At Company Watch, we’re committed to constant innovation. This gives our customers an unbeatable edge, with access to unique products and services you won’t find anywhere else. We’ve been predicting nearly 90% of public insolvencies in advance for 25 years and we’re just getting started.
Our award-winning products help us outshine the competition every time, providing the deepest level of insight currently available. Our cutting-edge risk management solutions and unique credit scoring tools allow us to offer services that go far beyond those of a traditional credit reference agency.
What is a business credit score
Credit reference agencies gather information on a company's credit behaviour and provide you with a score based on their creditworthiness. Their score indicates whether the business is a desirable candidate to become a customer or to receive a business loan. The business will receive a score between 0 and 100. The closer to 0 they are, the higher the risk they pose to your business. There are various factors usually taken into consideration to calculate this score, including:
- Company financial information
- Company payment performance
- Any County Court Judgements (CCJs)
- Any insolvency proceedings
- Previous applications for finance
Why is conducting due diligence important?
A comprehensive credit check is essential to make informed decisions when it comes to extending credit to other companies. In times of uncertainty, you need to make sure your business is protected from financial, legal and reputational damage. Not all credit reference agencies offer the same service. At Company Watch we use a combination of unique scoring and forecasting tools. These market-leading products give you unparalleled insights to make confident, data-driven decisions.
Compare UK credit reference agencies
Take a look at our top competitors, and how they differ from Company Watch.
Creditsafe - Creditsafe is one of the leading providers of business credit checks and reports, with a global database of more than 300 million companies.
Dun and Bradstreet - Dun and Bradstreet have been operating for nearly 200 years and provide credit reports using their database of over 500 million business records.
Experian - Experian are a leading credit reference agency operating in over 30 countries and is part of the UK FTSE index.
Like Company Watch, these companies all offer the following services under various names:
- Company credit checks
- Analysis of company directors
- A probability that a distress event will occur in the future
- An API to connect analytics and data to your internal systems
- Ability to upload your existing portfolios to search for risk
Company Watch vs the competition
We believe we are the best credit reference agency in the UK and the clear choice for financial risk software, but don’t just take our word for it. Here’s how we stack up against our competitors:
Note - we have acknowledged cases in which competitors offer a similar service under a different name.
| Service | Company Watch | Experian | Dun & Bradstreet | Creditsafe |
|
Assess the financial health of a potential customer, supplier, or partner before you engage in any business transaction. |
✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
|
Analyse director and officer details. |
✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
|
H-Score® The industry-leading performance tool when it comes to predicting business failures. |
✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
|
Probability of Distress (PoD®) Used for bad debt provisioning, PoD® gives you the percentage probability that a distress event, e.g. a business failure, reconstruction or acute financial distress, will occur within three years. |
✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
|
Analyses filings submitted to Companies House, identifying inconsistencies, anomalies and potential fraud across multiple critical triggers. |
✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
|
TextScore® Using advanced machine learning techniques to analyse the text in financial reports of active companies, TextScore® predicts the probability of corporate distress. |
✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
|
Forecast View™ Financial risk modelling tool that allows you to run pre-set risk scenarios. Assess the future financial health of companies under different economic situations with ease. |
✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
|
Experiments The functionality that truly separates Company Watch from other Credit Reference Agencies. Stress-test a company's financial health and run ‘what if’ scenarios using management accounts or forecasts. |
✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
|
Whether it is market research, due diligence, or competitor analysis, Data Search empowers you to filter and refine the entire Companies House database using highly granular queries. |
✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
|
Enhanced Due Diligence Reports In-depth EDD reports that enable you to meet AML requirements and manage your exposure to risk with ease. |
✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
|
Connect analytics and data directly into your internal systems. |
✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
|
SearCHeD Powerful Companies House search engine. Quickly search the Companies House database for keywords in the text of annual reports held at Companies House. We have turned image files into searchable text, enabling you to find key words and phrases with just a few clicks. |
✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
|
Upload and look for risks within your existing portfolios. |
✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
|
Net Promoter Score (NPS) The world's leading metric for measuring customer satisfaction and loyalty. Measured on a scale of -100 to 100, a higher score is desirable. |
55 | 52 | ? | 38 |
How does Company Watch differ?
As you can see, we offer several services unique to Company Watch. H-Score® and Forecast View™ are two examples of powerful tools that you won’t find anywhere else. Here’s how they work:
H-Score® - Overall Company Financial Health
Many credit reference agencies provide a “black box” credit score - a single number with little or no information. Our H-Score® is a fully transparent rating that empowers you to make decisions with a full picture of financial risk.
A company's H-Score® is calculated by examining its financial position from all angles. This includes profit management, liquidity, asset funding and more. The results are compared to those of similar companies that have failed in the past. This lets us calculate the likelihood of failure in the next five years, and provide a score between 0 and 100. Scores of 25 or less are considered high-risk and fall into our Warning Area.
The vast majority of companies that collapse are in our Warning Area before they fail.
Forecast View™ - Financial Modelling
Forecast View™ is our state-of-the-art financial modelling tool that helps you spot future risks. This unique tool gives you an insight into the impact that economic events might have on the financial health of UK companies.
Forecast View™ offers various pre-set scenarios representing common financial shocks. These include events like the loss of a supplier or an increase in inflation. You can run one
or more of these scenarios and a company's overall financial health score (H-Score®) will be automatically updated.
The Forecast View™ dashboard also features interactive sliders representing key financial metrics. These can be adjusted to create your own custom scenarios and see the results reflected immediately in the company’s overall financial health.
In a volatile market, stress testing companies at the click of a button is invaluable.
Using these features, we can help you to spot financial risk earlier and more accurately. This is a huge advantage for anyone working in credit risk management, but the benefits are not limited to this role. Our solutions have a wide range of use cases. Here are just a few examples of who we can help:
-
Insurance providers requiring enhanced due diligence on clients
-
Legal professionals attempting to avoid director fraud and mitigate risk
-
Property managers who need to vet potential tenants
-
Public sector managers looking for cost savings or an effective anti-money laundering solution
Competitive pricing
We offer competitive prices and flexibility to tailor your package to your risk management needs. Packages start from as little as £354 per month. You can choose from a range of subscription options, from our basic bronze to our comprehensive gold package, so you can choose the level of access that suits your team's requirements.
Ultimate credit scoring guide
Transparency forms the cornerstone of everything that we do at Company Watch. We have written the ultimate guide to company credit scores, that lifts the lid on how credit reference agencies gather and analyse data.
Try us for free
We’ve only scratched the surface of how our tools go above and beyond the competition when it comes to managing your financial risk. But don’t just take our word for it.
