D&B's New Trade Reference Submission Process

As part of their ever-evolving credit-building process, Dun & Bradstreet has once again changed the way businesses across America can submit evidence of their existing payment experiences for verification. D&B allows businesses to submit their existing trade references primarily because only a small fraction of vendors and suppliers automatically report payment data to commercial credit bureaus. Allowing manual submissions helps companies build credit files, prove creditworthiness, and earn scores and ratings, one of which is the D&B Paydex score.

D&B's new trade reference submission process helps to fill the void between automatic reporting from larger corporations and smaller or local vendors who don't utilize those automated reporting systems. Allowing customers to manually submit these day-to-day transactions ensures positive payment histories aren't overlooked. A business must have a minimum of three reported trade references to generate the required PAYDEX score behind most credit approvals. Manual submissions provide a fast track to establishing this baseline score.

For younger businesses, trade references add essential validity and show creditors a proven track record of meeting financial obligations. In the past, submitting existing vendors to D&B often left small businesses frustrated if D&B was unable to contact the vendor to verify account details, credit limits, and payment habits before applying the data to your credit profile. Oftentimes, even if they were able to contact them, vendors were uncomfortable proving their customers credit details to an unverified source by email or phone.

While D&B's new process does require more upfront work for the small business owner, understanding how to properly submit and manage these references is a key step in building a strong business credit history and being able to track which vendors, suppliers and creditors are adding payment history to their credit report.

Small business owners can now subscribe to a monthly or annual version of the Credit Insights Plus service, a platform that allows them to submit their banks, credit cards, vendors and suppliers for verification. D&B's new trade reference submission process offers FOUR NEW WAYS for the business owner to add payment history to their report to boost scores and ratings.

1. Self-Submitted Statements

Small business owners can now use Extended Data service to upload three consecutive months of statements that show previous transactions and payments made to their day-to-day creditors and suppliers.

Uploaded statements must show all of the following details:

• Creditor's Business Name and Address

• Your Company's Name and Address

This must match what is on your D&B report

• Your Company's Account Number

• Your Payment Terms

Such as Net30, Net60, Net90, Discounted

No Cash or Due on Receipt Payments

• Statement Date and Due Date

• Payment Details

Date Paid, Amount Paid

• Any Prior Balance Details

Such as Balance Carried Forward or Past Due

Submitting incomplete documents will likely result in the vendor being denied. You may find that you have to ask your creditor to update your business details or provide a modified statement. Statements that get accepted typically get added to the business credit file within 3-5 days.

2. Request Vendor Response

If your company doesn't have three consecutive months of statements, or if those statements don't show all of the above required details, the business owner still has the option of requesting a one-time response into D&B's Extended Data platform.

To submit your creditor for this process, you'll need to provide all of the following:

• Creditor's Business Name

• Creditor's Business Address

Must match what is on their D&B report

• Creditor's Phone Number

Must be associated with their business

• A Contact Person's Name

Must be eligible to provide credit details

• The Contact Person's Email Address

• Your Company’s Account Number

• This Must Be A Credit-Based Purchase

Terms such as Net30, Net60, Net90, Discount

No Cash or Due on Receipt Transactions

It's wise to pre-authorize your vendor to respond to D&B's request or confirm the best email address to provide to D&B for verification. Your trade reference will have just five days to respond to D&B's request. If they don't respond quickly enough, you may need to resubmit them for a second try.

3. Submitting Credit Card Statements

The newest feature added to the Credit Insights Plus service is your ability to submit three months of existing credit card statements for verification. Submitting credit card statements has never been offered by D&B in the past, and can be an invaluable tool to help boost business credit scores and ratings faster, especially when the vendors and suppliers you use on a day-to-day basis may be harder to get confirmed and added to the credit report.

4. Submitting Bank Statements

D&B also now allows small business owners to submit three months of bank statements to help validate their company's active operations and business expenses. This can oftentimes help young businesses boost their scores and ratings simply by allowing D&B to see that their company has received income from customers and made purchases in the business name.

Tracking Your Extended Data Submissions

As your creditors are contacted, you can track changes to their status in the Extended Data platform. As the data is approved, you'll receive email alerts notifying you to log in and see how they responded. If a vendor is denied, you will be provided with a generic response so you'll know why and how you might get better results.

Need help or have questions? Just give me a call. I would be happy to review your current business credit profile to see what can be done to boost your scores and ratings. I can even walk you through the process of submitting your creditors for verification. If you would like me to take over the vendor submission process for you, feel free to check out our options for either the monthly or annual Powerboost or Powerboost Premium services.