If you run a company, much of the success it reaps could depend heavily on partnerships you make with other businesses. However, before you strike such partnerships, it would be crucial that you research the companies in question.

This wouldn’t just be about making sure these companies’ goals and values align with your own. You also need to be confident that these businesses would be capable of meeting their financial obligations to you throughout the relationship.

The good news is that there will often be a wide range of publicly accessible information about a given company’s financial position. However, as gathering all of these details from different sources can be a convoluted process, you should consider simply undertaking a company credit check.

In a nutshell, what is a company credit check?

This is basically where you would ask a specialist credit reporting agency like Creditserve to unearth in-depth details about a specific company’s financial status. All of those details will be summed up in a single, easy-to-digest report potentially touching upon all of the following aspects: 

• The company itself: On what date was the business formed? What is the company’s registered office address? On what phone number could you call this office? In what kind of industry does the business operate?
• Filed accounts: What does the company’s balance sheet look like? How much is the turnover? Is the business making a healthy profit? How large are the profit margins? You might also be able to see monsoey that shareholders are pouring into the business.
• Company directors: A report that mentions these directors could also go into such specifics as the directors’ names, ages and nationalities. For each director, you could even see the date of their appointment as well as details of any other directorships they currently hold.
• Payment information: Naturally, the company will be making many payments — but different payments can be made under different terms. A business credit report can show how these differences break down and whether the company has any unpaid accounts.

 

It bears emphasis that exactly what types of information are included in a business credit report will depend on the country or territory where the business is based. 

This is because different jurisdictions can have different filing requirements. For example, the United States, Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man do not file financial information.

This is all worth keeping in mind if you are seriously considering partnering with a company based outside the UK, as could be the case if you seek to expand into an overseas market.

We can report back to you about a wide range of companies

With our online credit checking system, you can instantly uncover crucial details about the finances of any UK limited company. This data includes the company’s:

• Credit score
• Maximum recommended credit limit 
• Debt gearing ratios 
• Mortgages
• Shareholders and their shareholdings 

Ultimately, with this kind of in-depth, accurate information at hand, you can discern whether the company has any money problems — e.g. insolvencies or outstanding debts — that could render it an unreliable choice of partner for your business.

With Creditserve, you can also look up details of companies based abroad — even if we can’t guarantee that this data will be as comprehensive as what our domestic credit reports provide.

You need to remember that striking a deal with a financially beleaguered company can put your own firm’s finances in jeopardy. For example, this partner could hamper your cash flow by not always paying on time — or worse, go out of business entirely and take your own company with it.

Get in touch with Creditserve

We enable our clients to make cost-effective credit checks on companies. Our online system allows you to make just the occasional check on a pay-as-you-go basis or multiple checks — possibly 10 or even up to 50 — within a year as part of a credit check package bought from our team in advance.

Online, you can easily complete a UK company credit check or assess the financial health of businesses based in any of the following 20 countries: 

• Belgium
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Finland 
• France
• Germany
• Italy
• Liechtenstein
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg 
• Malta
• Netherlands
• Norway
• Poland 
• Portugal
• Slovakia
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland 
• United States of America

 

We can even provide offline credit checks on companies within another 25 countries not specifically mentioned above.

We run an online shop where you can order credit check packages that will be valid for you to use for up to 12 months from the date of purchase.

 

If this shop does not appear to have the package you require, please get in touch with us — over the phone on 01992 414222 or by email via sales@creditserve.co.uk — to request a bespoke package for corporate credit checking.