How Is a Company Credit Score Calculated?

The main factors

Although each agency uses its own model, the inputs are broadly the same:

• Financial accounts: profitability, net worth and working capital from your filings.
• Payment behaviour: how promptly you settle suppliers, where that data is held.
• Public records: county court judgments and insolvency-related notices.
• Trading history: how long the business has traded and its size.
• Trend: whether results are rising, steady or falling.
• Sector: the typical risk level of your industry.

How the factors are weighed

The factors are not equal. Strong negatives, such as an unsatisfied county court judgment or a recent insolvency event, can outweigh otherwise healthy figures. A long, consistent record of on-time filing and payment tends to support the score steadily.

For smaller businesses that file less detailed accounts, payment behaviour and public records carry proportionally more weight, simply because there is less financial detail on file.

Why your figure can change

Because the inputs update as new accounts and records are filed, your score moves over time. A new set of accounts, a settled judgment or a change in payment behaviour can all shift it at the next update.

A simple way to picture it

Think of the score as a weighted sum. Each factor, your accounts, payment behaviour, public records, age and trend, contributes points, and the most predictive factors carry the most weight. A clean public record and strong, improving accounts add points; late filings, a falling net worth or an unsatisfied judgment subtract them. The model then maps the total onto a scale and a risk band.

No single input decides the outcome, which is why a business can be strong on one measure and still score modestly if another is weak.

What you can and cannot influence

You have direct control over several inputs: how complete and timely your accounts are, how promptly you pay, how accurate your Companies House record is, and whether outstanding judgments are settled. Others, such as your sector's typical risk level, you cannot change. The practical takeaway is to focus effort on the controllable factors, because that is where your actions move the score.