Customising pipeline stages
Rename, recolour, reorder, add and archive the stages your workspace uses — and control submitted tracking and inbound defaults.
Pipeline stages are workspace-wide: every job's board, the application drawer and the inbound accept flow all use the same ordered set. Anyone who can edit jobs (by default Owners, Admins and Team leads) shapes them in the Candidate stages section of Settings → Jobs & pipeline.
What you can configure
- Rename — click a stage's name to rename it in place, or choose Rename from its ⋯ menu. Call it "Tech test", "Partner interview", whatever your process says.
- Colour — pick a colour from the stage's ⋯ menu; boards and badges use it everywhere.
- Description — click Add a description under a stage (or choose Add description from its ⋯ menu) to say what being at the stage means, for your team and Kepler's AI.
- Reorder — drag stages into place; the order is your process order.
- Add a stage — type a name (e.g. "Tech test") in the Add stage row at the bottom of the list.
Per-stage behaviours
Set these from a stage's ⋯ menu:
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Submitted from this stage | Entering this stage — or any stage after it — stamps the application's submitted date, feeding the delivery funnel and submitted reporting. The list shows a dashed Counts as submitted to the client from here line above that stage; you can also drag the line. |
| Interview stage | Marks candidates in this stage as interviewing. Moving a candidate here offers to schedule an interview, and interview reporting counts these stages. |
| Inbound default | The default landing stage when adding inbound applicants. Only one stage can hold this at a time. |
A stage that drafts an email shows a small mail chip: on the submitted stage, Send to client uses the client's CV submission template; on an interview stage, scheduling an interview drafts the client's interview invite; a dashed chip names an automation that drafts an email when a candidate moves there. Click the chip to open the template or automation.
Archiving and deleting
Stages you no longer use can be archived (hidden from boards; restore them from Archived stages) or deleted, both from the stage's ⋯ menu. 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Placed, rejected and withdrawn are outcomes, not stages — they always exist and are listed separately under Outcomes on the same page. Don't create a "Rejected" stage; use outcomes so history is preserved.
The same page ends with Keep them in step, two optional rules that close jobs and candidates together — see Job statuses & job health.
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.