Skip to main content
Moving a candidate to a new stage is the most common action in the Equip ATS. Depending on the stage you pick, Equip shows a contextual dialog: a simple move, a rejection flow, or an invitation flow with a full email preview.
Equip never emails candidates automatically. Every stage-change email is triggered by you, and you always see exactly what will be sent before it goes out.

​
Moving Candidates Between Stages

You can change stages from the applications dashboard in both Table and Kanban views, for one candidate or many at once.
1

Select the candidates

Open a candidate, or select multiple candidates in the table to use the bulk change stage action.
2

Pick the target stage

Choose the destination stage from the stage dropdown. The dialog that opens depends on the type of stage you are moving to.
3

Review and confirm

For invitation stages, review the email preview, set an optional Reply-To and schedule, then send. For a simple move, just confirm.
What happens next depends on the target stage: Assessment and AI interview invitations consume credits. The dialog states the cost up front, for example “We’ll deduct N credit(s) now.” along with “Reclaimable if not attempted.” As a baseline, an assessment costs 1 credit per candidate, a one-way AI interview costs 1 or 2 credits depending on question count, and a conversational AI interview costs 2 credits (Quick) or 3 credits (Comprehensive).
Assessments with more than 2 tests can carry an extra per-test deduction, for example “We’ll deduct 0.5 credits per candidate when they start the third test.” The invitation dialog always spells out the exact policy before you send.
If your team’s balance cannot cover the invitations, the move is blocked with “Insufficient credits (need X, have Y)”. Top up your balance and try again.

​
Rejections and Statuses

Moving candidates to the Rejected stage opens the Reject candidate(s) dialog. Pick a rejection reason from the dropdown; these reasons power the “Rejections by reason” chart in ATS Insights, so consistent tagging pays off later. The 10 rejection reasons are: Not enough experience, Skills mismatch, Overqualified, Salary expectations too high, Location/relocation concerns, Culture fit, Position filled, Incomplete application, No response from candidate, and Other. The dialog also has a Send rejection email to candidates checkbox. It is off by default, so rejecting a candidate silently is a single click; tick the box only when you want the rejection email to go out. Separately from the pipeline stage, every candidate carries a status. Stage and status answer different questions:
Use status as a lightweight triage layer. You can mark a candidate Shortlisted or Maybe while they are still sitting in an early stage, without touching the pipeline.

​
The Email That Gets Sent

Invitation and rejection dialogs render the email from your email templates, filled in with the candidate’s details, and show a preview before anything is sent. Each stage can have its own template attached in the pipeline builder. To change the wording, edit the template rather than the individual email. Templates support variables like the candidate’s name, the job title, and the test link; see Email Templates.
Candidates with an unverified email trigger a warning in the invite dialog and receive no stage-change emails until their email address is verified. This applies to bulk-imported candidates in particular; you can copy a verification link from their profile to share with them.
Every action is logged. The Candidate Journey tab records the stage change itself plus events like “sent/scheduled assessment invite”, “sent/scheduled AI interview invite”, and “sent/scheduled rejection email”, so your team can always see who sent what and when.

​
Reply-To and Scheduling

Before sending, the dialog gives you two controls over delivery. Reply-To sets who receives candidate replies. Pick any team member; it defaults to you. If no Reply-To is set, the email is sent from no-reply@equip.co and replies go nowhere. Schedule Send delays delivery instead of sending immediately: All three units cap out at the same point: emails can be scheduled up to 7 days in advance.
Rejecting candidates late at night? Schedule the rejection emails for the next morning so they arrive during business hours.
  • Pipeline Stages - Configure the stages, templates, and assignees candidates move through
  • Email Templates - Customize the invitation, rejection, and offer emails with variables
  • Candidates and CVs - Table and Kanban views, filters, and bulk actions on the dashboard
  • Reclaim Credits - Get credits back when invited candidates never attempt