macdata background screening

Frequently Asked Questions

Let's help you get started by answering some commonly asked questions.

Pre-Employment Background Screening

Pre-employment screening is not a sign of mistrust or an invasion of privacy, but rather, an important step in protecting your company from the risks that come with an untrustworthy employee. Employers cannot rely on resumes alone to determine which candidates will make good employees. 

According to the National Association of Professional Background Screeners, 56 percent of applicants’ resumes contain one or more significant discrepancies. 

Simply having a background check policy in place encourages applicants to be more forthcoming in their resumes and interviews. While a pre-employment screening policy does not guarantee that all “bad” applicants will be weeded out, it does provide employers with the hard data they need to help make informed hiring decisions.

If an employee harms someone on the job, his employer can be charged with negligent hiring if a court determines the employer knew or should have known through a background check the employee was dangerous. Employers are increasingly being held responsible for negligent hiring, and more than 70% of employers involved in negligent hiring cases lose their lawsuits.

Employers can show that they practice the due diligence required to avoid negligent hiring by having solid pre-employment screening practices in place. Most pre-employment screening programs include a criminal background search conducted at the court for each place the candidate has lived for the last seven years. 

Employers should also verify work history at each company for which the applicant has worked in the last seven years. All degrees and licenses claimed by the applicant should also be verified. These simple steps may be enough to show that an employer took reasonable precautions before hiring an applicant.

Once you have completed MacData’s new account application, you are able to order background checks using our user-friendly, web-based software system. Employers also have requirements under the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act as well as some state consumer reporting laws. Those requirements are covered in answers to other FAQ’s listed on this page.
Yes. A disclosure to your applicant that you are going to procure a background check is required under the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Under the FCRA, the disclosure must be made using a separate document that consists solely of the disclosure statement and may also include authorization language.
Yes. Next to the applicant’s legal name, the date of birth is the most important identifier used in pre-employment screening. Most courts use it as a primary identifier, and some actually require it to process a record search.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires employers that procure a background check from a consumer reporting agency that will be used in a hiring decision to disclose to the candidate that a background check will be conducted. 

If the background check contains items of information that may cause you to make a hiring decision that will adversely affect your candidate for employment, you must provide the candidate with a letter advising that adverse action may be taken, include in the letter the name, address and telephone number of the consumer reporting agency that prepared the report, provide a copy of the background check report, and also provide the FCRA summary of consumer’s rights document that explains the rights consumers have under federal law. 

This gives the candidate an opportunity to dispute any inaccuracies that may be part of that report.

All criminal record searches go back seven years. 

The length at which records can be searched depends on the record bearer. For example, some courts allow for a quick and efficient search of their records further back than seven years. 

The length at which criminal records can be reported to a customer of a consumer reporting agency depends on the type of information being reported as well as applicable federal and state laws that contain prohibitions on reporting certain types of information. As an industry standard, criminal conviction searches date back seven years.

Criminal record searches typically take between 24 and 48 hours to report. However, a number of factors can affect the length of time a search takes, including, the need to match an applicant’s identifiers to court records, the lack of identifiers like date of birth or Social Security Number, common applicant names, court holidays, and multiple records for the same applicant. 

With our user-friendly, web-based software, you will have access to updates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

We offer the most comprehensive, full-featured, web-based software system on the market. This system is free to all our clients. It requires no setup fees, no software to buy and no upgrade. You will receive email notifications when an order is placed and when the order has been completed. 

You will have access to the system 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Because the system is Internet-based, it is paperless and will give you access to your records two years after the search was ordered.

No pre-employment screening firm can guarantee that all information on its reports is 100% accurate simply because we must rely on information sources for that accuracy. For example, data will not show up if it was incorrectly entered or missing from the legal system in the first place, if a county does not report its information to the correct agency or if an applicant gets through the legal system using false identifiers. 

However, we are committed to training and developing the industry’s finest pre-employment screening personnel who adhere to the highest quality standards so we can provide the most accurate reports possible to our Daytona Beach and nationwide customers. We earn our customers’ trust by putting them first and providing them with honest, dedicated service.

Pre-employment screening is a very diverse and complex process requiring access to numerous information sources. Generally speaking, a background check costs far less than the new employee’s first day of work, but your cost will vary depending on your customized package. 

Our pre-employment screening consultants can help you build a background check program unique to your organization that is efficient, cost-effective, and offers the integrity all employers need.

Tenant Background Screening

The flip-side of renting out real estate is not renting out real estate, i.e., vacancies. When you have a vacancy, no one is paying for that empty space but you, through your mortgage, insurance, and all the expenses that come with making sure the place does not collapse from neglect. While filling a vacancy is easy, filling a vacancy with a tenant who will pay the rent on time, not annoy neighbors, and keep the property in decent shape is not so easy.

In order to weed out prospects that are likely to become headaches in the future, you need a plan. This plan is your system for screening the prospects. Without a plan, you are just taking a shot in the dark. In addition, given the current state of the law, it is illegal to treat applicants differently on the basis of race, sex, religion, and other characteristics. A plan that you follow consistently will help you avoid getting into difficulty for doing this or appearing to do it.

Yes, definitely. It is a cliché that the nastiest disputes are between relatives and former friends. You will need the information you verify through credit checks, etc., whether you are friends with the prospect or not. Whether you lower your standards to help out a friend or relative is up to you, but at the minimum, you should have the information on hand, just in case.
Absolutely! Per the Fair Credit Reporting Act, a landlord must have a separate and distinct tenant release clearly stating that the tenant gives permission to run a credit report and criminal record search. We also suggest that the landlord review a picture ID.

You don’t. Although an application is extremely helpful, always verify the information through an independent source. For example, rather than calling the telephone number provided by the tenant, use the Yellow Pages or directory assistance. Be sure to talk to Human Resources. 

Call your county auditor’s office to verify the name of the owner of each of the tenant’s past addresses. Then give the real owner a call. Ask the landlord if he would rent to them again. Did they give proper notice? Did they leave the property in good condition? Did they have pets? Did they pay on time and as agreed?

A credit report is one of the most important components in your tenant screening process. It serves to establish creditworthiness and show ON TIME or DELINQUENT PAYING HABITS. 

A credit report can also assist in establishing the identity of your prospective tenant by comparing their personal information to that entered on the rental application.

We don’t consider it useful. If you were a mortgage company or a car dealership, the score would be important. However, a landlord must look at each line item of the credit report. The landlord must review the report and ask themselves why the score was low. If it is because of medical bills, foreclosure, or a discharged bankruptcy, the tenant may still be an excellent candidate. Look at the entire picture, not just a score.
Your rental property is probably one of your largest assets. Why let a stranger move in and impact your life for the next 12 months? Now is the time to conduct a thorough, due-diligence investigation, before the person has moved in and wrecked your home! People are evicted for reasons other than non-payment of rent, drug activity, noise ordinance, and health code violations. What a tenant has done in the past is, possibly, what they are going to do in the future.
Decline your prospective tenant’s application to rent properly. Be sure to provide the applicant(s) with an “Adverse Action” letter for any action other than an approval on standard terms (i.e. an additional deposit, cosigner, or declined application). Know your local, state, and Federal laws regarding the use of consumer reports. In some states, you must also provide a copy of the credit report to the applicant.

LiveScan Digital Fingerprinting

LiveScan fingerprinting refers to both the technique and the technology used to capture fingerprints electronically, without the need for the more traditional method of ink and paper. LiveScan fingerprinting provides an automated service for criminal history background checks that may be required as a condition of employment, licensing, certification, adoptions, or volunteering.
You will need to bring (1) the ORI number for the agency that has originated the fingerprint-based background check request; and (2) a valid photo identification (i.e. driver’s license or ID card, passport, military identification). An out-of-state identification is acceptable as long as it is still valid.

The ORI number, or Originating Agency Identifier, identifies the agency that has originated a request. It is an alpha-numeric code assigned to an authorized agency and once inputted into the LiveScan system, it determines where the results of the background check will be sent. 

Please be advised that we will not provide or look up any ORI numbers in our office. If you need to obtain your ORI number, please contact the agency that has told you that you must undergo a fingerprint-based background check.

The fees vary depending on the reason for fingerprinting. The fee is usually comprised of an FDLE submission fee, an FBI submission fee, and a provider rolling fee. All appropriate fees are listed during the scheduling process.
Payment is due at the time of fingerprinting. We accept cash or credit/debit cards with Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express logo. Please be advised that we DO NOT accept checks.
Some state agencies now require photo submission during fingerprinting. If that is the case, we have a small photo studio in our office and will take the photo during the fingerprinting appointment. There will be an additional photo capture fee included in your fingerprinting fee. If you are required to have a photo submitted at the time of fingerprinting, please refrain from wearing hats or heavy makeup to your appointment.
Most results are available within 72 hours of transmission. For security and privacy reasons, MacData Background Screening does not have access to the results of your background check.

Fingerprints rarely get rejected; however, there are a number of reasons fingerprint submissions can be rejected. The most common reason is lack of fingerprint ridge detail. This can be caused by professions that work with corrosive or abrasive materials such as cleaning materials, stonework, etc. 

Another factor may be age. As a person ages, sometimes, fingerprint detail is lost. Approximately 1-5% of the general population is affected by this issue. If an applicant’s fingerprints are rejected on this basis, MacData Background Screening will retake the applicant’s fingerprints at no additional cost. 

You will receive a letter of rejection from your requesting agency, containing a TCR (Transaction Control Reference) number that is necessary for resubmission. You will need to bring this letter with you to your appointment.

No. When you are fingerprinted, the record is submitted with the ORI you provided. That number indicates which agency is authorized to receive the results of your background check. The FDLE and FBI conduct the criminal history record check and send the results directly to the authorized agency. 

MacData Background Screening never has access to the results of your background check. If another agency or company is requiring you to complete a background check, you’ll need to register using the new ORI and complete the fingerprinting process for the new requestor.

Mobile services are available for groups of 10 or more within Volusia and Flagler counties. If you are outside of Volusia and Flagler counties, a travel fee will apply. Contact our office for more information.