Recruitment Pipeline: Track Candidates on One Board
A recruitment pipeline gets hard to follow when resumes sit in inboxes and candidate stages live in a spreadsheet. With Planfix’s contact board, you gather all candidates in one Planner, track their statuses, store resumes and convert applicants into employees, using custom objects in Planfix as the base. This video, under three minutes long, walks through the setup from the object card to the candidate card.
What you’ll learn: how to build a hiring pipeline board in Planfix
- Get an overview of the hiring process (0:08).
- Set up the object card (0:38).
- Configure statuses for the stages of hiring (1:20).
- Build a Planner that gathers all candidates in one place (1:42).
- Customize the candidate card (1:56).
How to set up a recruitment pipeline in Planfix, step by step
Below is one way to build it; the video shows its own configuration in full.
Step 1. Create an object for candidate records
Go to Account management → Types of objects and click New Object to create a Candidate object. On the Object form, add the fields each candidate record needs, picking existing ones or creating new ones with the plus button. A Files field can hold the resume, and a List field keeps a fixed set of values, such as open positions.
Step 2. Configure candidate statuses
Open the object’s set of statuses (see how custom objects and statuses work) and click Add status to set. Pick an existing status or create one with the plus button, then set which statuses lead to it and where it goes next. Name the statuses after your hiring stages, for example, from screening to an offer. Add a transition to Canceled from every stage, because a candidate can drop out at any point, and to Completed for accepted offers.
Step 3. Build a kanban candidate board in the Planner
In the Planner tab, click the Add icon at the bottom of the planner panel, choose Planner and give it a name. Then add lists, one per hiring stage:
- choose the Cards list type;
- set the type of objects displayed to tasks, since candidate records are tasks of the Candidate object;
- in Object selection parameters, filter by the Candidate object, then add that stage’s status as the last condition;
- pick the fields each card shows, such as the position.
A card dragged to another list takes on that list’s selection parameters, applied in the order they are listed, and with several standard conditions only the last one applies, so the status goes last. That is Move It = Change It in the Planfix Planner: moving a candidate to the next column changes the status. Only files attached directly to the record, such as a resume that arrived by email, can be shown on the card and opened without leaving the Planner.
Step 4. Turn the hired candidate into an employee
The card on the board is the candidate’s record; keep the person behind it in your contact database. Dragging a contact onto a task list in a Planner offers to create a task with that contact as the counterparty. When a candidate accepts an offer, convert the contact into an employee from the contact card. Only the full name, email address and phone number carry over; custom fields, the contact group and the supervisor are not preserved, so copy what you need first.
From application to new hire: how the pieces fit together
The video description links to two ways of collecting applications. With the Google Forms integration, applicants are added to the contact database automatically, and the form data fills the fields of a Planfix task. For email, forward applications to a virtual email address: the subject becomes the task name, the body the description, and an attached resume is attached to the task. Make sure incoming applications are created as candidate records, or they won’t match the board’s lists.
From there, the team works on one board until the offer is accepted and the candidate’s contact becomes an employee.
Who this recruitment pipeline is for
- Small business owners: hire in the workspace where your tasks and clients already live.
- HR leads: use statuses to map each applicant from screening to offer and see every applicant’s stage on one board.
- Teams comparing a recruitment CRM with a separate ATS: keep candidates in the same contact database as your clients and partners, on the same boards your team already uses.
FAQ
Can I track job applicants in Planfix without a separate applicant tracking system (ATS)?
Yes, for a basic pipeline. Build candidate tracking from a custom object, a set of statuses for hiring stages and a Planner board, and keep it next to the rest of Planfix for HR teams. Applications can come in through Google Forms or email.
What stages should a recruitment pipeline have?
There is no fixed set: each stage is a status you name yourself. A common pipeline is New application → Screening → Interview → Offer → Hired, plus a transition to Canceled for candidates who drop out at any stage.
Where should I store candidate resumes?
Use a Files field on the candidate record, or let resumes arrive as email attachments on the task. Either way, everyone with access to the record can see them.
Start with one open position
Create the candidate object, add a few statuses for your stages and give each one a list on a single Planner board. Then connect Google Forms so applications arrive as tasks without manual entry. New to Planfix? Sign up to try it.
This video was featured in What’s New in Planfix: December 2025.
