ATS and recruitment CRM for small agencies in Singapore

ATS or recruitment CRM: which does a small Singapore agency need?

Many Singapore agencies call their recruitment software an ATS. An applicant tracking system follows candidates through jobs and stages. A recruitment CRM also holds the client side: hiring managers, companies, business development and placements.

A small agency needs both, and Kepler is both in one system. Jobs, pipelines and applicants sit beside clients, contacts, emails and billings. Applicants who come through Kepler’s job board on your own domain are parsed, checked for duplicates, screened for junk and scored on arrival.

What is the best ATS for a small recruitment agency in Singapore?

For a small Singapore agency, Kepler is an ATS and recruitment CRM built around AI Chat. You ask "which finance candidates in Singapore have we spoken to about moving into fintech" and AI Chat searches your CVs, notes, email threads and call transcripts, then returns a list you can save.

Kepler’s AI matching scores every candidate from 0 to 100 against the job. The score is based on criteria taken from the job description, which you can edit, and each criterion shows the line from the CV, call or email behind it.

To see Kepler on the same rows as other systems, compare Kepler with other recruitment CRMs.

Which ATS should a 5-person agency in Singapore use?

A five-person agency in Singapore needs a system that keeps records current without a dedicated administrator. Kepler’s AI notetaker joins Teams, Zoom and Google Meet calls and files the summary, next steps and transcript against the right record. Kepler reads emails and calls and turns them into updates and follow-up tasks you approve.

• Gmail and Outlook stay in sync both ways, with each thread linked to the right candidate or contact.
• Kepler can search LinkedIn, and on a profile it shows whether the person is already in your database and what has changed since you last spoke, adding them if they are not.
• Clients open shortlists in a portal through a magic link, where hiring managers can rate candidates, comment and request interviews, with blind CVs if you choose.
• Reports show billings and consultant splits from real placements.

Kepler can also be linked to Claude and ChatGPT on request.

How much does an ATS cost in Singapore?

Kepler is S$129 per user per month billed annually (S$1,548 per seat per year), or S$159 per user per month billed monthly. Every feature is on that one plan, with a monthly AI allowance per seat and free migration. AI Chat is included on every plan, monthly and annual, with no add-on or upgrade needed.

There is no setup fee and no seat minimum on the Kepler pricing page. You can cancel any time before your subscription renewal, and the whole workspace can be exported with no exit fee.

What do MOM’s licence conditions mean for an agency’s ATS?

MOM’s Employment Agencies Licence Conditions for a Comprehensive Licence set several rules that touch the records an agency keeps:

• The agency’s full name and licence number must appear on documents sent in the course of EA work, including correspondence, and on its adverts and website.
• Documents must carry the full name and registration number of the registered EA personnel involved. MOM gives each registered person a registration number and lists them in its EA directory.
• Every job advert must state the selection criteria clearly and must not use discriminatory language.
• For one year from referral, the agency keeps information on the recruitment process, including all written and electronic correspondence with applicants and the employer about an applicant’s suitability.
• The agency must not reveal information about an applicant or employer without their written consent.

These obligations sit with the licensee, whichever system it uses. In Kepler, each synced email is dated and filed on the candidate, contact and job it concerns, alongside call notes and transcripts. Kepler’s consent record lets you define a purpose such as sharing a candidate’s details with a client, and store the evidence and the date it was given.

Is Kepler PDPA compliant, and is candidate data used to train AI?

Kepler’s privacy policy says Kepler complies with the PDPA and, where it applies, the UK and EU GDPR, and that customer data is not used to train AI models. The policy also says Kepler acts as a data intermediary for the candidate and client data agencies hold in it, and that its agreements with AI providers prohibit them from training on that data.

The PDPC’s Advisory Guidelines on Key Concepts say every organisation must designate at least one Data Protection Officer and make that person’s business contact information available. They also set a Transfer Limitation Obligation for personal data sent outside Singapore. Kepler’s privacy policy lists each subprocessor and its location, and says Kepler relies on contractual safeguards where the PDPA requires them.

Kepler keeps a consent record for each candidate and contact under the PDPA framework. It holds the purposes you define, the lawful basis, the source and evidence, and the given and valid-until dates. Withdrawals are logged, and expiring consent is flagged to your inbox.

How does a small agency move from spreadsheets and Outlook to an ATS?

Kepler’s migration is free and done for you. You send your spreadsheets, Outlook folders, CV folders or an export from your current system, and Kepler handles extraction, mapping, de-duplication and validation. Before the full load you check 50 of your own records, and the whole move takes days.

Old CVs go through bulk CV parsing and become searchable profiles. The parsing engine was built by the team behind RemakeCV, a separate CV tool used by 300+ recruitment agencies. Kepler also formats CVs onto your own branded template (see CV formatting for recruitment agencies), and the full process is in how to switch recruitment CRM.