How CR Signals work
Each company page shows CR Signals: Construction Rating's checks on payment and financial health. They are our own indicators, built only from public data. They are not a credit score or a credit report, and there is deliberately no overall score or ranking: each signal stands on its own, with the reason and the source next to it.
Every signal shows a flag (green, amber, red, information or no data), a one-line reason, a link to the source and the date we last checked it. “No data” means we could not find the information, and is never treated as a warning.
Company record
- Company status · Companies House
- Green if active. Red if in liquidation, administration, receivership, voluntary arrangement, insolvency proceedings, dissolved, converted closed. Any other status is shown for information.
- Insolvency history · Companies House
- Red if Companies House records any insolvency case for the company. Green if none.
- Accounts · Companies House
- Green if accounts are up to date. Red if they are overdue, with the date they were due.
- Confirmation statement · Companies House
- Green if up to date. Amber if overdue.
- Latest accounts type · Companies House
- Information only: the type of accounts filed and the date they were made up to. Amber if the latest accounts are dormant, because a dormant company is unlikely to be the trading business.
- Charges · Companies House
- Information only: the number of outstanding charges and the newest one. Charges are normal for financed businesses, so they are never coloured.
- Company age · Companies House
- Information only, except amber if the company was incorporated less than 2 years ago.
Payment behaviour
- Average days to pay · Government payment practices reports
- From the company's latest payment practices report. Green at 30 days or under, amber from 31 to 60 days, red over 60 days. Only large companies and LLPs have to report. For big groups the report is often filed by the main trading company, and we say which company filed it. A report more than 18 months old is shown for information only.
- When invoices are paid · Government payment practices reports
- The share of invoices paid within 30 days, in 31 to 60 days and after 60 days, plus the share not paid within agreed terms. Amber if more than 10% are paid after 60 days, red if more than 25%.
- Trend · Government payment practices reports
- Information only: how the average time to pay has changed since the previous report.
- Retentions · Government payment practices reports
- Information only, from reports filed since July 2025 by companies with construction contracts: whether retention clauses are used, the standard rate, whether terms match the company's own client retentions, and retentions held as a share of payments.
- Fair Payment Code · Office of the Small Business Commissioner
- Green if the company holds a Gold, Silver or Bronze award, with the year it runs to. If only another company in the same group holds an award, we say so as information. Not being listed is never shown as a warning, because joining is voluntary.
Latest accounts
- Going concern · The company's accounts filed at Companies House
- Red if the auditor's report on the latest accounts includes a "material uncertainty related to going concern" section: the auditor's formal statement that there is significant doubt about whether the company can keep trading, with the reasons it gives. Green if the auditor reported no material uncertainty. Information only if the latest accounts have no auditor's report (smaller companies can be exempt from audit) or we couldn't read one. We quote the auditor's words and link the filing.
Insolvency notices
- Gazette insolvency notices · The Gazette
- Red if an insolvency notice (for example a winding-up petition or the appointment of liquidators or administrators) was published for the company in the last 24 months. Older notices are shown for information. Green if none. We only match notices published under the company's exact registered name.
Sources and licences
Companies House data and Gazette notices are reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Gazette data is used without personal data.
Fair Payment Code awards are taken from the Office of the Small Business Commissioner's published list of awardees.
Spotted something wrong? Contact us and we will check it.