Instant Record Check (IRC) delivers CPIC-sourced criminal record checks for professional services hires. Real estate, legal, accounting, and consulting firms use IRC to screen new associates and support staff in minutes, not weeks. Canadian-owned and operated, BBB accredited. No contracts, no sales calls.
Professional services firms handle sensitive client matters: client trust money, confidential legal files, financial advisory portfolios, and corporate due-diligence documents. Background screening is how firms verify that a new hire does not bring a disqualifying criminal record into the partnership or associate pool. In Canada, the baseline is a name-based Criminal Record Check (CRC) sourced from the RCMP’s CPIC database, sometimes layered with an Enhanced CRC for roles with fiduciary or trust-account authority.
IRC gives professional services firms an online path to those checks, without paperwork or police-station waits. Most reports deliver within minutes of candidate consent.
Instant Record Check’s core offering for professional services hiring is the Criminal Record Check and the Enhanced Criminal Record Check (CRJMC). Both are CPIC-sourced via an accredited intermediary, so the criminal record data matches what a police station would return for a name-based check.
Identity verification happens at the start. Every candidate uploads government-issued ID and completes an automated identity check before the record query runs. That layered verification is one reason professional services firms accept IRC reports alongside traditional police-station results.
If a role combines articling, fiduciary, and client-facing work (for example, a senior paralegal or a junior advisory associate), IRC delivers both CRC and CRJMC in one flow.
IRC does not provide Vulnerable Sector Checks (VSC). VSC is a separate RCMP product that requires an in-person visit to a local police detachment. It applies to roles working with children, the elderly, or persons with disabilities. For most professional services roles, VSCs are rarely relevant (estate or family-law practices with vulnerable clientele being the occasional exception). The self-qualification page linked above confirms for a specific role.
IRC also does not provide fingerprint-based certified checks, credit reports, provincial law-society good-standing checks, or US-jurisdiction screening. Law societies, CPA institutes, and provincial real-estate regulators handle their own licensing checks. IRC is the criminal-record layer firms run on top of the regulator’s process.
Instant Record Check serves Canadian professional services firms that need a CRC or Enhanced CRC for non-VSC roles. Typical scenarios:
IRC is used across adjacent verticals including financial services, HR teams, staffing and employment agencies, manufacturing and industrial, and software and tech.
Instant Record Check is Canadian-owned and operated, headquartered at 2031 Store St, Victoria, BC. That matters for professional services procurement for three reasons:
Professional services firms with ISO, SOC 2, or client-audit obligations consistently flag Canadian-owned, BBB-accredited vendors as lower-friction additions to an approved-vendor list.
IRC’s B2B portal is built for the way professional services hiring actually runs:
Partners, hiring managers, and office administrators invite new hires, then download completed reports once consent is granted. No paper. No police-station lineups. See how IRC works for the full candidate flow.
Most Regular CRCs return within minutes of candidate consent. Enhanced CRCs (CRJMCs) take a bit longer because additional judicial records are queried. If an application is delayed beyond the typical turnaround, IRC’s in-product status tracking shows exactly where the file is.
Law societies, CPA institutes, and provincial real-estate councils each maintain their own good-standing and licensing checks, which IRC does not replace. IRC provides the criminal-record layer that firms run alongside the regulator’s process: a CPIC-sourced name-based CRC, acceptable to most firms as the internal hiring check. For roles that specifically require fingerprint-based certified checks, IRC is not the right fit.
Most professional services roles do not require a VSC. VSCs are mandated for roles working with children, the elderly, or persons with disabilities, which is uncommon in legal, accounting, consulting, real estate, or architecture practices. Use the CRC vs VSC self-qualification guide to confirm for a specific role.
IRC documents a narrow refund policy covering two situations: a report not received within 24 hours, and payment made without a submitted application. Customer input errors (for example a misspelled name or the wrong date of birth) are not refundable. Review the public FAQ for the full stipulations.
No. IRC is pay-per-check for B2B accounts. Boutique firms hiring one associate per year and mid-sized practices running monthly articling intakes both use IRC on the same corporate-card basis.
Professional services hiring is about trust: trust between a firm and its clients, and trust between a firm and the associates it brings in. A screening vendor should be fast, accountable, and straightforward, without an enterprise contract that takes longer to negotiate than to onboard the hire.
Sign up for the Instant Record Check business portal and start running CPIC-sourced background checks in minutes. Canadian-owned, BBB accredited, no contracts.
Create an account to track your requests and apply for a new criminal record check whenever you need one.
Fill in the information to confirm your identity, and authorize IRC to use the information on your behalf. No need for fingerprinting – we can get these background checks done entirely online.
Hit the submit button, and we’ll work our magic, verifying your identity using the latest technologies and requesting your Criminal Record Check from the RCMP.
Receive your Criminal Record Check within hours. It will be sent to your email or you can login into the secure dashboard to view at any time.
For technology companies, renowned for their innovation, background checks are crucial.
