# Credit Risk Use Cases
source: https://developer.mastercard.com/small-business-credit-analytics/documentation/use-cases/index.md

The Small Business Credit Analytics data can help in answering key business questions across the underwriting lifecycle, from understanding the identity of a small business, to informing underwriting decisions, and effectively monitoring the business's ongoing performance.

## Customer Use Cases {#customer-use-cases}

##### Know Your Business {#know-your-business}

Understand whether the small business exists and whether it is still operating by verifying whether the business has had recent Mastercard transactions.

Confirm a thin-file applicant is active from recent transactions before investing underwriting effort.

##### Input to Underwriting {#input-to-underwriting}

Gather insight into weekly and monthly sales and other trending information like growth in average spend per card, average ticket size, and chargebacks.

Feed sales trends into your credit model for faster, better-informed loan approvals.

##### Business Monitoring {#business-monitoring}

Monitor changes in sales patterns for existing customers with actual performance data to power dynamic line assignment and updates to risk ratings.

Spot sales shifts early to adjust credit lines and risk ratings before portfolio impact.

## Powered By {#powered-by}

The Small Business Credit Analytics API is powered by retail sales and benchmark metrics that collectively provide a comprehensive picture of a small business sales and sales health.

##### Retail Sales Analytics {#retail-sales-analytics}

Get a weekly or monthly breakdown of an individual merchant location's performance across 45 metrics for the last 12 months.
Learn More

##### Retail Sales Benchmarks {#retail-sales-benchmarks}

Understand how the small business is performing against its peers in the same geographical location and business industry.
Learn More

## Next Steps {#next-steps}

* [Retail Sales Analytics](https://developer.mastercard.com/small-business-credit-analytics/documentation/use-cases/retail-sales-analytics/index.md) --- weekly merchant sales metrics walkthrough
* [Retail Sales Benchmarks](https://developer.mastercard.com/small-business-credit-analytics/documentation/use-cases/retail-sales-benchmarks/index.md) --- peer-relative performance walkthrough
* [Testing](https://developer.mastercard.com/small-business-credit-analytics/documentation/testing/index.md) --- validate these flows in Sandbox
* [Code and Formats](https://developer.mastercard.com/small-business-credit-analytics/documentation/code-and-formats/index.md) --- error codes and resolution guidance