ATS migration: check candidate history, files and active applications

The count is a reconciliation check, not a sign-off

This guide is for an employer replacing an ATS while recruitment continues. The fictional packet below checks operational integrity. Your approved retention and access rules determine which real records may move and how they are held.

Imagine two candidates and two CVs. Swap the CVs between them. The before-and-after totals still match: two candidates, two files. Neither recruiter has the right information.

Now imagine one person applying for two jobs. If a migration collapses the applications into one current stage, a correct person count still hides lost hiring context. Each application needs to retain its own job, stage and history.

A candidate report is not necessarily a migration export

Workable explicitly distinguishes a candidate-details CSV without resumes from individual profile downloads, developer-assisted bulk export and a support-assisted full export. Its full-export description includes separate data areas and files.

Ask the outgoing supplier for a sample of the actual export you will receive. Ask the incoming supplier which parts it will load, where they will appear and what remains outside the new application.

• Not present: the old system did not supply it.
• Not mapped: the export contains it but the new configuration has no destination.
• Not usable: it imported, but the recruiter cannot find or interpret it.

Record missing exports, unmapped fields and unusable records separately, with an owner for each correction.

Test two candidates with three applications

Create these fictional records in an approved test environment. The identifiers are a teaching device, not a prescribed vendor schema. Agree how source keys will be cross-referenced to destination keys.

Create three harmless text attachments labelled F01, F02 and F03, with their intended application IDs inside. Give A02 one fictional scheduled interview and one restricted note under the approved role design.

Download the fictional acceptance CSV. It is a review worksheet, not a file to upload directly into a vendor's production ATS.

Reconcile objects, then ask a recruiter to continue the hire

The packet should retain two people, three applications, two jobs and three labelled files, or a documented equivalent destination representation. Counts are the first check. They do not replace the five questions below.

1. IdentityDoes P01 connect to A01 and A02 without becoming two unrelated people?
2. HistoryDoes A01 remain rejected while A02 remains active?
3. FileCan the reviewer open F02 from A02 and read its matching label?
4. ActionCan the recruiter identify A02's upcoming interview and responsible owner?
5. AccessCan the approved reviewer see the restricted note while an unauthorised test role cannot?

Repeat the import through the agreed retry procedure. Inspect duplicates and changed records. A process that succeeds once but cannot safely recover from an interrupted run is unfinished implementation work.

This packet demonstrates failure modes; it is not a statistically representative sample. Add approved examples covering your actual fields, languages, attachments and workflows before acceptance.

Separate active hiring from the historical archive

Greenhouse describes active-candidate migration as employer-managed work, alongside its historical migration. Its guidance requires decisions about feedback, notes and when candidates move. It also distinguishes backdating a scorecard from backdating an interview.

For every active job, name the person responsible for the next candidate action at cutover. A historical note saying an interview was arranged is not the same as a working calendar invitation and a recruiter who knows they own it.

The migration statement of work should name what survives

Workable's migration process includes a statement of work and stage mapping; its documented mapping uses one selected target pipeline. Confirm the actual path before assuming every source workflow will remain distinct.

Greenhouse's bulk-import documentation separately describes field mapping and resume attachment, including attachment failures. A completed spreadsheet step does not establish that every intended file attached successfully.

• List the included objects, fields and attachment types.
• Document changes in stage meaning and historical reporting.
• Price export assistance, transformation, retries and exception repair.
• Assign a cut-off, final-change process and source-access end date.
• Define acceptance evidence and the owner of unresolved defects.

Keep retention and access decisions with the employer's responsible teams. Do not use an import default to decide what should be retained, removed or exposed to hiring managers.

Resolve missing active records and incorrect access before switching

We would hold a migration when the team cannot account for an active application, open the correct file or preserve the approved access boundary. Resolve those cases before closing access to the old ATS.

A historical reporting compromise may be acceptable if it is explicit and the necessary record remains usable in an approved archive. Decide that before purchase. Do not discover after the old account closes that your new dashboard measures a different event.

Include responsibility for correcting wrongly linked records in the migration quote.

Questions buyers ask