Managing candidate sources

Candidate sources record where each person came from. Set them up once and Kula uses them everywhere it reports on hiring — candidate records, filters, and every source-based report.

How sources are organised

Sources sit in two levels, and only two:

• A source type is the group — Inbound, Referral, Sourced.

• A source is the actual channel inside it — Indeed, Employee Referral, Kula Flows.

You cannot nest a source inside another source. Candidates are tagged with a source, never with a source type.

What Kula gives you out of the box

Every account starts with four source types and the sources inside them.

Accounts set up some time ago may show a different set, and anything your team has added appears alongside these.

Add a source type

1. Click Add source type at the top right.

2. Enter a Source type name. It can be up to 255 characters.

3. Click Add.

   

The new group appears at the bottom of the page with no sources in it.

Add a source

1. Find the source type you want to add to.

2. Click Add source on that group's row.

   

3. Enter a Source name.

   

4. Check the tracking code shown underneath — Kula builds it from the name as you type.

5. Click Add.

Use the tracking code to attribute applicants

Every source has a tracking code, shown beside it as apply?source=indeed. Add it to a job link before you share that link outside Kula, and everyone who applies through it is tagged with that source automatically.

Without it, everyone who applies through your careers site is recorded as Kula Career Portal, however they actually found the job.

Copy the code and build the link

1. Hover over the source and click the copy icon beside its tracking code.

2. Paste it onto the end of your job link.

3. Share that link on the job board, landing page, newsletter or wherever the role is going.

Paste only the source=... part. The chip reads apply?source=indeed because that is how the code arrives on the apply page, but apply? is not part of what you append. Adding the whole string produces a broken link.

Worked examples

Say your job link is https://careers.example.com/jobs/senior-backend-engineer.

If the link already has a ? in it, join with & instead. A link that already carries something else — say https://careers.example.com/jobs/senior-backend-engineer?utm_campaign=spring — becomes:

https://careers.example.com/jobs/senior-backend-engineer?utm_campaign=spring&source=indeed

Only the first parameter in a URL uses ?. Every one after it uses &.

You can put the code on the job page link or the apply page link. Kula carries it across when the candidate opens the application form, so the ordinary job link is the one to share.

How Kula builds the code

Kula generates the code from the source name when you create the source: lower case, spaces and hyphens become hyphens, and anything that is not a letter, number or hyphen is dropped.

If that code is already taken, Kula adds a number — a second source named "Inbound" gets inbound-1, a third gets inbound-2.

When a link does not attribute

Kula only tags the applicant when the code matches a source that is switched on and not deleted. In every other case the application still comes through — it is just recorded as Kula Career Portal instead:

• The code does not match any source, usually a typo or a renamed source.

• The source is switched off.

• The source has been deleted.

There is no warning when this happens, so test a new link once before you publish it: open it, apply as a test candidate, and check the source on the resulting application.

Change or remove a source

Hover over a source row and three icons appear to the left of its tracking code.

These appear only on sources your team created. Sources Kula ships with have none of them.

Turn a source off

Use the switch at the end of a source row. A source that is switched off stays in your settings and on the candidates already tagged with it, but nobody can pick it for a new candidate.

Good to know

• Renaming a source does not change its tracking code. The code is set when the source is created and never regenerated, so a source renamed from "Careers Fair" to "Campus Hiring" keeps apply?source=careers-fair. Any links already using it keep working — but the code will not match the new name.

• A candidate who already exists keeps the source they came in with. Kula only sets a source on a candidate that does not have one, so if someone applied last year through Indeed and applies again through a tracked careers-fair link, their profile keeps Indeed. The new application carries the new source, but the candidate record does not change.

• Source types cannot be renamed or deleted here. The page only lets you add them. Deleting a source type is not offered in the interface at all.

• Names must be unique within their level, ignoring capitalisation. Two source types cannot share a name and neither can two sources, but a source type and a source can — which is why an account can have both an "Inbound" group and an "Inbound" source.

• Changing the source on a job application does not update the candidate's overall source. The edit stays on that one application, so the candidate's profile keeps whatever source it had — often none. There is no workaround; set the source when the candidate is first added.

Need help? If you have questions or need assistance, reach out to us at support@kula.ai or use the in-app chat.