We’re excited to announce several improvements aimed at enhancing your Smile Checks experience, streamlining communication, and making our platform even more robust for your workflow. Here’s what’s new:

More Professional & Flexible Reference Forms

• Display your company logo on reference forms - Your branding comes first. Now, when your references complete a form, your company logo will be displayed at the top. This adds a professional touch and helps reassure your contacts that the request is legitimate.
• "N/A" option for reference form questions - Not all questions always apply. Each form question now includes an "N/A" option, making it easier for references to accurately and quickly respond, which should improve completion rates and report clarity.

Improved Data Handling & Report Clarity

• Smarter handling of missing data - Whenever a candidate hasn’t provided necessary information or connected their account, generated reports will now clearly display "N/A" instead of leaving you guessing. This offers clearer insight when reviewing or sharing results.
• Extra email validation across candidate and reference forms - We’ve enhanced our email validation to increase the chances your messages get delivered to the right people from the start. This reduces bounce backs and missed communications for both candidates and references.

Reliability, Stability & Email Updates

• Reference forms now hosted on AWS - As part of our ongoing commitment to reliability, onboarding and reference forms have moved to AWS infrastructure. This means better uptime, faster loading, and more consistent performance—especially at high volumes.
• Email sender domain change to getsmilechecks.com - All outgoing emails now come from our dedicated domain, improving deliverability and building trust with your contacts.
• Updated default email and booking links - We've standardized support to support@getsmilechecks.com. Any replies or booking queries will go straight to our team so you get help even faster.

Bug Fixes & Recipient Improvements

• Reference report recipient fixes - We’ve fixed a bug where reports were not redirecting to the correct recipients or where it was tricky to add more recipients. Delivering reference reports is now more reliable.
• Reference link structure fix for reopened checks - When reopening a previously expired reference check, the correct updated link format is now always used, avoiding confusion and ensuring references get to the right place.

We hope these updates level up your experience with Smile Checks. As always, we welcome your feedback—let us know how we can keep making Smile Checks the best it can be for you and your team.

We’re excited to share a set of updates that improve your Smile Checks experience with a focus on smoother ordering and even better reference collection. Here’s what’s new this week:

Simpler, Faster Reference Questionnaires

Newly added references will now receive our redesigned questionnaires, purpose-built to be more concise and effortless to answer. This lets your respondents complete references more quickly and easily, boosting completion rates. These changes also lay the foundation for upcoming improvements to the workflow and future features. If you’ve noticed changes to the format or flow, this is all part of preparing Smile Checks to deliver you (and your candidates) even smoother experiences.

Better Credit Order Management

Managing your Smile Checks balance just got easier:

• If you have a pending credit order, the Get More Credits page will now show your pending order instead of starting a new one. This avoids confusion and prevents accidental duplicate orders.
• You can now cancel pending credit orders directly from your dashboard. If you spot any older pending orders you don’t need, just cancel them for clarity.
• For orders voided or cancelled (including through e-wallet or bank transfer), we now automatically expire these with our payment processor right away—rather than 24 hours later. This means you’ll see the final status of orders faster and can move forward without waiting.

Reference Security and Compliance Updates

Smile Checks now also logs the IP addresses of references providing feedback. Capturing this extra layer of information strengthens your compliance, supports fraud prevention, and can help with future verification needs.

Other Improvements

We’re making ongoing tweaks to our email delivery systems to keep your reference invitations and notifications landing in inboxes instead of spam folders. Reliable communication matters, and we’re committed to getting it right.

We've also reflected in our portal how our Philippine reseller partner, Pareto Consulting, handles credit orders. This makes compliance and transactions clearer for customers in the Philippines.

We’d love to hear your feedback as you use these improvements. Your insights help us continue building a smarter, user-friendly Smile Checks experience. Stay tuned for more updates soon!

We’re happy to announce several updates that make Smile Checks easier to use and more intuitive — especially for candidates and reference contacts.

Enhancements to the Candidate Experience

We’ve added helpful text to the onboarding form’s character reference page. Now, candidates will know exactly what’s needed to complete their references, reducing confusion and speeding up the process.

The email invitation sent to candidates has been updated for better clarity and user experience. Invitations are now easier to understand and more engaging, so candidates know exactly what steps to take next.

Streamlined Forms and Smarter Status Tracking

Previously, candidates were required to enter their date of graduation and other education details, even when they had no formal education to report. This validation issue is now fixed. The onboarding form only asks for relevant information, saving time and preventing frustration.

We resolved an issue where reference check statuses weren't updating correctly, which sometimes led to unnecessary follow-up emails being sent to reference contacts. Status tracking is now more accurate, which should reduce redundant communications and enhance the experience for your references.

Streamlined Final Step in Check Request Form

We’ve also an update to the check request form, specifically focusing on the final step. By cleaning up the layout and removing unnecessary elements, this step is now much less visually cluttered.

This update makes it easier for you to review your information before submitting, minimizing confusion and helping you confidently complete your requests. We know that a clear and simple workflow is essential—especially at the finish line—so we’ll continue refining these small but important details to make Smile Checks smoother for everyone.

Stability Improvements

We fixed a bug in credit logging that occasionally caused ending credits to be logged incorrectly in the credit log (wallet balances were not affected). The credit log now reflects your true transaction history, so you have transparency and confidence in your records.

Thank you for your continued feedback — it helps us make Smile Checks even better. If you have suggestions or run into any issues, please let us know through our support channel.

We’re currently experiencing an unexpected issue with our Candidate Onboarding Form. Our team is actively investigating and working to restore access as quickly as possible.

The entire onboarding process has been updated and redesigned to be a smoother, more professional, and more consistent with your company's brand. You can customize the onboarding app with your company logo and colors, ensuring a seamless experience from the first touchpoint. A user-friendly, multi-step form allows candidates to easily submit their information, upload necessary documents (like CVs, payslips, or certificates), and track their progress.

We are rolling these changes out in stages and is expected to complete by July 14, 2025. New candidates can expect to experience these changes immediately, and older candidates will be migrated over in stages over the next few days.

1. Seamless Navigation and User Control

The application is designed to feel less like a rigid form and more like a guided process, giving candidates control and clarity at every stage.

• State Preservation: Candidates can start the application, leave, and return later without losing any of their entered information. All progress is automatically saved to their local browser until final submission, which is a crucial feature for lengthy applications.
• Effortless Navigation: A persistent navigation sidebar (on desktop) and a progress bar (on mobile) show candidates exactly where they are in the process. They can freely move back to previous steps to review or edit information without losing data.
• Final Review Stage: Before the final submission, a dedicated validation screen presents a complete summary of all the information they've entered. This gives them a final opportunity to catch any errors, ensuring accuracy and building confidence.
• Clear Expectations: The process begins with a checklist of all the requirements and documents they will need, so there are no surprises.

2. A Modern, Reliable, and Personalized Interface

The look, feel, and performance of the application have been enhanced to meet modern web standards and provide a frictionless experience.

• Complete Branding Control: The application can be fully customized with your company's logo and primary brand color. This ensures the onboarding journey feels like a natural extension of your organization.
• Robust Verification Module: The integration with third-party verification services (like SSS, NBI, etc.) has been completely re-architected to be faster and more efficient. For the candidate, this translates to a highly reliable and crash-free experience, eliminating common issues like lingering pop-ups or frozen screens that previously caused frustration.
• Personalized Experience: The interface includes modern comforts a fully responsive UI, providing an optimal experience on any device, from mobile phones to desktops.

3. Proactive Guidance and Trust-Building

The platform is designed to be transparent and supportive, building trust with the candidate throughout the process.

• Clear Consent: The first step requires candidates to explicitly review and agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy before proceeding, ensuring they feel their data privacy is respected.
• On-Demand Help: An introductory screen includes a "Need Help?" link that brings up an instructional video, providing immediate support for candidates who may be unsure how to proceed.
• Transparent Checks: For each verification step, clear consent text is provided so the candidate knows exactly what information is being accessed.

These enhancements collectively create an onboarding experience that is not just efficient for the hiring manager but also respectful, intuitive, and reassuring for the candidate.