# Candidate submittal template: turn a screen into a useful client write-up

Use an evidence-led candidate submittal template with a worked example, review checklist and practical guidance for recruiting agencies.

Canonical source: https://recruitrecap.com/blog/candidate-submittal-template
Author: Recruit Recap editorial team
Published: 2026-09-21T07:00:00+10:00
Updated: 2026-09-28T05:16:29.934385+00:00

A useful candidate submittal tells a client why a person is worth a conversation, what supports that recommendation and what still needs checking. Start with the role’s requirements, connect them to specific evidence from the screen, and finish with an agreed next step.

The writing should make the decision easier without making the candidate sound more certain, experienced or available than the conversation supports.

## What a candidate submittal should contain

A transcript is a record of a conversation. A submittal is a focused handoff for a particular opportunity. It should give the reader enough relevant detail to decide what to explore next without requiring them to reconstruct the screen.

Use the client’s essential requirements to organize the evidence. Keep the candidate’s own statements separate from your assessment. If a requirement was not discussed, label it as unconfirmed. An empty field is a prompt for a follow-up, not an invitation to invent an answer.

## Copy this candidate submittal template

**Candidate and opportunity:** [Candidate reference] · [Role] · [Client reference]

**Reason for introduction:** [Two sentences linking relevant experience to the opportunity. Avoid unsupported superlatives.]

**Evidence against the requirements:**

| Requirement | Evidence captured | Source or follow-up |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Must-have one] | [Specific candidate statement or example] | [Screen reference / needs verification] |
| [Must-have two] | [Specific candidate statement or example] | [Screen reference / needs verification] |
| [Must-have three] | [Not discussed, if applicable] | [Question and owner] |

**Motivation:** [What the candidate says they want next, expressed without an assumed reason for leaving.]

**Practical details:** [Confirmed location/working arrangement]; [availability or notice as stated]; [compensation expectation, currency and period if discussed and appropriate to share].

**Open questions:** [Missing evidence, conflicting details or points requiring clarification.]

**Recruiter assessment:** [Your reasoned recommendation, clearly distinguished from the candidate’s statements.]

**Next step:** [Action, owner and agreed date or time zone where relevant.]

## Worked example: from notes to a client-ready draft

The following example is fictional. It illustrates a writing method and is not a customer result or a product screenshot.

**Raw screen notes:** Alex Morgan; customer success lead role. Says they managed a team of four at a software company. Described weekly account reviews and a new handover checklist. Has worked with enterprise customers. Wants a role with more coaching responsibility. Said “about four weeks” when asked about availability. Compensation not discussed. Client needs experience leading a larger team of eight. No example of expansion revenue discussed.

**Draft submittal:**

Alex Morgan is worth an initial conversation for the customer success lead opportunity, particularly around account review processes and team coaching. In our screen, Alex described managing four people and introducing a handover checklist for enterprise accounts.

The leadership example is relevant, although the team size discussed was smaller than the eight-person team in your brief. We have not yet established Alex’s experience with expansion revenue. These are useful areas for the next interview rather than conclusions we can draw from this screen.

Alex is interested in a role with more coaching responsibility and indicated availability of approximately four weeks. The exact start date and compensation expectations remain unconfirmed.

Our proposed next step is a conversation focused on coaching examples, team scale and commercial responsibility, followed by confirmation of the outstanding practical details.

Notice what the draft leaves out: it does not promote “managed four” to “ready to lead eight”, change “about four weeks” into a guaranteed date, or invent a salary expectation. The value comes from organising the evidence and making the gaps easy to act on.

## Give AI a defined writing task

If you use an AI tool, give it the approved role requirements, the relevant screen record and your template. Use your organisation’s approved handling process for candidate information.

A useful instruction is: “Draft against these requirements using only the supplied information. Mark missing information as unconfirmed. Keep candidate statements separate from recruiter assessment. Do not add qualifications, outcomes, compensation or availability that the record does not support.”

That instruction is a starting point. Check the draft against the source, especially where the wording becomes more confident or specific. Fluent writing does not establish factual accuracy.

## Review before sending

Read the draft once for factual fidelity and once for usefulness to the client. Verify that each significant claim has support. Check that the next step addresses the actual gaps. Remove unnecessary personal information and make sure the document is appropriate for its intended recipient under your agency’s process.

Pay particular attention to numbers and qualifiers. “Helped implement” is different from “led”. “Some experience” is different from “expert”. “Open to discussing relocation” is different from “will relocate”. The reviewer should preserve those distinctions.

## Make compensation and availability explicit

For a US candidate submittal, state compensation expectations in USD and distinguish an annual base salary from an hourly rate or total compensation. Preserve the candidate's wording about availability; a possible start window is not a confirmed start date. Include the location, work arrangement and time zone when they affect the client's next step.

Use the wording your client recognises, whether that is “candidate submittal”, “candidate submission” or “candidate write-up”. The underlying evidence standard stays the same. Do not turn a reusable template into an assumption that every market has identical hiring or data-handling requirements.

## From notes to a reviewed draft

![Conversation notes become a reviewed draft with relevant evidence, practical details and unresolved questions.](/social/candidate-submittal-workflow.webp)

*Original illustrative workflow, not a product screenshot. Review the source information before sharing.*

## Where Recruit Recap fits

[Recruit Recap](https://recruitrecap.com) offers recruiting-specific templates and custom write-ups, with setup around your agency’s call types. Its website describes selected video meetings with visible, opt-in recording and ATS integrations scoped on demand.

For a demonstration, bring a sanitised version of your current candidate-screen template and the client-ready format you want to produce. Ask to inspect the output, the review steps and the work still needed before a submission is sent.

## Frequently asked questions

**How long should a submittal be?** Long enough to explain relevant evidence, practical details and open questions. Follow the client’s agreed format rather than padding the document to a fixed word count.

**Should it repeat the CV?** Use relevant experience, but add the context from the screen and explain how it relates to this opportunity. Avoid simply rewriting the entire CV.

**Can AI decide which candidate should advance?** This template supports documentation. The recruiter and hiring team remain responsible for assessing candidates through their agreed process.

[Book a Recruit Recap demo](https://recruitrecap.com) and bring the write-up your clients already expect.

## Further context

[CoRecruit candidate submittals](https://corecruit.com/platform/candidate-submittal) · [Loxo candidate submittals](https://loxo.co/ai-agents/candidate-submittals-agent)

See how [Recruit Recap approaches candidate submittal drafts](https://recruitrecap.com/solutions/candidate-submittals), including the review process and scoped ATS handoff.