Accounts overview

What are Accounts?

Accounts are a way to represent your individual users within Persona. An individual user may go through multiple flows and complete multiple Inquiries**.** With Accounts, you can consolidate all Inquiries for the same user under a single Account. Persona links separate Inquiries into a single Account using reference IDs.

Why use Accounts?

By aggregating all information for a unique user under an Account, you can (1) view the entire history of how an individual has verified their identity over time and (2) compare the information collected in an Inquiry against the information that's already known about the individual (in a previous Inquiry or in the Account itself).

Accounts unlock three main use cases:

1. Information comparison and reverification
2. Ability to run continuous reports (e.g. watchlist reports) on an Account over time
3. Consolidated PII and information storage

Reference IDs

In order for Inquiries to be grouped on the Account level for unique users, you need to provide a reference ID on each Inquiry. You can provide as reference ID the unique ID you use to identify users in your own system.

Account IDs

When an Account is created in Persona, Persona will assign a unique Account ID. This ID (along with the reference ID) can be used to identify a specific Account.

Creating Accounts in Persona

There are four ways to create Accounts:

1. Automatically when creating an Inquiry: When a new user creates an Inquiry for the first time, Persona automatically creates an Account. If no reference ID is provided on the Inquiry, one Account will be created for each Inquiry (this is not recommended).
2. Via API: Accounts can be created and populated via API. We recommend creating Accounts via API if you want the information in your inquiry to be compared against information you've already collected from the user. See our technical documentation to get started.
3. Via the Dashboard: An Account can be manually created in the Accounts page in the Dashboard using the "Create Account" button. All that's required is a reference id; other information can be added as needed once the Account is created.
4. By importing information into Persona: You can import existing information from your own system into Persona as a way to backfill Accounts. See our technical documentation to get started.

Adding custom properties to Accounts with Tags

If you want to add information to an Account beyond the existing Account fields (name, DOB, address, email, and phone #) you can do so via Tags. You can then filter Accounts by Tag in the Accounts page of the Dashboard.

Example: You can create a tag called “frozen” to communicate that the individual may be frozen in your system. This could be useful to let an analyst know the state of an Account when working through account recovery. The analyst could filter for the tag "frozen" and find all frozen Accounts.

Creating a Tag: To create a Tag, go to the Accounts page of the Dashboard and find the individual Account you'd like to tag. At the bottom right section of an individual Account you'll see Tags under Custom Properties. For now, tags can only be created in the Dashboard.

Editing a Tag: To edit a tag, click the "...More" dropdown on the top right side of an individual Account page.

FAQs

How is information populated in an Account?

Information can be populated in an Account in two ways:

(1) If you create an Account via Dashboard or API, you can populate it with specific fields.

(2) If you do not populate an Account, information from the very first completed Inquiry under that Account will automatically populate the Account.

Can I merge or consolidate Accounts?

Yes, you can consolidate multiple Accounts into one via API. By doing so, you will move all inquiries and reports from the "merged" Accounts into a single destination account. Please see our technical documentation to get started.

Can I edit an existing Account?

Yes you can. Any field in an Account can be edited. Once you edit the Account, all future inquiries under this Account will compare their information against the updated Account.

How do I edit the fields in an existing Account?

To update the Account information from Dashboard:

1. Go to the Accounts page of the Dashboard and find the individual Account you'd like to edit.

2. Click the "...more" dropdown on the top right hand side of the Dashboard, and select "Update Account"

3. Update any information you would like, and click "Save."

Why would I want to edit an Account?

It's possible that the information on an Account has either changed or was input incorrectly. A common example of this would be the first and last name being switched around, or a user incorrectly typing in their date of birth. If the Account information is incorrect and you are requiring information from future inquiries to match against Account information, future inquiries will mismatch and fail.

What happens when I redact information from an Account?

When an Account is redacted, all PII, Inquiries, reports, and documents collected up until that point are also redacted. The Account still exists and can be used to collect new information

How do I redact information from an Account?

You can redact an Account's information via the Persona Dashboard, under the "...More" dropdown on the top right side of your screen. Please note that once you've redacted information, you cannot reverse this action.

Note that your organization's retention policy is also applied to Accounts. This means that Accounts are redacted on a regular interval, according to your specific retention policy.

Can I delete or archive an Account?

Yes. When an Account is archived it is effectively deleted from our system and can no longer be used. If you would like to archive an Account, please reach out to us at support@withpersona.com.