Credit Scorecard Methodology
Our scorecard methodology has been developed over 30 years by Steve Savva of Credit Management Training Limited. Steve is a founder member of the Association of Credit Professionals here in the UK and trains credit management professionals all over the world to attain the Diploma in Credit Management.
Our scorecards are devised for each major business sector and take the available financial information for a company to devise a score and a credit guideline for both new and existing customers.
Our methodology has proven robust across a wide range of companies and we are now offering credit scorecard reports for much of Europe with more countries coming online as the information becomes available to us. Currently we provide financial reports for Great Britain and Ireland and Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, France, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Slovakia and the United States.
The scores for each factor are made available to you in the report so you can customise your credit processes and adapt the scorecard to your own business requirements. Our credit guidelines give you an analysis for your first business with the customer as well as a higher commercial credit guideline which can be applied to ongoing business with the company.
You can get a better flavour by viewing our sample reports and seeing the depth of financial information available and how easily you can adapt the scorecard to your own business. Credit Management Training Limited also offers in depth training leading to a Diploma in Credit Management or a course customised to your business and we have trained professionals in diverse business sectors such as Dell Computing Corp and Volkswagon Financial Services.
UNIQUE credit reports that show you how a recommended credit guideline is reached, providing you with several options which allow you to make better informed decisions.
The methodology used has been developed by Steve Savva, a leading expert in credit management, over a period of 30 years and it is constantly reviewed and updated.
As well as gathering the standard reporting agency data CMT Credit Scorecard looks at the latest accounts filed and gives you an in-depth accounts analysis and score against key accounting ratios as they relate to different industries. CMT Credit Scorecard also takes Small, Medium and Large companies into consideration, as you cannot analyse every ratio for a small company that doesn’t file a profit & loss account.
We have taken several factors into consideration including:
- Measures of Performance
- Measures of Financial Status
- Working Capital Use
- Other Criteria
Here are some examples of ratios and how they might vary from industry to industry:
NET PROFIT MARGIN
PROFIT BEFORE TAX
---------------------------------- x 100
SALES TURNOVER
2% net profit is the ideal minimum, generally speaking, but in some industries 0.7% is currently classed as good and in others 10% net profit might be classed as poor!
LIQUID RATIO
CURRENT ASSETS – STOCK
-----------------------------------------
CURRENT LIABILITIES
In industries which carry a lot of stock, this is going to be a lot lower than for industries that carry very little stock. For instance it takes 9 months for certain cheeses to mature! In the building and construction industry stock could be delivered on a daily basis, so what is a good liquid ratio will vary widely from industry to industry.
EQUITY GEARING
SHAREHOLDERS FUNDS
---------------------------------------------------- x 100
CAPITAL EMPLOYED plus CURRENT LIABILITIES
The higher this is the better, as this shows how much of the net worth is left for the shareholders if a company sells as a going concern for what it is worth on paper at the date of the balance sheet. CMT Credit Scorecard measures against up to 20 different criteria and we can personalise scorecards to suit your specific needs.