Evaluation guide
A Practical Sanctions Screening Test Plan
Evaluate matching and review behavior with a controlled test set before turning on production customer screening.
Prepared by CirclesCheck · Updated . Product evaluation guidance; independent regulatory review is not claimed.
Assemble representative fixtures
Include names with aliases, transpositions, accents, incomplete identifiers, and clear non-matches. Label fixtures as test data and document your expected review outcome.
Review evidence rather than a score alone
Compare the source record and available identifiers. Test how your reviewers distinguish potential matches, false positives, and findings that need further information.
Handle failures explicitly
An unavailable source or failed request must not appear as a clean screening. Test timeouts, authentication errors, and malformed responses, and give these cases an explicit retry or escalation path.
Measure the workload
Track findings per test batch, reviewer time, and how much stronger identifiers help. Choose thresholds from the review tradeoff your team can defend rather than a provider speed claim.
Keep your evaluation record
Save the fixtures, configuration, source evidence, and decisions. Re-run the evaluation after meaningful data or configuration changes.
Evaluate the workflow
Use your organization's policy and applicable official guidance to decide the controls you need. This article describes a product evaluation workflow, rather than a regulatory determination.