What Creditsafe data adds
What a Creditsafe credit report covers, why it costs credits, and how it feeds into the Financial category score.
Creditsafe is a commercial credit reference agency that provides credit reports on UK and international companies. When you run a Creditsafe enrichment in Senserity, you are purchasing a credit report from Creditsafe's database and feeding its contents into the risk assessment.
Why Creditsafe matters
Companies House accounts tell you about a company's financial position at the time of its last filing, which may be up to 18 months ago. Creditsafe provides a more current view. Its data is derived from trade payment information (how quickly the company pays its own suppliers), county court judgements, insolvency events, and Creditsafe's own credit scoring models.
For procurement teams, a Creditsafe report answers questions that filed accounts cannot: is this company paying its bills on time right now? Has its creditworthiness changed since the last accounts were filed? Are there recent county court judgements against it?
What the report contains
A Creditsafe enrichment brings in several data points, each of which feeds into Senserity's tests:
Credit score. A number from 0 to 100 indicating Creditsafe's assessment of the company's creditworthiness. Higher is better. The score is based on a statistical model that incorporates financial data, payment behaviour, legal filings, and company demographics.
Credit rating. A letter-based classification (A through E, with subcategories) that translates the numeric score into a risk band. An A rating indicates very low risk; an E rating indicates very high risk or active default.
Credit limit. The maximum amount of credit that Creditsafe recommends extending to the company, in pounds. This is a guideline, not a guarantee, but it provides a useful benchmark for setting your own credit terms.
Probability of default. A percentage estimate of the likelihood that the company will default on its obligations within the next 12 months.
Payment score. A measure of how promptly the company pays its trade creditors, based on payment data reported by suppliers. A high payment score means the company pays on time. A low score means it routinely pays late.
Days beyond terms (DBT). The average number of days beyond agreed payment terms that the company takes to pay. A DBT of 0 means it pays on time. A DBT of 30 means it typically pays a month late.
Payment trend. Whether the company's payment behaviour is improving, stable, or deteriorating over recent quarters.
Outstanding balances. The total value of unpaid invoices across Creditsafe's trade payment data.
County court judgements (CCJs). Whether the company has any CCJs registered against it, how much they are for, and how recent they are. CCJs are legal orders for unpaid debts and are a significant credit risk signal.
Insolvency events. Whether the company has any insolvency events recorded in Creditsafe's database, including events that may not yet be reflected at Companies House.
How it feeds into scoring
Creditsafe data feeds primarily into Senserity's Financial category, with some data points contributing to the Legal and Compliance categories. Senserity runs 27 dedicated tests on Creditsafe data, plus additional cross-reference tests that compare Creditsafe findings against Companies House data to identify inconsistencies or corroborating signals.
For example, if the company's filed accounts show healthy net assets but its Creditsafe payment score has been declining and a CCJ has been registered, Senserity's cross-reference tests will flag the contradiction between the balance sheet picture and the real-time payment behaviour.
Creditsafe data is weighted alongside, not instead of, the data from Companies House and other sources. A company with a poor Creditsafe credit score but otherwise strong indicators will score worse than it would without the Creditsafe data, but the score reflects the balance of all available evidence.
Cost and availability
A Creditsafe enrichment costs 30 credits per company and is available from the Growth tier upwards. This is the most expensive single enrichment because of the commercial data licensing cost.
The report reflects Creditsafe's data at the time of the enrichment run. If you want an updated report, you need to run the enrichment again, which consumes another 30 credits. For most companies, running Creditsafe quarterly or at key decision points (contract renewals, large orders) provides a good balance between freshness and credit usage.
What it does not cover
Creditsafe data is UK-focused (Senserity uses the UK Creditsafe database). It covers limited companies and LLPs but may have limited data on very new companies, shell companies, or companies with minimal trading history. Payment data depends on trade creditors reporting through Creditsafe's network, so coverage varies. A company with a high credit score but no trade payment data should be treated with slightly less confidence than one with a high score backed by extensive payment history.
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