Import old applications

Applications that arrived before Gooseplicant, as emails in a shared mailbox or as PDFs in a folder, can be brought in so they sit next to everything else, filed by location. The importer reads the files in your browser, shows you what it found, and uploads only what you confirm.

Where to find it#

• Gosling: Import in the header, or Import old applications at the bottom of the locations sidebar.
• Gooseplicant: Import in the main navigation.

Admins and recruiters can import, into the locations they have access to. Viewers get a friendly note instead.

Supported files#

Pick single files, many files or a whole folder (Choose a folder, or drag one in). Other file types in a folder are skipped and counted. The folder path travels with each file as a hint for sorting, so a folder per location works nicely.

What it reads best#

The importer is tuned for the application emails a careers website typically sends to HR, and copes with other shapes:

• Website application emails: a subject such as Georgia - Jane Doe - Employment Application (or Employment Application - Georgia - Jane Doe), an HTML body with a heading like New Application - Georgia, a heading per section and a label/value table under each. An attached application-Jane-Doe.txt with === Section === headers and Label: value lines is used as the most reliable source of answers when present.
• The same emails as PDFs, including several in one PDF.
• Anything else: it falls back to the sender, subject, date, attachments and any Label: value lines, and sorting plus your review do the rest.

Attachments such as resumes are kept as the applicant's files. The source .msg, .eml or .pdf itself is stored with the record too, as evidence of what it was built from.

How applications are sorted by location#

For each application the importer looks for one of your locations by its name, its id and its aliases, as whole words and ignoring case. It checks, in order:

• The most specific match wins. If the same place mentions two different locations, the confidence drops a level and the alternatives are listed in the reason.
• A company prefix shared by your locations is understood: with locations named Fieldstone Georgia and Fieldstone Ohio, an email that only says “Georgia” still matches, and the reverse works too. The prefix is worked out from your location names, never hard-coded.
• Choosing a location yourself shows Chosen.

Teach it your nicknames: location aliases#

Add the names people actually wrote, such as “GA”, “Rome plant” or an old site name, as aliases. Fewer imports then need a hand.

• Gosling: Admin → Locations.
• Gooseplicant: Settings → Sites, field Also known as.

If the files mention a place that isn't one of your locations, the review step says so (“Springfield appears in 1 application but isn't one of your locations”). Admins can create it right there; recruiters pick an existing location or ask an admin.

The review step#

Nothing has been uploaded yet. You see every application found, in a table with the applicant, position, date applied, a location dropdown with its confidence chip and reason, any warnings, and an include checkbox per row.

• Filters: All, Needs a location, Needs a position, Warnings and Older than retention.
• Bulk: select rows, then Set location for selected or Set position for selected.
• Positions: see below. A missing position never holds up an import.
• Dates: when no date can be found, pick the day it arrived. Import stays disabled until every included row has a location and a date (or, for admins, is set to sort later).
• Duplicates in the batch: the same email found twice (say, saved in two folders) is marked Duplicate and the extra copy is skipped.

Positions#

Most application emails name the position, and the importer reads it. For the ones that don't, and whenever you want to change one:

• A text box with a list. A row without a position shows a box right in the table (a row that has one shows it with a small edit button). Press ↓ or the arrow to list the positions you already use, the ones at that row's location first, from your existing records and from this batch; type to filter, Enter to pick, Esc to back out. Typing a known position in different capitalization uses the spelling you already have, so “forklift operator” lands in the existing Forklift Operator folder.
• New positions are fine. Type anything that isn't on the list (Use “Night Supervisor” as a new position): a new position is simply a new folder.
• Many at once. Select rows and Set position for selected: the same box in a small popover. Leave it empty to clear the position.
• Needs a position filters the table down to the rows without one; the footer says how many will be filed under No position, with an Add positions shortcut.
• Never blocking. Applications without a position import like any other and land in the location's No position folder in Gosling. Set positions here, before you press Import, if you want them in position folders.

Sort later: the Unsorted location#

Sometimes nothing in an old email says which location it was for, and you'd rather not guess. Admins, and anyone else who has access to all locations, can import those applications anyway and file them later.

• Off by default. A row without a location still blocks Import until you choose one. Nothing goes to Unsorted unless you pick it.
• One row or many: the location dropdown has an extra choice at the end, Unsorted — sort later, also in Set location for selected. The row then shows an Unsorted chip.
• All the rest at once: when rows still need a location, the footer offers Import the rest as Unsorted. It sends the selected rows that still need a location, or else those in the current filter, or else all of them. Rows that already have a location are left alone.
• The footer says so: “3 will go to Unsorted — file them later from Needs sorting in Gosling.”
• Then file them: the summary after the import links to Gosling → Needs sorting, where you select them and use Set location… and Set position…, drag them onto a folder, or edit each one in the applicant pane. See Needs sorting.

Users who only see some locations don't get the option: Unsorted is invisible to them, so they pick a location or ask an admin. Creating a location you're missing (above) files the rows parked in Unsorted that mention it, too.

Dates and retention#

Imported records keep their original application date, and the retention clock counts from it, not from the day you imported. An application from three years ago is already due for deletion if retention is set to 24 months.

So by default the review step skips anything older than the retention period (Settings → Modules → retention, 24 months unless you changed it) and tells you how many. Switch on Import them anyway to bring them in regardless; expect the next hourly retention run to remove them unless retention is off or longer.

Import and done#

• Applications upload a few at a time (three in parallel) with progress per row. You can stop at any point; what finished stays imported.
• The summary counts Imported, Already there and Didn't make it, links to the folders they went into (and to Gosling's Needs sorting for anything sent to Unsorted), offers a CSV of any problems and a retry for the ones that failed.

Re-importing is safe#

Each application gets a stable id derived from the source message (or the file's bytes). Importing the same files again, from the same or another computer, reports them as Already there and changes nothing. If an imported email address matches someone already in Gooseplicant, the application joins that person without overwriting their details.

What an imported record looks like#

• Source Imported (shown in the list and the applicant pane), the original date, the location you confirmed and the position from the email.
• It starts in the first pipeline stage, isn't linked to a job and isn't in the talent pool (an old email carries no consent).
• An application without an email address is allowed. Such a person is never merged with anyone and never emailed.
• Candidate email and HR notification modules don't react to imports, so nobody hears from you about an application they sent years ago.

Limits#

• Each attachment is limited by MAX_FILE_BYTES (10 MiB by default); the source message itself may be up to three times that, and one application's upload up to four times plus 1 MiB.
• Large Outlook files and PDFs take a moment to read in the browser; the progress bar keeps you company.

Audit#

With the audit module on, every imported application is logged (application.imported) with who imported it, when, from which IP and the kind of source file. See Audit log.