Pinpoint's integration with Sterling allows you to order background and other checks on a candidate from within the Pinpoint interface using your company's Sterling account.

The guide to the Sterling integration is split into 3 parts

In order to enable and configure the Sterling integration ahead of it's use, you'll need to have the Company Manager role assigned to you.

To order check on candidate and be able to view the results, you'll need the Background Check Creator role.

If you just need to give people access to view a completed background check result, you can assign them the Background Check Viewer role

Step 1

From the left hand menu, select the Integrations page under the settings menu.

Step 2

In the integrations menu, click on the Apps button and then search for, or scroll down to, the Sterling integration. Click the Add button for that integration.

Step 3

With the integration added, you'll need to fill in your Client ID and Client Secret, and select which the region you're operating in. You can get these details from Sterling's team if you don't already have them.

Step 4:

Once you have successfully saved your Hirer ID, you'll need to make sure the toggle switch in the top right hand corner of the page is set to Enabled, and with this done, it will now be possible to post jobs

When First Advantage (Sterling) tells Pinpoint that something has happened to a background check, Pinpoint translates their status into the closest matching Pinpoint background check status. That happens automatically and most customers never need to change it.

If those default statuses don't reflect the way your team works, you can override them. There are two optional settings at the bottom of the integration's settings page, and both are off until you turn them on:

You only need to list the values you want to change. Anything you don't list carries on behaving exactly as it does today.

Go to Company → Settings → Integrations, open First Advantage (Sterling), and switch Custom status mapping on. Then click Add status mapping and complete a row for each value you want to change:

Add as many rows as you need, then click Save. Use Remove to delete a row.

Not sure of the exact wording First Advantage uses? Your First Advantage account manager can confirm it, and it's also the value you'll see coming through on your existing checks. You can also see the list in the Sterling documentation.

Switch Custom sub-status mapping on and click Add sub-status mapping. It works the same way, except the value on the left is First Advantage's subStatus, and it behaves with a higher priority:

While custom sub-status mapping is on, Pinpoint is using the sub-status to decide the main status, so it no longer records it separately as a sub-status on the check.

Ignore means "don't act on this":

Nothing breaks. Pinpoint falls back to its built-in mapping, so any value you haven't listed behaves exactly as it did before you turned the setting on. You can find the built-in mapping in Default status mapping at the end of this article.

Where a check has a completed report, the First Advantage result takes priority over its main status.

Step 1

While looking at the candidate's application profile, click the action button (the three small dots) above their details, select the Sterling Background Check option:

Step 2

The Background Check form will open. The details that we hold on the candidate will populate the Name and Email Address fields, but you'll need to select the correct Package and Bill Code. The items available to pick from in these lists are supplied to us by Sterling and depend on your which of their services you have set up, so you can add additional packages via Sterling's team if you need additional options. When you've selected everything correctly, hit the Send Invite button.

Once you've pressed Send Invite, the candidate will receive an invite to start the process.

Step 3

With the invite sent, you can monitor the status of the background check within Pinpoint via the Background Checks tab on a candidate's application. Invited candidates will have the Invited Status, Candidates that have started the process or who are being reviewed by Sterling will be Pending, and when the results are ready, the candidate will be marked as Complete. Once they have been marked as completed, you can click the click the View Report button to view the complete set of results from within the Sterling interface.

Step 4

You will be notified if a candidate you have visibility over's background check has been completed and the results are ready for you to view, as long as you have the 'New Background Check Report Received' notification enabled. It will be enabled for you by default, but you can enable or disable it from your personal settings menu, found by clicking your initials in the top right hand corner, selecting the Settings menu and then, the notifications tab.

This is what Pinpoint does out of the box, with no custom mapping turned on. Where a check has a completed report, the result table takes priority over the status table.

There is no built-in mapping for First Advantage sub-statuses. If you want values such as Invite Incomplete or Cancelled Invite to determine the status shown in Pinpoint, you need to turn on custom sub-status mapping and map them yourself.

Q: Are the First Advantage values for the mapping case-sensitive?

A: Yes. The value you type has to match exactly what First Advantage sends, capitalisation included - Clear and clear are different.

Q: What happens if a value comes in that I haven't mapped?

A: Pinpoint uses its default mapping for it. For sub-statuses, it falls back to the main status or result.