How Business Credit Scores Differ: PAYDEX, SBSS and Dun & Bradstreet Ratings

A business has its own credit file. Dun & Bradstreet and FICO both turn business credit information into scores, and each one uses its own scale, its own inputs and, in some cases, its own direction for a good result.

The PAYDEX score from Dun & Bradstreet is built from trade experiences. The same company publishes several other ratings, and FICO’s SBSS score has also been used in small business lending. This article sets out what each measure covers, based on the company’s own pages and an Experian explainer on SBSS.

What the PAYDEX Score Measures

Dun & Bradstreet gives the PAYDEX score a range of 1 to 100. A higher number means a business is more likely to pay its debts on time.

The score is built from Trade Experiences, which are payment records that suppliers and vendors send to the company. Each record is subject to Dun & Bradstreet’s review, verification and approval. Records can show overdue debts, bills sent to collections, and on-time or early payments.

The company describes the score as a dollar-weighted indicator of past payment performance. Its page does not say what period of payment history is used.

Dun & Bradstreet’s credit-scores page sets the bands at 80 to 100 for low risk, 50 to 79 for moderate risk and 0 to 49 for high risk. The same page gives the scale as 1 to 100 but starts its bands at zero, and it does not say which figure applies at the bottom of the range.

PAYDEX Score Bands
Dun & Bradstreet’s PAYDEX score runs from 1 to 100. The company says 80 to 100 is low risk, 50 to 79 is moderate and 0 to 49 is high.

Why Supplier Reporting Decides What Counts

Dun & Bradstreet says a payment that is not reported to it cannot be considered. A business that pays its suppliers on time gets no credit in its Dun & Bradstreet scores and ratings for payments those suppliers never report.

The company’s guidance for improving the score has two parts. The first is to repay debts on time or ahead of schedule. The second is to encourage suppliers and vendors to report their payment experiences to Dun & Bradstreet.

Trade references are a separate item. The company adds them only after its own review, verification and acceptance, and it does not guarantee that a reference will be accepted or that an accepted one will affect the credit file. Businesses can submit updates to their information through the D-U-N-S Manager at no cost. The PAYDEX page does not state a D-U-N-S requirement for calculating the score.

The Other Dun & Bradstreet Ratings

PAYDEX is one of several ratings on the same page. The Delinquency Predictor Score runs from 1 to 5, where lower means a smaller chance of a late payment, bankruptcy or future payment failure. The Supplier Evaluation Risk rating runs from 1 to 9, where lower means lower risk. It estimates the chance that a supplier becomes inactive or shuts down within 12 months.

The Failure Score runs from 1 to 5 and looks at the likelihood of financial stress, such as bankruptcy, over a 12-month outlook. The page says it was formerly called the Financial Stress Score. It does not state which direction is better. Both the Failure Score and the Delinquency Predictor Score use a 1 to 5 scale, but they measure different things.

The Maximum Credit Recommendation is a guide to how much credit to extend, based on size, industry and payment history, rather than a risk scale. The overall Rating combines size and balance-sheet information and has no stated scale. The Cyber Risk Rating estimates a supplier’s vulnerability to cyber threats and the likely financial impact of a breach, also without a stated scale.

The scales differ across these scores, and the direction of a good result is not the same across all of them.

How FICO SBSS Blends Business and Personal Credit

SBSS is a FICO product. Experian describes it as a small-business credit score that was historically used in SBA 7(a) small loan underwriting. Unlike the trade-based PAYDEX score, it drew on business credit information and on owner/guarantor credit information.

Experian says the SBA stopped using SBSS for 7(a) small loans on March 1, 2026, and points lenders to SBA Procedural Notice 5000-876777. After that date the score is no longer a benchmark for those loans. Lenders must carry out a full commercial credit analysis instead.

Experian lists the elements of that analysis as a debt service coverage ratio of at least 1.10x, two months of primary operating account statements, and a review of business credit, guarantor creditworthiness, cash flow, collateral and market conditions. Experian defines a 7(a) Small Loan as a loan of up to $500,000, and says that before March 1, 2026, SBSS served as the primary credit gate for 7(a) Small Loans under $350K.

Comparing Scores Across Providers

The sources above use different scales, bands and directions. PAYDEX runs from 1 to 100 with higher as better. The Delinquency Predictor Score runs from 1 to 5 with lower as better. SBSS, as Experian describes it, combines business and owner credit.

The inputs also differ. PAYDEX is built from supplier payment records that reach Dun & Bradstreet. SBSS, as described by Experian, also takes in owner and guarantor credit. A business that wants its payment history reflected in the Dun & Bradstreet file needs its suppliers to report to the company, because unreported payments are not considered.

Dun & Bradstreet publishes bands for PAYDEX, and Experian’s SBSS discussion shows how a lender-facing score can change when the SBA’s rules change.