🚨Since we published this blog six years ago, Checkr has updated their pricing. For more information on what you and your church can do with this tool, see this article.
Here at Planning Center, we do what we do because we love our churches. We want to see them saving time, saving money, and being more secure. Today’s new feature wins in all those categories. We're thrilled to release background checks, both manually tracked statuses and fully integrated checks with our new friends, Checkr!
Checkr provides fast, reliable, and compliant background checks. With Checkr you can be confident that you are getting the most reliable background checks available, and that all of the tricky legal requirements of providing disclosures and obtaining authorization are handled. And just like with all of our other integrations, we’ve negotiated great pricing that we’re passing on directly to you, without any markup or kickbacks.
Here's How it Works
Let's say Joe just volunteered to teach in his kid's Sunday school class. We can get a background check started by ordering one right from his profile page. Just select a background check type, and hit "Initiate Check".
Joe will receive an email containing a link with to provide some additional information and to authorize the background check to be performed.
Once consent is provided, most background checks are completed in just a couple of days. When the results are ready, their status is automatically updated in Planning Center.
The Background Check Overview Page
The background check overview page shows you a list of all the background checks you’ve ordered. You can see Joe's at the top there, along with several others and their statuses.
You can even order several background checks at once from this page. Search for as many people as you'd like, select the background check package, and hit initiate. Done!
Manual Background Checks
In case you have background checks you've already completed, or if you need to use a provider other than Checkr, you can bring that information into Planning Center too. Manually track background check results from someone's profile page, or even better, with a bulk action from a list. This is really handy for churches that have been tracking background check results with custom fields or with tags in Planning Center Services. Just make a list of everyone who has passed a background check, then update their profiles with the background check status bulk action.
Once you start tracking background checks in Planning Center, you'll unlock great features in both Services and Check-Ins to help keep your ministry safe and secure.
Services
In Services you can now require background checks for members of any team. When you try to schedule someone to a Secure Team, you won’t be able to choose anyone who hasn't passed a background check.
Your background check policy will be enforced in the mobile apps too!
To get started quickly, an admin can require background checks for all teams in a service type at once, with one click in the service type's settings.
Check-Ins
Administrators in Check-Ins will now see an option to require background checks for all volunteers at a specific location, or for an entire event. When required, volunteers will not be able to check in through any type of station unless they have a cleared background check on file. More details available here.
There are some volunteer positions at your church where safety is of the highest priority. Screening people for these roles can be really important, so we're happy to get this feature into your hands!
More details are available in our documentation.