Not every candidate comes in through LinkedIn sourcing or a job application — sometimes you need to add someone directly, like a referral or a resume someone emailed you.

This article covers how to manually create a candidate, what's required, and what happens if you try to add someone who's already in the system.

Who can do this: Any user with contact-creation permissions. This is a separate permission from being able to add an existing profile to a job, flow, or project — you can have one without the other, depending on your role.

Where to find it: The Contacts page ("New Candidate/Contact"), directly from a Project, from a Job's candidate list, or as a fallback inside the Kula Everywhere extension if automatic enrichment fails.

What's required

• First name is mandatory.

• Either an email address or a LinkedIn URL is mandatory — you need at least one, not necessarily both.

• Experience and education details (like institute or company name) are optional — none of the sub-fields in those sections are required to save the record.

Creating a candidate from different places

• Contacts page — the standard entry point for adding a new candidate or contact.

• From anywhere in the product — you can create a new candidate and directly associate them with the job you're currently working on, without navigating away first (useful if you receive a resume while reviewing a specific requisition).

• From a Project — creating a contact directly from a Project page adds them to that project automatically.

• As an extension fallback — if you're using the Kula Everywhere extension on a LinkedIn profile and automatic enrichment fails to load, you'll see an option to create the candidate manually instead of getting stuck.

If the candidate already exists

• Kula checks for duplicates when you manually add someone.

• If you try to add a candidate who's already associated with the job you're adding them to, you'll see a message telling you they already exist, rather than a second application being created.

• The same protection applies to LinkedIn sourcing — a job won't even show as an option if the candidate is already linked to it.

Adding a candidate as someone else's referral

If you're adding a candidate on behalf of a colleague — for example, a senior team member forwarded you a resume and asked you to submit it — use the manual referral flow rather than a standard manual add.

This lets you credit your colleague as the referrer instead of yourself, which matters for referral tracking and any related referral programs.

Good to know

• Only two fields are truly mandatory: first name, and either email or LinkedIn. Everything else, including resume and experience details, can be filled in later.

• Phone number fields validate against the selected country code. If you get a save error, double-check the country code matches the number format you're entering — for example, a UK mobile number needs the full 10-digit national number without the leading 0.

• Admins may soon be able to customize which fields are mandatory beyond today's fixed rule — this was in progress as of this writing, so check your account's current settings if this matters to your workflow.

• Manual creation isn't the only way candidates enter Kula. Maildrop can automatically create candidates from forwarded emails and resumes, and LinkedIn sourcing creates them through the extension — this article covers the manual, form-based path specifically.

• Adding a candidate manually and adding them as a referral are two different flows — use the referral flow if you want to credit someone else as the source.

FAQ

• What information do I need to manually add a candidate? Just a first name and either an email address or a LinkedIn URL. Everything else, including experience and resume details, is optional.

• What happens if I try to manually add a candidate who's already in the system for this job? Kula will tell you the candidate already exists rather than creating a duplicate application for them.

• Can I create a candidate from somewhere other than the Contacts page? Yes — from a Project, directly from a Job's candidate list, or as a fallback inside the Kula Everywhere extension if automatic profile enrichment doesn't work.

• I'm getting an error trying to save a candidate's phone number — why? Check that the country code selected matches the number you're entering — phone validation is tied to the selected country code and expects the correct number of digits for that country.

• How do I add a candidate as a referral from someone else, not myself? Use the manual referral flow instead of a standard manual add — it lets you credit a specific colleague as the referrer rather than yourself.

Need help?

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