Customer Help Center

Identify the type of report delay

While the average background check takes three to five business days to complete, sometimes delays occur. How you resolve the delay depends on the type of delay.

There are two statuses that indicate a background check has stopped processing:

• Pending: The report is processing.
• Suspended: The report stopped processing because of missing information or incomplete searches.

When a delay happens, Checkr emails the candidate and shows the delay in the Checkr Dashboard.

Pending reports

Why is my candidate's report pending?

Research is in progress: Some searches take significantly longer than others, usually because the county manually processes search requests. Additional research may be required if: 

• The candidate has a common name.
• The court limits public access to the record or certain information in the record.

Neither you nor Checkr can expedite this process. 

Court closures or delays: Checkr lists known court closures and delays on the pages below that you can subscribe to:

• Checkr US Data Status
• Checkr Global Data Status

Courts might also be slow to respond to Checkr's requests for information because a court clerk must search for physical county records. Neither you nor Checkr can expedite this process. 

Suspended reports

Why is my candidate's report suspended?

Insufficient candidate information: Incomplete or incorrect candidate information can cause delays. Common issues include:

• Mistyped driver's licenses
• Incorrect Social Security numbers
• Misspelled names

How do I resolve a Suspended report?

When a report suspends, Checkr contacts the candidate to request the necessary information. Once the correct information is provided and verified, the background check continues. If the required information is not provided within seven days, the check is suspended. After 30 days, the status changes to either Complete or Canceled.

You'll use the same link in the candidate's report to both update information on their behalf and resend the link for them to upload their documentation: 

Update information on behalf of a candidate

To submit or update information on behalf of a candidate:

1. Open the candidate's report.
2. Locate the yellow Exceptions section. 
3. Select the "View verification request sent to the candidate" link.
4. Enter the requested information.
   

Send the information request link to your candidate

To send your candidate the link to provide more information from the Checkr Dashboard:

1. Open the candidate's report.
2. Locate the yellow Exceptions section.
3. Copy the "View verification request sent to the candidate" link and share it with the candidate.

Checkr reviews candidate-provided documents and updates the report within 24 hours of uploading.

Please note that Checkr doesn't accept emailed candidate documents. 

Encourage your candidate to submit information

Candidates can log in to the Candidate Portal anytime to provide documents. Encourage candidates to:

• Check their report progress in the Candidate Portal.
  • Candidates will see requests to provide more information upon login.
• Respond to information requests that appear upon logging in.

If the provided information does not match the records found by Checkr, contact Checkr for a new link. You or the candidate must use this link to provide a photo of the candidate's ID or Social Security card.

My candidate resubmitted their Social Security information or ID, but the report is still suspended. What do I do?

• Social Security number verification: If your candidate re-entered their Social Security number for verification and the report is still suspended, you’ll need to contact Checkr for next steps.
• Identity (ID) verification: If your candidate re-submitted their ID for verification, please allow 1-2 business days for the ID to be reviewed and verified. Once verification is complete, the report will resume.
• Social Security card image upload: If your candidate uploaded an image of their Social Security card, please allow Checkr support 1-2 business days to review and verify the information. If your candidate uploaded the image more than 2 business days ago, contact Checkr.

Automatic report completion and billing

Checkr automatically completes SSN trace reports that require additional information from the candidate. SSN trace reports that require additional information will change to a Suspended status if no response from the candidate is received within 7 days. After 30 days, the Suspended status will shift to Complete, and all other searches within the report will be canceled. Billing will include the packages and searches you order. After the search process begins, Checkr doesn’t give refunds for incomplete or canceled searches. Your invoice will show package prices and passthrough fees for canceled searches.

For more information, refer to FAQs about Checkr invoices.

The Candidates page of the Checkr Dashboard has the status options below for candidates who have already begun the background check process.

Report status	Description
Invitation sent	Checkr sent the invitation link, but the candidate hasn't responded yet and the report hasn't begun.
Pending	The report is processing. Most reports take 2-3 days to finalize, but some take longer, often for a reason below: Checkr is waiting for the candidate to provide information: Checkr requires documentation from the candidate to continue the report. Checkr contacts the candidate so that your background check process works smoothly. Research is in progress: Some searches take significantly longer than others, usually because the county manually processes search requests.
Complete	The report completed processing and is ready for you to review. Note: The search types below return a status of Complete, rather than Clear or Review: Pointer searches Education and employment verification searches Credit reports
Clear	The report completed. The searches returned no records. The searches returned no records or information you need to evaluate based on your guidelines.
Eligible	The report returned no relevant records that make the candidate ineligible for the position according to your Assess guidelines.
Review	The completed report has information for you to review. This information might include the examples below for your team to review: At least one record to evaluate based on your Assess guidelines Criminal records MVR violations that don't meet your MVR rules Employment or education verifications that weren't an exact match A record can include multiple charges associated with the civil or criminal case. The report lists records in the order provided by the source. Note: The report PDF that you and your candidate can access says Consider instead of Review. Consider and Review both mean that you need to review information.
Escalated	The report returned at least one record that your Assess Premium guidelines flagged.
Dispute	The candidate contacted Checkr to dispute information in the completed report. Adjudication can't continue while a report has the Dispute status. If you started an adverse action process before the dispute, you must restart it if the candidate still doesn't qualify after the reinvestigation. Checkr sends an email to the compliance contact on your account after the investigation, which can take up to 30 days.
Suspended	The report stopped processing because of missing information or incomplete searches. Checkr contacted the candidate to provide additional documentation, after which the report will continue. After a period of time, the report status automatically changes to Complete or Canceled. To change the report status to Complete in its current state, select "Complete now." Some searches have Suspended status indefinitely. Note Incomplete reports have a Review status if they contain information that merits the Review status. For example, if the MVR search has the Suspended status but the county search has Review, the overall report status is Review.
Canceled	After some time, the report status automatically changes to Complete and searches cancel. To change the report status to Complete in its current state, select "Complete now."
Expired	The candidate didn’t respond to the invitation link in the allotted time. To continue with the candidate, you must send a new invitation. By default, invitation links expire after seven days. To change the number of days your candidates have to respond to an invitation, contact Checkr.

Your invoice CSV has the columns below:

• Candidate name: The candidate's name
• Candidate alias count: The number of candidate aliases checked
• Candidate geo name: The candidate's location
• Package: The package name
• Package fee: Price of the package
• County surcharges: Passthrough fee the county charges to access criminal records multiplied by the number of candidate aliases checked
• County service fees: Price of automatic county searches when a national search in the Basic+ package finds records
• State surcharges: Passthrough fee the state charges to access statewide or county data multiplied by the number of candidate aliases checked
• State service fees: Price of a state criminal search
• DMV surcharges: Passthrough fee for each state's DMV to retrieve a motor vehicle record (MVR)
• Education verification surcharges: Passthrough fee for using education databases, such as the National Student Clearinghouse, that charge fees
• Employment verification fee: Passthrough fee for using employment databases, such as “The Work Number,” that charge fees
• International education service fees: Price of a United States (US) customer verifying a candidate's education history from other countries
• International employment service fees: Price of a US customer verifying a candidate's employment history from other countries
• International service fees: Price of a US customer searching a candidate's background records from other countries
• International surcharges: Passthrough fee for using international education databases that charge fees
• International screenings: Services that Checkr completed outside the US
• MVR rerun service fees: Price of reordering a motor vehicle record (MVR) report
• Drug screening surcharges: Price of the candidate's completed drug tests
• Health screening surcharges: Price of the candidate's completed occupational health screenings
• Municipal surcharges: Passthrough fee the municipality charges to access records
• Municipal service fees: Price of a municipal search
• Additional verification surcharges: Passthrough fee for professional license verification fees and abuse registry fees
• Additional verifications: Description of verifications other than the ones below:
  • Education verification
  • Employment verification
  • Personal reference verification
  • Professional license verification
  • Professional reference verification
• Assess fees: Price of the Assess Standard or Assess Premium service

For information about how to add and update payment methods, refer to Set up payment information.

Where can I find an itemized invoice?

Each month, Checkr emails your invoice to your account’s billing contact email address. The invoice includes charges for background checks completed in the previous month.

Admin users can access current and previous invoices from the Invoices tab of the "Payment & billing" page in the Checkr Dashboard. The Invoices tab has a summary PDF and a detailed CSV file for each invoice that you can download:

1. Open the Checkr Dashboard.
2. Select "Payment & billing."
3. Select Invoices, and then select the item you want:
   • Invoice CSV: From the Reports column, select "reports_usage.csv."
   • Invoice PDF: To find your PDF invoice, select "invoice.pdf."
   • Subscription CSV: Select “See more files.”

What is Checkr's billing cycle? When is the invoice due?

Checkr sends invoices at the beginning of each month. This invoice includes charges and fees for usage during the previous month and shows “due upon receipt.” If your account is set to AutoPay, Checkr automatically charges payments around the 5th of every month. 

After you pay the invoice, its status changes to “Paid.”

What month is this invoice for?

Checkr sends invoices at the beginning of each month for charges and fees from the previous month. For example, you receive an invoice for your January activity at the beginning of February.

Why is my invoice pending?

A pending invoice indicates that Checkr hasn't received payment. If you paid this invoice, let us know! For help completing a missing payment, email payments@checkr.com.

Why don't I see a Payment & billing page on my Checkr Dashboard?

If you do not see a Payment & billing tab in the navigation pane of your Checkr Dashboard, it's likely due to your user permissions. Contact your account admin for more information.

Who can I contact about my invoice?

For questions about what your invoice includes, contact Checkr.

For questions about updating and submitting payments, email payments@checkr.com.

Will I get separate invoices for each node if my account has a hierarchy?

No, you receive one invoice that specifies the cost center or node.

Where can I find a receipt for my payment?

If your account is configured to use AutoPay with Stripe, Checkr will email you payment receipts. If you don't get an email from Stripe, contact Checkr.

You won't get an emailed receipt for payments made with Lockbox, but you can view an invoice's payment status on your dashboard.  

If you need to, you can update your billing email address.

Checkr's user roles provide varying levels of access for team members involved in each stage of the background check process.

Assign roles to users

For security purposes, Checkr can't edit user permissions. To edit or add user roles for your account, contact your team's admin. By default, the first user on an account is always an admin.

To manage user permissions, log in to the Checkr Dashboard as an admin. Open the Account settings page. Select the Users tab, and then select Edit in the Roles column.

Depending on the user's role, set one or more of the permissions below. Individual users can have multiple roles, such as adjudicator and requester. To create custom roles and permissions, contact Checkr.

Available user roles

• Billing: Billing users can access only the "Payment & billing" page of the Checkr Dashboard.
• Limited user: The limited user role can access the candidates list and the report status, result, and assessment. Limited users can't access candidate or report details. New users on an account automatically have this role.
• Requester: The requester role can perform the tasks below. Assign this role to recruiters who order background checks.
  • Access candidate-provided documents but not completed report details.
  • Access report statuses on the Candidates page but not the results of completed reports.
  • Access, send, monitor, and cancel background check invitations.
  • Add a search to an existing package.
• Adjudicator: The adjudicator role can perform the tasks below. Assign this role to adjudication staff.
  • Access candidate report details.
  • Adjudicate reports.
  • Engage candidates.
  • Send pre-adverse action notices to candidates.
• Restricted admin: The restricted admin role can perform all tasks of adjudicators and requesters for candidates in their account node but can't update billing information or settings. This role applies only for accounts that have a hierarchy with at least one node.This role can also perform the tasks below. Assign this role to administrators for subnodes on your account.
  • Add searches.
  • Assign non-admin user roles.
  • Find invoices.
  • Invite users to the account.
• Admin: The admin role has access to all functionality in the Checkr Dashboard, with no node restrictions. This role can perform all tasks, including the ones below. Limit this role to core members of your team.
  • Add searches.
  • Assign roles to any account user.
  • Save packages.
  • Update account settings, including billing information.

Individual users can have multiple roles, such as adjudicator and requester. To create custom roles and permissions, contact Checkr.

Play the Checkr Academy video below to learn how to add and manage users and roles.

Assign work locations to users

Use work locations to manage access to candidate information for your team by geographic location. Users subscribed to a specific location can access and manage candidates only in those locations.

To manage the locations assigned to a specific user, use the steps below:

1. Select the menu icon at the far right of the user's name.
2. Select "Edit geos."
3. Choose the locations to subscribe that user to.