Getting Started
Background checks, also called Consumer Reports, are regulated by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and other laws. We'll need to complete a few steps before your account is ready to start screening.
BrightScreen simplifies this process for you with this step-by-step guide.
We recommend starting with an assessment of your organization's screening requirements and objectives.
Feeling confident you know what you need from a background check? Feel free to skip to credentialing your organization.
Roadmap to Success
Identify your screening requirements
Credential your organization
Onboarding
Start screening
Step-by-step guide
Expand each step for more information:
Identify your screening requirements
Assess your organization's screening requirements. You may already have screening guidelines in place, or you may be required by law or contract to screen a certain way. If you are unsure what is right for your organization, we offer two tools to simplify the decision process:
Tool 1: Self-assessment
We offer a short quiz that asks questions about your organization, its screening requirements, your industry, and other areas. When completed, our team reviews your inputs and sends you a customized recommendation on how you can implement or improve your screening processes.
Start a self-assessment
Tool 2: Guided discovery session
We also offer a live, Guided discovery session with a member of our team. During this 30-minute online session, we will ask questions about your organization to develop a recommendation on how you can implement or improve your screening processes.
Credential your organization
Step 1: Complete our online credentialing form
To comply with law, we ask you for basic organization information, such as your address, phone, email, and your best points of contact. Additionally, we collect your W-9 and evidence that your organization is in good standing with your state's Secretary of State and/or licensing department. This helps us establish that you have a real business need to access applicant data, as is required by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) in order to protect applicant privacy.
Credentialing typically takes 1-3 business days. To begin the credentialing process, click the button below.
Step 2: Provide additional information (if requested)
We may reach out to you for additional information, if needed. This does not happen often. Common reasons we may request additional information or clarifications are:
- Your provided legal name (the name registered with your Secretary of State) is a mismatch against your W-9 and/or provided evidence of good standing
- Your email address is a mismatch against the name of your organization (every organization must be credentialed on its own, even if there is a parent/child relationship)
- We could not complete our phone, web, and address verification process
- You do not have a permissible purpose that BrightScreen services (we do not provide consumer reports for credit transactions, for example)
- We have reason to believe that you submitted false or misleading information
- We have reason to believe that you do not have a legitimate business purpose to access applicant data
Step 3: Approval or Denial
Once our Compliance team completes its due diligence, we will issue an approval or denial of your credentialing request.
Approval
Our team will reach out to you within a business day of approval for an introduction, scheduling of onboarding training, and to answer any questions you may have.
Denial
If we requested additional information or a clarification, and did not receive a response that meets our credentialing standards, you will receive a denial and an account cannot be opened at BrightScreen.
Onboarding
Once our Compliance team completes credentialing your organization, we'll reach out to the Primary Account Holder (PAH) to complete account setup.
During this process, we'll introduce ourselves to you and your team, load your account data into our systems, setup End-User Accounts (EUAs) for multi-user organizations, and schedule a complimentary training session. We make sure you and your team are ready to get to work screening your applicants.
Start screening
Once your team completes onboarding, you have full access to order reports. Our BrightCare team provides ongoing support, answering any questions you have in the future.