The CMI is compiled through a voluntary poll of credit and finance professionals in the service and manufacturing sectors.
[6] The Chartered Institute of Credit Management (CICM) in the UK produces a similar Index[7] on a quarterly basis reflecting its members' responses to questions about the same factors and it uses the same methodology.
The index is based on survey responses of approximately 1,000 trade credit managers in the second half of each month.
Respondents from throughout the United States are asked to comment on whether they are seeing improvement, deterioration, or no change for various favorable and unfavorable factors.
The computation of seasonality is based on the formula used by the U.S. Census Bureau and most of the federal government's statistical gathering apparatus.