How severity multipliers work
Why some test failures push the score up much more than others, and the exact multipliers Senserity uses.
Not all test failures are equal. A company on the UK sanctions list is a fundamentally different finding from a missing confirmation statement. Senserity uses severity multipliers to reflect that difference in the risk score.
Severity levels
Every insight test is assigned one of five severity levels:
| Severity | Multiplier | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Critical | ×17 | A serious finding that usually requires immediate action: sanctions exposure, disqualified director, court winding-up order. |
| High | ×8 | A significant concern that warrants investigation: a CCJ, an overdue mortgage charge, a Gazette dissolution notice. |
| Medium | ×4 | A notable finding that is relevant but not urgent: accounts filed late, a director with a history of dissolved companies. |
| Low | ×1 | A minor or informational finding: a small discrepancy in filed data, a SIC code that is unusual for the sector. |
| Info | ×0 | Background information surfaced for context only. No contribution to the score. |
How the multiplier is applied
When a test fails, its result is multiplied by the severity multiplier before being included in the category score. A critical failure contributes 17 times as much to the score as a low-severity failure.
This means a company with a single critical finding can reach a C or D grade even if all other tests pass. Equally, a company with many low-severity issues may still grade B because the sheer number of findings does not automatically produce a high score if none of them is serious.
Severity is set at the test level
The severity of each test is determined when the test is written, based on the nature of what it checks. It does not change based on the company or the finding. A sanctions test is always critical, regardless of which sanctions list was matched.
You can see the severity of any test on the test catalogue page or within the test's result card in the platform.
Why critical findings don't cap at E
In some platforms, hitting a critical finding immediately results in the worst possible grade. Senserity does not work that way. The score is additive: a critical finding pushes the score up sharply, but the overall grade still reflects the full picture.
This is deliberate. A company might have one old CCJ from a decade ago alongside an otherwise clean profile. That CCJ is a High-severity finding and raises the score meaningfully, but it does not trigger the same grade as a company that is actively on a sanctions list, has a disqualified director, and has outstanding HSE enforcement notices.
The multiplier system lets the score reflect proportionality.
Severity escalation
Some categories have a large number of tests. When most of those tests pass, the weighted average can mask the presence of genuinely serious failures. To address this, Senserity applies a severity escalation factor at the category level.
The escalation rules are additive, with a maximum of +15 per category:
| Condition | Bonus | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| 1 or more critical-severity tests failed | +10 | Any critical failure in a category is significant enough that it should not be diluted by the volume of passing tests. |
| 3 or more critical + high-severity tests failed | +5 | A concentration of serious failures in a single category indicates a systemic issue, not isolated findings. |
A category that triggers both rules receives +15. The escalation is added to the severity-weighted average, and the result is capped at 100.
You can see whether escalation has been applied to any category by clicking the "How is this calculated?" button on a category card. When an escalation factor is active, the explainer panel shows the pre-escalation weighted average, the bonus amount, and which rules triggered it.
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