Order reports

  • Disclosure and consent for background checks

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    Before initiating a background check, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires you do the tasks below:

    • Certify to the consumer reporting agency (CRA) your permissible purpose to order background checks.
    • Provide a standalone disclosure to the candidate explaining the scope of the background check you're ordering. States and localities might also require you to provide certain disclosures before ordering a background check.
    • Obtain the candidate's written authorization to order a background check for them. This authorization is also called a consent form.
    Important

    Consult your legal counsel about your compliance responsibilities under relevant federal, state, and local laws.

    Provide proper disclosure

    Before ordering a background check, the FCRA requires you to provide certain documents to candidates. These documents include a standalone disclosure explaining the scope of the background check you're ordering. The document should be clear and conspicuous to the candidate and include only the disclosure. You should avoid adding the examples below to the standalone disclosure:

    • Application effectiveness periods
    • Disclaimers of accuracy
    • Liability waivers
    • The candidate's consent to the background check

    Adding content to the standalone disclosure is a common legal risk.

    Note

    Some states, such as California, might require standalone disclosures or other specific disclosures, notices, and formatting.

    Consult your legal counsel to confirm your disclosure complies with laws relevant to your operations.

    Obtain the candidate's consent

    How you obtain consent depends on how you order background checks. Select a section below:

    Checkr invitation links

    When a candidate begins the background check process through a Checkr invitation link, they enter personally identifiable information. Checkr provides template disclosure notices and consent language on 3 separate screens in the order below:

    1. A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act: This document explains the candidate’s rights.
    2. Disclosure Regarding Background Investigation: This document is the default standalone disclosure under the FCRA.
    3. Consent form: This document is where the candidate provides written consent to the background check process. The candidate electronically signs with their full name. The name the candidate signs must match the one they entered earlier in the process. Checkr stores a PDF of the signed form.

    Evergreen consent is a candidate's ongoing permission to order background checks while they’re with your organization. For candidates with evergreen consent, you don't complete the full consent process for every background check you order. Checkr’s template consent form includes evergreen consent language. Consult your legal counsel to confirm your consent form complies with laws relevant to your operations.

    Checkr API

    Checkr recommends configuring your implementation of the Checkr API to collect the information below:

    • A unique user name and password associated with the candidate
    • The candidates full name from a signature field
    • A PDF with the data below:
      • Candidate's IP address
      • Date
      • Timestamp

    In an audit, you might need to provide copies of each candidate’s consent form for at least 5 years.

    Evergreen consent through the Checkr API

    Evergreen consent is a candidate's ongoing permission to order background checks during their time with your organization. For candidates with evergreen consent, you don't have to complete the full process for every background check you order.

    The consent form often includes evergreen consent. As a courtesy to customers, Checkr offers template consent forms with evergreen consent language. States and localities might have different evergreen consent requirements. For example, you might consider obtaining consent for every background check you order for California candidates. The FCRA allows for evergreen consent, but California’s Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act (ICRAA) is more ambiguous. Consult your legal counsel to confirm your consent form complies with laws relevant to your operations.

    Withdrawn consent

    Checkr won't order a background check on a candidate who withdrew their consent to background checks.

    Sometimes a candidate wants you to order a background check after they already withdrew consent. The candidate must sign a new consent form.

    Candidate experience

    The candidate provides the personally identifying information (PII) below:

    • Birth date
    • Email address
    • Full name
    • Phone number
    • Social Security number (SSN)

    The candidate then reads and acknowledges receipt of applicable forms and notifications:

    • A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)
    • Disclosure Regarding Background Investigation
    • Other state and required disclosures as applicable
    • Consent for a background check

    After the candidate signs the consent form, Checkr starts the search.

  • Order a candidate's report

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    How you order reports depends on whether you're ordering a candidate's first report or you're ordering a report for an existing candidate.

    New candidates

    Use the steps below to invite new candidates by email:

    1. Select "Order background check."
    2. Set the candidate's location.
    3. Select the radio button for "The candidate."
    4. Enter up to 25 email addresses, and select Continue. Checkr sends emails with invitation links.
    5. Select a package and optional additional searches.
    6. Review and then submit your order.

    If your account has a hierarchy and at least one node, you can invite candidates by node.

    By default, Checkr sends the invitation every day for 7 calendar days until the candidate takes an action below:

    1. Authorizes the background check.
    2. Unsubscribes from the invitation.

    To change the frequency of sending invitations, contact Checkr.

    After 7 days, the invitation expires. You can cancel an invitation before it expires.

    Existing candidates

    To order another report for a candidate, use the steps below:

    1. At the top right of the report, select "Order new report."
    2. Select a package for the new report and request a new report for this candidate. New reports use the same candidate-provided PII as the original report and can't include packages that need more information.

    You can order a maximum of 3 reports for the same candidate in a 24-hour period.

    Duplicate candidate information

    Checkr checks for duplicate personally identifiable information (PII) for the reasons below:

    • Help prevent multiple candidates from using the same PII.
    • Help identify mistakes in candidate-provided PII.

    Duplicate SSNs

    Checkr blocks multiple submissions of the same SSN within 30 days.

    To submit the same SSN twice within 30 days, contact Checkr to remove the SSN block. You can then create a maximum of 2 candidates with the same SSN in a 24-hour period. To re-enable the SSN block, contact Checkr.

    Duplicate driver licenses

    You can create a maximum of 2 candidates with the same driver's license within a 24-hour period.

  • Manually order a candidate's report

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    Checkr doesn't enable manual orders by default. To enable manual orders, contact Checkr.

    To manually order a background check from the Checkr Dashboard, use the steps below:

    1. Select "Order background check."
    2. Set the candidate's location. Candidates must be in the United States.
    3. Select the Myself radio button.
    4. Select Continue.
    5. Select a package and optional additional searches.
    6. Review and then submit your order.
    7. Enter the candidate's information, and select Continue.
    8. Select whether to send the completed report to the candidate.
    9. Select the checkbox to confirm that your background check order complies with applicable laws and your agreement with Checkr.
    10. Select Submit.
  • Manage continuous searches

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    The Continuous checks page of the Checkr Dashboard has three tabs:

    • Bulk action
    • Ineligible persons
    • Driver record reports (DL 414)

    The "Ineligible persons" and "Driver record reports (DL 414)" tabs appear only for accounts with Continuous MVR (motor vehicle record) enabled.

    Bulk action

    Use the "Bulk action" tab to perform bulk actions, check their status, and download processing errors.

    Start a bulk action

    To start a bulk action, use the steps below:

    1. From the "Bulk action" tab, select "Start bulk action."
    2. Select a continuous product and an action to perform.
    3. Confirm that your CSV file meets the requirements below:
    • Case-sensitive column names in the first row
    • A column called “candidate_id”
    • Each row with the individual's Checkr-assigned unique candidate ID
    • Fewer than 500,000 rows
    • No personally identifiable information (PII)
  • If your account uses nodes, confirm that the CSV file also meets the requirements below:
    • A column called, “state code,” for 2-character United States abbreviations (example: TX)
    • A column called, “custom_node_id” (also known as a custom ID)
  • Select the Submit button to upload your CSV file. If the file doesn't meet the formatting or size requirements, an alert appears.

    • If you’re enrolling or updating individuals, select the checkbox that certifies the tasks below:

    • You provided required disclosures to all individuals.
    • You received proper consent from all individuals.
    Note

    Some states charge a fee for each driver enrollment.

    After the bulk action finishes processing, you receive a confirmation email.

    Enrollment history

    The "Enrollment history" section lists the status of each bulk action:

    • Processing: The bulk action is processing.
    • Complete: The bulk action finished processing with no errors.
    • Review: The bulk action finished processing with errors.

    When the bulk action has errors, you can download an errors CSV file from the Errors column. The errors CSV file has the information below:

    • The individual's Checkr-assigned unique candidate ID
    • Error reason

    You can download the original bulk action CSV file from the File column.

    Ineligible persons

    The "Ineligible persons" tab lists drivers removed from Continuous MVR because of an error.

    When you enroll a driver in Continuous MVR, the driver license information comes from a previously completed MVR report (Continuous MVR prerequisites). States can remove enrollments for invalid or outdated personally identifying information. Continuous MVR errors can happen immediately after enrollment or up to 30 days later.

    The Ineligible persons tab shows all individuals removed from Continuous MVR in the last 30 days and the information below:

    • Removal date
    • Candidate ID (Checkr-assigned unique ID for the individual)
    • Individual’s name
    • Error reason

    You can download the last 90 days of your account’s error history. If you need more than 90 days of errors, contact Checkr.

    California drivers only: Driver record reports (DL 414)

    Checkr interacts with the California Employer Pull Notice (EPN) program so that you can monitor the driver’s records of people who drive for you.

    A driver’s record, also called driver license (DL) printout (DL 414), has the information below:

    • Abstracts of convictions
    • Accidents
    • Driver license application information

    You can search for DL 414 documents by candidate ID and DL 414 creation date.

    To download a PDF of a candidate's DL 414 documents, click the Download link in the "DL 414 Form" column.

    For compliance purposes, Checkr provides an audit log of each time someone downloads a DL 414 document. To download an audit report log, select "Download audit report."

  • Subscribe to recurring background checks

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    Note

    If your Checkr account has a partner integration, this feature might be unavailable. To determine whether your account supports this feature, contact Checkr.

    With subscriptions, you can order recurring reports on a candidate. You can create subscriptions only for candidates in the United States.

    To use subscriptions, you must first obtain evergreen consent from the candidate. This one-time consent informs the candidate that you'll order ongoing background checks. Many organizations include this information in their initial consent form. Other organizations use a new disclosure each time. Check with your counsel for state-by-state guidance.

    After you obtain evergreen consent, use the steps below:

    1. Open the Candidates page of the Checkr Dashboard.
    2. Select the report or invitation you want to add a subscription to.
    3. In the "Post-hire safety" section, select "Add subscription."
    4. Select the checkbox to certify that you received evergreen consent from the candidate, and then select "Add subscription."
    5. Select a package.
    6. Enter a start date for the subscription.
    7. Enter the monthly interval for the subscription. To order a package annually, enter 12. The next occurrence automatically populates based on your monthly interval.
    8. Check your work, and select Save. To add more subscriptions, select "Add subscription" and complete the information for each new row.

    After you enable subscriptions, you can track candidates with active subscriptions from the Candidates page in the dashboard. From the advanced filters in the Search section, select Subscription as the monitor type.

    Note

    From the dashboard, you must manage subscriptions individually. You can mass subscribe or unsubscribe candidates from a subscription only using the Checkr API.