# Customising pipeline stages

> Rename, recolour, reorder, add and archive the stages your workspace uses — and control submitted tracking and inbound defaults.

_Collection: Jobs & Pipeline (jobs-pipeline) — Kepler Help Center. Canonical: https://keplercrm.com/support/articles/customising-pipeline-stages/_

Pipeline stages are workspace-wide: every job's board, the application drawer and the inbound accept flow all use the same ordered set. Workspace admins shape them under **Settings → Pipeline stages**.

## What you can configure

  - **Rename** any stage inline — call it "Tech test", "Partner interview", whatever your process says.

  - **Colour** — pick a colour per stage; boards and badges use it everywhere.

  - **Reorder** — move stages up or down; the order is your process order.

  - **Add a stage** — type a name (e.g. "Tech test") and add it to the flow.

## Per-stage behaviours

| Toggle | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| Marks submitted | Entering this stage — or any stage after it — stamps the application's submitted date , feeding the delivery funnel and submitted reporting. |
| Interview stage | Marks candidates in this stage as interviewing. Moving a candidate here offers to log an interview, and interview reporting counts these stages. |
| Inbound default | The default landing stage when accepting inbound applicants. Only one stage can hold this at a time. |

## Archiving and deleting

Stages you no longer use can be **archived** (hidden from boards, restorable later) or **deleted**. If candidates are still sitting in the stage, Kepler won't orphan them — a **"Move existing candidates"** dialog asks where to put them first. You can't remove the last remaining stage.

## Outcomes don't need stages

**Placed**, **rejected** and **withdrawn** are outcomes, not stages — they always exist and never appear in this list. Don't create a "Rejected" stage; use [outcomes](/support/articles/recording-outcomes/) so history is preserved.

> **WARN:** Stages are shared by every job in the workspace. Renaming or reordering mid-quarter changes how existing pipelines read — add new stages freely, but restructure deliberately.