Background checks keep your business safe, but not all records have the same risk. Assess helps you label and filter records to speed up your adjudication process.

Assess has three tiers:

• Assess Lite: Free service enabled by default in December 2023
• Assess Standard: Paid add-on service
• Assess Premium: Paid add-on service

Assess Lite

Assess Lite, Checkr’s free product, helps you easily indicate which records don’t matter and minimize them to speed up your adjudication process. You can then evaluate candidate reports faster and save time. When you review reports, we also provide easy-to-read descriptions for what records mean to help you feel more confident in your background check decisions.

In the Checkr Academy video below, you will learn how Checkr's free record-filtering product, Assess Lite, helps you screen candidates faster and increase consistency across your background check program.

Review and set Assess Lite guidelines.

Assess Standard

With Assess Standard, you gain access to tools that make it easier to grow a knowledgeable background check evaluation team as your company scales. You can codify your evaluation policies in Checkr by specifying how much time should pass before a record is no longer relevant across 55 crime types.

With even more industry best practices, you can further reduce bias by knowing which records pose less risk, spend less time on the evaluation process, and put more focus on your candidates.

Review and set Assess Standard guidelines.

Assess Premium

With Assess Premium, you can minimize records that don’t matter and label the ones that do. Assess Premium helps you get closer to automating your evaluations. You can further codify your evaluation policies by specifying how much time should pass before a record is no longer relevant across 235 crime types.

To identify records that matter and gauge a candidate's overall risk, you can create custom guidelines for the total number of convictions. You can also build guidelines for different locations and job positions. During the creation process, you can even show the potential effect of your guidelines.

With our Premium tier, you also get dedicated support from Checkr's Implementations team to guide you through the details.

Review and set Assess Premium rules.

Background checks keep your business safe, but not all records pose the same risk. Assess helps you easily indicate which records don’t matter, minimize them, and label them as Eligible to speed up your adjudication process. You can then evaluate candidate reports faster and save time.

When you review reports, we also provide easy-to-read descriptions for what records mean to help you feel more confident in your background check decisions.

Using Assess Lite has the benefits below:

• Easily indicate which records don’t matter and minimize them from reports.
• Quickly adopt Checkr’s pre-built standards for generally less-risky records.
• Review easy-to-read descriptions for what records mean on the report.

This article explains some differences between Checkr's discontinued positive adjudication matrix (PAM) and Assess Lite.

Review Assess Lite guidelines

Assess Lite compares your guidelines to state or county criminal records in a candidate's report. Assess Lite then assigns your eligibility label to each individual record. 

Quickstart guidelines

With access to industry best practices, you can further reduce bias by knowing which records have less risk, spend less time on the evaluation process, and put more focus on your candidates.

With quickstart templates, you can select from five common adjudication guidelines to help expand your hiring and encourage fairness:

• Non-convictions
• Non-felony marijuana possession
• Non-felony drug possession & paraphernalia
• Vehicles and traffic events not resulting in death or DUI
• Less-than-misdemeanor severity

Assess Lite helps you with starter guidelines that align with best practices and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidance for considering criminal records. These guidelines apply to all records.

Records that searches find in the categories you select have the Eligible status.

Quickstart templates have the sections below:

Conviction status

• Non-convictions
  • The record has not resulted in a conviction, possibly for a reason below:
    • A jury found the defendant "not guilty."
    • The court dismissed the case because of lack of evidence.
    • In certain locations, the court ordered deferred or alternative adjudication.
  • Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), non-convictions are reportable for up to seven years. Many states further restrict reporting by consumer reporting agencies (CRAs) and use by employers.

Record severity & timing

• Less-than-misdemeanor severity
  • These lowest-level records, such as infractions, typically result in fines.
  • These records can result in convictions and non-convictions. These records can appear for up to seven years where reportable.

Charge type

• Non-felony marijuana possession
  • As more states legalize marijuana use, several states and cities have started lowering employment barriers for people with low-level marijuana convictions.
  • Marijuana possession can result in either a conviction or non-conviction. Under the FCRA, non-convictions are reportable for up to seven years from the record filing date. Convictions are reportable indefinitely.
• Non-felony drug possession and paraphernalia
  • This category combines severity and the drug categories below. If the severity is lower than a felony, these categories will be labeled as Eligible.
    • Possession
    • Intent to possess
    • Possession of paraphernalia
    • Possession without prescription
  • These records can result in convictions or non-convictions. Under the FCRA, non-convictions are reportable for up to seven years from the record filing date. Convictions are reportable indefinitely. State, city, and county laws might further restrict reportability.
• Vehicles and traffic events not resulting in death or DUI

Lookback period guidelines

You can codify your report evaluation policies in Checkr by specifying how much time must pass before a record is no longer relevant within the Statutory category.

With lookback period guidelines, you can do the tasks below:

• Specify lookback period years for the Statutory category and its seven subcategories across three severities:
  • Less-than-misdemeanor
  • Misdemeanor
  • Felony
• Bulk edit by the subcategories below:
  
  • Custody & Support
  • Public Nuisance
  • Safety & Zoning
  • Fish & Game
  • Animal Ordinances
  • Gambling
  • Miscellaneous Citations

Adjust how Eligible records appear

You can set how Eligible records appear. Assess Lites minimizes these records by default, but you can expand them.

You can further speed up your adjudication process by auto-engaging candidates with Eligible records. Reports with the Eligible assessment automatically change to Engaged.

You can set how the Checkr Dashboard shows records that your guidelines assess as Eligible. The settings below that you enable apply to all assessed records for your account.

• Show Eligible records: The locations below show records assessed as Eligible:
  • Candidate Portal
  • Checkr API
  • Checkr Dashboard
  • Report PDF
• Hide Eligible records: By default, you have to select "Show more" in the Checkr Dashboard to show records with the Eligible status. Records with the Eligible status appear in the locations below:
  • Candidate Portal
  • Checkr API
  • Report PDF
• Remove Eligible records: No location below shows records assessed as Eligible:
  • Candidate Portal
  • Checkr API
  • Checkr Dashboard
  • Report PDF
• Hide Eligible records from pre-adverse action: When you begin the adverse action process, you can't select records assessed as Eligible to include in the pre-adverse action notice.
• Auto-engage candidates with Eligible records: Automatically engage candidates whose reports are assessed as Eligible.

Add new Assess Lite guidelines

Assess Lite guides you through adding Checkr-designed quickstart templates.

Select Add to automatically assess those records as Eligible.

Review previous guidelines

You can review each published version of your guidelines.

Below your guideline, select "See past versions." A window shows all published versions of the guideline with the user name and publication date.

Download and share guidelines

After you set your guidelines, you can save and publish them as usual. You can also download your guidelines in a CSV file to share with your team.

What does Assess Lite cost?

Assess Lite is free.

What are the five quickstart guidelines in Assess Lite?

Choose from five of our most adopted quickstart guidelines that focus on fairer evaluations. If a record is not relevant, you can label it as Eligible and minimize it from view by selecting "Hide from report."

• Non-convictions
• Non-felony marijuana possession
• Non-felony drug possession & paraphernalia
• Vehicles and traffic events not resulting in death or DUI
• Less-than-misdemeanor severity

What Statutory subcategories can I filter by in a lookback guideline?

• Custody & support
• Public nuisance
• Safety & zoning
• Fish & game
• Animal ordinances
• Gambling
• Miscellaneous citations

With Assess Standard, you gain access to tools that make it easier to grow a knowledgeable background check evaluation team as your company scales. You can codify your evaluation policies in Checkr by specifying how much time should pass before a record is no longer relevant across 55 crime types.

With access to even more industry best practices, you can further reduce bias by knowing which records pose less risk, spend less time on the evaluation process, and put more focus on your candidates.

Using Assess Standard has the benefits below:

• Codify your report evaluation policies in Checkr.
• Benefit from Checkr’s expertise and get access to even more industry best practices for generally less-risky records.
• Review easy-to-understand descriptions for what records mean on the report.

Review Assess Standard guidelines

Quickstart templates

Assess Standard helps you with starter guidelines that align with best practices and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidance for considering criminal records. These guidelines apply to all records.

Choose from 13 of our most adopted quickstart guidelines that focus on fairer evaluations. If a record isn't relevant, you can label it as Eligible and minimize it by selecting "Hide from report."

Records that searches find in the categories you select have the Eligible status.

Quickstart templates have four sections:

Conviction status

• Non-convictions
  • The record has not resulted in a conviction, possibly for a reason below:
    • A jury found the defendant "not guilty."
    • The court dismissed the case because of lack of evidence.
    • In certain locations, the court ordered deferred or alternative adjudication.
  • Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), non-convictions are reportable for up to seven years. Many states further restrict reporting by consumer reporting agencies (CRAs) and use by employers.
• Pending records
  • Records with no final disposition, or outcome, will be labeled as Eligible. "Pending" means that the case is ongoing.
  • Under the FCRA, pending records are reportable for up to seven years. Some states further restrict reporting by CRAs and use by employers.

Record severity & timing

• Less-than-misdemeanor severity
  • These lowest-level records, such as infractions, typically result in fines.
  • These records can result in convictions and non-convictions. These records can appear for up to seven years where reportable.
• Non-felony records older than seven years
  • This category focuses on the time that’s passed since the record. Non-felonies will be labeled as Eligible if they’re older than seven years as of the start of the background check.
  • These records can result in convictions or non-convictions. The FCRA allows reporting for up to seven years for non-convictions, such as certain dismissed records. Convictions are reportable indefinitely. To help promote employment access, some states restrict the reporting of all records older than seven years.

• All records older than seven years
  • This category focuses on the time that has passed since the record. Records older than seven years will be labeled as Eligible.
  • These records can result in convictions or non-convictions. Under the FCRA, non-convictions are reportable for up to seven years from the record filing date. Convictions are reportable indefinitely. To help promote employment access, some states restrict the reporting of all records older than seven years from the record’s disposition, parole, or prison release date.

Charge type

• Non-felony marijuana possession
  • As more states legalize marijuana use, several states and cities have started lowering employment barriers for people with low-level marijuana convictions.
  • Marijuana possession can result in either a conviction or non-conviction. Under the FCRA, non-convictions are reportable for up to seven years from the record filing date. Convictions are reportable indefinitely.

• Non-felony drug possession and paraphernalia
  • This category combines severity and the drug categories below. If the severity is lower than a felony, these categories will be labeled as Eligible.
    
    • Possession
    • Intent to possess
    • Possession of paraphernalia
    • Possession without prescription
  • These records can result in convictions or non-convictions. Under the FCRA, non-convictions are reportable for up to seven years from the record filing date. Convictions are reportable indefinitely. State, city, and county laws might further restrict reportability.

• Vehicle and traffic events not resulting in death or DUI
  • This category includes all records in the categories below and assesses them as Eligible:
    • License & registration
    • Parking
    • Speeding
    • Unsafe operation
    • Vehicle equipment
  • This category excludes all records in the categories below:
    • Driving under the influence
    • Hit & run causing death
    • Reckless driving causing death

• Public nuisance
  • This category labels the records below as Eligible:
    • Disorderly conduct
    • Littering
    • Loitering
    • Maintaining a disorderly house
    • Noise ordinance violation
    • Obstructing a passageway
    • Public urination
    • Unlawful storage

• Prostitution
  • This category labels the records below as Eligible:
    • Promoting prostitution
    • Prostitution
    • Soliciting a prostitute
  • This category excludes prostitution involving a minor.
• Checkr's expungement service qualifiers
  • This category includes records potentially available for expungement.
  • Many states allow for certain offenses, such as marijuana possession, to be removed from public record, or expunged or sealed. However, awareness, cost, and a complex legal process prevent most people from pursuing expungement.

Candidate details

• Candidate age was 18 or younger
  • This category focuses on the candidate's age at the time of the record.
  • Records from when the person was 18 years old or younger will be labeled as Eligible.
• Candidate was 25 or younger and is now 28 or older
  • This category focuses on the candidate's age at the time of the record.
  • If the candidate is 28 or older, records from when they were 25 years old or younger will be labeled as Eligible.

Guidelines for lookback period

Define when a record is no longer relevant across 55 charge types. The time period starts from the context date, which is the most recent event in the record’s history.

Setting guidelines for the lookback period is similar to setting an "age limit" for each of 55 record categories. You can indicate when you consider the record no longer relevant and want it assessed as Eligible. By default, all record categories appear as Review.

Use the fields to enter lookback periods for records older than the number of years you enter. More recent records appear as Review. Any cell with no assigned time since record defaults to Review.

Select the record type to read a description. These descriptions vary by state and aren't specific legal or statutory definitions for the crimes. Checkr recommends assigning a guideline for the time since record to each record category.

Set your Assess Standard guidelines

Show or hide Eligible records

You can set the Checkr Dashboard to show or hide records that your guidelines assess as Eligible. The settings below that you enable apply to all assessed records for your account.

• Display Eligible records: The locations below show records assessed as Eligible:
  • Candidate Portal
  • Checkr API
  • Checkr Dashboard
  • Report PDF
• Conceal Eligible records in the Dashboard: You have to select "Show more" in the Checkr Dashboard to show records with the Eligible status. Records with the Eligible status appear in the locations below:
  • Candidate Portal
  • Checkr API
  • Report PDF
• Remove Eligible records: The locations below won't show records assessed as Eligible:
  
  • Checkr API
  • Checkr Dashboard
• Hide records with Assessment "Eligible" from the Pre-Adverse Action modal: When you begin the adverse action process, you can't select records assessed as Eligible to include in the pre-adverse action notice.
• Auto-engage candidates when their report is assessed as "Eligible": Automatically engage candidates whose reports are assessed as Eligible.

Add new Assess Standard guidelines

Assess Standard guides you through adding Checkr-designed quickstart templates.

Select Add to automatically assess those records as Eligible.

Manage guidelines for lookback period

At the bottom of the page, you can use CSV files to download or upload your lookback period guidelines.

To download a blank template, select Download Template.

To download your guidelines as a CSV file, select "Download your guidelines."

After the CSV file downloads, you can edit your existing guidelines by uploading an edited CSV file. All new guidelines you upload overwrite your existing guidelines. To import your CSV file as a new set of guidelines, select "Upload guidelines."

Review previous guidelines

You can review the settings for each published version of your guidelines.

In a guideline, open the menu and select View Versions. A window shows all published versions of the guideline with the user name and publication date.