If you have ever checked your personal credit score, you know the drill: one bureau, one number, 300 to 850. You pull your FICO, you know where you stand, and you can guess what a lender will think. Business credit does not work that way. There is no single business credit score. There are three separate commercial bureaus, each with its own files, its own math, and its own definition of good — and until recently, a fourth blended score that the SBA required lenders to use as a gatekeeper. That gatekeeper was sunset on March 1, 2026, and the change is forcing every small-loan lender to actually look at your underlying bureau files for the first time.
Understanding how those files are built, how the scores differ, and what the SBA's SBSS sunset means in practice can save you weeks of back-and-forth on your next loan application. Here is the plain-English guide.
The Three Bureaus Are Not Interchangeable
Personal credit is dominated by Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion reporting the same accounts to all three. Business credit is fragmented. Dun & Bradstreet, Experian Business, and Equifax Business each maintain separate commercial databases, and they do not routinely share trade data with each other. A vendor who reports your on-time payments to D&B may not report to Experian at all.
That means you can have a strong file at one bureau and a thin or even blank file at another. Lenders know this, and after the SBSS sunset they are required to check.
Dun & Bradstreet: PAYDEX and the D-U-N-S Number
D&B is the oldest commercial bureau and the only one that assigns you a universal identifier — the nine-digit D-U-N-S Number. You need a D-U-N-S to generate a D&B file, and you need trade experiences on file to generate a PAYDEX score.
- PAYDEX Score: 1 to 100, based almost entirely on how promptly you pay your bills versus terms. Pay early and you can score above 80; pay 30 days late and you drop into the 40s. It is a payment-performance score, not a comprehensive risk model.
- What feeds it: Trade lines reported by vendors and suppliers who are part of D&B's network. Not every vendor reports, so you often need to ask suppliers to report or add trade references manually.
- How to see it: D&B offers CreditSignal for limited free monitoring, but full scores and reports require a paid subscription or one-time purchase. Many business owners never check D&B until a lender pulls it.
- Good threshold: 80+ is considered strong; 50–79 is average; below 50 signals chronic late payment.
D&B also publishes supplemental scores — Delinquency Predictor, Financial Stress, Supplier Evaluation Risk — but PAYDEX is the headline most lenders ask about.
Experian Business: Intelliscore Plus
Experian Business maintains its own commercial database and scores it with Intelliscore Plus.
- Intelliscore Plus: 1 to 100, where higher is lower risk. It blends payment history, public records (liens, judgments, bankruptcies), collection activity, credit utilization, company age, and industry risk.
- What feeds it: A broader mix than D&B — trade payments plus public filings and, where available, bank and leasing data. Experian often has coverage where D&B is thin, especially for younger businesses.
- Good threshold: 76–100 is considered low risk; 51–75 low-to-medium; 26–50 moderate; below 25 higher risk. Some lenders use an internal cutoff around 50 or 60.
- How to see it: Experian Business reports are available for purchase; Nav and similar platforms show a summary version.
Because Intelliscore weighs public records and utilization, a single tax lien or a maxed-out business credit card can hurt you more here than on PAYDEX alone.
Equifax Business: Credit Risk Score and Friends
Equifax Business is the third leg, and its scoring confuses people because the scale looks nothing like the other two.
- Business Credit Risk Score: 101 to 992. This predicts the likelihood of delinquency in the next 12 months. Higher is better, opposite of personal credit where higher is better but on a different scale. 700+ is often treated as strong in lender overlays.
- Business Failure Score: 1,000 to 1,600, predicting outright business failure. Again, higher is safer.
- Payment Index: 0 to 100, similar in spirit to PAYDEX — a pure payment-promptness measure on a familiar 0–100 scale. 90+ means you pay as agreed; below 50 means chronic slowness.
- What feeds it: Trade payment data, public records, firmographics (size, age, industry), and banking relationships where available.
Equifax tends to be strong on public-record depth and on modeling failure risk separately from delinquency risk. A lender worried about viability, not just punctuality, will weigh Equifax's failure score heavily.
Where FICO SBSS Fits — and Why the SBA Sunset It
The FICO Small Business Scoring Service (SBSS) is the fourth number that sat on top of the other three.
- SBSS Range: 0 to 300. It blends personal credit (your FICO), business credit (from all three bureaus), and financial data including cash flow, revenue, and public records into one blended score. Think of it as a translation layer between personal and business credit.
- How lenders used it: For SBA 7(a) small loans under $350,000, the SBA required lenders to obtain an SBSS score and apply a prescreen. For years the practical cutoff was 140–155 depending on program guidance — below that, the application was generally not considered. Above it, the lender proceeded to full underwriting.
- What changed: Effective March 1, 2026, under SBA Procedural Notice 5000-876777, the SBA sunset the mandatory SBSS score requirement for 7(a) Small Loans. Lenders may no longer use SBSS as a required automated gatekeeper for those loans. Instead, they must manually review the underlying commercial bureau files — D&B, Experian Business, and Equifax Business — as part of the credit assessment.
This is not the death of SBSS. FICO still sells it, and many lenders will continue to pull it as an informational input or for non-SBA products. What ended was the mandate. The policy rationale, described in SBA supplemental guidance updated April 2, 2026, was to end reliance on a single proprietary score and push lenders toward a fuller picture of business creditworthiness.
The practical consequences are significant:
- More documentation, not less. Without an SBSS prescreen, lenders are asking for more underlying data up front: bureau reports from all three, business bank statements, and sometimes vendor references. Expect the application package to be thicker even for small loans.
- No more quick SBSS knockout. Previously a low SBSS could end your application in hours. Now a thin SBSS history (common for young businesses) does not automatically disqualify you — but a weak file at any one bureau can still hurt if the lender finds it.
- Lender discretion increased. SBA called the change "a choice of credit models" — institutions can now use models tuned to their own risk appetite rather than a one-size-fits-all threshold. That is good if you find a lender aligned to your profile, and unpredictable if you shop narrowly.
- Scores still matter elsewhere. Outside 7(a) small loans, many banks, fintech lenders, and equipment finance companies still pull SBSS as part of their own scorecards. A strong SBSS (160+ is generally considered good, 180+ strong) still helps, and a weak one still gets noticed.
How Each Score Is Actually Calculated
Business credit scoring is proprietary, but the inputs and weightings are well documented.
Common drivers across all models:
- Payment history on trade accounts: The single biggest factor for PAYDEX and Equifax Payment Index, and a major factor for Intelliscore and Equifax Risk. Even a handful of on-time trade lines can move PAYDEX quickly — one reason vendors like Uline, Quill, and fuel cards are popular first trade accounts is that they reliably report.
- Public records: Tax liens, judgments, and bankruptcies weigh heavily, especially on Experian and Equifax. A satisfied lien hurts less than an open one, but either dings the score for years.
- Credit utilization: High balances on business credit cards and lines relative to limits signal stress, which drags Intelliscore and Equifax Risk even if payments are on time.
- Company age, size, and industry risk: Younger and smaller companies are scored as higher risk by definition. Industry codes also feed the model — construction and restaurants, for example, carry higher baseline risk than professional services.
- Inquiries and new account activity: A burst of new credit applications can lower scores temporarily, analogous to personal credit hard pulls but less pronounced.
What is not in the scores: Most business scores do not directly include revenue or profitability. SBSS was the exception because it blended financial statement data. Without SBSS as a required input for small loans, lenders are expected to assess financial performance separately through bank statements and tax returns rather than inferring it from a score.
A 90-Day Plan to Build All Three Files Before You Apply
If you need financing in the next two quarters, start building bureau coverage now. Scores move on reported data, and data takes a cycle to post.
1. Get Your Foundation Right
- Form the entity and get an EIN. Sole proprietors can build business credit, but an LLC or corporation with a separate EIN creates a clean file at each bureau.
- Get a D-U-N-S Number. Apply directly at dnb.com — it is free, but expedited processing is a paid upsell. Confirm the legal name, address, and phone match exactly across your formation documents, bank account, and vendor accounts. Mismatched addresses are a common reason D&B fails to match trade lines.
- Open a business bank account and business phone listing. Both create firmographic signals that help bureaus match and score you.
2. Create Reportable Trade Lines
You need at least three to five vendors reporting monthly to generate meaningful scores.
- Start with net-30 vendors who report. Office suppliers, fuel cards, and industrial suppliers that explicitly state they report to D&B are the fastest path. Buy what you already buy, pay early, and confirm the trade posts after 30–45 days.
- Ask non-reporting vendors to report. Some suppliers will add you to a bureau's feed on request. Provide your D-U-N-S and ask which bureau they report to. A mix across D&B, Experian, and Equifax is more valuable than three lines all at one bureau.
- Use a business credit card and keep utilization low. A card that reports to the commercial bureaus (not all do — ask the issuer) builds revolving history. Keep balances below 30% of the limit and pay in full.
- Avoid personal guarantees where you can, but understand the tradeoff. Guaranteed accounts often underwrite more easily for young businesses, but they also tie your personal credit to the account and may report to personal bureaus as well.
3. Monitor and Clean Your Files
- Pull all three reports. D&B via CreditSignal or a paid report, Experian Business via its business credit portal, Equifax Business via its small business site. Nav offers a consolidated view but not the full underlying detail lenders see.
- Dispute errors directly with each bureau. The FTC's 2022 settlement with Dun & Bradstreet underscored that commercial reporting errors happen and must be correctable. Each bureau has its own dispute process — file directly, provide documentation, and follow up. Corrections can take 30–60 days.
- Check for public-record surprises. A state tax lien filed in error, a satisfied judgment that still shows as open, or an old collection tied to a similar business name can all appear on your commercial file. Catching it now beats explaining it in underwriting.
4. Prepare for Post-SBSS Underwriting
- Bring your bureau reports to the application. Lenders now review them manually, so handing over current reports (with a cover sheet explaining any blemishes and corrective actions) speeds review.
- Be ready to explain thin files. If you are two years old and light on trade lines, a narrative about contract revenue, bank cash flow, and the new trade accounts you have added shows trajectory.
- Shop more than one lender. With no single SBSS gate, different lenders will weight the bureaus differently. A bank that heavily weights PAYDEX may view you differently than a fintech that leans on Experian cash-flow models.
What Good Looks Like in 2026
There is no single "good business credit score," but lenders generally look for this combination:
- D&B PAYDEX 80+, meaning you pay on or before terms consistently
- Experian Intelliscore Plus 76+, signaling low risk after weighing payments, public records, and utilization
- Equifax Business Credit Risk 700+ (on 101–992) and Payment Index 80+, showing low delinquency and failure risk
- FICO SBSS 160–180+, if the lender still pulls it, indicating blended personal and business strength
Below those thresholds you are not automatically declined — especially for 7(a) small loans after the SBSS sunset — but you will be asked for more compensating factors: stronger cash flow, collateral, or a longer operating history.
Keep Your Credit Building Organized
Business credit is not built by accident. It is built by choosing the right vendors, tagging payments correctly, and keeping bureau files consistent month after month. A small-business owner who pays early on three reporting trade accounts, keeps card utilization under 30%, and checks each bureau quarterly will outscore a larger business that pays on time but reports nowhere.
Good bookkeeping is the foundation. When every vendor payment, credit card charge, and public filing is accurately categorized and reconciled, you can spot errors on your bureau reports quickly, document your payment history for lenders, and demonstrate the cash-flow stability that scores alone never capture. Version-controlled, plain-text records also make it easy to prove trends — not just snapshots — when a lender asks why a score dipped two quarters ago.
Simplify Your Financial Management
As you build business credit across Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, and Equifax, maintaining clear financial records is essential for every loan application. Beancount.io provides plain-text accounting that gives you complete transparency and control over your financial data — every payment, vendor, and account is traceable and lender-ready. Get started for free and build your credit on a foundation lenders trust.