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Pipeline stages

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Every application in Lovelio sits in exactly one of twelve stages. Every new candidate on a job - an applicant, a talent pool add, a database search match, a manual add, a Chrome extension capture - lands in the Funnel first. From the Funnel the consultant reviews and marks each person Yes, No or Maybe; the AI suggests a call but never moves anyone. Screen holds candidates in a phone screen or internal interview with the consultant. The client-side stages (Submitted, Client Interview, References, Offer) track the progress agencies actually report on. The last three (Placed, Rejected, Withdrew) are terminal. Stages move automatically as you work: sending a submission, booking a client interview, logging an offer, and logging a placement each move the candidate for you. You can also set any stage by hand at any time, with one guard: a candidate can never reach the client side without a real submission on record. The pipeline lives on the job record page; jobs are listed under "Jobs".

The twelve stages

  • "Funnel" - the landing bucket. Every new candidate starts here, awaiting first review. The AI may suggest Yes, No or Maybe; only you move them.
  • "Maybe" - reviewed, undecided. Come back to them on your next pass.
  • "Yes" - ready to progress. The active pipeline: run phone screens, book interviews, collect references from here.
  • "No" - parked. A soft no. The rejection email has not been sent yet, so you can bulk-reject later, edit the drafted email, or change your mind.
  • "Screen" - in a phone screen or internal interview with the consultant, between Yes and Submitted.
  • "Submitted" - sent to the client for review.
  • "Client Interview" - interviewing with the client.
  • "References" - reference checks underway, between the client interview and the offer.
  • "Offer" - the client's offer is out.
  • "Placed" - the win. Terminal.
  • "Rejected" - rejection sent. Terminal.
  • "Withdrew" - the candidate pulled out. Terminal.

The funnel strip on the job page

The Candidates tab on a job is fronted by the funnel strip: the stages drawn left to right with a live count in each. Click a stage to see just those people; click it again to return to the full active pipeline. Stages with nobody in them do not respond. "No" is a quiet text link off the end of the strip, deliberately not part of the flow (the flow leads to placement). To see placed, rejected or withdrawn candidates, pick those stages in the Filter popover.

On Funnel and Maybe rows the DO NEXT column shows one-click Yes / No / Maybe buttons (your current stage's own button is hidden). Every click returns an undo. Beyond triage, DO NEXT shows the one recommended next action. That suggestion is worked out by a fixed set of rules from the record itself - the stage, the screen score, the client's latest response, whether an interview is booked, whether referee details are in, and how many days the candidate has sat at the stage. It is the same answer every time for the same record, it never waits on anything in the background, and the same rules drive the next-move card in the applicant slideout.

Actions drive stages, not the other way round

The happy path never needs a manual stage change:

  • Sending a submission moves every included candidate not yet client-side (Funnel, Maybe, Yes, No or Screen) to Submitted automatically. Candidates already client-side or terminal keep their stage, so a second submission never regresses progress.
  • Booking a client interview moves a Submitted application to Client Interview. Booking an internal interview (the agency's own screen) moves a Yes candidate to Screen - the Screen stage holds phone screens and internal interviews, and Client Interview is only ever the client's own interviews. Booking also never moves a triage-stage candidate onto the client side: a client interview presupposes a submission. A candidate self-booking a client interview slot from a "pick a time" link moves the stage the same way. An application already at Client Interview, Offer, Placed or terminal stays put.
  • Logging an offer moves the application to Offer.
  • Logging a placement moves the application to Placed. If a placement later falls off during guarantee, the linked application moves from Placed to Withdrew; correcting a mis-click restores Placed, and only from Withdrew.
  • Starting a phone screen moves a Yes candidate to Screen: sending an AI voice screen invite or completing the screen form both do it. Funnel and Maybe candidates can still be screened without moving - triage stays yours - and they stay in their triage stage everywhere (the strip and the jobs dashboard both show the actual stage) until you or the screen outcome move them.
  • A phone screen outcome advances or parks. Advance and hold move a Yes candidate to Screen (the screen happened); a reject outcome moves any pre-client candidate to No, not Rejected - failing a screen and sending the rejection email are deliberately two separate steps. A no-show leaves the stage alone, and a candidate already with the client is never pulled back by a screen log. The AI screen's score never moves anyone; it updates the recommended next action instead.
  • Requesting referee details from a candidate at Client Interview moves them to References. Requesting references at any other live stage still sends the request without moving the stage - references are gathering, not a gate. When the references are all in, nothing moves either: the next-action card nudges you toward Log offer and you decide.

Manual moves and the one hard rule

There is no transition graph. Any stage can move to any other stage, in any direction, because fall-backs and revivals happen constantly in agency life. One exception is enforced in the one shared stage-move path that every door uses (grid, AI, Slack, automations, the V1 API): a candidate can only enter a client-side stage (Submitted, Client Interview, References or Offer) from outside it if they have actually been put in front of the client, meaning a submission that includes them or a converted float. Without that evidence, the move is blocked with the message "This candidate has not been submitted to the client yet. Send them on a submission (Submit to client) before moving them." Once a candidate is already client-side, moving between client stages is free. If a move to Submitted is blocked, send the candidate on a submission first.

Every stage move logs a timeline entry (with an optional reason), fires configured webhooks and automations, and returns an undo.

The AI suggests, you decide

When a candidate is scored, the AI's verdict (Yes, Maybe or No) shows as a suggestion chip on the row - "AI Maybe · 72" - with the match score. It never moves the stage: the candidate stays in the Funnel until you mark them. Once you act, the chip carries a tick instead of the AI tag. Automations obey the same limits as always: they cannot move a terminal application, cannot move a candidate into a client-side stage at all, and cannot pull a client-side candidate back to triage or to Rejected.

Interviews can be requested for applications at Yes, Screen, Submitted, Client Interview or References. Requesting one from the Funnel, Maybe, No or a terminal stage does nothing: no interview is created and no email goes out.

Reject and withdraw

Rejecting a candidate moves them to Rejected and, by default, sends the templated rejection email. The reject action can skip the email. Rejection emails only ever go to candidates who applied themselves (careers page, job board, or the apply flow). Candidates the agency added from a database search, a talent pool, an import or the Chrome extension are just marked No and never emailed about it. That gate is enforced inside the stage-transition email dispatcher itself, so even a plain manual move to Rejected never emails someone who did not apply. Withdrawing moves the application to Withdrew and skips candidate emails. Both record the reason on the timeline and both return an undo ("Undo reject" and "Undo withdraw").

The New grace period

A candidate with no real pipeline history (never placed, never interviewed, never at a client-side stage) shows as New on the Candidate Snapshot for their first 90 days, with no numeric relationship score. Being added to jobs and triaged does not end the grace period; only a placement, an interview or reaching a client-side stage does, or the 90 days passing.

Milestones and the next action

For candidates at Yes, the slideout shows a five-step milestone ladder: Phone screen, Book interview, Interview, References, Offer. Steps can be skipped (straight to booking an interview without a phone screen is fine); a skipped step stays clickable but never shows as the recommended next step. The Interview step only unlocks once an interview is booked ("Book an interview first"). The Offer milestone completes only when the placement is logged.

One next-action label appears everywhere (grid and slideouts), derived from the same logic:

  • Funnel and Maybe: the Yes / No / Maybe buttons (the review IS the next action)
  • No: "Send rejection", only for self-applied candidates; otherwise nothing
  • Yes: the first not-done milestone after the furthest completed one
  • Screen: nothing to click while the screen is unscored (the ball is with the candidate); once scored, the ladder takes over
  • Submitted or Client Interview: nothing to click; the ball is with the client
  • References: the ladder, which usually lands on "Log offer" once the referee request is out
  • Offer: "Create placement"
  • Terminal stages: no next action

The grid's waiting column flags an application red after 4 days in its current stage.

Common questions

  • "Why can't I move this candidate to Submitted?" They have no submission on record. Use "Submit to client" to send them on a submission; the stage moves automatically.
  • "Does marking someone No email them?" No. No is parked, not rejected. The email only goes when you reject, and only if they applied themselves.
  • "Can I move someone backwards?" Yes, any stage to any stage, except that entering the client side needs submission evidence.
  • "Will the AI reject my candidates?" No. The AI only suggests. Nobody leaves the Funnel, and nothing is sent, until you decide.
  • "What do candidates see?" The candidate portal never shows triage language. Funnel, Maybe and No all read as "In Review"; Yes reads as "Shortlisted"; then Screen, Submitted, Interview, References, Offer, Placed. A rejected or withdrawn application shows a not-progressing chip instead of the ladder.