Submittal reports show how many candidates your team presents to clients, who gets credit for each submittal, and how well submittals turn into placements. Crelate offers several ways to report on submittal volume, submittals per user, and the ratio of submittals to placements.
Drill downs are available on Business Plus and higher.
What can Submittal reports tell me?
When you present candidates to a client, you are likely invested in the volume and success of those submittals. Submittal reports help you answer questions such as the following:
How many candidates did each recruiter submit this week, month, or quarter?
Who should receive credit for each submittal?
Which Opportunities and Companies receive the most submittals?
How many submittals does it take to make a placement?
How are submittals logged by default?
Crelate logs a submittal when you send a Submittal Email. Each email is logged as its own separate activity.
Open the Contact Record.
Select the This Contact dropdown at the top, and then select Submit for Opportunity.
Choose the Opportunity, or select Select an Opportunity to find another one.
Review the template, the method, and the Contact(s) to Submit in the Submittal window, and then select Submit.
This default activity works well for simple reporting, but it has limits, which is why many firms report on a custom activity instead.
Why should I use a custom activity for submittal reporting?
Create a custom activity, such as Submit or Reporting Submit, and report on it instead of Crelate’s standard Submittal activity. Name it differently from the standard activity so the two are easy to tell apart. A custom activity solves three common problems.
What happens if I submit multiple candidates in one email?
When you send a submittal that contains more than one candidate by moving them to your submittal workflow stage, each candidate automatically receives their own unique activity. Each candidate is counted, and not only the first one.
What if my recruiter Devonte sends the submittal, but my account manager Susan should get the credit?
The Who field on an activity is its owner, and a completed activity can always be adjusted. Add more than one person to the Who field, or change the field entirely, so the correct people receive credit for each submittal.
What if a submittal does not happen in Crelate?
Log the custom activity manually so the submittal is still counted. See “How do I log a submittal manually?” below.
💡 Pro Tip: Decide who receives credit before you build your reports. The Who field is the owner of the activity, and the By User chart options group by the person who created the activity, so the two can differ. To credit the person in Who, group your chart by owner. See “How do I see submittals per recruiter?”
How do I set up the custom submittal activity and workflow stage?
Create the activity, and then add it to the rules of your Submittal workflow stage so that moving a candidate to that stage creates the activity automatically.
Create a custom activity named Submit, or a similar name. For the steps, see Creating an Activity.
Go to Settings, then Workflows, and then Recruiting Workflows.
Find your Submittal stage, or a similarly named stage, and select Configure Rules for the stage. For ideas, see Workflow Stage Examples.
Use the option to create a new activity, and choose your custom submittal activity.
Select Apply Changes.
Select Save at the top of the workflow to save your changes.
Your changes do not take effect until you save the workflow in step 6. For more about how activities and stages work together, see Activities and Workflows.
How do I log a submittal manually?
Open the record and select the icon for your custom submittal activity. Use this for submittals that happen outside Crelate, or to add a missing activity.
Open the Contact Record.
On the Summary tab, select the icon for your custom submittal activity. The activity window opens.
Select the Opportunity in Regarding.
Confirm the date and time in When. It starts as Now.
Confirm the person who should receive credit in Who. It starts as you.
Optional: Add notes or details.
Select Save & Close.
💡 Pro Tip: Change Who whenever someone other than you should receive credit. To see that credit in a chart, group the chart by owner, since By User groups by the person who created the activity.
How do I build a basic submittal report?
Add a chart to a page in the Activities report, and then filter it by Activity Type so it counts only your custom submittal activity.
Open Reports and select the Activities tab.
Select the page where you want the chart. To add a new page, select the plus icon next to the last page, choose Blank Page, enter a name such as Submittals in Page Name, and select OK.
Select Add charts or tables to this page at the bottom of the page. The Add Charts or Tables window opens.
Under Available Charts and Tables, expand Activities, and then expand # of Activities. Select # of Activities for a single number, or an option such as By User, By User over Time, By Company, or By Opportunity. The Preview shows the result.
Select OK.
Select the filter icon at the top right of the chart. The Configure Chart window opens on the Filters tab.
Add a filter for Activity Type, and choose your custom submittal activity.
Add a date filter, such as This and Month.
Select OK.
Page filters also apply to the chart. If the chart shows fewer submittals than you expect, select Filters on the page row and check the active page filters.
How do I see submittals per recruiter?
Choose whether to credit the person who created the activity or the person who owns it. The two can give very different results, so choose the one that matches what you want to measure.
By User options, such as By User, By User over Time, and By User and Activity Type, group by Created By, which is the person who logged the activity.
By Owner groups by the person in the Who field, who receives credit for the submittal.
For example, if an account manager logs a submittal and puts a recruiter in the Who field, a By User chart credits the account manager, and a By Owner chart credits the recruiter. Use By User to see who is logging submittals, and use By Owner to see who is credited with them.
The Add Charts or Tables list does not include a by-owner option for activities. Add it in Configure Chart instead, using the following steps.
Add a chart from # of Activities, as described in “How do I build a basic submittal report?”
Select the gear icon at the top right of the chart. The Configure Chart window opens on the Settings tab.
Under Data, confirm that Measure is set to # of Activities.
In By, select By Owner.
Optional: Select Add a second dimension to break each owner down further.
Select OK.
If Add a second dimension does not appear, choose a presentation that supports a second dimension. The By field and the second dimension depend on the presentation you choose.
💡 Pro Tip: If you pay commissions or measure recruiter performance by who received credit for the submittal, group by owner. If you want to see who is entering submittals, choose By User.
💡 Pro Tip: Charts that group by a person include the work of recruiters who have since left. Use the Inactive Users setting in Display Options to choose whether they appear as one “Inactive users” entry, are listed by name, or are left out. Avoid Leave their records out for performance reports, because your totals will be lower than the submittals behind them.
How do I report on the ratio of submittals to placements?
Add an Activity Ratio chart and set it to compare your custom submittal activity with Placements. An activity ratio chart compares the quantity of two different activity types, so you can see how many submittals it takes to make a placement. For more about ratio reports, see Ratio Reports.
Open the Activities report and select the page where you want the chart.
Select Add charts or tables to this page at the bottom of the page. The Add Charts or Tables window opens.
Under Available Charts and Tables, expand Activities, expand Activity Ratio, and select an option: By User, By Company, By Opportunity, or Over Time.
Select OK.
Select the gear icon at the top right of the chart. The Configure Chart window opens on the Settings tab.
In Ratio of, select your custom submittal activity.
In To, select Placements.
Optional: In By, select By Owner to see the ratio for each recruiter who receives credit, or choose another dimension. Select Add a second dimension to break the ratio down further.
Optional: Under Presentation, choose how to show the chart, such as Single value.
Select OK.
For example, if your team made 40 submittals and 5 placements in a month, the ratio is 8 submittals for every placement. Compare that number across recruiters and months to see who converts submittals most effectively.
Drill downs are not available on ratio charts because a ratio is a calculated measurement. To see the submittals behind a ratio, build a # of Activities chart for your submittal activity and select a value in it.
💡 Pro Tip: The preview for an Activity Ratio chart starts with interviews compared with placements. Change Ratio of to your submittal activity, or the chart will not show submittals.
💡 Pro Tip: Set By to By Owner when you compare recruiters, so each recruiter’s ratio reflects the submittals and placements they are credited with. Use the same grouping on your submittal chart and your ratio chart so the numbers agree.
How do I see the submittals behind a number?
Select a value in a chart to see the submittals behind it, and then open them directly. Select Other to expand it. Drill downs are available on Business Plus and higher. See Using Report Drill Downs.
Drill downs work on Bars, Columns, Lines, Area, Pie, Donut, Funnel, and Pyramid presentations, and not on Single value, Pivot grid, or Data table, or on ratio charts.
How do I share or export a submittal report?
You can export a single chart or an entire page to PDF, PNG, CSV, or Excel. See Exporting Reports. To send a chart on a schedule, select the page, select the gear icon next to Filters to open Configure Page, and then select Configure Scheduled Email. See Schedule Sending Reporting Chart emails.
Troubleshooting
Why does my report count fewer submittals than I sent?
Check which activity your chart counts. If the Activity Type filter is set to the standard Submittal activity, a submittal with several candidates may be counted only once. Use your custom activity, and confirm that each candidate was moved to the submittal stage. Also check the page filters and the date filter.
Why does a candidate not have a submittal activity after I moved them to the Submittal stage?
The activity is created by the rules on the workflow stage. Go to Settings, Workflows, and Recruiting Workflows, open the stage, and select Configure Rules to confirm your custom activity is included. Select Apply Changes, and then select Save at the top of the workflow, or the rule will not take effect. The activity is created only for candidates moved after the rule was saved, so earlier submittals need the activity logged manually.
Why does the wrong person receive credit for a submittal?
Check which grouping your chart uses. By User options credit the person who created the activity, so changing the Who field does not change them. Select the gear icon on the chart and set By to By Owner to credit the person in Who, and open the activity to confirm that Who is correct.
Why does a recruiter’s total look different on two charts?
One chart may group by Created By, as the By User options do, and the other by owner. Check the grouping in Configure Chart, and use the same grouping for every chart you compare.
Why does my ratio chart show an unexpected number?
An Activity Ratio chart compares two counts using the same filters. Confirm that Ratio of is your submittal activity and To is Placements, and check the date filter and the page filters. A ratio can look unusual when the period has very few placements.
Why did my submittal numbers change for a past period?
Date ranges follow the time zone in your User Preferences, or your organization’s time zone if yours is not set, so activities land in the correct period. This can cause small changes in historical counts. See Why Did My Report Numbers Change?.
Why does my chart show “Inactive users” or “No longer a user”?
Charts that group by a person show deactivated users according to the Inactive Users setting. Select the gear icon next to Filters to open Configure Page, select Display Options, and choose List them by name or Group them together. Their submittals stay in your totals under both options.
What to share if it still does not work: a screenshot of the chart and its Settings and Filters tabs, a screenshot of the page filters, the activity and workflow stage names, an example candidate that was not counted, and the period you are reporting on.
Key takeaway
Use a custom submittal activity, connected to your Submittal workflow stage, to report on submittals. Every candidate moved to the stage receives their own activity. The Who field is the owner who receives credit, and the By User chart options group by the person who created the activity, so group by owner when you want to see credit. Build a chart in the Activities report with an Activity Type filter for your custom activity, and add an Activity Ratio chart set to your submittal activity and Placements to see how many submittals it takes to make a placement. Page filters and chart filters always work together as AND, so check both when a number looks wrong.
What's Next?
Looking for a full reporting guide? Check out our overview below as well as some more specific advanced reports!