How to set up Compliance Checklists for your direct clients
Build a General checklist for all your clients, add extra items for a client or a single site, and let the platform check every worker before each shift.
Every client has its own expectations. One wants medication training for every worker, another wants a site induction before anyone works there, and a home in Scotland needs a PVG check rather than a DBS. Keeping track of all that by hand is where mistakes creep in.
Compliance Checklists turn those expectations into rules. You write each requirement down once, choose where it applies, and the platform checks every worker against it before they're placed on a shift at one of your direct clients.
Before you begin
- Compliance Checklists are part of Agency Accelerator Pro. Agencies on other plans see an invitation to upgrade.
- They need to be switched on for your agency. If you don't see Compliance in the left-hand menu, contact our Support Team.
- Make a list of what each client expects. Start with what every client asks for (this goes on General), then note the differences for individual clients or sites.
- Check every client site has its postcode. The postcode decides which criminal record check applies.
How it fits together
| Where | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Compliance › Item Library | Every compliance requirement your agency uses, such as a DBS check, medication training or a site induction. |
| Compliance › Client Checklists | Where each item applies: your General checklist for every client, plus extra items for a client or a single site. |
| The Client Checklists bar on a worker's profile | Each worker's progress against every checklist that applies to them. |
If the same item is set in more than one place, the narrowest one decides: site, then client, then General. For example, if General asks for a DBS renewed every three years but one client wants it every year, the client's setting wins at that client's sites.
Step 1: Build your Item Library
Start from CareHires templates
The quickest way to start is to copy items CareHires already uses, such as right to work, identity and DBS.
- Go to Compliance › Item Library.
- Press + Add from templates.
- Tick the items you want.
- Choose where they go: General (all clients and their sites), Specific clients or sites, or Not now (only add to my Item Library).
- Press Add to Item Library.
Each copied item comes with its evidence and worker types. It's now your own item, so you can change it, and it doesn't change when CareHires updates its own.
Create your own items
- In Compliance › Item Library, press + Create new item.
- Fill in:
- Name and description: what the item is and what to check before ticking it.
- Obligation: Mandatory (must be met before a shift) or Optional (shown for information).
- Evidence: the certificate, document or registration that proves it, with alternatives if more than one file can. Leave it empty for something a person checks, such as a site induction.
- Worker types: who the item applies to.
- Validity: follows the expiry date on the evidence, needs review every 1, 3, 6 or 12 months, or never expires.
- Save.
Tip: Use the description to tell your team exactly what to look for, for example "Check the certificate covers practical assessment, not just theory." It shows when they open the item to confirm it.
Step 2: Set your General checklist
Your General checklist applies at every site of every approved client.
- Go to Compliance › Client Checklists.
- Open General (all clients), at the top of the list.
- Press + Add items and pick the items from your library.
Step 3: Add a client's or a site's requirements
- In Compliance › Client Checklists, open the client to see its sites and the country each one is in.
- Choose the client (for all its sites) or a single site.
- Press + Add items and pick the items.
The line "N General items also apply here" reminds you what already applies. Press View General to see them. When you create a new client, tick the compliance box to pick its items straight after saving.
| The need | How to set it up |
|---|---|
| Every client expects right to work, ID and a DBS | Copy those CareHires templates and add them to General. |
| One client wants medication training for support workers | Create "Medication administration" and add it to that client, for the Support Worker type. |
| One site needs its own induction | Create an item with no evidence and add it to that site only. |
| A client wants DBS renewed every year | Add the DBS item to that client with "needs review every 12 months". |
| You want to see food hygiene, but not stop shifts for it | Make it an Optional item. |
Please note: Each site's postcode decides the criminal record check: PVG in Scotland, AccessNI in Northern Ireland (BT postcodes) and DBS everywhere else. A site with no postcode gets all three.
Step 4: Check each worker's items
Most items are ticked automatically: when a file is uploaded, the AI checks it's the right kind of document, that the name matches the worker and, where it can read it, the expiry date. Anything it can't verify waits for your team.
- Open the worker's profile. The Client Checklists bar under their name shows their progress, including Can work at X of Y sites.
- Click the bar.
- Use the filters to find what needs attention: To check, Missing / expired, Needs review or Ready.
- Open an item, press View to check the file, add a note if it helps, and press Confirm.
Items show Expiring soon in the 30 days before they expire. A tick belongs to the files on record when it was given, so a new file needs checking again.
The check before every direct client shift
When a shift at one of your clients' sites is posted, the worker picker shows only the workers who meet your checklists for that site on the shift date. The same check runs when a worker applies or accepts.
A worker can't take the shift when a mandatory item is missing, will have expired by the shift date or is still waiting for your check. The missing items are named, so you know exactly what to chase.
- Workers count at a site where your agency has a rate card, whatever their profile status.
- You decide where the check applies. In Organisation › Organisational Settings, Worker eligibility for client jobs has the compliance check on and the skills check off for every client by default. You can change either one per client or per site.
- CareHires shifts are separate. They use the CareHires Checklist, which CareHires ticks. Your items never affect CareHires shifts, but documents are shared, so a DBS uploaded once counts for both.
Your checklists, items, ticks and audit log are visible only to your agency.
Good habits worth adopting
- Start with General. Put what every client expects on General, then add only the differences to clients and sites.
- Work through To check every day. Items waiting for your check block shifts, even when the document is fine.
- Check workers a few days before their shifts. An item that expires the day before a shift blocks it, even if it's valid today.
If something looks wrong
- A client isn't in Client Checklists. Only approved clients and their active sites are listed.
- A site shows all three criminal record checks. It has no postcode. Add it in the client's site details.
- A worker can't be picked for a shift. Open their Client Checklists and look at the items named as missing for that site.
- A worker can't work at a site at all. Check your agency has a rate card for that site.
- A change hasn't reached a worker yet. Changes take a few minutes. Compliance › Audit Log lists every change and tick, with who made it and when.
To see every worker against your checklists in one grid, see How to use the Compliance & Training Matrix. If you still need help, contact our Support Team.