Tracking background check progress — the timeline view

Last updated: October 6, 2026

Summary: Every background check has a Timeline you can open from the contractor's background-checks tab — it shows each screening component's status, timestamps, and the provider's estimated completion time. Most checks finish in days; county-level court searches, deep candidate history, and international checks are the usual reasons one runs long. You have more visibility than the worker does, so use the timeline to set expectations — and contact support if a check is past its estimate or looks stuck.

Where to find the timeline

Open the contractor's Background Checks tab and click Timeline on the check. Ascen works with several screening providers (which one runs a given check depends on the package and location), and the timeline normalizes their progress into one view:
- Each screening component (e.g. criminal searches, drug test events) as its own entry
- Status transitions with timestamps
- The provider's estimated completion time, where available — these estimates are usually good, but they're not guarantees

What the statuses mean

  • Pending — in progress; check the estimated completion.

  • Invitation pending / expired — the check hasn't started because the candidate hasn't completed their part (or the invitation link lapsed and needs to be re-sent). The clock doesn't start until they act.

  • Suspended — the provider has paused the check, usually waiting on a court or on candidate-supplied information.

  • Consider — the report came back with findings that need review; a compliant adjudication process follows (see our policy on adversely denying a candidate). This adds time by design — the candidate gets a legally required response window.

  • Dispute — the candidate is disputing a result with the provider; the check holds until resolved.

  • Retesting required — a screening (typically a drug test) has to be repeated.

Why checks run long

  • County courthouse searches — some counties still require a clerk to search physical records, and court backlogs vary seasonally.

  • Lots of history — candidates with many addresses (or common names needing extra identity-matching research) trigger more county searches and verifications.

  • International checks — some countries' criminal and employment verifications take substantially longer than US checks.

  • Candidate action needed — unanswered provider requests for documents or information stop the clock; a nudge from you to the candidate is often the fastest fix.

  • Drug test scheduling — the candidate has to show up for collection; results follow lab timing.

Employment and education verifications: what the candidate can and cannot do

These components behave differently from a criminal search, and they are a common source of a long-running Pending that nobody appears to be working on.

  • How the candidate supplies their history sets the speed. When they fill in the screening provider’s forms they can either connect their payroll provider, which confirms their employment almost immediately, or type their job titles, employers and dates in by hand. Manual entry means the provider has to contact each employer to confirm it, and that takes substantially longer. Worth telling candidates before they start: connect the payroll account if you are offered the option.

  • While it is still Pending, there is nothing to send us. This is the part that surprises people. We cannot ask the candidate for supporting documents, and we cannot pass documents to the provider, until the component’s status changes and the provider tells us what it needs. If the status moves to Consider, we can request the specific documentation that resolves it — but not before. So “what can our candidate provide to clear this?” has the same answer as “can it be expedited?”: nothing yet, and we will come to you if that changes.

  • Use the wait. Screening runs in parallel with the rest of onboarding, so the most useful thing to do with a pending verification is make sure the worker has finished their other onboarding steps — those are far more often the real reason a start date slips.

Where the finished report itself is

The Timeline shows progress. The completed report file is somewhere else: open the contractor’s record, go to the Onboarding tab and scroll down to Screening Files. That is where a finished background check or drug screen report can be downloaded.

If a screen shows a completed result but no file appears under Screening Files, email support@ascen.com with the contractor’s name and which screen you need — that one we can usually sort out on our side.

What the worker sees (less than you)

Workers see their check's overall status in onboarding, but not the component-level timeline — so "what's taking so long?" questions land with you. Use the timeline's estimate to set expectations, and point workers to the worker-facing article Why is the background check taking longer than expected?

When to escalate

If a check is past its estimated completion, sits in Suspended with no movement, or the candidate says they've completed a step that isn't reflected — email support@ascen.com with the contractor's name and which check is affected. Providers generally can't expedite court-dependent searches, but support can chase status, re-send expired invitations, and fix anything stuck on our side.

  • How long do background checks and drug tests take?

  • Can I run my own background checks/drug tests?

  • Our policy for adversely denying a candidate