Answers to your frequently asked questions
What kinds of employment and income verification services are available on the market, and what makes them different?
Many businesses verify income and employment through a third-party, digital income verification tool. Some of these tools rely on verification databases, others rely on banking and asset data, and still others—like Argyle—leverage direct payroll connections.
The main difference between these types of digital income verification tools is the source and quality of the data they use. For instance:
Verification databases don’t offer comprehensive datasets, and the data is usually outdated by at least a few weeks, if not longer, which can misrepresent critical information like employment status. They also aren’t capable of pulling income documents like paystubs and W-2s.- Verification databases don’t offer comprehensive datasets, and the data is usually outdated by at least a few weeks, if not longer, which can misrepresent critical information like employment status. They also aren’t capable of pulling income documents like paystubs and W-2s.
- Income verification software that relies on banking and asset data also doesn’t offer complete visibility into income and employment because this software can only “see” what’s been deposited in consumers’ financial accounts. It doesn’t have access to data fields like gross income or payroll deductions. It also can’t confirm employment status with certainty.
- Income and employment verification services that leverage payroll connections are effective and reliable because the data they use comes directly from the source of truth (i.e., consumers’ payroll records) in real time. This offers businesses comprehensive visibility into consumers’ income and employment, and they can be confident that the information is accurate.
How does Direct Connect differ from Doc Processing?
Argyle Direct Connect leverages direct data connections with consumers’ payroll accounts to retrieve the most accurate and up-to-date consumer income and employment information and documents possible. With this data, it generates instant, GSE-authorized, direct-source VOIE and VOE reports. It’s the lowest friction approach to verification because no party has to track down and upload traditional verification documents like paystubs and W-2s. Argyle does it for you.
In some cases, however, direct payroll connections aren’t possible. When this occurs, Argyle offers Doc Processing, which leverages OCR technology to extract income and employment data from consumers’ uploaded paystubs and W-2s to generate a GSE-authorized Doc VOI report.
What kinds of employment and income verification services are available on the market, and what makes them different?
Many businesses verify income and employment through a third-party digital income verification tool. Some of these tools rely on verification databases, others rely on banking and asset data, and others—like Argyle—leverage direct payroll connections.
The main difference between these types of digital income verification tools is the source and quality of the data they use. For instance:
- Verification databases don’t offer comprehensive datasets, and the data is usually outdated by at least a few weeks, if not longer, which can misrepresent critical information like employment status. They also aren’t capable of pulling income documents like paystubs and W-2s.
- Income verification software that relies on banking and asset data also doesn’t offer complete visibility into income and employment because this software can only “see” what’s been deposited in consumers’ financial accounts. It doesn’t have access to data fields like gross income or payroll deductions. It also can’t confirm employment status with certainty.
- Income and employment verification services that leverage payroll connections are effective and reliable because the data they use comes directly from the source of truth (i.e., consumers’ payroll records) in real time. This offers businesses comprehensive visibility into consumers’ income and employment, and they can be confident that the information is accurate.
What is automated income verification?
Traditionally, businesses that needed to verify a consumer’s employment or income did so by hand. They would gather documents like paystubs, W-2s, and letters of attestation from the customer, and their team would manually review these documents to validate the information the customer reported. Many businesses still verify this way.
Automated income verifications like Argyle Direct Connect eliminate all of this manual administrative work and create a better experience for all parties involved. The only income verification tools that can legitimately claim to be automated are those that rely on payroll connections. That’s because they are the only type that can auto-retrieve required documents like paystubs and W-2s. With other types of income verification software, these documents still have to be collected manually.
Is Argyle a paystub verification service?
While Argyle is not officially a “paystub verification service,” it can replace a paystub verification service or eliminate the need for one. That’s because Argyle retrieves actual paystubs directly from the source. Since the paystub isn’t coming from the consumer, there is no opportunity for them to forge or manipulate the paystubs you use to verify their income and employment. If you do receive paystubs directly from a consumer, you can check them against the paystubs Argyle retrieves to validate their authenticity.
How long does it take to implement Argyle’s Income & Employment Verification solution?
You can verify your first consumer with Argyle in as soon as a day if you use our web-based software, Argyle Console, or one of our point-of-sale (POS) or loan origination system (LOS) integrations. If you want to embed Argyle in your product experience, you will need to use our API. That will take a little longer to implement—from a few weeks to a few months, depending on the complexity of needs.
