approved or Declined.

G

Global Ultimate D-U-N-S Number

The D-U-N-S Number belonging to a business' worldwide ultimate parent company.

Anï¿½intangible assetï¿½which provides aï¿½competitive advantage, such as aï¿½strongï¿½brand, reputation, or highï¿½employeeï¿½morale. In anï¿½acquisition, goodwill appears on theï¿½balance sheetï¿½of theï¿½acquirerï¿½in theï¿½amountï¿½by which theï¿½purchaseï¿½priceï¿½exceedsï¿½theï¿½net tangible assetsï¿½of the acquiredï¿½company.

A guarantor represents a commitment from a third party that can strengthen the position of a creditor. By using a personal guarantee, a creditor can hold the guarantor responsible for the debt.

H

Headquarters

A headquarters is a business location that has branches or divisions reporting to it, and is legally responsible for those branches or divisions. If the headquarters is more than 50 percent owned by another corporation, it will also be a subsidiary. If it owns more than 50 percent of another corporation, then it is also a parent.

Line of Credit = Highest Assigned Credit Limit or Highest One-Time Balance

Credit Card / Revolving Acct. = Highest Assigned Credit Limit or Highest One-Time Balance

Lease Agreement = Original Lease Amount

Designated as

Clear - indicates that certain minimal information necessary for D&B rating consideration is contained in the report. It also means the report is free of negative information which could cause the selection of other History captions or designation as a potential higher-risk case
Incomplete - indicates that D&B's file does not contain sufficient information about the background of the business and its significant principals to fully assess risk
Management - indicates D&B's file contains certain unfavorable current or historical information on one or more significant principals associated with this company
Business - indicates D&B's file contains certain unfavorable current or historical information on this company

This section typically includes details on the company's history, including

Incorporation details, par value of shares and ownership information
Background information on management, such as the educational and career history of the company principals
Related companies, including identification of parent, affiliates, subsidiaries and/or branches worldwide

The History Section may also include corporate registration details, which are invaluable when you need to:

Verify the existence of a registered organization
Confirm legal information, such as a company's organizational structure, date and state of incorporation
Research possible fraud by reviewing names of principals and business standing within a state

Business registrations have taken on added importance with revisions to UCC Article 9. Creditors will now be held responsible for the validity and accuracy of UCC statements they file with the Secretary of State. Failure to meet these new requirements may jeopardize legally recognized rights to collateral in secured financing agreements. Minimize your exposure under this new legislation by using Registration details in the History Section to validate your UCC filings.

The D-U-N-S Number belonging to a business' immediate headquarters or parent.

I

Import

A DNBi feature that allows you to import your A/R data and DNBi batch files into DNBi.

A business is considered inactive if it meets any one of the following criteria: 1) is out of business, 2) has an undeliverable mailing address, or 3) is delisted (i.e., the customer has requested D&B to exclude its information from our database).

The interest coverage ratio is a measure of the number of times a company could make the interest payments on its debt with its earnings before interest and taxes, also known as EBIT. The lower the interest coverage ratio, the higher the company's debt burden and the greater the possibility of bankruptcy or default.

A ratio that is used to assess a company'sï¿½financialï¿½durability by examining whether itï¿½is at least profitably enough to pay off its interest expenses. A ratioï¿½greater thanï¿½1 indicates that the company has more than enough interest coverage to pay off its interest expenses.

The purchase of a financial product or other item of value with an expectation of favorable future returns. In general terms, investment means the use money in the hope of making more money.

J

Judgment

The final resolution of a suit; the official court decision regarding the parties' rights and obligations, including whether the plaintiff is entitled to relief defined in the suit.

K

Key to the D&B Rating

The "5A" to "HH" Rating Classifications reflect company size based on worth or equity as computed by D&B. Company size can be an effective indicator of credit capacity. These Ratings are assigned to businesses that have supplied D&B with a current financial statement.

The Composite Credit Appraisal is a number, 1 through 4, that makes up the second half of the company's rating and reflects D&B's overall assessment of that firm's creditworthiness. The Composite Credit Appraisal is based on D&B analysis of company payments, financial information, public records, business age and other important factors (when available).

Note: A "2" is the highest Composite Credit Appraisal a company not supplying D&B with current financial information can receive.

The "1R" and "2R" Rating categories reflect company size based on the total number of employees for the business. They are assigned to company files that do not contain a current financial statement.

ER (Employee Range) Ratings apply to certain lines of business that do not lend themselves to classification under the D&B Rating system. Instead, we assign these types of businesses an Employee Range symbol based on the number of people employed. No other significance should be attached to this symbol.

For example, a rating of "ER7" means there are between five and nine employees in the company. "ERN" should not be interpreted negatively. It simply means we do not have information indicating how many people are employed at this firm.

The D&B Rating field in a report may also display the following designations when certain conditions are present:

The '- -' Symbol: This represents the absence of a D&B Rating and should not be interpreted as indicating that credit should be denied. It means that the information available to D&B does not permit us to classify the company within our Rating Key and that further inquiry should be made before reaching a credit decision. Some reasons for using the "- -" symbol include: deficit net worth, bankruptcy proceedings, lack of sufficient payment information or incomplete history indicator.
DS (DUNS Support): This indicates that the information available to D&B does not permit us to classify the company within our Rating Key. When ordering these reports, an investigation can be performed and results sent to you at your request for an additional fee.
INV (Investigation Being Conducted): When an "INV" appears, it means an investigation is being conducted on this business to get the most current details
NQ (Not Quoted): This is generally assigned when a business has been confirmed as no longer active at the location, or when D & B is unable to confirm active operations. It may also appear on some branch reports, when the branch is located in the same city as the headquarters.

Rating Classification				Composite Credit Appraisal
(Based on Worth from Interim or Fiscal Balance Sheet)				High	Good	Fair	Limited
5A	$50,000,000		and over	1	2	3	4
4A	10,000,000	to	49,999,999	1	2	3	4
3A	1,000,000	to	9,999,999	1	2	3	4
2A	750,000	to	999,999	1	2	3	4
1A	500,000	to	749,999	1	2	3	4
BA	300,000	to	499,999	1	2	3	4
BB	200,000	to	299,999	1	2	3	4
CB	125,000	to	199,999	1	2	3	4
CC	75,000	to	124,999	1	2	3	4
DC	50,000	to	74,999	1	2	3	4
DD	35,000	to	49,999	1	2	3	4
EE	20,000	to	34,999	1	2	3	4
FF	10,000	to	19,999	1	2	3	4
GG	5,000	to	9,999	1	2	3	4
HH	up to		4,999	1	2	3	4

Rating Classification				Composite Credit Appraisal
(Based on Number of Employees)					Good	Fair	Limited
1R	10 and over				2	3	4
2R	1 to 9				2	3	4

Key To Employee Range
Applicable to lines of business not covered by the D&B Rating system

ER1	1,000 or more
ER2	500-999
ER3	100-499
ER4	50-99
ER5	20-49
ER6	10-19
ER7	5-9
ER8	1-4
ERN	Not Available

L

Last Payment Date

Date of the last payment for this account reported by the lender.

ID of the SBRI Participant.

Note: Lender ID will be populated so that each SBRI participant can id their own data and/or the data provided by a linked corporate family member only

A claim or encumbrance which one party holds against the property of another party until a debt or obligation is satisfied.

Location type identifies if an entity is a headquarter, branch and Single location.
HQ ï¿½ Headquarter and Headquarter(Subsidiary) BR ï¿½ Branch S ï¿½ Single Location (Subsidiary)

Investmentsï¿½that a company intends to holdï¿½for more than a year. They may include stocks, bonds, real estate and cash.

Long-term liabilities are company obligations that extend beyond the current year, or alternately, beyond the current operating cycle.

M

Manager Review Required

A Status in the Application Inbox and Account Inbox for companies that require further review by a manager. Credit Applications and Accounts are automatically routed to Manager Review Required when an analyst does not have adequate Approval Authority.

Indicates whether or not a record meets D&B's standards for direct mail and marketing applications. See Marketable Record.

In general, a record that meets the following criteria is considered marketable: 1) has been updated within the last 24 months, 2) contains a complete business name, valid physical or mailing address, and valid Standard Industry Classification (SIC) Code, 3) is believed to be in business, and 4) is not delisted (i.e., the company has not requested D&B to exclude its information from its database).

An Action taken on an Account to search for a company match from D&B.

Common forms of equity that is given to investors

A Status in the Application Inbox for all Credit Applications that you have submitted.

N

Negative Goodwill

A gain occurring when the price paid for an acquisition is less than the fair value of its net tangibleï¿½assets.

Negative Payments consist of unsatisfactory, bad debt, suit-filed, non-sufficient funds, credit refused, placed for collection or repossession trade experiences.

Interest bearing liabilities less cash and cash equivalents.

Non-cash transactions that appear on the balance sheet and income statement that must be factored in when determining a companyï¿½s cash flow from operations.

The net income applicable to common shares figure is the bottom-line profit the company reported that belongs to its stockholders (owners)

Net worth is based on the value of all assets and liabilities at the carrying value. To the extent that items on the balance sheet do not express their true (market) value, the net worth will also be inaccurate. Calculated as Total Assets – total Liabilities

No Action Recommended

A Status in the Account Inbox for Accounts that do not require any action.

This is calculated as Net trade receivables ï¿½ working capital

Fixed operating costs that a financial institution must incur, such as anticipated bad debt provisions.ï¿½Noninterest expenses can include employee salaries and benefits, equipment and property leases, taxes, loan loss provisions andï¿½professional service fees.ï¿½Companies will offset noninterest expenses by generating revenue through noninterest income.ï¿½

Sum count of all Current Payments Recorded per Account.

Sum count of # of Times Past Due - Cycle 1 per Account

Sum count of # of Times Past Due - Cycle 2 per Account

Sum count of # of Times Past Due - Cycle 3 per Account

Sum count of # of Times Past Due - Cycle 4 per Account

Sum count of # of Times Past Due - Cycle 5 per Account

O

On Credit Hold

A Status in the Account Inbox for Accounts that are on credit hold.

Online Credit Application Homepage that displays the credit applications submitted through the web address you provide to applicants.

Y - Open ; N - Not Open.

The various values include - Satisfactory, Unsatisfactory, Blank fill if not available.

A ratio between operating income and interest that indicates how much cash a company has to pay interest on its debt. A high ratio means that a company is well prepared to pay for its upcoming interest expenses.

This section provides background information on the business operations of a company. This may include the identity of a parent company, the number of accounts and geographic scope of the business, typical selling terms, and whether the firm owns or leases its facilities. The names and locations of branch operations and subsidiaries may also be identified in this section.

Set of conditions in a Decision Rule or Account Review Rule, at least one of which must be true to trigger a Decision Outcome or Account Review Outcome.

An Action taken on an Account or Credit Application to order a D&B investigation on the company.

Line of Credit = Initial assigned Credit Limit

Credit Card / Revolving Acct. = Initial assigned Credit Limit

Term Loan = Original Amount of Loan when account was initially opened.

Lease Agreement = Original Lease Amount

A miscellaneous line in income statements which includes items not previously listed or enumerated.

All non-cash items outside of working capital, deferred taxes, depreciation and amortization .

See Payment Categories, Other.

An Action taken on a Declined Credit Application to override the Decline and Approve it for credit.

An Action taken on an Approved Credit Application to override the Approve and Decline it for credit.

Set of conditions in a Decision Rule or Account Review Rule that prevent the rule from triggering even if the AND Conditions and OR Conditions are met.

P

Parent

A parent is a corporation that owns more than 50 percent of another corporation. The parent company may also be a subsidiary of another corporation. If the parent also has branches/divisions, then it is also a headquarters. Parents can have both direct and indirect subsidiaries, indirect subsidiaries being those that have another company in between the subsidiary and the parent.

Sum of Past Due Cycle 1 for each Account

Sum of Past Due Cycle 2 for each Account

Sum of Past Due Cycle 3 for each Account

Sum of Past Due Cycle 4 for each Account

Sum of Past Due Cycle 5 for each Account

D&B's unique dollar-weighted numerical indicator of how a firm paid its bills over the past year, based on trade experiences reported to D&B by various vendors. The D&B PAYDEXï¿½ ranges from 1 to 100, with higher scores indicating better payment performance.

Miscellaneous indicators of a firm's payment habits, including the highest dollar amounts owed; the highest dollar amounts past due; number and dollar value of cash payments and placed for collection experiences.

The Payment Detail Section displays a listing of recent payments reported to D&B. Each line (up to 80) provides the most recent information secured through company trade tapes and other D&B data collection methods. It's important to note that an unusually large number of transactions during a single month or time period may indicate a seasonal purchasing pattern.

The following manners of payment appear most frequently in this section:

Antic - payments are received prior to date of invoice (Anticipated)
Disc - payments are received within trade discount period (Discount)
Ppt - payments are received within terms granted (Prompt)
Slow - payments are beyond vendor's terms. For example, "Slow 30" means payments are 30 days past due.
Ppt-Slow - some invoices are paid within terms, others are paid beyond terms
(#) -indicates that no manner of payment was provided; the number merely reflects the line where it appears in the listing. For example, (004) means it is the fourth experience listed
Payment Commentary - such as "Cash in Advance," "Account in Dispute," "Credit Refused," or "Placed for Collection" may also display next to trade details. "Placed for Collection" means the account was forwarded to a third party for collection action during the past year.

An Action taken on an Account to indicate that a payment has been received from the customer.

An overview of how a firm pays suppliers in up to 10 lines of business where it has recorded the highest number of credit transactions. This information can help you evaluate how quickly you can expect to be paid, based on a company's payment history with your industry peers.

This section highlights how quickly a company is likely to pay its bills in the future by reviewing its payment patterns with other vendors in the past, as reported to D&B. Payment performance is outlined relative to aging, dollar amounts, and industry groupings. Specific information includes:

An Action taken on an Account to put it on credit hold.

Aging rolled up across all of your Accounts.

Portfolio Comparison is the second of four components within the D&B Viability Rating. Portfolio Comparison is a more detailed risk indicator that assesses the viability of a company compared to similar businesses within the same model segment, for a specific country, which are determined by the amount and type of data available. A business is no longer viable when it goes out of business, becomes dormant/ inactive or files for bankruptcy/insolvency.

The Portfolio Comparison ranking ranges from 1 to 9 where 9 reflects the highest probability of becoming no longer viable and 1 reflects the lowest probability.

Every business falls into 1 of 4 profile segments. The segments will vary by country as follows:

United States	Canada*
Available Financial Data Established Trade Payments Limited Trade Payments Firmographics and Business Activity	Large Businesses with Established Trade Payments Large Businesses with Firmographics and Business Activity Small to Medium Business with Established Trade Payments Small to Medium Business with Firmographics and Business Activity

Note: The Portfolio Comparison is best used when analyzing the individual risk level of a company for Credit Risk Management purposes.

*Large businesses have either 50+ Employees or $500K+ Sales. Small to Medium businesses have less than 50 employees and less than $500K in Sales.

Predictive scoring is the process of using historical information to predict future outcomes. It involves identifying the risks inherent in a future decision by examining the relationship between historical information and the future event. In essence, it is an objective and statistically derived counterpart to subjective, intuitive assessments. The objective of a score is to report the risk involved in a given decision. Predictive Scoring allows you to rank order accounts based on the probability of an event occurring. Predictive Scoring represents a statistical probability, not a guarantee.

The aggregate value of preferred stock dividends and other adjustments necessary to derive net income apportioned to common stockholders.

Represents a company's activity with the largest percentage of sales revenue. See Standard Industrial Classification (SIC).

An Action taken on an Account to indicate that the customer has accepted a promise to pay.

This section informs you of past and present legal activities that could impact a company's financial stability and operations.

Public filings can include bankruptcies, lawsuits, liens, judgments and Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) statements, which contain details on assets pledged as collateral in secured financing agreements. Public record information is collected from multiple sources in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. In addition, D&B covers all federal bankruptcy courts and tracks nearly all business-related failures filed in the U.S.

The following are the types of filings that may appear in a report: Bankruptcy, Judgment, Lien, Suit, UCC (Uniform Commercial Code) Filing.

Q

Quick Ratio

(Acid test" or "liquid" ratio) Measures the extent to which a business can cover its current liabilities with those current assets readily convertible to cash. Shows number of dollars of liquid assets available to cover each dollar of current debt. Any time the ratio is 1:1 (1.0), the business is said to be in a liquid condition. The larger the ratio, the greater the liquidity. Calculated as: Cash + Accounts Receivable ï¿½ Current Liabilities .

R

Re-Decision

An Action taken to run a Credit Application through your Decision Rules again.

An Action taken on a Credit Application to re-open it for further review.

An Action taken to re-activate a deleted Credit Application or Account.

An Action taken to reassign a Credit Application or Account to another user.

Credit Terms recommended in a Decision Outcome or Account Review Outcome based on your rules.

An action taken to run an Account through your Account Review Rules again.

A record that does not meet D&B's standards for direct mail and marketing applications and, therefore, is not classified a Marketable Record. Any one of the following conditions would classify the record as a Reference Record: 1) has not been updated within the last 24 months, 2) does not contain a complete business name, valid physical or mailing address, or valid Standard Industry Classification (SIC) code, 3) is not believed to be in business, or 4) has been delisted (i.e., the company has requested D&B to exclude its information from its database).

An Action taken on a Credit Application to refresh D&B data for the associated company.

Investigative activities that a businessï¿½chooses toï¿½conduct with the intentionï¿½of making a discovery that can either lead toï¿½the development of new productsï¿½or procedures,ï¿½orï¿½to improvement of existing products or procedures.

The percentage of net earnings not paid outï¿½as dividends, but retained by the company to be reinvested in its core business or to pay debt. It is recorded under shareholders'ï¿½equityï¿½on the balance sheet.

This measures profits after taxes on the year’s sales (profits earned per dollar of sales). The higher this ratio, the better prepared the business to handle downtrends brought on by adverse conditions. Calculated as Net Profit After Taxes ï¿½ Net Sales

This is a key indicator of profitability. A high percentage tells you the company is well run and has a healthy return on assets. Calculated as Net Profit After Taxes ï¿½ Total Assets

This measures the ability of a company’s management to realize an adequate return on the capital invested by the owners. Calculated as Net Profit After Taxes ï¿½ Net Worth

A ratio that indicates the efficiency and profitability of a company'sï¿½capitalï¿½investments.

A group of users in DNBi that are granted specific system permissions (e.g., Credit Analyst I, Credit Manager, Admin).

S

Sale and Purchase of Stock

Listed as a line item on cash flow statement as a financing activity indicates the amount a company is buying back of their own stock.

Provides a snapshot of a company's financial size in terms of sales/revenue volume. "Projected" indicates an estimated sales volume provided by management; "F" means figures were taken from an income statement. See the Finance Section.

An expense item on the income statement accounting for the cost of selling and marketing the companyï¿½s products and paying salaries, commissions, rent and other administrative costs.

Measures how fast inventory is moving the cash flow into the business. When this ratio is high, it may indicate a situation where sales are being lost because a concern is understocked and/or customers are buying elsewhere. If the ratio is too low, this may show that inventories are obsolete or stagnant. Calculated as Annual Net Sales ï¿½ Inventory.

This measures the number of times working capital turns over annually in relation to net sales. Should be viewed in conjunction with the assets to sales ratio. A high turnover rate can indicate overtrading (excessive sales volume in relation to the investment in the business). A high turnover may indicate that the business relies extensively upon credit granted by suppliers or the bank as a substitute for an adequate margin of operating funds. Calculated as Sales ï¿½ Net Working Capital or Sales ï¿½ (Current Assets – Current Liabilities).

An Inbox status for Accounts that have been partially completed and saved.

A quantitative measure of credit risk (from -10 to 10) based on your information and information from D&B.

A range of values (e.g., 80 to 100) for a Score Variable. Each Score Band is assigned a point value.

Measures the percentage change between the current score value (today) and the score values as of a date in the past. Score Trends can be either positive (increasing score) or negative (decreasing score) values.Back to Top
Score Variables

The data elements that make up a Score (e.g., SIC Code, PAYDEXï¿½ ). Each Score Variable is assigned a Weight in the Score.

An Action taken on an Account to indicate that collections follow-up should be taken.

An Action taken on an Account or Credit Application to route it to a Credit Manager for review.

An Action taken on an Account to indicate that the Account should be reviewed.

An action taken on an Account to review the Account on a future date.

Investmentsï¿½that a company has made that will expire within one year.ï¿½For the most part, these accounts contain stocks and bonds that can be liquidated fairly quickly.

See Standard Industrial Classification.

Provides an overview of a company's financial statement with a designation of - Strong, Good, Fair and A single location is the only location of a business, therefore it has no branches or subsidiaries reporting to it. If it is more than 50 percent owned by another corporation, it will also be a subsidiary.

Watch lists are query based folders which allow the automatic population of Live reports based on the query that has been defined for it.

Smart Folders have the following features

Smart folders do not have alert profiles.

Rules/Query set by the you will determine the ECF’s that populate Smart Folders.

The folder icon shall designate it as a Smart Folder.

ECF’s cannot be added to smart folders in a one-off manner as they do for Ad Hoc folders.

Special Events alert you to any recent developments D&B learns about that may impact your potential relationship with a firm, such as bankruptcy filings, changes in ownership, acquisitions and other events. Information reported in this section may also include announcements on the release of earnings reports.

Special Events may help explain unusual company trends. For example, a change in ownership could have an impact on manner of payment, or decreased production may reflect an unexpected interruption in factory operations (i.e. labor strike, fire).

SIC is a standardized numbering system developed by the Federal Government that classifies business establishments according to the industries they belong to. It is particularly helpful when you're looking to segment markets, analyze customer relationships, and conduct general business research.

SIC codes divide all major economic activity into ten major divisions. Businesses are then further classified within each division.

The first two digits in the code represent a company's major industry affiliation and its subdivision. For example, the first two digits in "Manufacturing," one of the ten major SIC divisions, range from 20 to 39. The remaining digits break down the divisions into specific activities and "sub-industries."

If more than one SIC Code is listed, the first one is the company's primary line of business, with others comprising at least 10 percent of the company's revenue. A maximum of six SICs will be listed for a company.

Indicates the year the company was started or present management took control.

This section includes information D&B has obtained directly from the company since our last full interview with the principals of the business. It may include pertinent information such as updated financial data, commentary on recent business trends or operating details.

A subsidiary is a corporation that is more than 50 percent owned by another corporation and will have a different legal business name from its parent company. A subsidiary must be either a single location, a headquarters, or a parent. A subsidiary may have branches and/or subsidiaries of its own.

A proceeding filed by a plaintiff(s) against a defendant (s) in a court of law, in which the plaintiff(s) seeks monetary or non-monetary relief.

This section displays the current D&B Rating, when it was assigned and why. Additional content may include rating changes that have occurred during the past year so you can spot trends and evaluate the stability of a firm over time.

T

Territories

Territories can be a geographical area, a business unit, or product line that the user manages within the company.ï¿½ There are four types of territories in DNBi:ï¿½ Business Unit, Product Line, Region, and State.

Section in the Online Credit Application where you can define custom terms for your credit applicants.

Shows how all of the company's debt relates to the equity of the owner or stockholders. The higher this ratio, the less protection there is for creditors. If total liabilities exceed net worth then creditors have more at stake than stockbrokers. The difference between this ratio and Current Liabilities to New Worth Ratio is that it pinpoints the relative size of long-term debt, which can burden a firm with substantial interest charges. Calculated as Total Liabilities ï¿½ Net Worth

The value of a company's property, equipment and other capitalï¿½assets,ï¿½minus depreciation.

Company Obligations that extend beyond the current year.

Sum of Total Current for All Account Types.

Formula - Add :

Current Balance: All Installment / Term Loans

Current Balance: All Lines of Credit

Current Balance: All Credit Cards / Revolving Acct

Current Balance: All Lease Agreements

= Total Current

Sum of Total Minimum Payment ($) - For All Account Types.

Formula - Add :

Total Minimum Payment: Installment / Term Loans

Total Minimum Payment: Lines of Credit

Total Minimum Payment: Credit Cards / Revolving Acct

Total Minimum Payment: Lease Agreements

= Total Minimum Payments

Sum of Total Past Due for Each Account

Sum of Total Past Due for All Account Types.

Formula - Add :

Total Past Due: All Installment / Term Loans

Total Past Due: All Lines of Credit

Total Past Due: All Credit Cards / Revolving Acct

Total Past Due: All Lease Agreements

= Total Past Due

Sum of Past Due Cycle 2 - Across All Account Types

Formula - Add :

Total Past Due Cycle 1: Installment / Term Loans

Total Past Due Cycle 1: Lines of Credit

Total Past Due Cycle 1: All Credit Cards / Revolving Acct

Total Past Due Cycle 1: All Lease Agreements

= Total Past Due Cycle 1 ($)

Sum of Past Due Cycle 2 - Across All Account Types

Formula - Add :

Total Past Due Cycle 2: Installment / Term Loans

Total Past Due Cycle 2: Lines of Credit

Total Past Due Cycle 2: All Credit Cards / Revolving Acct

Total Past Due Cycle 2: All Lease Agreements

= Total Past Due Cycle 2 ($)

Sum of Past Due Cycle 3 - Across All Account Types

Formula - Add :

Total Past Due Cycle 3: Installment / Term Loans

Total Past Due Cycle 3: Lines of Credit

Total Past Due Cycle 3: All Credit Cards / Revolving Acct

Total Past Due Cycle 3: All Lease Agreements

= Total Past Due Cycle 3 ($)

Sum of Past Due Cycle 4 - Across All Account Types

Formula - Add :

Total Past Due Cycle 4: All Installment / Term Loans

Total Past Due Cycle 4: All Lines of Credit

Total Past Due Cycle 4: All Credit Cards / Revolving Acct

Total Past Due Cycle 4: All Lease Agreements

= Total Past Due Cycle 4 ($)

Sum of Past Due Cycle 5 - Across All Account Types

Formula - Add :

Total Past Due Cycle 5: All Installment / Term Loans

Total Past Due Cycle 5: Lines of Credit

Total Past Due Cycle 5: All Credit Cards / Revolving Acct

Total Past Due Cycle 5: All Lease Agreements

= Total Past Due Cycle 5 ($)

Number of Months reported for this account.

Number of payments reported by the lender for this account.

A name which a business uses or is known or doing business as other than the formal, official name of the business.

Payment experiences showing the timeliness/promptness of a case in paying its bills.

Reflects the number of trade payment experiences D&B has on file for this business.

The portion of shares that a company keeps in their own treasury. Treasury stock may have come from a repurchase or buyback from shareholders; or it may have never been issued to the public in the first place. These shares don't pay dividends, have no voting rights, and should not be included in shares outstanding calculations.

Payment trend of the account over the past 24 months.

This indicates 1 0f 4 possible lending relationships: Installment / Term Loan, Line of Credit, Credit Card /Revolving Account, Lease Agreement.

U

UCC Filing

A legal document creditors use to secure their rights to collateral specified in a secured financing agreement. This document, which the creditor files with the appropriate state authority (Secretary of State office), gives the creditor a legally recognized interest in the collateral until payment is received in full. It also provides legal title to these assets in the event a debtor suffers financial hardship and is unable to meet its promise to pay.

Information obtained since our last full interview with the business principals. May contain such pertinent information as updated financial data, business trends or updated operating details.

V

Viability Score

Viability Score is the first of four components within the D&B Viability Rating. It is a high-level risk indicator that assesses the probability that a company will no longer be a viable business within the next 12 months, compared to businesses in the same country within the D&B database. A business is no longer viable when it goes out of business, becomes dormant/ inactive or files for bankruptcy/insolvency.

The ranking ranges from 1 to 9 where 9 reflects the highest probability of becoming no longer viable and 1 reflects the lowest probability.

Note: The Viability Score is best used when ranking all businesses within your portfolio especially for identifying the most valuable prospects for Sales and Marketing.

W

Weight

A weight between 0 and 100 assigned to each Score Variable in a Score.

The net worth of the business. "E" indicates figures are estimates provided by the owners, partners or officers of the company; "F" means figures were taken from a financial statement. This element offers another view of the company's financial size. See the Finance Section for details.

Commercial Credit Scores are not calculated for those businesses designated as "Discontinued at This Location," "Open Bankruptcy", "Higher Risk." These records are automatically assigned a score of zero (0).