Submissions: sending candidates to clients

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A submission is a set of candidates on a job, sent to the job's client contact as a secure link. The link opens straight from the email, nothing to sign into: the client reviews each candidate and responds in one click - request an interview, say no, or ask a question. Every response updates the pipeline and notifies the consultant automatically, so nothing needs following up or re-keying.

Sending a submission

Submissions are sent from a job. The button is "Submit to client": select candidates on the job's Candidates tab, use a single candidate's row menu or their application panel, or the Submit button on a Yes or Screen stage candidate. You can also ask the AI assistant to do it, and the V1 API can send one too.
Sending opens one screen, not a wizard. The left side is the whole send top to bottom - who gets it, how much of each candidate they see, the subject, the greeting, the headline, the message, and the pitch for each person. The right side is the exact email the client will receive, redrawn as you type, with the section you are editing highlighted.
"Send to" lists the job's client's contacts. The job's own contact is labelled and preselected, otherwise the client's primary contact. A contact without an email address cannot be picked, and "Someone new" adds a contact on the spot without leaving the flow.
The AI drafts a short client-facing pitch for each candidate while the send screen opens. It reads the CV, the cover letter, Lovelio's own assessment of the candidate against this job (used to decide what to lead with, never quoted to the client) and the notes from any screening call, and it names the client's Client DNA when one exists. The consultant edits these freely, never writes from blank, and can ask for a redraft per candidate. A draft that hedges ("not enough detail", "details are not provided") is thrown away and redrafted once; if it still hedges, the box is left empty for the consultant to write. A candidate with no CV text, no cover letter, no assessment and no screening notes gets no draft at all: the box says "Add a CV or screen notes first", because a pitch written from nothing can only be padding. The greeting defaults to "Hi {first name}" for the selected contact and is editable.
The message and every candidate pitch take real formatting: blank lines start a new paragraph, "-" starts a bullet list, "1." starts a numbered list, and word makes it bold (the toolbar above each box does the same, and Cmd+B bolds the selection). Enter continues a list; Enter on an empty item ends it. The formatting shows in the live preview, in the email the client receives, and on the review page - all three always match.
The MESSAGE is what the client reads above the candidates, and every word of it is the consultant's. It arrives filled in with "I am delighted to submit {candidate first names} for your role of {job title}. Please see specific details below. I look forward to your feedback when you have time to review." signed off "Kind Regards, {consultant first name}". On an anonymous send it names the candidates the way the client sees them ("Candidate A and Candidate B"). Rewrite it, or send it as it stands. It is stored on the send, so a resend repeats what the client first read, and the review page carries the same words as the email. The AI assistant and the V1 API take intro_body too, and leaving it out keeps the default.
The HEADLINE is the big line at the top of the review page, the first thing the client reads, and the consultant owns it. It arrives filled in with "Hi {first name}, N candidates for your review." and can be rewritten to anything - "Hi Brett, three people worth your time.". It shows on the review page only, never in the email, and it is stored on the send, so a resend shows the page the client first read. The AI assistant and the V1 API take headline too, and leaving it out keeps the default.
The SUBJECT LINE is the consultant's too. It arrives filled in with "Candidates for the role of {Job title}" - "Candidate" when there is only one - and can be rewritten to anything. The preview beside the composer shows the subject above the email the way an inbox does, and the subject is stored on the send, so a resend goes out with the same line rather than a fresh one. The AI assistant and the V1 API take email_subject too, and leaving it out keeps the default.
A submission needs at least one candidate, and every candidate must already be an applicant on that job. A job with no client cannot be submitted.

How much of the candidate the client sees

The composer carries "What the client sees", with three settings. One setting applies to the whole submission, and the live preview redraws as you change it, so you read the real email before you send.

Full name (the default): the name, the LinkedIn link, and every employer and school on the CV.
First name only: the client sees "Marcus". The surname and the LinkedIn link are removed everywhere, including inside your pitch and the CV text. Employers and schools still show.
Anonymous: nobody is named. Each person becomes "Candidate A", "Candidate B" in the order you listed them, the LinkedIn link goes, and the employers and institutions read "Employer withheld" and "Institution withheld". Employer and school names are also taken out of your pitch, the CV summary and every role description, because a CV reading "Senior QS at Lendlease, UNSW" names the person to anyone with a search box.

The setting is applied on Lovelio's side before anything is sent, so it covers the email as well as the review page - a client set to Anonymous never receives a name in either place. The AI writes the pitch for the setting too: at Anonymous it writes "a national contractor" rather than the employer's name.

Your own record is untouched. Everyone on the Submissions board and in the candidate's timeline still shows real names to your team; the setting only governs what leaves the building. A submission sent at a reduced setting carries a small "First name only" or "Anonymous" tag on the submissions snapshot, so you can always see what that client was shown.

Floats work differently: a float is always anonymous, with no setting to change.

Anyone the client has already been sent for this job is flagged by name before you send, and the Send button waits until you tick "Send again anyway". It is a warning, not a wall - re-sending is fine when they lost the first email or your new summary answers their objection. The AI assistant and the API get the same refusal and take allow_resubmit to go ahead.

What the client receives

An email in the AGENCY's name with whatever subject the consultant wrote on step three (default: "Candidates for the role of {Job title}"). Nothing a client receives carries Lovelio branding: the name at the top of the email is the agency's, the footer says "Sent in confidence by {Agency}", and neither the email nor the portal mentions Lovelio anywhere. Which system the agency runs on is the agency's business. It shows up to 5 candidate preview cards (name, current role, the summary note), the covering message if one was written, and a "Review candidates" button. A submission of one reads singular throughout - the headline, the wording and the button all say candidate, not candidates. The email also says the client can simply reply, and the reply is added to the same email conversation with that contact in Lovelio.
The link is a unique unguessable URL that works without any login. It expires after 7 days. The email says so and tells the client to ask the consultant to resend it if they need more time.

The client portal

The portal leads with the CLIENT's identity: their logo and name head the page (picked up automatically when the client record was enriched), with the agency signing it top right as "Prepared by {Agency}". The page itself is white with Lovelio's own accent, typography, cards and controls - the client's colours never repaint it. A client with no logo on record gets the agency's own identity in the header instead. Candidates are presented as dossiers: name, location, LinkedIn link, and work history and education from their CV, with the name, the link, the employers and the schools shown or withheld according to the "What the client sees" setting on the send. Skill tags are capped at ten and led by the ones THIS job asks for - a CV parse often yields thirty or more, and the two that answer the brief get lost in the wall. Nothing is reworded; the ten are the candidate's own words, and the consultant still sees the full list on the candidate record. The client never sees the candidate's email or phone number, and never sees agency-internal data like fit scores or sourcing details. Interviews are arranged through the consultant, not directly.
Per candidate the client has exactly three buttons: "Request an interview", "Ask a question" and "Say no". They exist only INSIDE the candidate's profile - the shortlist itself offers no way to answer, just "View profile" - so a client cannot request an interview or say no to someone they have not opened. There is no open text box anywhere on the page - a question is written in a composer that only appears after "Ask a question" is clicked. Every verdict composes before it sends: the button opens a dialog, Send is the one action that records it, and Cancel leaves the candidate unanswered.
The interview-request popup states, right under the Send button, that requesting an interview means the client accepts the agency's terms of business, with a link to that client's living terms page (the same page the client record's Terms tab shares). Float pages carry the same line under the "I'm interested" button. The wording on the terms page comes from Settings > Hiring > Fees and Terms.
Opening a candidate opens their room: who they are, the consultant's pitch, the whole conversation, the full profile behind a "Read it" fold, and at the foot the dates (when it was sent, what has been asked, whether the consultant has replied, when the link expires). It is the same record the consultant reads in the submission slideout, from the other side, in the same order. The three buttons sit beside the record on their own panel rather than in a fixed spot inside it, so they stay on screen the whole way down; on a phone the same panel is pinned to the bottom of the screen. The strip of dates reads two across instead of four.
The CV is open on the first read and folds away once there is a conversation, so a client coming back from a "your question was answered" email sees the answer first rather than scrolling a resume to find it. It is always one click from the fold.
On an interview request the popup asks when they could meet, and takes it in plain English, typed or spoken into the mic: "5pm tomorrow, Thursday morning, or Monday the 9th at 3". Each one appears underneath as a real date and time in the client's own timezone while they type, and they can drop any of them with the x before sending. A spread counts as every day in it, so "any day next week at 9am" comes back as all five working days rather than the Monday alone. An offer means office hours unless they say otherwise: "anytime Tuesday" reads as 8am to 6pm, "before midday" starts at 8, "after 3pm" ends at 6. A time they name outside 8am to 6pm still sends, but its chip goes amber and says "outside work hours" so they can fix a slip before sending. Three to five times is the ask; fewer still sends. Only what is still on screen when they press Send is saved, so a misread date is caught by the person who said it. After Send, a confirmation reads the requested times back and says the consultant will lock one in and send a calendar invite; Done returns the client to the shortlist rather than the candidate's profile. The popup asks for times only; there is no star rating. Submissions answered before mid-August 2026 may still show a 1-5 star rating from the older popup.
On a no the dialog requires two things before Send lights up: the main reason (Skills mismatch, Not enough experience, Location concerns, Salary expectations, Company fit concerns, Other) and a straight yes or no to "Do you want to see more candidates for this role?". A note is optional. A yes travels loudly to the consultant - the Needs You card says "wants to see more candidates" with "Send them more candidates" as the action, and the notification, timeline entry and webhook all carry it - so a pass with a yes reads as an opening, not a loss. After Send, a confirmation says the answer went to the consultant, and Done returns the client to the shortlist rather than the candidate's profile.
Each candidate can only receive one verdict; a second attempt gets "Already responded to this candidate". Questions are a conversation, not a form: the client writes at the end of the thread and their message stays there, the consultant's answer appears in the same thread, and the client also gets an email saying their question was answered. The page picks up new replies on its own while the tab is open, so a client sitting on the submission sees the answer without reloading. Either side can keep going as long as the link is live. The client can also just reply to any of the emails and that is added to the same thread.
The shortlist rows carry the consultant's whole pitch for each candidate, labelled "Why {Agency} sent {name}", and the state of each conversation before anything is clicked. Where the consultant has answered a question, the row shows the answer itself as readable text under "Sarah replied yesterday", not a badge with the first line cut off; where the client is still waiting it says "Waiting on Sarah - 2 days" with their own question quoted back. A candidate nobody has said anything about carries no badge at all, so the rows that do mean something stand out. An answered candidate shows a calm "Interview requested" or "You said no" with the reason, never the pink accent - the accent is kept for the candidates still waiting on the client. Once the consultant books the interview, "Interview requested" becomes "Interview booked" with the day and time on the client's own clock, then "Interview held" after it happens, or "Interview cancelled" - the same state the consultant sees on the home page and in the interview panel.

What each client action does in Lovelio

Sending: every candidate still in triage (maybe/yes/no) moves to the "Submitted" stage automatically. Candidates already client-side keep their stage; a second submission never regresses progress. A candidate can only reach a client-side stage with a real submission on record; manual moves, AI actions, and the API all hit the same guard.
First open: the consultant gets a "{Contact} opened your submission" notification.
Interview request: the consultant gets an in-app notification plus an email, the candidate's belt row switches to "Wants to interview" with a Book interview button, and the notification link opens the interview booking form directly. When the client gave times, the notification names them ("Can do: Mon 17 Aug, 5:00 pm, Thu 20 Aug, morning"), and the booking wizard offers them as one-click options on its "when did they say?" step - converted into the consultant's own timezone, and labelled "their time" when the two differ. Booking the client interview moves the candidate to the "Client interview" stage.
Say no: notification plus email, and the candidate moves from "Submitted" to the "No" stage on the spot, so the funnel and the money views stop counting them as with the client. The No view of the job's Candidates tab shows a "Rejected by" column saying whether the client or the recruiter said no. A candidate who had already progressed past Submitted (interviewing, offer) keeps their stage. The consultant decides the candidate's next step from the deal file - revive them or send the rejection email.
Client DNA: a no with a reason, or any verdict with a written note, is appended to the client's Client DNA automatically, so future submissions learn from it. A bare verdict with no reason or note is not recorded there.
Question: in-app notification plus email to the consultant. Answering happens from the submission snapshot, which the notification opens; the "Answer" verb on the candidate's belt row opens the same place.
Every verdict and note is written to the candidate's timeline. Once every candidate has a verdict the submission is marked completed. That roll-up is not notified: each verdict already reached the consultant as it arrived, so a "they have finished" alert would carry nothing new.

Tracking, nudging, resending, revoking

Submissions are tracked on the job they were sent from, not on a separate board. Open the job, stay on its Candidates tab, and click "Submitted" on the funnel strip to see everyone currently out with the client. There is no agency-wide submissions board.
The job's Candidates tab has no submission history of its own. Use the funnel strip for where people are, and Home for what the client has said.
The submission snapshot - every submission on a job, its status (Sent, Viewed, Responding, Completed, Expired, Revoked), and per candidate their verdict, the times they offered or the reason they said no, their note, and the Q&A thread with the reply box - opens from Home, by clicking a client response notification. A candidate the client has not answered on yet says so ("opened 2 days ago, no answer yet") rather than showing anyone else's feedback.
Home shows the same thing across every job: the Submissions zone on the money belt lists everyone out with a client, with the client's state (Wants to interview, Asked a question, No reply, Opened it) and the do-next verb on each row.
A submission the client has viewed but not answered gets a "Nudge" button on the follow-up panel, and its belt row carries "Follow up". Nudge opens a pre-written follow-up email to the contact, including the link; the consultant reviews, edits, and sends it. Sending stamps the reminder. Nudge does not change the link's expiry.
The quiet window is 3 days of silence by default and adjustable between 1 and 14 days in workflow rules; a submission past it shows "No reply" on its belt row until a verdict arrives, the consultant nudges, or the submission is revoked.
"Resend the link" also lives on the home page: open the Submissions column on the belt, click the person (or the "Resend link" button on a submission the client never opened), and pick "Resend the link" from the "..." menu in the panel's header. It does not send anything on its own - it writes a short message with the client's link into the message box, so the consultant reads it, edits it, and presses Send. Sending posts it to the client conversation, emails the contact, and gives the link a fresh 7-day expiry, so a link that had already expired works again. A revoked link is never resent; send a new submission instead.
Resend and revoke also live in the submission snapshot, in each submission's menu, along with "Copy link". Resend sends the submission email again on the same conversation thread and gives the same link a fresh 7-day expiry; it also makes an expired link work again. Revoke kills the link immediately; the client sees "This submission has been withdrawn by your consultant". A completed submission cannot be revoked, and a revoked one cannot be resent. Because the snapshot opens from a client response on Home, revoke is reachable only once the client has replied - to pull back a submission they have not answered yet, let the link expire, or send a fresh submission.
An expired link shows "This link has expired" with a prompt to ask the consultant to resend it.

Common questions

Can I send a submission without naming anyone? Yes. Pick "Anonymous" under "What the client sees" in the composer. Use "First name only" when you want a human name on the page but no surname to search. See "How much of the candidate the client sees" above.
Can the client see the candidate's contact details? No. The portal never shows email or phone. The client requests the interview and the consultant arranges it.
Do I have to move candidates to Submitted myself? No. Sending does it for anyone still in triage. You can still move stages manually, but the client-side stages require a submission on record.
What if the client clicked the wrong verdict? Verdicts are one per candidate and cannot be changed from the portal. The consultant can adjust the candidate's stage in Lovelio and send a fresh submission if needed.
How long does the link last? 7 days from sending, or from the latest resend.
Who is the submission sent as? The consultant who sends it. An API send with no acting user goes out as the company's longest-standing admin or team leader.
Why can't I send? The usual blockers: the job has no client set, the client has no contact, the contact has no email address, or a selected candidate is not on this job. Each shows a plain error naming the fix.