Deep-dive 1: What is the Konfir Income Categorisation Engine?
We have integrated into our systems an algorithm that cleanses and groups transaction data from Open Banking into relevant categories, such as “Employment”, “Benefits”, and more.
Deep-dive 2: Benefits of Konfir Income Categorisation Engine
Time-saving: Our engine does the hard work for you, categorising transactions and saving you time and effort.
Accurate and reliable: Our advanced technology ensures that transactions are accurately categorised, providing you with reliable and trustworthy information.
Easy to use: Our user-friendly interface makes it easy to view and interpret banking data, even if you’re not a financial expert.
Comprehensive: Our categorisation engine covers a wide range of transactions, including employment, benefits, and more, giving you a complete picture of a person’s financial history.
Transaction grouping, functionality, and PDFs
Released over the last two weeks:
Significant improvements to income transactions and grouping
Introduction of Request IDs
Konsole password reset improvements: fixed issue where email includes special characters
Additional PDF enhancements
Deep-dive 1: Transaction name normalisation and grouping
After a period of beta access, we’re delighted to announce that all clients will now be able to benefit from our banking transaction data cleaning and grouping improvements. This means that rather than seeing multiple transactions from the same payer, they’ll now be grouped together.
Deep-dive 2: Request IDs
Until now, there hasn’t been a simple unique Identifier that can be used to refer to requests sent via Konfir. The Request ID will be generated for every new request sent via Konfir and is visible both within the request and on the downloadable PDF. Should you ever have a question about a particular request going forward, please use the request ID so we can help quickly. This is more efficient as the number of requests grows and also minimises the exchange of PII.
Deep-dive 3: Adding the Verified Toggle to the PDF
When using the Verified Toggle & Notes feature, your input will now be saved to the PDF so you can download all the relevant information to your internal systems.
Konsole and PDF data improvements
Deep-dive 1: Data Improvements – improving transaction grouping
We’re currently rolling out a feature to group transactions from the same payer together while removing irrelevant text from the name of the transaction.
Deep-dive 2: PDF Improvements
Adding your organisation’s logo: You can now add your company logo to the PDF
Adding time stamps: We can already share full reports showing turnaround times down to the minute, but now you’ll be able to see exactly when a request was sent to a candidate, and when they connected their data.
Adding new employer name and job title: If you use the Konsole to send requests, you’ll be able to specify which employer the candidate is being screened for, and what their new role is. If these details are provided, they’ll also be added to the PDF.
Improving transparency & trust
Released over the last week:
Payment data improvements from challenger banks
SMS Sender Name configuration
Including new employer name and job title in SMS & Email invites
Candidate journey enhancements
Enhanced threat detection & monitoring
Deep-dive: Challenger banks
A big part of our focus over the months to come will be adding value to the data we provide to you. While all banks provide different levels of data (both in terms of coverage, and data points) – the challenger banks such as Monzo & Starling tend to provide more than others.
From now on, when a candidate connects to one of these providers, we will display both the Payer Name & the Reference (rather than just one of them) so that Konsole users have all the information they need to complete the screening process.
Identity attributes
Deep-dive: Candidate attributes
1. Account holder names
From both our Open Banking & Payroll modules, we will now return the full name of the account holder connected to Konfir. The full name has been verified independently by either the bank provider, or by the candidate’s previous employer respectively.
2. National Insurance Number
Within our Payroll module, you’ll now have access to the candidate’s National Insurance Number, as verified by a candidate’s previous employer. This means you can delight your clients and your candidates by removing the need for this to be verified through documentation, and begin to get candidates onboarded even faster. We will be rolling these data points out to all Konsole users over the next couple of days.
Coverage and security improvements
Released over the last two weeks:
Added SDWorx & ADP Freedom to Payroll coverage
Password expiration process: if you enable this feature, your Konsole users will need to change your password at least every 90 days (or 30, if you’re an Admin)
Prevention of password reuse
Fixed an issue preventing some users from resetting their password
Fixed an issue where some candidates were unable to connect more than one bank account
Deep-dive: Payroll coverage
We’re adding to this list every couple of weeks to maximise the chance of candidates connecting to both banking and payroll. Over the last week, both HRevolution by SDWorx & ADP Freedom has been added to the Credential Access network. You can see our complete list of integrations here.
UX Improvements
Released over the last week:
Ability to specify new Job Role & new Employer Name in requests: so that you can build out even better reporting
Displaying the first and the last payment dates from a bank account in the downloadable PDF: so that you can store what’s needed easily via the PDF
Email Invites & candidate follow-ups
Candidate journey & Konsole UI improvements
Deep-dive 1: Specify new Job Role and Employer Name
Konsole users will now be able to specify a candidate’s new Employer Name & Job title. If you’re handling candidates on behalf of multiple employers, you’ll be able to build employer-specific reporting which will help to:
Communicate the value-add of Konfir to that employer
Leverage demographic-specific reporting to help launch similar employers with Konfir
Deep-dive 2: Email invites and candidate follow ups
In addition to SMS, we’re now sending email invites to candidates too. Educating and informing candidates is critical to both our and your mission. That’s why we’ve worked with our customers to build out candidate-facing landing pages.
We analysed open rate and conversion data to find the best time to contact people, and now send timely follow-ups both via SMS and email. This should continue to move the needle on turnaround times, even though nearly one third of people are already completing within 30 minutes or less (more stats in our case study with Reed Screening).
Verified Toggle & Notes
Released over the last week:
With this new feature, Konsole users can now actively track successful verifications in line with your organisation’s processes
Deep-dive: Verified Toggle & Notes
Tailored to your business: decide how the Verified Toggle & Notes features are used by your team
Understand why candidates can’t be verified: review notes from your colleagues and ask us about Konfir’s reporting functionality to assess verification success rate
Measure what matters: leverage additional metrics to seamlesssly build a business case and remove ROI uncertainty
Candidate journey
Released over the last week:
Added a survey to the end of the candidate journey: so that candidates can optionally provide feedback to us to improve our services
Added client logos to the candidate journey: so that your candidates will feel more comfortable completing the Konfir process
Sorting of income transactions alphabetically: so that data returned is easier to read. We now order by the number of transactions first, then alphabetically
Updated our cookies policy
Deep-dive: Candidate journey customisation
Through our out-of-the-box solution, our clients and partners are able to send invites via SMS to invite a candidate to complete the Konfir journey. While our conversion rate so far has been high (around 80%), we’re always looking for ways to improve.
One of the main reasons reported by candidates for not completing the process is a lack of comfort and/or recognition. To combat this, we’ve introduced customisation to the candidate journey so that your logo appears throughout the Konfir journey too; seamlessly tying both experiences together.
It’s early days, but we’re already getting positive feedback from candidates saying that including the logo in the journey improves their trust in the end-to-end process.
Activity statuses
Released over the last week:
Activity status changes: An activity will now show as ‘connected’ only when there is data available for that activity. We’ve also added some help text to ensure Konsole users understand different states.
Data source statuses: Given a candidate can attempt to connect to multiple data sources, we’ve added labels to help you understand why data is unavailable
Cancelled requests: we’ve fixed an issue to ensure cancelled requests are visible in the Konsole, even when a filter is being used
Konsole filtering: improved responsiveness when using the ‘sort by requested date’ function
Deep-dive 1: Activity Statuses
We’ve made changes to ensure that we’re as accurate as we can be when showing whether a candidate has connected data or not. This means that depending on the activity type, we will now only display an activity as ‘connected’ where there is sufficient information available.
For Employment activities, this means having visibility of payroll data, and/or income data from at least one bank account.
For Gap in Employment activities, this means having visibility of either spending or income data from at least one bank account.
We have also added a tooltip next to the connection status to help you and your team understand what the status means.
Deep-dive 2: Data Source Display
We’ve added labels to each data source the user attempts to connect to give you further insight into why data is not available. The possible labels you might see are as follows:
“Candidate attempted to connect” – The candidate attempted to connect to the data source but was unsuccessful. For example, they may have provided incorrect log in credentials
“Candidate didn’t attempt to connect” – The candidate didn’t attempt to connect to a data source to verify this activity
“Data not found” – The candidate connected to the data source, but the source did not have sufficient data for the period being verified. For example, their bank only provides 2 years of transaction data
“Account not connected” – If the data source isn’t connected for any other reason
Credit packages
Released over the last week:
Credit packages: we’ve introduced enhanced visibility for our clients that have bought credit packages with Konfir
Connecting multiple bank accounts: we’ve introduced logic to handle an edge case where a candidate attempts to connect the same bank account more than once
Security improvements
Deep-dive: Credit packages
We’ve recently introduced credit packages to our clients, whereby set volumes of successful connections can be purchased in advance. To support this, we have added functionality to the Konsole to allow clients with credits to keep track of usage.
Multiple bank accounts, Payroll updates, and filtering
Some highlights from what we’ve released:
Connecting multiple bank accounts: candidates can now voluntarily connect more than one account, all within the same journey using Konfir’s Open Banking Module
Payroll integration for recent employment activities: our Payroll Credentials Module is now usable for both current employment activities, and historical employment activities that ended in the last 6 months
SMS Updates: We’ve changed the content of the SMS invites we send to candidates. These will now include a link to Konfir so that candidates can learn more about Konfir prior to entering the Konfir journey
Usability improvement to the results page in Konsole to help view all data at the same time
Improved filtering on the Transactions page: you can now order by amounts
Data configuration update: to support data minimisation, you can now decide whether or not you want to pull ‘amounts’ (£ values) via our Open Banking module
Deep-dive 1: Connecting multiple bank accounts
When a candidate connects their bank account via the Konfir Open Banking module, the data returned to the Konfir Konsole can be used to verify Employment or Gap in Employment activities.
Our research suggested that increasingly, people in the UK have multiple bank accounts where, for example, one is used for spending, and another is used for bills and/or salary. We’ve now made it possible for candidates to connect more than one bank account to ensure a full picture of any given activity period is provided when using Konfir.
Deep-dive 2: Payroll Integration Module
Previously, our payroll integration module only supported current employment activities. We have now expanded this functionality to historical employment activities that have an end date in the last 6 months. We, therefore, expect to see a higher usage rate of our payroll data sets going forward which will result in more granular data being provided to our clients more frequently.
Deep-dive 3: Filtering on the transactions page
A couple of weeks ago, we released the new Income Display view and Transactions page. Since then, we have introduced improved filtering so that you can search for transaction amounts from a certain threshold.
Income Display
What’s changed?
When a candidate connects their bank account via the Konfir Open Banking module, the data returned to the Konfir Konsole can be used to verify Employment or Gap in Employment activities.
We’ve made the data display page on the Konsole clearer, and you can now view individual income transactions received into a candidate’s bank account for every income source for each activity.
Why was it changed?
Previously, Konfir grouped income data into a single summary line. Our research showed that visibility of the first and last payment via Open Banking for each income source was fundamental in using banking information to evidence employment.
The new screen also allows you to filter by income based on the £ value so that you can easily assess whether declared or undeclared income sources require further investigation
Part 1: Data summary in Konsole
Income (or credit data) visible in a candidate’s bank account is now split per income source, and every transaction per income source can be viewed via the ‘View all’ button to the right of each income source found.
Part 2: Transactions page
Clicking ‘View all’ for one of the income sources will take you to a new ‘Transactions’ page, where you can see each of the payments received by the candidate within an activity period. When you land on the Transactions page, you’ll be able to filter by:
Payer name: to view different income from different sources all in one place
Bank name: in case the candidate has connected more than one bank account
Amount from: to only view income amounts from a certain threshold.
Importantly, if you don’t need data, we won’t display it so you can always ensure your organisation is compliant with GDPR data minimisation.
If the activity is a gap in employment, you may also request spending data via Konfir. Towards the top of the Transactions page, you can easily toggle between income and spending.