Your subscription includes 10 eSignature documents each month at no extra cost. Unlike many providers, we count documents, not individual signatures, so one document can include up to 10 signers without using up extra credits.

Your free monthly allowance renews on the 1st of each month and unused documents do not roll over. Need more? Upgrade to unlimited eSignature documents for £50 per month, excluding VAT, and cancel anytime to return to the included free plan.

Review your remaining documents, and upgrade or downgrade your eSignature plan in [Settings > eSignatures]:

How to create an eSignature document

1. Open a client, candidate or contact record’s Portal screen.
2. Upload the document [a] you want signed from your computer.
3. Give the document a title [b] and, if needed, add a message. This will be included in the invitation email.
4. Search for and add up to 10 signees [c]. Contacts, candidates and users from your organisation can all be added as signees.
5. When creating a document from a contact record’s Portal, you can save a copy to the client record [d]. This ensures the client keeps a copy, even if the contact is deleted later.
6. Review the list of signees. Each signee is colour coded [e].
7. Select a field [f], then place and resize it on the document [g].
8. When the document is ready, click Send for Signing [h].

You control which candidates and interviews to share, and can set rules for what contacts can see.

Important: Before you can use the Client Portal, you must first add your branding, along with links to your website, Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions. You can do this from [Settings > Branding].

Contents

• Client portal at a glance
• Quick Start
• Client Portal Settings
• Inviting Contacts to the Portal
• Client record’s Portal screen
• Contact record’s Portal screen
• Vacancy record’s Portal screen
• Vacancy record’s Pipeline screen
• Automation
• Follow records to receive portal activity alerts

Client Portal at a Glance

Client Portal Settings

Choose which portal features are available, and customise your portal invite messages in [Settings > Client Portal].

Client record (Portal tab)

See which contacts have access to the Client Portal, remove access if needed, and review an overview of portal activity.

Contact record (Portal tab)

Invite a contact to the Client Portal, remove their access, and review their portal activity.

Vacancy record (Portal tab)

See which contacts have access to the vacancy and how many candidates and interviews have been shared with them. You can also set sharing rules, review portal activity and remove access.

Vacancy record (Pipeline)

Choose which candidates to share and which contacts to share them with. You can also see each contact’s decisions, comments and feedback.

Dashboard (Portal)

Review Client Portal activity across your database.

Quick Start

1. Add your branding in [Settings > Branding]. Your branding is used throughout the Client Portal, and Candidate Portal.
2. Enable the Client Portal in [Settings > Client Portal].
3. Invite a contact by sending them a portal link. You can do this from the contact record’s Portal tab, or from the client record’s Contacts tab.
4. Share a candidate with a selected contact from the vacancy record’s Pipeline tab.
5. Set the sharing rule for each contact from the vacancy record’s Portal tab. You can choose to share selected items, selected candidates, or everything (see sharing rules below).
6. Review feedback from the contact on the vacancy record’s Pipeline tab, including their decision and any comments they have left.

Client Portal Settings

[Settings > Client Portal]

Status

Enable or disable the Client Portal globally. When disabled, contacts will not be able to access their portal.

Portal Features

Choose which features and information are available to contacts in the Client Portal.

You can:

• Show or hide the managing consultant’s contact details on the portal dashboard.
• Show or hide the Vacancies section.
• Show or hide the Interviews section.
• Show or hide the Document Upload option.

Welcome Message
Customise the message contacts see at the top of their portal dashboard after logging in.

Invite Email
Customise the invitation email sent when you invite a contact to the Client Portal. The email includes their portal access link.

Inviting Contacts to the Portal

You can invite contacts to the Client Portal in any of the following ways:

• Click Add Contact [a] from the client record’s Portal tab.
• Click Send Link from the client record’s Contacts tab.
• Click Send Portal Link from the contact record’s Portal tab.

Portal invitation links can be sent immediately or scheduled to send at a later date and time.

Client record’s Portal screen

The client record’s Portal tab includes useful tools for managing access and reviewing Client Portal activity across the client.

Portal Access, Status and Activity

See which contacts have portal access, when they last accessed the portal, and which vacancies have been shared with them. You can also remove a contact’s portal access if needed.

The activity summary shows how many CVs have been viewed, how much feedback has been given, and how many vacancies have been shared.

Contact record’s Portal screen

The contact record’s Portal screen has similar functionality to the client record’s portal page, but just for that particular contact.

Vacancy record’s Portal screen

Control Client Portal access and sharing options for an individual vacancy:

• Add contacts to the vacancy [a]
• See which contacts the vacancy has been shared with [b]
• Set the sharing rule for each contact [c]
• Remove a contact’s access to the vacancy [d]

Sharing Rules

Selected Items
The contact only sees the specific candidates and interviews you have shared with them.

Selected Candidates
The contact only sees the specific candidates you have shared with them, and they can see all interviews for the vacancy.

Everything
The contact sees all current and future candidates and interviews for the vacancy.

Vacancy record’s Pipeline screen

Sharing a candidate

Share a candidate with one or more selected contacts from the Actions menu [a] on the vacancy record’s Pipeline tab.

Candidates are shared anonymously, showing only their first name and the initial of their surname.

To view a contact’s comments and rating (Approve, Maybe or Reject), click the badge in the Portal column [b].

Sharing an interview

Interviews can be shared independently of candidates.

To share an interview with one or more contacts, select Portal Sharing from the Actions menu for the required interview. Shared interviews will then be visible in the contact’s Client Portal.

Note: The contact’s sharing rule (Selected Items, Selected Candidates or Everything) also determines which interviews they can see. See Sharing Rules above for details.

Automation

In [Settings > Automation], you can create automated tasks, alerts, notifications and other actions triggered by Client Portal activity.

For example, you could automatically create a task or notification. whenever a contact approves or rejects a candidate.

Automations can help you keep track of important portal activity without having to manually monitor individual candidate records.

Follow records to receive portal activity alerts

To keep notification alerts and emails manageable for portal activity, you can follow just the client, contact, candidate and vacancy records that you’re interested in.

Follow a candidate record to be alerted when a candidate does something in their or portal. You can choose any or all of the following actions:

• Details updated
• CV Uploaded
• Document uploaded
• Document signed
• Questionnaire completed
• Consent updated
• Deletion requested

Follow a client record to be alerted when a contact does something in their or portal. You can choose any or all of the following actions:

• Shortlist feedback
• Document uploaded
• Document signed

Follow a contact record to be alerted when a contact does something in their or portal. You can choose any or all of the following actions:

• Document uploaded
• Document signed

Follow a vacancy record to be alerted when a contact does something in their or portal. You can choose any or all of the following actions:

• Shortlist feedback

Keeping track of who you are following

You can review and manage the records you are following from [Settings > Account > Following].

From here, you can choose which events [a] you want to receive alert notifications for, and unfollow any records you no longer need.

The Candidate Portal provides candidates with a secure login where they can update their personal details, upload CVs and documents, manage their privacy and consent preferences, complete questionnaires, provide Right to Work information and, coming soon, electronically sign documents.

You can create custom questionnaires, request specific documents from candidates, and create document packs for groups of documents that you frequently request together.

Important: Before you can use the Candidate Portal, you must first add your branding and links to your website, Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions. You can do this from [Settings > Branding].

Candidate Portal at a Glance

The Candidate Portal has three main areas:

• Candidate Portal Settings – Choose which portal features are available, customise your messages, and create questionnaires and Document Sets.
• Portal tab on a candidate record – Invite a candidate to their portal, assign questionnaires and document requests, and review their uploaded documents and answers.
• [Dashboard > Portal] – Review Candidate Portal activity across your database, including outstanding requests and candidate responses.

Contents

• Candidate Portal Settings
• Candidate record’s Portal page
• Dashboard Portal
• Candidate Portal (candidate view)
• Automation
• Managing Email, SMS and GDPR consent

Candidate Portal Settings

Settings > Candidate Portal

Status

Enable or disable Candidate Portal access globally for all candidates.

Portal Features

Personal Details

Allow candidates to review and update their own contact details. Their name remains read-only. If a candidate needs to change their name, this can be updated by a consultant directly on the candidate’s record.

CV Upload

Allow candidates to upload a new or replacement CV. You can choose whether previous CVs are kept or automatically deleted using the Delete Replaced CVs option below.

Delete Replaced CVs

Choose what happens to an existing CV when a candidate uploads a replacement. When enabled, the previous CV is deleted. When disabled, previous CVs are retained and marked as Other.

Document Uploads

Allow candidates to upload documents through their portal. This includes documents you have specifically requested, as well as other documents the candidate chooses to provide.

Privacy & Consent

Show the Privacy tab in the Candidate Portal.

Candidates can manage their marketing preferences for email and SMS, provide consent for you to store their information, and request deletion of their data.

Document Signing

Feature coming soon

Show documents that you have sent to the candidate for electronic signature. This option only appears in the candidate’s portal when they have a document waiting to be signed.

Questionnaires

Allow candidates to complete questionnaires that you have created and sent to them.

Consultant Details

Show the candidate’s managing consultant’s name, email address and phone number on the Candidate Portal home page.

Right to Work

Show the Right to Work tab in the Candidate Portal.

Candidates can review their Right to Work status and submit a Home Office share code for you to verify.

Welcome Message

The greeting candidates see at the top of their portal when they sign in. This is intended to be kept short and friendly.

Merge fields can be used to personalise the message with the candidate’s name and your company name.

Invite Email

The email sent to a candidate when you invite them to access their portal.

Invitations can be sent from the Portal tab on an individual candidate’s record, or from an Actions menu, for example after selecting one or more candidates from the Candidates grid.

A fresh, personalised portal link is generated for each candidate at the time the invitation is sent.

Questionnaires

Create reusable sets of questions for candidates to complete in their portal.

Creating a questionnaire set does not automatically make it visible to candidates. A set only appears in a candidate’s portal once it has been assigned to them from the Portal tab on their candidate record. This is also where you can view their submitted answers.

Questionnaire sets that have already been assigned can be made inactive, but cannot be deleted, as their answers form part of the candidate’s record.

Individual questions can be made required, and you can choose whether candidates are allowed to change their answers after submission or whether they are locked.

The following question types are available:

• Short Answer
• Long Answer
• Yes/No
• Multiple Choice
• Date
• File Upload
• Acknowledgement – a checkbox for the candidate to confirm or agree to something

Documents

Create reusable document requests for candidates and group frequently requested documents together into Document Sets.

Document Sets can be assigned to a candidate from the Portal tab on their candidate record. The requested documents will then appear in their portal, ready for them to upload.

Individual document requests can be marked as required where necessary.

Privacy

Configure the consent and marketing preferences available from the Privacy tab in the Candidate Portal.

You can request candidates to provide or update:

• GDPR consent
• Marketing by email consent
• Marketing by SMS consent

Candidate record’s Portal page

The Portal page on a candidate’s record is where you manage their individual Candidate Portal activity.

From here, you can send the candidate an invitation to access their portal, request individual documents or assign Document Sets. Document Sets are groups of commonly requested documents that you can create in [Settings > Candidate Portal].

You can also assign questionnaires that you have created in [Settings > Candidate Portal].

The candidate record’s Portal page lets you review:

• Uploaded documents
• Questionnaire answers
• Marketing preferences and GDPR consent
• Portal activity

Portal Activity shows a history of activity between the candidate and their portal, including what happened, when it happened, and whether the action was performed by the candidate or a consultant.

Activity can be filtered by event type, making it easy to find specific actions, such as Signed a document.*

*Document signing is coming soon.

Dashboard Portal

The [Dashboard > Portal] page gives you an overview of Candidate Portal activity across your database.

At a glance, you can see information including:

• Outstanding document requests
• Open questionnaires
• Candidates with portal access
• Uploaded documents waiting to be reviewed

Similar to the main Dashboard, the Portal Dashboard can be customised. You can choose which widgets to display and arrange them on the page to suit the way you work.

Candidate Portal (candidate view)

When a candidate receives an invitation, they can use their personal portal link to log in to a secure area.

You can revoke a candidate’s access or issue a new portal link at any time from the Portal page on their candidate record.

A portal link is valid for 30 days.

The Candidate Portal consists of several pages, depending on the features you have enabled in [Settings > Candidate Portal].

Home

The Home page gives the candidate an overview of their information and any actions that require their attention.

This includes alerts for missing information, such as their address or contact details, as well as outstanding document and questionnaire requests.

If a managing consultant has been assigned on the candidate’s Details page, their name and contact details can also be displayed here. You can choose whether to show the managing consultant card from [Settings > Candidate Portal].

My Details

Allows the candidate to review and update their address, phone numbers and email address.

The candidate’s name cannot be changed through the portal. If a name change is required, a consultant can update it directly on the candidate’s record.

My CV

Allows the candidate to upload a new or replacement CV.

In [Settings > Candidate Portal], you can choose whether previous CVs are deleted when a replacement is uploaded or retained and marked as Other.

Documents

This is where candidates can view document requests and upload documents.

You can request individual documents from the Portal page on a candidate’s record, or create reusable Document Sets in [Settings > Candidate Portal] for groups of documents you commonly request together.

Candidates can also upload additional documents that have not been specifically requested.

Privacy

Allows candidates to manage their marketing preferences and GDPR consent for storing and using their personal information.

Candidates can also request deletion of their data from this page.

Automation

In [Settings > Automation], you can create automated tasks, alerts, notifications and other actions triggered by Candidate Portal activity.

For example, you could automatically create a task whenever a candidate updates their marketing preferences or GDPR consent. The task can be assigned to the appropriate consultant or user, allowing them to review the change and take any necessary action.

Automations can help you keep track of important portal activity without having to manually monitor individual candidate records.

Managing Candidate Email, SMS and GDPR Consent

You can use the Candidates Grid to find and manage candidates based on their Email or SMS marketing consent, or GDPR consent. There are two ways to filter candidates by their consent status:

Using Column Filters

On the Candidates Grid, use Show/Hide Columns (from the toolbar above the grid) to add the Email Consent and/or SMS Consent and GDPR Consent columns.

These columns can be filtered by:

• Granted – the candidate has given consent
• Not Recorded – no consent preference has been recorded
• Withdrawn – the candidate has withdrawn their consent

For example, filtering Email Consent to Granted [a] will show only candidates who have given email consent.

You can combine this with other filters on the Candidates Grid, such as tags, location/postcode radius, consultant or other candidate information, to create a more targeted list.

Using Advanced Search

Alternatively, you can use the Advanced Search on the Candidates Grid to include email, SMS or GDPR consent as part of your search criteria.

For example, you could create a search for candidates who:

• Have granted email consent [a]
• Include a Boolean CV Search
• …and any other criteria

This allows you to build more detailed searches while ensuring that the results only include candidates with the required consent status.

Using the Advanced Search means you don’t need to use one the maximum 12 columns allowed on the grid.

Saving Your Search

Once you’ve configured the Candidates Grid with the filters you need, you can save the search for future use.

Saved searches retain your selected columns, filters and other grid settings, and you can also set a saved search as your default view.

This can be particularly useful if you regularly need to find candidates who have granted email or SMS consent.

Follow records to receive portal activity alerts

To keep notification alerts and emails manageable for portal activity, you can follow just the client, contact, candidate and vacancy records that you’re interested in.

Follow a candidate record to be alerted when a candidate does something in their or portal. You can choose any or all of the following actions:

• Details updated
• CV Uploaded
• Document uploaded
• Document signed
• Questionnaire completed
• Consent updated
• Deletion requested

Follow a client record to be alerted when a contact does something in their or portal. You can choose any or all of the following actions:

• Shortlist feedback
• Document uploaded
• Document signed

Follow a contact record to be alerted when a contact does something in their or portal. You can choose any or all of the following actions:

• Document uploaded
• Document signed

Follow a vacancy record to be alerted when a contact does something in their or portal. You can choose any or all of the following actions:

• Shortlist feedback

Keeping track of who you are following

You can review and manage the records you are following from [Settings > Account > Following].

From here, you can choose which events [a] you want to receive alert notifications for, and unfollow any records you no longer need.

For example, add sequenced actions to the ‘Add Interview’ trigger. This might be an interview reminder email for the candidate a day before the interview, a task for a consultant, and a follow email after the interview.

Choose a trigger, choose a reference date and add up to 3 actions:

• Send email or SMS
• Notify a system user
• Create a task, note or journal
• Set a status for the target record
• Add a record to a group
• Add or remove a tag(s)

Status indicators

The main Automation page shows a status dot beside each automation. Grey means disabled, blue means enabled, and green means active with pending steps to run.

How automations are set up

Open Settings > Automation, then select New Automation. You can start from a template or build from scratch. New automations start switched off for review.

Each automation has four setup areas:

1. When – name the automation and choose the trigger.
2. Steps – add up to three actions and choose when each step should run.
3. Rules – decide whether communication should stay inside working hours* or only run for tagged records.
4. Review – check the full sequence before enabling it.

*You can set your working hours in [Settings > Company Details]. This will prevent your automated email and SMS messages being sent outside working hours and days.

Triggers

Automations can start from a range of system events, including adding new candidates, contacts, clients or vacancies, interview events, vacancy open or closed events, Do Not Contact changes, record status changes, and vacancy pipeline status changes.

Merge Fields

When creating email and SMS templates, merge fields are available to insert names and other details. Available merge fields will depend on which trigger is selected for the automation.

For interview-related events, the Job Description merge field will insert the job description text from the Job Description (Website) field on the vacancy record’s Details screen.

Attachments

You can add attachments to an automated email as part of the template.

Step timing and condistions

Each step can run immediately or after a delay. Delays can be set in minutes, hours, days, weeks, or months, up to a maximum of 12 months after the trigger. You can also set an optional time of day, such as 09:00, for delayed steps.

When adding a delay to an action, you can choose to skip the step if the recipient replies to any email in this automation.

Some automation steps can use the candidate’s placement start date as a reference point. Enter a negative value to run the step before the start date. For example, -1 day to send a reminder the day before the candidate starts. This is available for:

• Add Interview
• Interview date change
• Pipeline status changed to Placed

Important: Reply-based email conditions require that your Recruit So Simple inbox is synced with your email (Auto-Journaling or Microsoft 365 with journaling enabled). Without this, the automation cannot detect whether an email has been replied to, so these conditions will behave as Always run.

Step types

Send Email

Sends an email to the trigger recipient or a custom email address, depending on the trigger. Configure the recipient, subject, message, optional attachments, timing, and condition.

Email messages support merge fields such as candidate reference, candidate first name, candidate last name, and date added. Attachments upload when selected and are sent every time that step runs. Each file can be up to 10MB, with the whole email up to 20MB.

Send SMS

Sends an SMS to the recipient available for the trigger. Configure the message, timing, and condition.

SMS messages support the merge fields available for the trigger, for example, interview details for the Add Interview trigger. The editor shows a character counter. One SMS credit is deducted per 150 characters, so allow extra space for merged data such as names or references.

Notify User

Creates an internal alert – choose a user in your organisation, or the user who triggered the event.

Configure the notification message, timing, and condition. Alerts are intended to be short and support one merge field.

Create Task

Creates a task linked to the available record, such as the candidate in a candidate-based automation. Configure the task subject, owner, due date, optional reminder, details, timing, and condition.

The owner can be the user who triggered the event or a specific user. Due dates and reminder offsets can be set in days, weeks, months, or years. Task details support merge fields available for the chosen trigger.

Add Note

Adds a note to the available record. Choose which record to add the note to, note text, timing, and condition.

Add Journal

Adds a journal entry to the available record. Choose which record to add the journal to, subject, journal type, owner, journal text, timing, and condition.

Journal text supports merge fields, and you can type @ to mention a user so they are notified when the journal is added.

Set Candidate Status

Changes the candidate status when the automation runs. Configure the target status, timing, and condition.

Add to Group

Adds the record to a selected group. Choose the target group, timing, and condition.

Add Tag

Applies one or more tags to the available record. Configure the record target, tag category and tag selection, timing, and condition.

Remove Tag

Removes one or more tags from the available record. Choose the target record, tag category and tag selection, timing, and condition.

If a step references a status, tag or other item that has since been deleted, that step will be skipped. The remaining steps will continue to run. A warning will be shown on the Automation page so you can review and update the affected automation.

Rules and safeguards

In Rules, you can limit email and SMS steps to company working hours. You can add your working hours in [Settings > Company Details].

You can also limit an automation to records with selected tags. Email and SMS steps never deliver to records flagged Do Not Contact, even if the automation rules would otherwise allow them.

Managing automations

Open an automation and select History to see recent runs, active runs, steps run, and emails sent. Pending runs are shown in the history list, including the record and vacancy they relate to.

To stop several pending runs at once, tick the runs you want to stop, or use Select all pending runs, then select Stop selected.

Open a pending run to see the steps still waiting to run. Use Stop This Run to stop that run only. Stopping a pending run prevents any remaining steps in that run from firing.

Review and enable

Use Review to check the trigger, steps, timing, and readiness before enabling the automation. The review screen highlights issues such as missing email subjects or messages and warns of any other potential issues.

When the automation is enabled, it runs whenever its trigger fires. Use the automation history to review what has run.

Recruit So Simple Jobs is a WordPress plugin that displays vacancies from your Recruit So Simple database and lets candidates apply directly from your website.

1. Install and set up the Recruit So Simple Jobs plugin as described below.
2. Post a vacancy: enable Data Feeds API on a vacancy record’s Share screen.
3. Applications will automatically arrive in [Candidates > Web Import].

To use the plugin, you will need a WordPress website where you can install plugins.

In Recruit So Simple, from [Settings > System Settings > Web > Advanced], you will need:

• Your JSON Data Feed URL
• Your Data Posting API URL

Install the plugin in your WordPress website

1. In WordPress admin, go to [Plugins > Add Plugin]
2. Search for Recruit So Simple Jobs
3. Click Install Now
4. Click Activate Plugin
5. Go to [Settings > Recruit So Simple Jobs] to set up the plugin.

Basic Setup

Log into your WordPress Dashboard, then go to [Settings > Recruit So Simple Jobs]:

• Add the JSON Data Feed URL
• Add the Data Posting API URL
• Set the Jobs page slug, usually jobs

A jobs page will automatically be created at yourdomain.com/jobs/

Alternatively, you can use a shortcode (see below) to insert the plugin into an existing page.

Adding the plugin to an existing WordPress Page

If you want to display your vacancies inside an existing WordPress page, add this shortcode:

[recruit_so_simple_jobs]

Refreshing Vacancies

The feed is refreshed every 30 minutes. If you need to pull fresh vacancies sooner, click Refresh Now and save.

Pretty URLs

Each vacancy gets its own URL, for example: yourdomain.com/jobs/accountant-122/.

Note: If you change the Jobs page slug, go to Settings > Permalinks in WordPress and click Save Changes once. This refreshes WordPress pretty URLs.

Page Layout

Choose your preferred layout for how vacancies are displayed:

• Card view: vacancies appear as cards in a grid.
• List view: vacancies appear in a simpler list.

Vacancies per page

Controls how many vacancies appear before pagination is shown. For example, if this is set to 6, the vacancies page will show 6 vacancies and then navigation to the next page.

Button and Pill Colour

Set the colour used by the plugin (buttons and labels). To keep styling consistent with your website, enter your website’s main colour in any of the following formats:

• A hex value, such as #0f766e (with or without #)
• An RGB value, such as rgb(15, 118, 110)
• A comma-separated RGB value, such as 15, 118, 110

You can also use the colour picker.

Hide or Show Job Fields

Use these settings to choose what details are displayed:

• Reference (Vacancy Ref)
• Location (Town, County or Hidden)
• Salary
• Salary additional info
• Permanent/contract
• Full/part time
• Holiday entitlement (shown on vacancy record’s details page only)

Hide Salary By Ref

You can hide salary from selected vacancies by adding vacancy Refs separated by commas, for example: AB12,BB34

Add replacement salary text to be shown for vacancies where the salary is hidden, for example: “Competitive rates”.

If left blank, the salary row is hidden completely.

Application Form

When a candidate applies, required fields are:

• First name
• Last name
• Phone
• Email

If a question has been set on a vacancy record’s Share screen, this is returned and added to the candidate’s Notes.

CV Uploads

Choose whether a CV is required when candidates apply.

Accepted formats: PDF, DOC and DOCX, with a maximum file size of 10MB.

Notification Email

Use Notification email if you want WordPress to send an email when an application is submitted.

Important: For reliable notification emails, configure WordPress email delivery with your email host or an SMTP plugin.

Privacy policy’s URL

If your Candidate Registration Terms text contains the words “privacy policy”, a link to your privacy policy will automatically be created.

You can set your terms in Recruit So Simple under [Settings > System Settings > Web > Advanced].

If no URL is entered, the text remains plain.

Confirmation Message

The Confirmation message is what a candidate sees after a successful application, for example: “Thank you for your application. We will be in touch soon.”

Human Verification

Human verification helps reduce spam and is applied to the vacancy application form. You can choose:

• None
• Cloudflare Turnstile
• Google reCAPTCHA v2 checkbox

Cloudflare Turnstile set up:

1. Create a Turnstile widget in Cloudflare
2. Copy the site key and secret key
3. In the plugin settings, choose Cloudflare Turnstile
4. Paste the site key and secret key
5. Save settings

Google reCAPTCHA v2 Checkbox set up:

1. Create a reCAPTCHA v2 checkbox site in Google reCAPTCHA admin.
2. Copy the site key and secret key.
3. In the plugin settings, choose Google reCAPTCHA v2 checkbox.
4. Paste the site key and secret key.
5. Save settings.

If a provider is selected, but the keys are missing, the verification widget will not be active.

Troubleshooting

Please open a support ticket from Recruit So Simple under [Dashboard > Help & Support], and one of the team will be pleased to help.

Candidate Matching helps you quickly find the most relevant candidates for a vacancy. Not just a generic AI search of your candidate CVs, it reads the vacancy details, extracts the key requirements, then searches candidate records for matching job titles, desired roles, CV skills, experience, qualifications, education, and previous roles.

The system produces a match score out of 100. This score combines AI relevance scoring with practical checks such as salary expectations, work type, location, industry, experience, and how recently the candidate record was updated. These checks can be included or excluded from Matching Settings if you want to broaden or narrow the results.

Each result includes a short explanation showing why the candidate may be a good fit, including strengths and any considerations. Candidates already on the vacancy pipeline, archived candidates, deleted records, and very weak matches are excluded from the main results.

Results are cached for speed, but you can re-match candidates at any time to refresh the shortlist.

On a vacancy record, click Matching [a] to initiate a search.

Matching Settings [b] allows you to customise the matching calculation by including or excluding:

• Industry (see below)
• Location
• Salary (candidate target salary)
• Work Type (candidate preference for full-time, part-time, perm and/or contract)
• Experience (Candidate employment history)

Results can be further filtered [c] by tag(s), candidate job title, minimum salary, when the candidate record was last updated and availability.

Results can also be filtered by candidate status and vacancy ranking (traffic light).

Use the score slider to widen or narrow the results shown.

To add a candidate to the vacancy, click the Add button.

Select records, and apply bulk actions [d].

Industry is available as a column in the vacancy and candidate grids.

Seniority

Candidate record: Employment History

Seniority levels are fixed (Junior, Mid-level, Senior, Leadership, Executive), and applied automatically for each position in a candidate’s employment history. You can review and change seniority if needed.

Seniority is not industry-specific, so just apply the level that best fits your particular sector.

Highlights

Candidate record: Employment History

Highlights are AI-generated summaries for each position on a candidate’s employment history. These can be reviewed and edited by editing the employment history entry.

Industry

Industry is assigned to both candidates and vacancies, and is used as part of the matching algorithm. It is intended as a broad classification to help improve matching accuracy, rather than as an exhaustive list of sectors.

Industry is available as a column on the Candidates and Vacancies grids, allowing you to sort and filter records by industry.

Industry is assigned automatically (see below), but can also be changed manually on:

• Candidate record: Details screen
• Vacancy record: Details screen

Industry is assigned automatically in the following situations:

• Parsing a CV in [Candidates > Add Candidate]
• Bulk importing candidates (either from a CSV file or a ZIP file containing original CVs)
• Forwarding a CV into your database using the MailDrop feature
• Adding a candidate from [Candidates > Web Import]
• Adding a vacancy by parsing a job description, or by pasting job description text into [Vacancies > Add Vacancy]
• Manually entering text into the vacancy’s Job Description (Private) field on the Details screen. NOte that sufficient text will need to be added for a more accurate result.

If preferred, Industry can be excluded from the matching criteria in the Matching settings.

The available industries are intentionally broad. If selecting manually, choose the option that best suites the candidate’s or vacancy’s primary sector.

Note: is not possible to add your own industry sectors.

AI tools can be enabled or disabled globally under [Settings > System Settings > Company Details] located in the System Features section.

AI CV Summary

When parsing a CV (see list below), an AI generated CV summary is created that includes a Professional Summary, Current Role, Qualifications, Key Skills, Achievements, and Previous Experience. This summary can be appended to the candidate record’s notes [a] for future reference or dismissed [b] if not needed.

A CV summary is generated after performing any of the following actions:

• Adding a new candidate from [Candidates > Add Candidate].
• Importing a candidate from the Web Import screen [Candidates > Web Import].
• Clicking “Update CV” on a candidate record’s Overview screen (useful when a candidate submits an updated CV).
• Clicking “Create Agency CV” from either a candidate’s Overview or Docs screen, to create your branded Agency CV.

AI Candidate Matching

After adding a candidate to a vacancy record’s Pipeline screen, click the AI Matching Summary icon [c] to generate a matching score out of 10, along with a summary of pros, cons, and a conclusion [d]. This assessment evaluates the candidate’s suitability for the role by comparing their CV with the job description.

Alternatively, you can select up to five candidates at a time and use the ‘AI Matching Summary‘ option from the Pipeline Actions menu to generate matching scores for all selected candidates simultaneously.

Once generated, the matching score is displayed next to the candidate’s name [e]. Clicking on the score allows you to review or refresh the summary – for example, if the candidate’s CV or the job description has been updated (the summary includes the date and time that it was last generated).

Using the Matching Summary for guidance, the starring system [f] can then be used to highlight the most suitable candidates. The Pipeline can be sorted by star rating, or matching score by clicking the column header.

Notes:

• AI Candidate Matching uses the Job Description (Private) field, located in the Details section of a vacancy record.
• A detailed job description and well-structured candidate CV will produce better results.
• Once generated, the AI Candidate Matching summary is saved until the candidate is either removed from the vacancy or the summary is refreshed.

AI Writing Tools

Let AI Writing Tools assist you in composing emails, texts, and more. Simply select the text you need help with and choose a writing style [g] that best suits your purpose.

AI Writing Tools can be used in the following scenarios:

• Composing an email
• Writing an SMS message
• Adding a journal entry (located on a record’s Overview screen)
• Creating a task (on a record’s Overview screen or under [Dashboard > Tasks])
• Adding or editing the Job Description (Private) (found in a vacancy record’s Details screen)
• Creating an Agency CV (from a candidate record’s Overview or Docs screen)
• Creating an Info Request from [Candidates > Info Requests]

Note: Selected text must be between 50 and 5,000 characters.

AI Generated Job Description Templates

To save time, create a job description template [h] in the Job Description (Private) field on a vacancy record’s Details screen, or from [Vacancies > Add Vacancy]. The template will be based on the vacancy’s job title, basic details such as permanent/contract, full-time/part-time, and salary requirements.

AI Generated Interview Questions

When adding a new interview to a vacancy [Vacancy > Pipeline], you can generate example questions based on the job description. These can reflect either the candidate’s perspective (questions for interviewers) or the client’s (questions for the candidate).

Use of these AI features is subject to our terms and conditions.
Please read our policies on AI use on our website.

Easily send and receive email in Recruit So Simple by connecting your Microsoft 365 account. This streamlined integration replaces the need to manually enter server details, which Microsoft no longer fully supports.

Connecting Your Microsoft Account

To connect your Microsoft 365 account:

1. Go to [Settings > My Account > Microsoft 365].
2. Click Connect to sign in and authorise your Microsoft account.
3. If prompted with the option “Consent on behalf of your organisation”, select Yes.
   This indicates you’re the Microsoft Administrator and will allow the rest of your team to authorise their own accounts independently.

Syncing Your Inbox

This step is optional and can be skipped if you only want to send email from your database. To enable email syncing, follow these steps:

1. Click the Email Sync Setup button.
2. Choose a folder to sync — typically your Outlook Inbox, or you can create a dedicated folder in Outlook specifically for syncing.

Automatic Email Journaling

Once your inbox (or selected folder) is synced, any email received from candidates or contacts will be automatically journaled to their record if the <from> address matches either their primary or alternative email address.

Important: Journals are not added immediately. For an email to be journaled:

• It must remain in the synced folder for one hour – do not move or delete it – or enough time for two sync cycles (see next points).
• Email sync runs every 20 minutes.
• Journaling occurs on the next sync cycle and only if the email is still in the synced folder.
  This helps prevent duplicate journals from being created.
• The first 10 records with a matching email address will be journaled.

Privacy Protection: You can prevent journals from being added by blacklisting specific email addresses. For example, this can help avoid the inadvertent addition of journals to records with your personal email address. You can add blocked email addresses in [Settings > System Settings > Company Details], under Auto-Journal Block List.

Sending Limit / Throttling

When you connect your Microsoft account, your email throttle is automatically set to 25 emails per minute (1,500 per hour). This helps you send bulk email efficiently while staying within Microsoft’s sending limits.

Sending up to 1,500 emails per hour can still trigger ISP spam filters. To protect your domain’s reputation, send email responsibly and avoid practices that may be flagged as spam.

You can view or change this setting via Settings > My Account > Email Settings.

Using a Third-Party SMTP Provider

If you prefer to send email through a third-party SMTP provider:

1. Go to Email Sync Setup.
2. Deselect Enable sending email via Microsoft 365.
3. Then go to Settings > My Account > Email Settings to enter your SMTP provider’s configuration details.

Notes

• Microsoft requires reauthorisation of the connection every 90 days. If this happens, simply click Connect again to reauthorise. The system will alert you if reauthorisation is needed.
• If your inbox hasn’t synced for more than 24 hours (e.g. due to expired authorisation), the system will backfill the last 72 hours of email once reconnected. After that, it resumes normal syncing of email received within the past 24 hours.

Troubleshooting for Microsoft Administrators

If there are any issues, such as users being continually asked to request consent, you may need to check the permissions for the Recruit So Simple Email Sync app in your Microsoft Admin Center:

1. From the menu on the left, go to [Applications > Enterprise Applications].
2. Click on [Consent and permissions > User consent settings]. We recommend selecting “Allow user consent for apps from verified publishers…“. There should be 7 “permissions classified as low impact”, for the app to work:
   

   

3. To add missing permissions, click Permission Classifications > Grant admin consent for [your company name] and add all seven permissions from the table below:

Security Defaults and Authenticated SMTP

Microsoft ‘Security Defaults’: If you have previously disabled Security Defaults in your Microsoft Admin Centre, this can now be re-enabled.

Authenticated SMTP: If you have previously enabled Authenticated SMTP for your users, this can now be disabled.

Goals can be displayed full page, ideal for displaying on a TV screen. To open a goal in full screen view, first generate a Goals report from [Dashboard > Reporting]. Scroll to the required goal and click on the share icon located next to the goal’s title [1].

Features include:

• Use the goal’s unique URL in any web browser on any device.*
• Real-time tracking (refreshes every 10 seconds)
• Can be switched between dark and light mode.
• Arrange browser windows to show two or more goals.

*To revoke access to previously generated full-screen goals, reset your Goals API Key in [Settings > System Settings > Goals].

Please note that when an application is received via the API, an email notification will not be generated. If an email notification is required this will need to be sent from your website/system.

The API accepts the following JSON encoded fields:

Where to find your API key

Your API key can be found in [Settings > System Settings > Web > Advanced].

There is a rate limit of 200 requests per hour.

If an invalid key is provided there will be no response from the API.

Responses

Once the data is posted then an array is returned with either a 200 Success response, or if there are any errors then these will be returned.

PHP Example Code

The following example code can be used to post to the API . The unique key should be kept hidden and not viewable in the source code of the page. Anyone with your key will be able to post to your account.

The API will return an error if invalid data is provided (for example, an invalid email address or missing first name etc).

$file = file_get_contents("cv.pdf"); 
$base64 = base64_encode($file);

$data = array(  'firstName'             => 'James',
		'lastName'		=> 'Clayson',
		'phone'			=> '01234567890',
		'email' 		=> 'james@email.com',
		'cvData' 		=>  $base64,
		'cvFilename' 	        => 'cv.pdf',
		'job' 			=> '123',
		'question' 		=> 'Do you hold a full drivers licence?',
		'answer' 		=> 'Yes'
	);

$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "https://api.recruitsosimple.com/post/v1/[YOUR-KEY-HERE]");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array('Content-Type: application/json'));
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS,json_encode($data));
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
$response  = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
print_r($response);