Thirty-eight guides on the terms and signals behind company credit decisions. Every guide is built on the public record and links to the free tools that check it.
Company insolvency means a company cannot pay its debts. The two legal tests, cash flow and balance sheet, and what insolvency leads to in practice.
A County Court Judgment (CCJ) is a court decision that a company owes money. How CCJs are registered, how long they stay on record, and what they mean for credi…
A first Gazette notice announces that Companies House intends to strike a company off the register. Why notices are issued, the two-month objection window, and …
A company strike-off removes a company from the Companies House register. How strike-off works, the two-month objection window, and what it means if the company…
The timeline after a winding-up petition is filed: advertisement in The Gazette, the 7-day window, the hearing, and the outcomes for the company and its credito…
Administration tries to rescue the company or its business. Liquidation ends the company and sells its assets. How the two insolvency processes differ, and what…
A CVA is a formal deal between an insolvent company and its creditors: agreed repayments over time while the company keeps trading. How CVAs work, who votes, an…
The fixed order in which creditors are paid when a company is insolvent: secured, costs, preferential, floating charge, unsecured, then shareholders. Where supp…
The warning signs that a company is approaching insolvency: overdue filings, CCJs, winding-up petitions, negative net assets, rising gearing and failing interes…
The R-Score is Black Flag Alert's free 0-100 credit risk measure for England & Wales companies. What goes into it, how to read it, and where the calculation …
Net assets are what a company owns minus what it owes. Why net assets say more about credit risk than turnover, and what negative net assets mean.
The cash coverage ratio compares a company's cash to its short-term liabilities. How to calculate it, what a healthy reading looks like, and why it is one of th…
A ratio walkthrough for non-accountants: the five figures in filed accounts that reveal credit risk, what healthy looks like, and what to question.
A change of accounting reference date can be routine, but it is also a known way to delay bad news. When a period change deserves a closer look.
The lines most readers skip: satisfied CCJs, balance-sheet-only accounts, charge clusters near the year end, overdue filings and the five-year trend behind the score.
A zombie company survives but cannot grow: it earns just enough to service its debts but not to invest or thrive. How to spot them on the public record and why …
Filing dates, judgment timing, equity and gearing: the moves that lift a company's standing, and how quickly each one reaches the public record.
Filed accounts go stale between filings: nine months to file, up to two years between sets. How risk moves in the gap, and why the trend beats the snapshot.
The rate fell to 50.3 per 10,000 companies. What the average hides: a growing register, sector rates from 60 to 268, and three in four insolvencies now CVLs.
A phoenix director lets a company fail and carries on the same business through a new company. What the law says, what the pattern looks like on the public reco…
A shell company exists on paper but does little or no trading. The legitimate uses, the abuses, and how to spot a shell before you deal with it.
How to search Companies House effectively: the 8-character company number, filing history, officers, PSCs, charges and Gazette notices, and how to read each.
Carillion collapsed into compulsory liquidation in January 2018 with liabilities of almost £7 billion. What the public record showed in the years before, and th…
Seven checks to run on any company before you sign a contract or extend credit: identity, status, accounts, judgments, insolvency events, charges and people. Al…
A step-by-step method for credit checking an England & Wales company: verify identity and status, read the accounts, check judgments and petitions, then decide.
What a proper company credit check covers: identity and status, accounts, judgments, insolvency events, charges, people and filing behaviour, and what to do wit…
KYC checks people; Know Your Supplier checks businesses. What each process covers, what they miss, and when each is needed before you trade.
Enhanced due diligence is a deeper level of counterparty checking for higher-risk situations. What EDD adds to standard checks and when it applies.
Most company credit scores are black boxes: a number with no published calculation. Why that matters, what a score hides, and why an auditable score changes the…
Six checks to run before giving a new supplier credit terms: accounts, filing behaviour, CCJs, petitions, charges and directors. Each one takes minutes on the public…
Where credit checks fit in an acquisition: screening candidates, reading five years of accounts, testing the growth story, and writing the findings into the SPA…
How to read the people behind a company: appointment histories, month-and-year of birth matching, disqualifications and the PSC register…
The Gazette, the judgment register, the Individual Insolvency Register, disqualification and FCA records: what each holds and when to read it…
When an invoice goes unpaid: the eight steps from chasing to court, how to tell a slow payer from a failing one, and when to escalate before your debt loses…
A distressed debtor is a company that owes money and shows signs it cannot pay. How to identify them, why they matter to suppliers, and how to price the risk be…
What to do when a customer that owes you money shows insolvency signals: act fast, register as a creditor, consider a statutory demand, and know your position i…
Six practical ways to reduce credit risk exposure when selling on terms: check before you ship, set limits, shorten terms, take security, monitor, and act early…
A supplier failure stops your business the moment it stops theirs. How to map supplier exposure, spot distress early, and build the fallbacks that keep you runn…