Building Your Business

What Is a Paydex Score?

Updated on November 21, 2022

Fact checked by J.R. Duren

A business owner works on a laptop. — Photo:
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Definition

A Paydex score is a numerical indicator of how well your company pays its bills. It’s assigned by data firm Dun and Bradstreet and can range from 1 to 100. The higher your score, the better.

Key Takeaways

A Paydex score acts as a credit score for your business.
Paydex scores are based primarily on how promptly you pay your bills.
Scores range from 1 to 100, with higher numbers indicating less risk.

How Paydex Scores Work

A Paydex score indicates to businesses how likely it is that you’ll pay your bills—basically, it’s a business credit score. Much like the FICO credit score for personal credit scores, it uses the record of your past payment activities to calculate a score ranging from 1 to 100. The higher your Paydex score, the lower the risk lenders, vendors, and others undertake when doing business with you.

Paydex Score	Risk Level
100 to 80	Low risk of late payment
79 to 50	Moderate risk of late payment
49 to 0	High risk of late payment

Thousands of companies worldwide report their accounts to Paydex. When you do business with those companies, they’ll report how it went to Dun and Bradstreet. If you paid your balances early, that will be reported. If you’ve been late, that will be reported as well. These are called “trade experiences” and make up the basis of your Paydex score.

Paying off your balances early will net you a higher Paydex score. Paying them off on time will give you a Paydex score of 80. Pay late, and your score will drop—the later your payments, the more your score drops.

Note that your business won’t immediately receive a Paydex score. You’ll need to register for a Data Universal Numbering System (D-U-N-S) number first. Once you do this, you’ll need to have at least three interactions from at least two suppliers reported to Dun and Bradstreet before the firm can generate your score.

How Paydex Calculates Your Score

Paydex will analyze up to 874 of your past trade experiences. First, the formula will calculate the percentage of each account based on the total balances of your credit accounts.

Paydex then multiplies each percentage against the Paydex Weighting Key, which assigns a score based on how promptly you’ve paid your balances. This will result in a total amount of Paydex points per experience. Finally, the formula adds up your Paydex points—the sum is your Paydex score.

Examples of Paydex Scores

Let’s say you’ve had just four total trade experiences reported to Dun and Bradstreet. Of these, you’ve made three of your payments on time and one of them 30 days late.

Paydex assigns a score of 80 to on-time payments and 50 to payments made 30 days late.

Payment date	Balance	Percentage	Paydex points
On time (80)	$20,000	37.74%	30
On time (80)	$15,000	28.3%	23
On time (80)	$10,000	18.87%	15
30 days late (50)	$8,000	15.09%	8

Add all your Paydex points together, and you come up with a Paydex score of 76, meaning your business is moderately risky to deal with. However, adding in a few more experiences and making a few early payments can help boost your score.

Note

Make sure both your suppliers and lenders report your payments; they can help build your Paydex score.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How long does it take to get a Paydex score?

To get a Paydex score, you’ll need to get a D-U-N-S number. This will identify your business and allow you to establish your Live Business Identity. Once that’s done, you’ll get a Paydex score when at least three trade experiences from two different suppliers are reported to Dun and Bradstreet.

What is a good Paydex score?

Paydex scores range from 1 to 100. A score of 80 or above indicates a low risk of late payment. Scores from 79 to 50 mean moderate risk. Anything below 49 is high risk.

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Sources

The Balance uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Dun & Bradstreet. “Business Credit Scores & Ratings.”
Dun & Bradstreet. “Frequently Asked Questions.”
Dun & Bradstreet. “Frequently Asked Questions.” Page 3.
Dun & Bradstreet. “Frequently Asked Questions.” Page 5.