Simple applicant tracking in SharePoint

Short answer: use one SharePoint list for candidates. Each row is one candidate for one role. Give each row a name, a role, a stage, an interview date, an owner and a link to the resume. Then add a board view that shows one column per stage, so you can see who is waiting at each step. This guide is about keeping track of who is where. It does not tell you how to screen, rate or choose people, and it makes no claim about employment law, hiring rules or how long to keep records. Ask your HR lead or an attorney about those. The exact names of menus and buttons may differ from what is written here, because Microsoft changes its screens from time to time.

One candidate, applied to decided

Picture Candidate 12, who applied for a front desk role on a Monday. The resume lands in a shared inbox. By Wednesday someone reads it. A phone screen gets booked for Friday. An interview follows the next week, then an offer or a no. At every point one question matters: who moves this person forward, and by when?

A small team may not need a hiring system for that. It needs one list where Candidate 12 is a single row and the row always answers that question. When resumes sit in one inbox, notes in another and interview times in separate calendars, the answer lives in three places and nobody owns it.

What the list holds and what it leaves out

The list is a record of where each person stands and who acts next. Choosing a winner is outside its job. Skip any column that captures personal traits or background. What may be written down, and for how long it stays, is a call for your HR lead or an attorney, so check your own policies before typing anything sensitive. Nothing here is legal advice.

The resume itself stays in a folder. The row only carries a link to it.

Related guides cover the neighboring jobs, so this one skips them. For list basics, see "Replace a spreadsheet tracker with a SharePoint list". For a new person's first weeks, see "New hire onboarding checklist scattered? Build one trackable list". For someone's final day, see "Employee offboarding checklist that does not miss a step".

Decide four things on paper

Changing these later means editing every row, so settle them before opening SharePoint.

The stage ladder. Five rungs are enough: 1 New, 2 Screening, 3 Interview, 4 Offer, 5 Closed.
One named owner for each row. A shared row tends to belong to nobody.
How notes read. Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: record process facts such as "sent availability" or "waiting on reply", never impressions of the person.
Who may open the list. Applicant data is private, and a saved view hides nothing (see "Who can open the list").

Create the list and its eight columns

Open Microsoft Lists at https://www.microsoft365.com/launch/lists, or use Lists from your Microsoft 365 home page. Microsoft's help page on creating a list says: "Blank list: Choose to start a list from scratch." It also says: "Add a list Name, Description (optional), and select whether you want the list to appear in the left site navigation." and "When you're finished selecting options, select Create." Name the list "Candidates".

Every new list starts with a required Title column. Rename it "Candidate" (or switch off Require) and put the identifier there. Then add these:

Role: Single line of text. A Choice column suits a team with only a few openings.
Stage: Choice, values 1 New, 2 Screening, 3 Interview, 4 Offer, 5 Closed, default 1 New. Choice values sort as text, so the leading digit keeps the ladder in order. Switch off "allow multiple selections", because the board in the next section depends on it.
Interview date: Date and Time. Leave it empty until a slot is booked.
Next step: Single line of text, a short phrase like "Send times".
Next step by: Date and Time, date only. The deadline for that action.
Owner: Person or Group, limited to one person.
Resume: Hyperlink to the file in your own folder.
Notes: Multiple lines of text, for process facts only.

Anything a coworker should not read stays out of Notes. Any person who can open the list can also switch to a different view.

Stage as a board

A board view turns each Stage value into a column of cards. Dragging a card sideways rewrites its Stage, so a hiring meeting can run straight from the board.

Open the view menu in the list and pick the option to create a view. Labels can differ on your screen.
Name it "Pipeline" and choose Board as the type.
Group cards by Stage when asked.
Show Candidate, Role, Interview date and Owner on each card.
Save.

A reply on Microsoft Q&A says board views support only Choice and Yes/No columns. A person in the same thread says they "had to toggle off 'allow multiple selections' in the column settings in order for the column to show as a choice in the board view." That is why Stage is a plain Choice column.

Three views for one question each

The board shows everything. These views each answer a narrower question.

Owner-only view, named "On my desk". Filter Owner is equal to [Me]. Microsoft's help page on filtering a view says: "It is not possible to use the [Today] or [Me] filters when filtering using a column header." It also says: "You must use the classic view editor to filter columns using these keywords." And: "[Me] operates on people-based columns such as Created by, or Modified by." So open the view menu, choose "Edit current view", then Filters. Without [Me], make one view per person with Owner equal to that person.

Date-driven view, named "Booked interviews". Show Stage equal to 3 Interview and sort by Interview date, oldest first. Microsoft says "The [Today] keyword works on date based columns." To hide interviews already past, add Interview date is greater than or equal to [Today] in the classic view editor.

Look-back view, named "Decided". Stage equal to 5 Closed. Open it when you want history.

Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: build blank and "is not equal to" filters in the classic view editor too.

Keep each row current

Candidate 12 had a phone screen on Friday. Right afterward the owner does three things in the row: update Stage if it moved, type one line in Next step, and push Next step by to the next date. An old date left in place makes the row look late indefinitely, and the views stop being trustworthy.

Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: give every new row a Next step by date at once, so no row sits without a plan, and pick a gap that matches your pace.

When someone is finished, set Stage to "5 Closed" and add a plain Notes line about the process outcome, such as "Offer accepted" or "Role filled". Ask your HR lead how long closed rows are kept and when they go. Do not delete them on your own.

Nudges by email

A view only helps when someone opens it. For a message in the inbox instead, build a scheduled Power Automate flow at https://make.powerautomate.com that scans for rows where Next step by is past and mails the owner once. Setup is covered in "Send a reminder before a due date in a SharePoint list", and shading late rows is covered in "Turn overdue rows red in a SharePoint list". Limit it to one message per person per day. To keep finished candidates out of a late-rows view, add a Yes/No column named "Active", flip it to No when a row closes, and filter on it. That is our advice, not a Microsoft rule.

Who can open the list

A saved view is only a display setting. Anyone with access can open another view and read every row, and applicant data is sensitive. Put the list on a restricted site that only the hiring group can enter, and have your admin manage membership. To let each person see just their own rows, read "Let each person see only their own items in a SharePoint list", which also states where that approach stops working.

Trial run with one opening

Enter every current candidate for a single role, each with a Stage, an Owner and a Next step by date.
Open "Pipeline" in the next hiring meeting and move cards while talking.
Afterward, each owner opens "On my desk" and does the next step.
Close finished candidates with Stage 5 Closed.
After two weeks, delete any column nobody touched.

Mistakes that break the list

Adding columns about personal traits or background. Your HR lead or attorney decides what may be recorded.
Leaving a row without an owner or a Next step by date.
Typing Stage as free text. The board needs the numbered Choice values.
Allowing multiple selections on Stage, which makes the board refuse it.
Trusting a view to conceal rows. A restricted site does that job.
Pasting resume text into the row. A link is enough.
Expecting the list to rank or screen people. It stores only what someone enters.
Configuring every role at once. Begin with one opening.

What a list cannot do

A list records what someone typed. It does not post a job, email a candidate or book an interview, and it does not say whom to hire. If Stage and Next step by go stale, the board is wrong. Career pages, public application forms and built-in reports belong to a different tool. Start with one role, fix what feels awkward, then add the rest.

When to get help

You can build all of this yourself in Microsoft 365. If you would rather have it built and tested for your team, I do that. A tracker like this is a fixed price: $5,000 for one, built in 2 weeks. See "What a SharePoint tracker costs to build". Bring one example of the problem to a free call.

Tell me what's still manual

I am Al Davies. I run 250 High Street LLC and build SharePoint trackers and Power Automate flows for operations teams. I work remotely. The first call is free, and I will not try to sell you anything.

See trackers I built: Tools I built

FAQ

Can SharePoint show candidates as a board by stage?

Yes, with a board view. A support answer on Microsoft Q&A says board views support only Choice and Yes/No columns. Make Stage a Choice column and organize the board by it.

Why is my Stage column missing from the board view options?

A Microsoft Q&A thread says turning off "allow multiple selections" in the column settings made the column show as a choice in the board view. Check that setting on Stage.

How do I show only the candidates I own?

Make a view with Owner equal to [Me]. Microsoft says you must use the classic view editor for [Today] and [Me] filters, not the column header.

Can a view hide candidates from some people?

No. A view only changes what is shown on the screen. Use a restricted site and ask your admin who has access.

What should I record about a candidate?

Process facts, such as stage, dates and the next step. Ask your HR lead or an attorney what else may be recorded and how long to keep it. This guide makes no claim about hiring or employment rules.