The D&B PAYDEX score is a number between 1 and 100 that Dun & Bradstreet assigns to your business based on how promptly you pay your vendors, with 80 marking on-time payment and anything higher signaling early payment. It is a backward-looking measure of one thing only: whether invoices from suppliers who extend you trade credit get paid on schedule, and how much money is involved when they do or don’t.
What the Score Actually Measures
PAYDEX tracks payment behavior on trade credit accounts, meaning the invoices you receive from suppliers, wholesalers, and service providers who bill you on net terms. It ignores credit utilization, account age, and credit mix. Those factors matter for personal credit and for some other business scoring models, but the PAYDEX algorithm sets them aside entirely. Two variables move the score: how many days early or late each invoice is paid, and the dollar amount of that invoice relative to your other trade activity.
Because of that narrow focus, your personal credit score and your PAYDEX can point in opposite directions. A business owner with clean personal finances who habitually pays supplier invoices two weeks late will see that reflected here. Industry norms don’t soften the number either. If your sector routinely pays 30 days slow and you match the pace, D&B still records it as 30 days late.
The PAYDEX Scale
The 1–100 scale maps directly onto how many days early or late your payments arrive against agreed terms:1Dun & Bradstreet. PAYDEX Score Factsheet
- 100: pays before the invoice is due
- 90: takes advantage of early-payment discounts
- 80: pays promptly within agreed terms
- 70: 15 days beyond terms
- 60: 22 days beyond terms
- 50: 30 days beyond terms
- 40: 60 days beyond terms
- 30: 90 days beyond terms
- 20: 120 days beyond terms
- 0–19: over 120 days beyond terms
Scores from 80 to 100 read as low risk. This is the range where you can negotiate extended net terms, apply for a business line of credit, or bid on contracts where financial stability matters. Scores from 50 to 79 read as moderate risk, with payments arriving 15 to 30 days beyond terms on average. Suppliers seeing these numbers may shorten your payment window, require deposits, or charge higher prices to offset risk. Scores below 50 signal serious delinquency. Most suppliers will insist on cash-on-delivery or prepayment, and credit applications commonly get denied.
How the Score Is Calculated
The PAYDEX formula is dollar-weighted, so larger invoices carry more influence than smaller ones. Missing the deadline on a $50,000 invoice damages the score far more than being late on a $500 purchase. The design is meant to show lenders how you handle your most significant obligations, not the easy ones.
D&B builds the score in three steps. First, it sorts all reported trade experiences by payment classification: discount, prompt, 15 days slow, 30 days slow, and so on. For each classification, it totals the dollar amounts and calculates what percentage of your overall trade credit falls into that bucket. Second, each percentage is multiplied by an index weight assigned to that classification. Third, the weighted values are added together to produce the final score.2Dun & Bradstreet. PAYDEX Score FAQs
The dollar amount used for each experience comes from the highest credit amount the vendor reported. If that figure is missing, D&B falls back to the amount currently owed, then to the past-due amount. If none of those exist, the system substitutes an average of the credit amounts from other experiences in the same payment class.2Dun & Bradstreet. PAYDEX Score FAQs
What You Need Before a Score Can Exist
Two things have to be in place before D&B will generate a PAYDEX score for your business.
First, you need a D-U-N-S Number. This is a unique nine-digit identifier D&B assigns to individual business entities, and it anchors your entire credit file.3Dun & Bradstreet. D-U-N-S Number Questions Requesting one is free. You apply through D&B’s website with your business’s legal name, address, phone number, owner or CEO name, legal structure, year of formation, primary industry, and employee count. Standard processing takes up to 30 business days, and an expedited option delivers the number within eight business days for a fee.4Dun & Bradstreet. Get a D-U-N-S Number Businesses with multiple locations need a separate D-U-N-S Number for each.
Second, you need at least three separate trade experiences on file, each from a different vendor that reports payment data to D&B. Until that threshold is met, your profile exists but shows no PAYDEX score, which can be as damaging as a low score when a lender pulls your report.
Not every vendor reports. Your landlord, internet provider, and even major platforms may never send a single data point to D&B. Business credit cards generally don’t report to the trade experience database either, so paying yours on time won’t move this score. Before opening a trade credit account with the goal of building your PAYDEX, ask the vendor whether they report to D&B and what their minimum purchase threshold is for reporting.
What the Score Affects
The PAYDEX shows up in more decisions than most owners expect. Suppliers check it before extending trade credit and deciding on terms. Lenders weigh it when setting interest rates or approving business loans. Landlords may review it before signing a commercial lease. Insurance premiums can be influenced by your D&B profile, and some large customers pull the score before committing to a contract.
The practical effect shows up in the terms you receive. Two businesses ordering the same materials from the same supplier can get very different deals. A company at 90 might get net-60 with a 2% early-payment discount; a company at 55 might get net-15 with a deposit required. Across a year of purchasing, that gap becomes real cash flow.
How to Build and Improve Your PAYDEX
Because the score measures only payment timing weighted by dollar amount, the path to improvement is narrow and clear.
- Open trade accounts with vendors that report to D&B, and confirm the reporting relationship before you open the account. You need at least three reporting vendors on file.
- Pay early, not just on time. An on-time payment earns an 80. Pushing above that means consistently paying before the due date, ideally 10 to 20 days early on your largest invoices.
- Prioritize your biggest bills. Dollar weighting means large invoices swing the score most. If cash is tight and you can only pay one invoice early this month, pick the largest.
- Ask non-reporting vendors with whom you have a strong history to begin reporting. Some will, many won’t. D&B’s CreditBuilder product can contact vendors on your behalf, though D&B may reject a trade reference if the vendor doesn’t respond, already reports automatically, can’t be verified, or has policies against sharing payment data.5Dun & Bradstreet. Understanding Trade References
- Dispute inaccurate records through D&B’s D-U-N-S Manager portal at no cost. Keep documentation of your actual payment dates, because D&B verifies dispute submissions before making changes.6Dun & Bradstreet. D&B Credit Insights
Self-reporting isn’t an option. Payment data has to come from the vendor through D&B’s reporting channels, so on-time payments to non-reporting suppliers stay invisible to the score no matter how diligent you are.
Checking Your Score
D&B offers a free tier of Credit Insights that shows risk-range indicators for your PAYDEX, Delinquency Score, Failure Score, and Supplier Evaluation Risk rating, plus a payment history summary, financial ratios, and inquiry alerts.6Dun & Bradstreet. D&B Credit Insights Seeing the exact score rather than the range requires a paid subscription. Pricing starts at $15 per month for the Unlock Scores plan and goes up to $199 per month for CreditBuilder Premium, which lets you submit trade references. All plans auto-renew.7Dun & Bradstreet. Small Business Pricing
How PAYDEX Differs From D&B’s Other Scores
The PAYDEX is the most cited D&B metric, but it isn’t the only one lenders and partners see. D&B also produces a Delinquency Predictor Score, which estimates the likelihood a business will pay severely late, seek relief from creditors, or shut down without paying its debts over the next 12 months, on a scale of 101 to 670 with lower numbers indicating higher risk.8Dun & Bradstreet. What Is the Delinquency Predictor Score A Failure Score and a Supplier Evaluation Risk rating round out the profile. The PAYDEX tells the reader what you’ve done; the others predict what you’re likely to do. A strong PAYDEX paired with a weak Delinquency Predictor can suggest that solid payment history so far is masking weaker financial fundamentals underneath.