Yardstik Integration

Yardstik makes it easier for youth sports organizations to prioritize safety through smarter screening and verification practices. LeagueApps has partnered with Yardstik to offer FCRA-compliant background screenings that are specifically designed for youth sports organizations.

This integration allows our partners to send data from LeagueApps registrations to Yardstik to run background checks on staff members. Our partners can then view and take action on results of background checks directly in LeagueApps Reporting.

The background checks report will give you even more control over how you manage your staff. Partners can quickly review the results of background checks they’ve run and complete other important actions.

• Who hasn’t started their background check and sending them reminders

• Which staff members have passed their background checks and are ready to begin coaching

• When something has come up in a staff member’s background that requires your attention so you can quickly navigate to Yardstik to review the full report

Table of Contents

• Integration Prerequisites & Getting Started
• Program Creation
• Registration Options
• Yardstik Account Integration Setup
• LeagueApps Integration Center Setup
• Inviting Staff & Registration Experience
• Viewing Results & Reporting
• Accessing Yardstik Reports
• Frequently Asked Questions

Integration Prerequisites & Getting Started

In order to use the integration, you must first have an account set up with Yardstik

• Fill out this form and you’ll be connected with the Yardstik team → https://www.yardstik.com/leagueapps

• During set up, one LeagueApps site will be matched with one Yardstik sub-account. If you have multiple LeagueApps sites that you’ll want to use with the integration, make sure you let Yardstik know.

• When onboarding with Yardstik, you will also decide what packages you want to set up within each sub-account. Packages contain different levels of screenings.

• For each site you want to connect to Yardstik, you’ll be given the unique sub-account ID. This will be necessary to use during integration set up, so please have it handy.

There are also some important things to know about your LeagueApps setup before getting started:

• Passing Cost of Background Checks on to Staff: If you you would like to pass the cost of background checks on to staff members you must set up a separate Adult program for background checks and only allow Individuals to register. Otherwise, you will not be able to collect payment from any staff members who register for your background check program.
• Collecting Background Checks in a Program That Accepts Youth Registrations: We strongly recommend creating a separate, Adult program to collect your background check registrations. If you decide to collect background checks within the same program where you are collecting youth registrations, this program must be a Youth program. And you must accept both Staff and Player registrations. Staff who register for your background check program will then receive a background check if you have completed all of the additional steps below.
• Coach and Staff Members Under the Age of 18: This will not be possible through LeagueApps. Please contact Yardstik directly to process your background check.

Creating the Background Check Program

Program Details

Program Type: We recommend creating a new program for the background checks. The program can be any of the existing program types. We recommend setting the program up as an Event.

Program Title: If you are separating background checks by different age groups, dates or staff types, you can indicate that in your program title and you will be able to reference the titles for your different background check programs in the integration report page.

Event Type: We recommend setting the event type to Adult, even if you are a youth league.

⚠️ If you are an adult league, you must set up a separate program for background checks. Otherwise, everyone who registers for your program (adult players and staff members) will have their information sent to Yardstik, and an invitation to submit for a background check will be sent.

Program Visibility: Currently, the integration does not allow program visibility to be set to Private, but that functionality will be available soon. If you would like the background check program to be visible on your public website, set the visibility of the program to Public, and link the registration page anywhere on your site where you would like staff members to register for a background check.

Integration Code: Scroll down to the Integration Code section of the program creator window. In the dropdown menu, select Yardstik from the available integration options. 

Once you're finished with the remaining option on the program details page, click Save And Edit Options.

Registration Options

Allowed Registration Types: In the Registrations Options page of the program, set the program up so that only Individuals can register.

Charging staff for background checks: You can collect payment from staff for background check programs the same way that you collect payment for any other program registration. Turn on the setting: This is pay based. 

Next establish a price and payment deadline. We recommend requiring payment during registration and enforcing a strict payment deadline.

Transaction fees: Collecting payment for this program will work the same as collecting payment on LeagueApps for any other program. If you pass the transaction fees on LeagueApps on to your members in some way, you will have the option to pass those costs on here as well by adding a processing fee or increasing the base cost of program registration.

Once you are finished configuring the program's registration option, be sure to save your changes.

Other program options (optional)

Form fields: If you would like to use your background check registration as a survey form to collect information from your staff members, you can do that by updating the required form field questions. To find the program's form fields, place your mouse over Settings then click Form Fields.

Waivers: The standard LeagueApps waiver will be attached to this program automatically. Yardstik will have an additional waiver that staff will have to complete in order to receive their background checks, so you do not need to worry about attaching a special waiver within LeagueApps. However, if you have a waiver that you would like staff to complete at this point in the registration, you can add that by placing your mouse over Settings, then clicking Waivers.

Using Multiple Yardstik Packages within LeagueApps

If you are looking to use different Yardstik packages to screen your staff, such as one package for staff members and one for volunteers, you must make that distinction by creating separate programs in LeagueApps for each desired Yardstik package.

For instance, if you wanted to screen staff members with Yardstik’s Standard Package and volunteers with Yardstik’s Instant Package you would need to create two programs to accomplish this goal: one to screen staff and one to screen volunteers.

You will have the ability to map each of these programs to different Yardstik packages in the following steps of this article.

Yardstik Account Integration Setup

LeagueApps Integration Center Setup

Generate API Key

From your LeagueApps management console, navigate to Integrations then click API settings.

Enter a name for your credentials, such as “Yardstik” and select the Generate Private API Key button. If you don't enter a name, the integration will not work. 

Once a Private API key is generated, a file will be downloaded to your computer and a new record will appear in the API Keys list on the page. The name of this file is also known as the client ID. You will need both this file and the client ID in a later step. 

Connect To Yarkstik

In a separate tab, navigate to Integrations then click Integration Center.

Click on the Yardstik icon and then select Connect App.

Next to the LeagueApps icon, select Connect and supply your LeagueApps API credentials.

• P12 file: Upload the private API key that you downloaded from the API Settings page. It is the form of a p12 file. For example, 60febf874c68s0wekbo203.p12.
• Client ID: Paste the name of the Private API key (p12 file) that you downloaded from the API Settings page. The client ID can also be found in the table on the API Settings page under Key Name. For example, 60febf874c68s0wekbo203.
• Site ID: Type in your Site ID. This is the string of 4 to 5 numbers found in your browser’s URL bar. For example, 43590
  

To connect Yardstik, upload the sub-account ID that was provided to you when you set up your Yardstik account and an API key that you can generate in your Yardstik dashboard.

• Sign in to your Yardstik Dashboard then click on the Developer tab and select the API Keys menu option.

• On this page, input a name for your API key (this cannot be edited later on, so be sure to choose a unique name) and click the Create button.

• After this, a window containing your full API key will appear once (and only once).

⚠️ Yardstik does not save the API keys, so be sure you copy the API key before closing the window.

• If you do not know your sub-account ID, contact Yardstik.

Once both LeagueApps and Yardstik have been connected, select the Next button.

Integration configuration

Next you'll need to map your LeagueApps programs to your Yardstik packages. On the Configure tab, you’ll select your LeagueApps programs, and pick to which Yardstik packages they should apply.

• If you have multiple LeagueApps programs that have Yardstik selected in the integration code, you can map them to the same, or different, packages in Yardstik.

• Mappings can be done on a one to one or many to one basis.

• The mapper is a dynamic list: The left drop down contains all LeagueApps programs that have Yardstik selected in the integration code field. The right drop down contains all packages that were set up in the connected Yardstik sub-account during onboarding.

Select the plus sign (+) to make a mapping. You can add multiple mappings or delete them with the trash can icon.

Once you’ve made your selections, select Next.

On the Schedule tab, you’ll set the sync schedule, and decide if the integration should be paused or not.

If it’s not already selected, make sure that 30 minutes is selected for the sync schedule.

Decide if you want the integration to be paused right now or not. If the toggle is set to be paused, the integration will not begin syncing until you unpause it.

If you’re ready to begin syncing, select Save and Sync Now, or else select Save to have the integration sync at the next scheduled sync time. If your scheduled is not paused, the integration will sync at the next scheduled time.

Invite Staff & Registrant Experience

Now you'll need to invite staff to register for your Yardstik program via email or public registration, and understand the experience staff go through.

Inviting staff

Make sure your Yardstik program has been set to Public in the program's Edit Details page.

Add the link to your Yardstik program to your website or an email the same way you would add a link to any program.

⚠️ Once the link is live on your public website, anyone who navigates to your public site and registers via the link will receive a background check invite from Yardstik.

Registrant Experience

Once you have the integration set up, on every sync all newly registered staff members for the connected program(s) will have their data sent to Yardstik and will be entered into the invitation flow process.

After being invited by the organizer, staff members will need to register for their background check LeagueApps program first. They will receive the following email with instructions:

Once staff complete their registration, they should receive an email within 30 minutes from Yardstik inviting them to complete their background check.

• The email will direct the staff members to a form, where they can fill out information such as SSN and disclosure consent forms.

• Staff will receive an email every day until the invitation expiration date, reminding them to complete the background check information.

⚠️ The expiration date for invites to staff members is set in your Yardstik account. Through Yardstik you can configure when you would like an invite for a background check to be considered expired. At the expired stage, staff will need to be invited again to complete a check and will not receive a background check until that step is complete.

⚠️ You can configure how frequently you want your staff members to be reminded that they need to complete their background check through Yardstik.

Once staff complete the required form from Yardstik, the background check process will begin.

If anything comes back in the background check report that requires follow up, the staff will be contacted by Yardstik directly.

Viewing Results of Background Checks

Background Check Statuses

Org Account Owners, Org Account Admins, and designated Site Admins in LeagueApps will be able to view the background check report and complete all necessary actions on their background checks from the Reporting page in LeagueApps.

⚠️ You can designate Site Admins on the Manage Your Admin Roles page in the LeagueApps management console. If Site Admin is chosen for Role, a Background Checks Report Access column appears where you can check off the sites where the Site Admin can view the Background Checks Report.

To access the report, navigate to the Reporting tab in LeagueApps and click Background Checks.

When viewing the report, you can filter by several statutes:

• Clear: This member’s background check has passed standards set by you and our background check provider.
• Pending: This member’s information has been sent to our background check provider and we are waiting for results or additional information or additional requests (such as parent or guardian approval) have been asked of this staff member by Yardstik, and the staff member has submitted what is necessary and are currently waiting for final results.
• Follow Up Needed: This can mean one of the below.
  • Action is needed by this member in order for their background check to be complete. Visit the partner report to see what action needs to be taken.
  • Or this staff member’s background check status is expired within Yardstik, meaning that the staff member did not complete the necessary information by the due date required. A new background check registration form will need to be sent to this staff member in order for them to receive a background check
• Flagged: This member’s background has been flagged by our background check partner. Action is needed by you to either clear this member or remove the member from your program.
  • To take necessary action, click the See Full Report link next to the candidate’s status in the LeagueApps internal report. From this page in Yardstik, you can review the full results of the background check, and either: Proceed Candidate meaning the candidate will be moved to “Clear” within LeagueApps
  • Or take Pre Adverse Action, meaning that the candidate will not be approved to participate in your organization and their status will move to Disqualified within LeagueApps. Their Yardstik status will be changed to Final Adverse Action in Yardstik once you have completed all of the steps required within Yardstik.
• Not Started: This member has not completed the intake information required by Yardstik. The member must complete the form via the email they received in order for their background check to be completed.

⚠️ If a staff member doesn’t show up as not started, that means they haven’t registered with LeagueApps.

• Disqualified: You have decided not to proceed with this member after reviewing the results of their background check, or you have decided to cancel this staff member’s background check for whatever reason. You will be able to change a staff member’s status to Cancelled within Yardstik, and that member will then show up as Disqualified within LeagueApps.

Click to view a full list of Yardstik Report Statuses

Viewing the Progress Bar

The Progress Bar within the Yardstik report will show you how each of the staff members who have completed their registration for a LeagueApps background check program are progressing in completing their screen. The progress bar will update based on changes in a candidate’s status on the necessary actions they are taking with Yardstik.

• Understanding Status Percentages and Total:

  • The size and % of each separate colored bar in the progress bar reflects what percentage of your staff members’ have that status

  • For instance, if 50 staff members have completed their LeagueApps registration for a Yardstik program and of those 50, 25 have not submitted the necessary information to Yardstik to complete their background check, then you will see half of the progress bar has individuals’ with the status of Not Started

  • The numbers displayed to the right of each status in in the Key of the progress bar reflect how many of your staff members have each status

  • The Total number of records shown in the far right of the Progress Bar key is the total number of background check records within the report on this site. This total number does not include Disqualified records which can be found by filtering by Disqualified in the Status filter.

• Filtering with Progress Bar: You can easily filter the displayed statuses in your progress bar, by clicking directly on the bar segment that you would like to filter within the progress bar. 

• Statuses Shown: Only statuses will appear in the progress bar that reflect the status of staff members who have registered for one of your background check programs within the date range selected in your filters

• Relevant Statuses: This means that if you are only seeing Not Started and Pending statuses in your background check report, those are the only statuses that candidates within your selected date range possess.

• Date Range: By default, the background check report and dashboard will show you records from the last 3 months of background checks. If three months have passed since you started registrations for your background check report, you may need to change the Last Updated filter to a different timeframe in order to see the results you are looking for

• Page Pagination: The progress bar will always show you the % breakdown of statuses for all of the records within a given date range. Changing the number or records displayed on the page will not impact the percentage breakdown shown in the top progress bar

• Disqualified Status: As stated above, disqualified records do not appear in the progress bar until you filter by Disqualified in the Status filter.

Using Report Filters

Filters within the Background Check report work largely the same way as filters within other LeagueApps reports, and are designed to help you view and take action on the results that are most relevant to you.

For any filter selection, you will need to select the information you would like to filter by, such as Program Name, and then click, Apply Filters in the far right. You can select as many filter options as you would like. Below are the availing filtering options.

• Last Updated: This filter allows you to select what records you would like to display within your background check report.

• Status: This filter works the same way as the progress bar filter option. By clicking the status filter, you can see all of your background check results for any given status within a selected date range.

• Program Name: This filter allows you to filter results by whatever program names have the Yardstik integration code. This will allow you to see the results of various background checks by program.

• Team Name: Once you have selected a program, you will then be able to filter results by a given team within a program.

• Order By: By default, records in the background check report will be ordered by those that have been most recently updated. You have the option to change this ordering to one of these 7 additional options:

  • Updated Oldest First

  • Invited Newest First

  • Invited Oldest First

  • Last Name A > Z

  • Last Name Z > A

  • First Name A > Z

  • First Name Z > A

Bulk Messaging Staff

You have the option to bulk message staff members within your background check report to complete whatever option you would like, such as reminding staff members to complete the necessary steps within Yardstik to complete a background check

To use this feature, you can click the checkbox to the left of the Bulk Action dropdown below the Progress Bar in the Background Check report and you will see all of the relevant staff members’ names who have been selected for a message.

After you have selected the staff you want to message, click the bulk action dropdown and send your message.

• You can easily bulk message a select group of staff members using a mixture of the progress bar filters and the bulk message feature.

• For instance, if you wanted to send a message to all of your members who have the status, Clear to let them know you will soon be assigning them to a team, you can click the Clear progress bar segment to activate the filter and then send your message using to these individuals with the bulk message feature.

Accessing Yardstik Reports

Within LeagueApps you can view the full Yardstik background check report of any of your staff members by clicking See Full Report under the Provider Report column in the Background Check report.

Once you click See Full Report, you will be sent to Yardstik. After logging in to Yardstik you will see the full report with the results of this member’s background check.

Exporting Background Check Data

Within the LeagueApps Background Check report, you also have the ability to export the results of your background checks to a CSV. This will work for any date range selected. 

You can also export your background check results directly within Yardstik.

Frequently Asked Questions

I want to connect another program to the Yardstik integration, or I want to delete one of my existing mappings. What should I do?

Make sure that Yardstik is selected from the Integration Code field in the program settings page and then make sure the integration is updated by following these steps:

1. Return to integration center

2. Select My Apps button in top right corner

3. Within the Yardstik tile, select the three dots > Connection Settings

4. In the top right corner, there is a circular arrow next to a timestamp. Select the circular arrow to run an initial sync

5. After a few moments, the timestamp will update with the current time. At that point, you can add more mappings by selecting the plus sign (+), and then choosing the new LeagueApps program from the left dropdown, and the relevant Yardstik package from the right dropdown

6. If you want to delete any of the mappings, select the trash can icon on that mapping

7. Select save. After the next sync, the changes you made will be applied.

Where can I get my Yardstik sub-account ID?

When you onboard with Yardstik, they will give you this ID. You will only need this ID the first time you set up the integration in the integration center. If you have any issues with this step, contact Yardstik directly.

Where can I get my Yardstik API key?

Once you’re set up with Yardstik, you can generate an API key in your Yardstik Dashboard: click on the Developer tab and select the API Keys menu option. On this page, input a name for your API key (this cannot be edited later on, so be sure to choose a unique name) and click the Create button. After this, a window containing your full API key will appear once (and only once). You will only need this API key the first time you set up the integration in the integration center. If you have any issues with this step, contact Yardstik directly.

⚠️ Yardstik does not save the API keys, so be sure you copy the API key before closing the window.

Where can I get my LeagueApps private API key (p12 file and client ID)?

From your LeagueApps member dashboard, go to Connect > API Settings. Name the key and then select Generate Private API Key. You will only need this API key the first time you set up the integration in the integration center.

I’m an adult league, can I still use the integration?

Yes, but you need to use the integration in a specific way. You must create a separate program in your LeagueApps site that is just used for staff member registration. That program is what you should connect with Yardstik by selecting Yardstik from the integration code field. If you do not create a separate staff members program, every player who registers for a program that has Yardstik selected in the integration code field will have their information sent to Yardstik and the background check process will begin. For adult programs, everyone who registers (adult and player) will be sent to Yardstik.

Where can I find my background check report in LeagueApps?

From the reporting icon on the top nav bar, navigate to “Background Checks” under Integration Programs

What happens if I removed a staff member from my LeagueApps site?

If a staff member has already gone through the background check process on your LeagueApps site, their name will continue to show up in the background check report.

What happens if I connect multiple LeagueApps sites to the same Yardstik sub-account?

All staff members who register for a background check program in any connected LeagueApps site will show up in the background check report. That means that you will see a staff member from one LeagueApps site show up in the background check report for a different LeagueApps site if both are connected to the same Yardstik sub-account. If this is an issue for your organization, you should create separate sub-accounts for each connected LeagueApps site.

What happens if someone is invited to complete a background check directly from Yardstik — will they show up in LeagueApps?

No. In order for staff members to show up in the LeagueApps background check report, they will have to have registered for a LeagueApps program that is connected to the Yardstik integration.