Credentials
A credential is something a worker holds that shows they're cleared or qualified to do their job — a Working With Children Check, a teacher registration, an AHPRA registration, an NDIS Worker Screening Check, a police check, or proof of the right to work in Australia.
If a worker is a person, their credentials are the things that person carries.
Verifiable credentials
Most credentials in Oho are verifiable — Oho can confirm them against the official register or issuing body, rather than just taking the worker's word for it. When a credential is verifiable, Oho:
- checks it against the source the moment it's added,
- gives it a clear outcome, shown with a colour so it's easy to scan,
- re-checks it on the schedule you set up in the Verification Sources tab and updates the outcome automatically if anything changes, and
- keeps a history of every check on the worker's profile.
What you'll see
Whatever the credential, the result is shown the same way — one of a few outcomes, with a colour so it's easy to scan:
| Status (as shown in the app) | Colour | What it means | API value (eligibility) |
|---|---|---|---|
| May engage | Green | Valid and current — the person is cleared for the work. | MAY_ENGAGE |
| May not engage | Red | Not valid — expired, suspended, not found, or a match on a ban register. | MAY_NOT_ENGAGE |
| Under review | Yellow | No decision yet — someone has to read the result and record one. Not a softer kind of pass: the worker counts as non-compliant until they do. | REVIEW_REQUIRED |
| In progress | Blue | Still being checked. | IN_PROGRESS |
| Couldn't verify | Grey | The source couldn't be reached; Oho will try again. | ERROR |
Validity and expiry are tracked separately from that verdict, and the badge always shows the most serious state on record — so these appear instead of one of the five above:
| Status (as shown in the app) | Colour | What it means | API value (statusDetail) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Expiring soon | Yellow | Still valid, but inside your expiry lead time — 30 days by default. Time to get the renewal moving. | EXPIRING_SOON |
| Expired | Red | The expiry date has passed, so the worker is no longer covered. | EXPIRED |
| Conditions to review | Yellow | The register attached a condition or a notation that someone has to read and decide on. | CONDITIONS_TO_REVIEW |
| Pending decision | Blue | The issuing authority has yet to decide on an application. | PENDING_DECISION |
A problem the register reports outright — the clearance revoked, no matching record, a newer card superseding this one — shows under its own name in red or grey, alongside the same statusDetail value. Every one of them is listed in what a check result means.
How quickly a result comes back depends on the credential and the register behind it; how often Oho re-checks it is up to the schedule you set in Verification Sources. Each credential's page explains what to expect.
One active record per card
The same physical card reaches Oho from several directions — an HR import, the API, someone typing it in, a worker answering a fetch request, an applicant uploading it during a recruitment check. Oho treats those as one card when they share a holder, a credential type and a card number, and keeps exactly one active record for it. The rest are marked Superseded.
That tidying happens on its own, in three shapes:
| What arrived | What Oho does |
|---|---|
| A newer issue of the card | The newer issue becomes current; the earlier one is superseded as a renewal. |
| Another copy of the issue already on file | The copy is superseded; the record already there stays current. |
| An older issue, arriving late | It's filed behind the current one rather than replacing it. |
Oho reads the issue number off the card number where the regulator puts one there — a Victorian
WWC card renews 1417314A → 1417314A-01 → -02, a Queensland Blue Card 1519921/2 → /3. A
NSW WWCC renews under the same number with no suffix, so Oho orders those issues by expiry date
instead: the later expiry is the current card.
A superseded record is kept in full, but it stops acting like a live one:
- It doesn't count towards compliance.
- It isn't re-checked against the register.
- Later updates to the card — a new expiry date, a status change — land on the current record, not on the superseded one.
Finding the earlier records
Open the current credential and go to its History tab, headed Renewals and duplicates of this card. It lists every record of the card, which one is current, and a line against each saying why it was retired and when.
A card held as a single record has no History tab. If you're looking for one and it isn't there, Oho only has the one record — which is also the answer to "where did the old one go?" when nothing was ever superseded.
Make current on any row puts that record back in charge. It keeps its own details and returns to the status it had before it was superseded, and the record that was current becomes superseded in its place. Use it when the automatic choice picked the wrong one.
To tidy a whole credential type at once, the Compliance Overview lists n extra records against a type that has them; opening it reviews every affected worker in one pass.
Credentials Oho can verify
Working With Children
Every state and territory runs its own scheme, and the differences are big enough to matter when you're onboarding a workforce. Two territories don't even call it a Working With Children Check — Tasmania issues a Working with Vulnerable People registration and the Northern Territory an Ochre Card, and both do the same job.
| Where | What it's called | Needs a date of birth | Needs a login of yours | Turnaround |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VIC | Working With Children Check | No | No | Seconds |
| NSW | Working With Children Check | Yes | Yes — OCG portal | Hours |
| QLD | Blue Card | No | No | Seconds |
| SA | Working With Children Check | Yes | Yes — DHS portal | Under a minute |
| WA | Working With Children Check | No | No | Seconds |
| TAS | Working with Vulnerable People | No | No | A minute or two |
| NT | Ochre Card | No | No | A minute or two |
| ACT | Working With Vulnerable People | No | Set up by support | Reviewed by a person |
Three of those rows are worth reading before you start:
- NSW and SA need a portal login of your own, because neither state publishes a check you can run anonymously. Until that's configured, those checks won't return a result.
- NSW and SA also need each worker's date of birth. Without one, the worker can't be matched at all.
- The ACT has no register Oho can query. Cards are captured and reviewed by a person, so your review cadence is your coverage.
And one behaviour that isn't in the table: Queensland renewals don't flow through on their own, because a renewed Blue Card gets a new issue number. See the Blue Card page.
Teacher Registration
One page per state authority: NSW (NESA), VIC (VIT), QLD (QCT), SA (SATRB), WA (WATRB), TAS (TASTRB), and NT (NTTRB).
National credentials
- AHPRA Registration — health practitioners
- NDIS Worker Screening Check — disability sector
- Police Check — national and international
- Right to Work (Visa / VEVO) — entitlement to work in Australia
Credentials you define yourself
For anything the catalogue above doesn't cover — an internal course, a company induction, a certificate with no register behind it — an Admin can define a custom credential type. Oho tracks these for expiry alongside verifiable credentials, but can't confirm them against a register, so they're marked Not verified.
Related
- Linking & ownership — who a credential belongs to, and how it carries across on hire
- Custom credentials — organisation-specific credential types you define
- Exemptions — when a worker is formally excused from a requirement
- Ban Checks — matching a worker against disqualification registers