• Searches (save and load searches) [1]
• Column selection [2]
• Column filter [3]
• Advanced Search Builder [4]
• CV Search [5]
• Clear [6]
• Actions [7]
• Quick Searching [8]
• User Rating [9]
• Quick Preview [10]
• Postcode and Postcode Radius
• Tag searching
• Unique to each Grid (Candidates, Clients, Contacts)

The Main Grids let you customise your columns, along with sorting, filtering and grid preferences [a] and [b]. You can also add search criteria – allowing you to save [1] your preferred layouts and searches, set a default view, and quickly load saved searches whenever needed.

• [a] Choose to show or hide archived records.
• [b] Choose how many records to display on each page.

Also see our video tutorials.

[1] Searches

Save columns and searches – set a default layout and load searches whenever you need them.

[2] Columns

Choose a maximum of 10 columns to display in the grid.

[3] Current Filters

See which column filters are active, and remove column filters.

[4] Search Builder

Create complex searches for all data (even if not selected as a column).

Also see CV Searching.

[5] CV Searching

Searches candidate CVs marked as ‘Searchable’. This is set by default when a CV is parsed into the database. You can change which document is searchable by editing it from the Docs screen on the candidate’s record.

The Quick Search looks across all columns. A space acts as an AND, so you can find a name from one column and a job title from another in the same search. It also returns partial matches – for example, searching for birm will return results like Birmingham.

[9] User Rating

Each user can rate candidates individually. Ratings are user-specific, meaning a candidate’s rating may vary between users. For example, one user might rate a candidate as green, while another might rate the same candidate as amber.

Use the column filter to find candidates based on their rating – for example, to display only candidates rated as green or amber. You can also sort candidates by rating by clicking the column header.

The user rating is also displayed, and can be changed in the Quick Preview, the candidate’s record, and the Vacancy Pipeline. It is also shown as read only on the Dashboard Pipeline.

To clear all user ratings, select “Clear All Ratings” from the Actions menu.

[10] Quick Preview

Quick Preview [a] allows you to see and update a candidate’s record without leaving the grid – useful for working through a list of results.

Choose which page to view [d]. CV is selected by default. If you choose a different page [b], your selection is remembered when viewing different records, until you refresh or leave the Candidates Grid.

• Overview: Key information from the record’s Overview screen
• Journals: You can add a new journal via the ‘Quick Journal‘ option.
• Vacancies: Also shows interviews for the candidate.
• CV: Shows a preview, and will highlight search criteria following a CV Search.
• Notes: View and edit the record’s notes – simply type in the text field and save.
• Docs: See a list of documents on each candidate’s record.

Perform a range of actions [c] (email, text, add to vacancy, add to group and more).

Close the preview [e].

Your user rating can be changed directly in the Quick Preview panel [f].

Postcode and Postcode Radius

Ensure ‘Postcode’ has been added to the grid, and click on the column filter [a] to access the Postcode Search. You can search using a full, or partial postcode, for example B15. To filter by a specific postcode, simply leave the distance field empty.

Choose between UK postcodes or US ZIP codes [b]

Tags

Add Tags to the Grid and click the column filter [a]. If no categories are selected, all tags [c] will be listed, or find tags by category [b].

Choose the Boolean logic [d] for your search: OR returns records with any of the selected tags. AND returns records whose tags include all the selected tags.

Tags with the Advanced Search Builder

Although the column filter (above) should be your primary method for tag searching, you can further refine your tag search with the Advanced Search Builder. The example, below, will return records where a tag includes ‘Adobe’.

In the example, below, either ‘Adobe Photoshop’ or ‘Adobe Illustrator’ will be returned.

Selecting Records

Select All Records (Actions menu [7]): Select all records returned with current filters and search criteria applied. Excludes archived records if the filter is set to ‘hide archived’.

Select records per page: Records can be selected per page.

Unique To Each Grid

Candidates Grid

Clients Grid

Postcode (Sites)
Perform a geographical search based on any of the client’s site addresses.

Tags (Sites)
Search clients by tags applied to their sites. For example, find clients with sites tagged HR Management.

Email Main or All Contacts
When emailing selected clients, choose whether to email only the main contact or all contacts linked to those clients.

Bulk Actions
Update Status, Source, Managing Consultant, Business Area, and toggle the Do Not Contact (DNC) setting. If DNC is enabled on a client, none of its contacts can be emailed or sent SMS messages—even if their individual DNC setting is disabled.

Contacts Grid

Business Area (Client)
Search contacts by the tags applied to their associated client. For example, find contacts belonging to clients tagged with Engineering.

Consultant (Client)
Filter contacts based on the managing consultant assigned to the client (contacts themselves don’t have a management consultant).

Status (Client)
Search contacts by the status of the client, for example, clients with a status of Active.

Tags (Client Sites)
Find contacts based on tags applied to the site they’re linked to.

Tags (Client)
Search contacts by tags assigned to their associated client.

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.

This document aims to highlight some of the key themes contained within the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and how Recruit So Simple can help you stay compliant. The information below is for your reference only and should not be taken as legal advice. Further information can be found on the ICO’s website: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protection-reform/overview-of-the-gdpr/

Lawful Basis

You must first determine your lawful basis before you begin processing personal data. There are six available lawful bases for processing: consent, contract, legal obligation, vital interests, public task, and finally, legitimate interests.

No single basis is ’better’ or more important than the others – which basis is most appropriate to use will depend on your purpose and relationship with the individual. For example, your legal basis for your clients might be ‘contract’, however, ‘legitimate interest’ or ‘consent’ might be more suitable for candidates.

The ICO has a really helpful tool which is designed to assist businesses in determining which lawful basis is appropriate for their data processing activities.

Once you have decided on the correct lawful basis you should document it, and then update your privacy policy to explain your lawful basis along with the purposes of the processing.

Documenting Evidence

You can record the lawful basis (and the justification) by adding a journal to the relevant record in the system. Alternatively, you may decide that simply using the notes field is sufficient for your needs. It is your responsibility to ensure that you can demonstrate which lawful basis applies to the particular processing purpose.

Custom Journal Types
You may want to add a custom journal type (for example, ‘GDPR’) to help better organise your database. You will then be able to search your entire database for records that are missing the ‘GDPR’ journal type. This makes your on-going compliance a little easier to manage. Custom journal types can be added under [System Settings > Fields > Journal Types]

Locking Journals
If required, you can prevent users from editing and deleting journals once they have been created. You can edit user permissions under [System Settings > Permissions]

Sent Document History
The system automatically keeps a record of every document which has been sent from the system, including when and who it was sent to. Just click the ‘View Sent History’ button in the bottom-left of the Docs screen inside any record. This information will be useful If you receive a subject access request from a data subject.

Info Requests
You can use info requests to send a simple, yet fully customisable, positive opt-in/out email to your candidates. Candidates respond by clicking one of two buttons inside of the email, which then triggers a set of automated actions inside Recruit So Simple in real time. For example, it could be used for re-confirming or withdrawing consent. One of the buttons could add the custom ‘GDPR’ journal type (as discussed above), and the other could set them as “Do Not Contact”.

You should always ensure that you have a lawful basis before sending an info requests to a candidate. You can add info requests under [Candidates > Info Requests]

Individual Rights

Right to Erasure
The right to erasure is also known as ‘the right to be forgotten’.
To ensure compliance, when records are deleted in Recruit So Simple – all data is permanently removed from our servers (inc documents, notes and journals etc). The only information that remains is an entry in your system log, which is required to keep an accurate audit trail.

Right of Access
This is commonly referred to as ‘subject access request’.
Should you receive a subject access request, it’s possible to export all of your data from Recruit So Simple in CSV format (along with any documents). You can then consolidate the information into a nicely formatted PDF for example, and then email it to the requester.

Further Information

For information about our security, infrastructure, and data backup polices etc – please refer to the GDPR section on our main website. If you have any specific questions or concerns, feel free to open a support ticket and we’ll be happy to help.

Email Notifications

Disable or enable email notifications.

Registration notifications

Receive an email notification when a candidate application arrives in [Candidates > Web Import]. This occurs when sharing vacancies via the Website Integration module, or sharing jobs on social media using the micro Job Board feature.

Interview Reminders

Receive an email summary of all interviews that are happening on that day:

• 1 reminder at 06:00
• 2 reminders at 06:00 and 12:00
• 3 reminders at 06:00, 12:00 and 18:00

Choose all interviews, or just interviews where you are the managing consultant of the vacancy.

 In-App Notifications

You can now choose how in-app notifications behave. These appear in the top-right of the screen for task reminders, ticket updates, and other system alerts. Choose between:

• Disable
• Stay until dismissed
• Auto-fade after 10 seconds

Auto-Tag Candidates

When adding candidates by parsing CVs, the system looks at your existing tags. If a match is found in the CV text, the tag is automatically applied.

Preview Automated Messages

If automated emails or SMS messages are enabled, see a preview of the message before it is sent. This allows you to edit the message further, dismiss or send.

Features

• Recently Viewed: display a list of recently viewed records, allowing you to quickly switch from one record to another
• Currently Viewing: See who is currently viewing the same record as you. This can help avoid edits being overwritten, when multiple users want to make changes at the same time. Currently Viewing can be switched off globally in [Settings > System Settings > Company Details].
• Calendar Feed: Allows tasks and interviews displayed in the system calendar [Dashboard > Calendar] to be synced with an external calendar (e.g. Outlook, Google, Mac…)
• Getting Started Guide: Show or hide the Getting Started Guide shown on the Dashboard
• Phone Number Links: Turn phone numbers into clickable links.

About you

• Basic settings
• Your company’s details
• Your users

Customisation

• Custom menus
• Tags
• Set your fees

Email

• Email settings
• MailDrop

Candidates

• Add a candidate to your database
• Bulk import candidates
• Add a candidate to a vacancy

Clients & Contacts

• Add a single client or contact
• Bulk import clients and contacts

Vacancies

• Add a vacancy
• Manage a vacancy
• Add a candidate to a vacancy

Settings > My Account > General

From here you can customise your personal information and set a more memorable password for logging into the system. You can also choose from a range of preferences to customise how the system works for you. Required fields are:

1. Your name
2. Email Address
3. Password

Email is automatically deleted from the inbox after 7 days.

Microsoft 365

If you use Microsoft 365, go straight to our Email Sync for Microsoft 365 page to connect your Microsoft account.

Setting up your email for Gmail

* To sync your Gmail inbox with Recruit So Simple, enable ‘Auto-Journal Incoming Emails‘ located in the blue preferences panel

Creating an App Password for Gmail

To send email from the database via your Google account, Google requires that 2-Step Verification is enabled on your account, and that you generate an App Password. This is a unique password that allows Recruit So Simple to send emails using your Google account.

1. Log in to your Google account.
2. Click Security, look for 2-Step Verification and make sure this is enabled
   (If you can’t see 2-Step verification, ask your Google account administrator to enable it in the Security section of the Google Admin Console)
   
3. Click 2-Step Verification, and look for App Passwords:
   
4. Follow the prompts to create an App Password. You could name it RSS so you know what it is for in the future. Copy and paste the app password, without spaces, into your Recruit So Simple email settings, under [Settings > My Account > Email Settings].
5. Save any changes and try the Test Settings button.

Setting up your email for other email providers

Ask your provider for their incoming and outgoing server settings as shown in [1]. Save any changes and try the ‘Test Settings’ button.

Additional settings

Automatically Copy Sent Emails [2] will send a copy of all email sent from the system to a specified address. Your RSS ‘Sent’ box only stores the last 100 items. If you’re sending important emails (e.g. terms of business) that you may need in the future, this feature will ensure that you have a copy in your usual email client’s inbox.

Outgoing Email Throttling [4] limits the number of emails that are sent on a per hour, ranging from batches of 50 to 1000 emails each hour.

The Microsoft 365 throttle rate complies with Microsoft’s per minute sending rate, as referenced here under the heading ‘Sending Limits’. Note that Microsoft has a sending limit of 10,000 recipients per day.

Please contact your email provider to find out how many emails you can send per hour. Providers have limits to comply with their own policies and anti-spam legislation. Be a ware that if you have 3 users, each set to 100 email per hour, you could potentially be sending 300 emails per hours as far as your provider is concerned.

Adding Your Email Signature

In Recruit So Simple there are two types of signatures – a personal signature (edited here) and a company signature (edited under Company Details). Personal signatures are designed to contain your name and contact information and are inserted into every new email for you. The company signature is attached to all email sent by all users of your database. The company signature is designed to contain legal and disclaimer information. Personal signatures will appear in journals but the company signature will not.

Use the available formatting tools [3] to create your signature:

• Add a hyperlink via the Insert/edit link tool.
• Insert an image (for example your logo) with the Insert/Edit Image tool. Images should be saved as either JPG, GiF or PNG formats.
• Add HTML content by using the Source code <> option.

Advanced Account Settings

Click on ‘Advanced Account Settings’ [5] to reveal these additional options:

[a] By default, when you send an email from Recruit So Simple, the name that it will be “from” is based on your forenames and surname. If you prefer, you can set a custom name here. This is useful when you want all emails to appear from your company name, rather than your personal name.

[b] By default, when you send an email from Recruit So Simple, the email address that it will be “from” is based on your login email address. If you need to, and you know that your email provider supports it, you can set a custom email address here.

You must check with your email provider that you can overwrite the from email address. If your provider doesn’t allow this then your emails will either fail to send or will be flagged as spam when received.

[c] SMTP Authentication is a setting that your email provider can confirm. Most providers require this to be on.

[d] Failed Email Alerts will alert you if an email in your outbox fails to send. If you send to multiple recipients and some of those fail to send, you’ll be notified. You can check your Outbox to see specifically which ones failed.

In order to get the most out of Recruit So Simple the following system requirements should be adhered to. Recruit So Simple is completely web-based: there’s nothing to download or install. You only need a normal web browser, and a couple of common settings and plugins if you want to get the most out of the software.

Web Browsers

Recruit So Simple works best with the latest versions of the following web browsers:

• Google Chrome
• Mozilla Firefox
• Apple Safari
• Microsoft Edge

Microsoft Internet Explorer has been deprecated by Microsoft is no longer supported.

Screen Resolution

We recommend a resolution of 1920 x 1080 or higher.

Javascript

JavaScript must be enabled for Recruit So Simple to function correctly.

Cookies

Allowing your web browser to set cookies should be enabled before using Recruit So Simple.

Plugins

To view PDFs you can use Adobe Reader.

Clients and contacts can be imported via a spreadsheet saved in .csv format.

Clients, contacts and sites

Client – A client is the company.

Contact – One contact (person) can be set as the main contact for each client. This is important when sending a bulk email to clients – you can choose whether to send to all contacts for the selected clients, or only to the main contact.

To appear in postcode and location searches, the contact must be attached to a site. By default, when adding new clients and contacts, the contact is attached to the main site address.

UK postcodes and US ZIP Codes are supported.

Sites – A site is the physical address of a client. Additional sites can be added after the import. Each site can be given a name to make it easy to identify (e.g. Main Site, Sussex Site). Sites provide the location – the site’s County (default) or City, when adding vacancies.

Bulk importing your clients

You must import clients before importing contacts. This ensures each company is created with its details and main site address. Additional sites can be added later from the client record’s Sites page.

If your clients and contacts are in the same CSV file: import the file once to create the clients. Import the same file again to add the contacts.

You can download example CSV files from the import screen to compare with your own. If you use the same column headings as in our example files, the system can automatically match your data. If your headings differ, you can adjust the mappings manually during import.

Step 1: On the Bulk Import screen, select Clients from the buttons at the top.

Step 2: Locate and select your CSV file (maximum size 5MB).

Step 3: Choose how to handle duplicates (by company name):

• Skip (default): Ignore duplicates and skip them.
• Overwrite: Replace any existing record with the data from your CSV file.
• Duplicate: Add a new record, even if a client with the same name already exists.

Step 4: (Optional) select the managing consultant and the source for the imported clients. Client sources can be added in [Settings > System Settings > Fields > Client Sources].

Step 5: Click Next to move to the Field Mappings screen:

Field mappings

On the Field Mappings screen, you’ll match the columns in your CSV file with the correct fields in the database.

To do this automatically, click the Match Columns button. Review the suggested matches carefully, and make any adjustments where needed before continuing.

You can also match columns manually by selecting the appropriate field for each column.

When you’re ready, click Import located at the bottom.

Bulk importing your Contacts

The process for importing contacts is the same as for clients.

If your CSV contains both clients and contacts, after importing your clients, re-import the same file after selecting Contacts from the buttons at the top of the screen.

Required fields

• For clients: Company name
• For Contacts: Company name, Forenames, Surname

All other fields are optional. Unmatched columns are ignored (no changes made). Empty cells are ignored (no changes made).

Optional fields (Clients)

Business Area – these must be set up in [Settings > System Settings > Fields > Business Areas] before the import.

Site Name – used when overwriting existing records to indicate which address should be modified. For new clients, this can be ignored.

Optional fields (Contacts)

Site – choose which client site (site name) the contact should belong to for existing clients. When importing new clients/contacts, this can be ignored.

Use Client’s Main Site – enabled by default. Attaches the contact to the client’s main address, making them searchable by that site’s postcode/location.

Main Contact – in a column in your CSV use the word Main to mark that person as the client’s primary contact.

Phone (preferred) – enter Mobile or Phone to set the preferred number shown on the contact’s record.

Optional fields (common to both Client and Contacts)

Social Media – accepts either a full URL or a handle (e.g. @JohnSmith).

Notes – free text field. You can assign any column to Notes, useful for importing miscellaneous information.

Tags – add multiple tags separated by commas. If a tag doesn’t already exist, it will be created automatically and placed in a category named Import.

Status – new records default to Active unless another status is specified. Statuses must be pre-set in [Settings > System Settings > Fields > Clients/Contacts Statuses].

Do Not Contact (DNC) – enter either DNC or Contact. Empty cells or if the column is not used, the candidate will be contactable. If a client is set to DNC, all of its contacts will also be blocked from messaging (email, SMS), regardless of their individual setting.