What the service does
Black Flag Alert gives a free company credit check on any business registered in England & Wales. Each profile carries the R-Score, a 0–100 credit-risk measure paired with a 1–10 risk rating, five years of filed accounts, County Court Judgments, winding-up petitions, secured charges and filing behaviour. Anyone can search and read a profile without paying.
The service is free because the product is the network, not a paywall. The reasoning behind that model is on the pricing page.
Where the data comes from
Every figure on the site traces to a primary public record. Black Flag Alert does not resell credit bureau data.
Filed accounts are processed as they arrive at Companies House. The live signals, court judgments, petitions and overdue filings, are monitored continuously, so a profile reflects events that happen between account filings.
How the score is built
The R-Score is computed in-house from the filed accounts themselves: thirteen financial ratios scored into three components (profitability, asset quality and funding), combined in a nonlinear model, then corrected by hard overrides such as an active winding-up petition forcing a rating of 10. The full calculation, including weights, formula and validation evidence, is published in the methodology whitepaper.
A score is only as current as the filings behind it. Companies have up to nine months after their year-end to file accounts; the live signals close most of that gap, and every profile states its data quality so you can see how much the filing supports the number.
What the service is not
The R-Score summarises public-record risk. It does not predict every failure, and it is not a lending decision. Use it as evidence for your own judgement, alongside professional advice where the amounts involved warrant it. Coverage is England & Wales only: companies registered in Scotland, Northern Ireland or overseas are not scored.