When you order a Pinpoint background check, you're asking us to run a consumer report on a candidate.
US law - the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) - requires you to certify that you're requesting the report for employment purposes, that you've told the candidate, and that you'll handle any adverse action correctly. Pinpoint captures these certifications from you before the check is placed, and keeps a record of what you agreed to, when, and by whom.
By default, these certifications are made per-order. This means each time an order is placed, the user must check the required consent before.
We can also enable consent to be given at the job level - this is an additional setting and will require you to reach out to your Pinpoint contact if you’d like to enable this option. Recording consent at the job level means manual consent isn’t required each time an order is placed. It also means automated orders triggered by stage actions will execute even if the stage move is done by an automation.
When is consent required?
Consent is required for International and US-relevant Certn background checks - anything where FCRA obligations could apply. It's not required for packages that only contain UK or Northern Ireland checks, because FCRA doesn't apply to those.
We will automatically detect whether a package is UK/NI-only and skips the consent step where appropriate. This happens for:
Packages that only contain UK / NI checks (Basic DBS, Enhanced DBS, Disclosure Scotland, UK Right to Work, AccessNI, and similar)
Packages that combine UK / NI checks with region-agnostic checks (Identity Verification, Employment Verification, Education Verification, Credential Verification), as long as no non-UK check is included
If the package contains any non-UK check (for example, a US criminal record check), FCRA consent is required - even if the rest of the package is UK-focused.
How does per-order consent work?
Per-order consent is Pinpoint's default. Every time you order a background check that requires consent, you'll be asked to tick three certifications before the order is placed. This happens whether you're ordering from:
A candidate's Background Checks tab
The central Checks page
A bulk action on the applications table
A stage move into a stage with a background-check action
Once you tick the three certifications and confirm, Pinpoint records:
The user who certified
The date and time the certification was given
The exact certification text as it was displayed to you
The order the consent was recorded against
The order proceeds only after this record is created.
How does job-level consent work?
Job-level consent is an alternative to per-order consent. You give the same FCRA certifications once for a job, and every background check ordered against that job afterwards uses the recorded consent.
Job-level consent is an optional preference that can be turned on - please ask your Pinpoint contact to enable it for your account.
How do I record consent at job level?
Once the setting is enabled, Pinpoint prompts you to record job-level consent at two points:
When you publish or save a new job - a Consent for background checks dialog appears. You can either certify the three FCRA statements and save, or Skip and record consent later.
From the Job Information drawer on an existing job - open the job, scroll down to the Background Checks Compliance section, and click Edit.
If you skip when publishing, the job is saved without consent. You won't be able to place FCRA-relevant background check orders on that job until consent is recorded - the per-order consent flow will still work, but the job-level record will be missing.
What happens once job-level consent is recorded?
Any FCRA-relevant background check order on that job goes straight through - Pinpoint uses the recorded job-level consent instead of asking you to certify again. You'll see a plain confirmation dialog instead of the FCRA checkboxes.
If the job doesn't yet have a valid job-level consent, you’ll be asked to provide consent.
UK / NI-only packages still skip consent altogether, regardless of whether job-level consent has been recorded.
Can I see who gave the job-level consent?
Yes. Open the Job Information drawer and expand the Background Checks Compliance section. You'll see:
Who gave the consent (user name)
When it was given (date and time)
The exact certification text they agreed to
The certification text is stored verbatim at the point consent was given, so if the wording ever changes, historical records still reflect what was actually agreed to at the time.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to give consent for a UK-only package?
No. If every check in the package is a UK or NI check (or a region-agnostic check bundled alongside UK/NI checks), Pinpoint skips FCRA consent altogether. You'll see the standard confirmation instead. This is because FCRA is US law and doesn't apply to UK checks.
If your package contains any non-UK check - for example, a US criminal record check - FCRA consent is required, even if you're a UK-based company.
What if I have job-level consent enabled but the job doesn't have consent recorded yet?
You'll still be asked to certify at the point of ordering. Once consent is recorded at job level (via the Job Information drawer), subsequent orders on that job will skip the per-order prompt.
Can I turn on job-level consent for existing jobs?
Yes. Once you enable the company setting, existing jobs don't automatically get consent recorded - you'll need to open each job and record consent via the Job Information drawer. Alternatively, per-order consent continues to work as normal for any job without a job-level record.
Does job-level consent expire?
Job-level consent stays valid for the life of the job. It doesn't expire on a schedule.
Who is allowed to record job-level consent?
Any user with the permission to publish or edit the job. There's no separate permission for recording consent.
Do bulk actions work with job-level consent?
Yes. If you're moving multiple candidates into a stage with a background check action, and each job the candidates belong to has valid job-level consent, Pinpoint doesn't prompt you again. If any job in the batch doesn't have consent recorded, Pinpoint falls back to the standard per-order consent prompt for the relevant orders.
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