We have several updates this week designed to create a smoother and more transparent Smile Checks experience for both HR administrators and candidates.

Smarter Bounced Email Handling

We now automatically monitor and respond to bounced emails sent to candidates or references. If an email bounces, Smile Checks will pause all further reminders to those recipients and our Customer Support Team will proactively follow up to resolve any issues with contact information or availability. This reduces confusion for your team and ensures important requests don’t get lost due to incorrect email addresses.

Candidate Form Prefill

We’ve improved the candidate experience by prefilling First Name, Last Name, Mobile, and Email fields on the candidate form for all new checks. This saves time for your candidates, reduces the risk of data entry errors, and helps move checks along more quickly.

Knowledgebase is Live in Portal

Quick support is now just a click away. Our new (alpha) Knowledgebase is now linked directly from the “Help!” section within the Portal. Both HR admins and candidates can access instant answers to common questions. The Knowledgebase is in early development, but available to everyone — let us know what information you’d like to see next.

Other Improvements

• The subject lines of closed and completed notification emails are now clearer, so your team can easily recognize their status at a glance.
• We’ve fixed an issue where some check requests were closing prematurely, ensuring checks stay open as intended.

We hope these updates help your workflow and support candidates more efficiently. As always, your feedback is welcome and essential in shaping the future of Smile Checks.

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.