Free business credit reports on a company are based on three essential components: business credit ratings, Paydex scores, and percentage of payments within terms. When you apply for credit or financing for your new business, these three rankings or scores are the main ingredients. They are used in an application only, quick turnaround environment. Your report will read well if you take particular care of these items.

Free business credit reports are the key to unlocking financing for your fledgling business. If you don't have all of your financial ducks in a row, then you could return a score that is less than you might have hoped for. Therefore, it's strongly recommended that you always pay your bills in full and on time; anything less could result in a process that is longer-than-expected.

As mentioned above, free business credit reports will include percentage of payments within terms; this is when the weight or size of the payment is not considered. This figure is normally found on business credit reports in the paragraph that describes what the Paydex score is and what it represents. For instance, if you make 15 total trades, and 14 of these trades are reporting late payments and only one (which may also be the largest) reports payment within terms, then the percentage of payments is 93 percent, or 1/15--not good.

Lenders and creditors look at free business credit reports with a percentage that is higher than 60, though they ultimately like a score of 65 or higher. The percentage of payments within terms is an important number in one's report because lenders can sometimes understand that they are having a dispute with one vendor or trade over billing, delivery, etc.