Background Check RFP Template

Section 1: Pricing (12 questions)

• 1. Provide your standard per-check rate for our annual volume of [X] checks per year, by tier or by check type.
• 2. Are tier prices published on your public website? Provide the URL if so.
• 3. What is the per-check rate for the Basic / Standard / Premium tier at our volume?
• 4. What is the rate for Motor Vehicle Records (MVR) at our volume?
• 5. What is the rate for 5-panel drug screening (clinic-based and onsite)?
• 6. What is the rate for 7-year and 10-year employment verification at our volume?
• 7. What is the rate for education verification at our volume?
• 8. What is the rate for professional license verification at our volume?
• 9. What is the rate for international criminal records by country?
• 10. Is the per-check rate inclusive or exclusive of pass-through county-court access fees? If exclusive, what is the typical pass-through fee range?
• 11. Do you mark up pass-through fees, or pass them through at cost?
• 12. What is the per-employee per-month rate for continuous post-hire monitoring, if applicable?

Section 2: Contract terms (8 questions)

• 13. What is the minimum annual volume commitment, and what is the over-run rate?
• 14. What is the one-time setup fee, broken out by component (integration, training, account management)?
• 15. What term length options are available (one, two, three year)?
• 16. What is the year-on-year escalator at renewal? Is it capped? What is the basis (CPI, fixed, or vendor-determined)?
• 17. What is the early-termination clause, and what is the unwind cost?
• 18. What is the notice period required for non-renewal?
• 19. Is volume flex available (quarterly true-up rather than annual)?
• 20. What payment terms are standard (net 30, net 45, prepayment discount)?

Section 3: Check scope and quality (10 questions)

• 21. Provide a full menu of check types you support, including all add-ons.
• 22. For US county criminal records, do you source data via direct court access, third-party aggregator, or both?
• 23. What is your stated coverage of US counties, by direct vs aggregator source?
• 24. For international criminal records, which countries do you cover directly vs via partner?
• 25. What is your standard SLA for turnaround time on a Basic check, an Essential check, and a Complete check?
• 26. What is your dispute rate on returned records (industry benchmark is single-digit percent)?
• 27. Do you offer adjudication-as-a-service? If so, what is the per-check rate?
• 28. How do you handle records flagged for manual review?
• 29. What FCRA reinvestigation process do you follow if a candidate disputes a record?
• 30. What state-specific compliance modules do you offer (CA, NY, IL, MA, others)?

Section 4: Integration and operations (8 questions)

• 31. List your supported ATS integrations.
• 32. List your supported HRIS integrations (Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, Oracle HCM, BambooHR, others).
• 33. Describe the candidate experience: does the candidate complete the disclosure and authorisation inside the product, or out-of-band?
• 34. What candidate self-service is available (status check, document re-submit, dispute)?
• 35. What recruiter dashboard reporting is available?
• 36. What APIs are available for programmatic check initiation, status check, and result retrieval?
• 37. What audit trail do you maintain, and how long do you retain it?
• 38. What data export options are available for candidate and check data?

Section 5: Compliance and security (5 questions)

• 39. Are you accredited by the Professional Background Screening Association (PBSA, formerly NAPBS)?
• 40. What information security certifications do you hold (SOC2 Type II, ISO 27001, others)?
• 41. Provide your subprocessor list.
• 42. Provide your data residency policy and any restrictions on cross-border data transfer.
• 43. Provide your breach notification policy and historical breach record (if any).

Section 6: References and case studies (4 questions)

• 44. Provide three reference customers in our industry, at similar annual hire volume.
• 45. Provide a case study showing a customer migration from a competing vendor.
• 46. What is your customer retention rate over the past three years?
• 47. What is your average customer tenure?

How to use this template

• Customise the volume figures and check-type list to match your hire profile.
• Allow vendors two to three weeks to respond.
• Score responses on a consistent rubric (binary completeness, 1 to 5 quality).
• Cross-reference pricing claims against vendor public pages (where they have one).
• Conduct reference calls before signing.

Where to go next

• Read the buying guide for the full procurement process around the RFP.
• Read the implementation cost editorial for the first-year cost shape.
• Use the multi-vendor calculator to set the published-pricing benchmark before issuing the RFP.