A rating agency is a company that can help you to calculate your BEE score as per the act.

The dti/SANAS is going to ACCREDIT rating agencies sometime in the early to middle of 2007 (subject to the finalisation of the Codes). Until that happens, there are no officially accredited ratings agencies. Some companies have stated that they will be applying for accreditation. The dti estimates that eventually there will be up to 400 accredited ratings agencies!

The dti have stated that self-rating is going to be quite acceptable for QSEs. They have not finally decided what constitutes a QSE, but chances are that if your businesses turnover is about R35 million per year, you will be able to produce a rating or scorecard yourself, without using an accredited ratings agency.

It is still very important to understand the scorecard and how BEE works, and to be accurate. If you produce a rating or scorecard that is incorrect, you may face penalties from your customers who are relying on the accuracy of your information. It is important to submit an accurate scorecard as it is used to produce by your customer for their own BEE Scorecard.

The easiest and best way to get an accurate scorecard is to use EconoBEE Scorecard , or call in the services of EconoBEE. Even if you do require an accredited rating it is still an excellent idea to prepare a self rating as this will help you understand how BEE will work and it will prepare your company for the accredited rating.