Zapier Recipes: Add a new applicant to a recruitment pipeline when Forms are completed in PandaDoc

Forms can be a great way to share information about hiring opportunities and collect information from potential applicants. By connecting applicant forms with Zapier and an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) we can speed up the recruitment process even further.

This guide will demonstrate how to use a Form to collect information from potential applicants and automatically add anyone who completed the Form as a new applicant in a recruitment pipeline. 

In this example, we’re using a simple Trello board to track the stages of the hiring process (New applicant, interview scheduled, etc.). 

There are many ATS applications that connect with Zapier and would support this workflow. Trello can be substituted with most applications that support the action in Zapier to add a new applicant to a recruitment pipeline. 

Requirements 

• PandaDoc - Business or Enterprise + Forms
• Zapier - Professional and up
• Trello Account (or compatible ATS)

Trigger Step: When Application Form is Completed

For each step in Zapier, you must select an "Application" and an "Event." In this case, the application is PandaDoc and the event is when a document is completed. In the trigger settings, find PandaDoc and select the  Document completed event. 

Click continue to connect your PandaDoc account. If this is your first time connecting PandaDoc with Zapier you will be prompted to authorize the integration connection. 

Under ‘Set up trigger’ you’ll have the choice of triggering the zap from a template or a form. For the purpose of this Zap we’ll be using a Form but it will work from a template as well.

When a ‘Source’ option is selected, a second dropdown appears to specify which Form (or template) will trigger the Zap. When you’re ready, click continue. 

Testing your trigger

Now you will be prompted to test the Trigger step you’ve just created. Before going any further in Zapier, navigate to PandaDoc and make sure there is a completed document that was created from your selected template. The test is looking for a completed document in your workspace so there needs to be a document that meets those conditions that it can find. 

If needed, create a test document from your template and complete it. You can speed this part up a bit by manually setting the document status to completed. 

After you’ve made sure you have a test document, go ahead and test the trigger. If configured correctly, it will return the data from your test document. 

If there are multiple documents that meet the trigger criteria they will all be returned during this test. You can view the returned data from the different documents by selecting them from the dropdown menu (titled Document A, Document B, etc.).

Action Step: Add new applicant card to recruiting board in Trello

In this step, we’re going to create a card and populate it with information from the completed Form. 

If you’d like to use some information that is stored in another app or system you can add a search step to gather it before creating the card (provided said app supports search actions through Zapier).

Select Trello (or support ATS) as the Application and the Event will be to ‘Create Card’. Click continue and connect your Trello account to the Zap. 

After connecting your Trello account, continue to Action Setup. Here you will configure what information is passed from the document into the new card.

Select the board and list where the new applicant will be added. In this case, we have a board called, ‘Recruitment Pipeline’ and we’re adding the new card to the list called, ‘New Applicants’. 

Next, map the document data into the new card by placing the merge fields from the trigger step in the corresponding field on the card. With access to custom card fields in Trello, you can use/create fields for any document data that you’d like to appear directly on the card.

For this zap, we’ll keep it simple by using the applicant’s name as the card name and attaching a PDF copy of the Application Form to the card. This way, the document data won’t be included as fields on the card but can be viewed by anyone with access to the board through the PDF attachment. 

Under the Name field, search for the ‘Recipient's First Name’, ‘Recipients Last Name’ tokens from the trigger step. You may add any other plain text (static value) or Zapier merge field (dynamic value) as needed. You may do the same in the ‘Description’ field. 

There are a few more options in this step like adding a label or checklist and adding the card at the top or bottom of the list. Map your document data as needed and then locate the ‘File Attachments’ field in the action setup. Click on it and search for the token from the trigger step called, ‘PDF (Exists but not shown)’. 

When you’re ready, click continue to test the action step. If the test is successful, a new card with data from your test document will be created. 

Check the card created by the last test to confirm all the information carried over and the PDF is attached. If any values are incorrect or missing the first place to check is the setup section under the Action Step. 

When you’ve confirmed all data mapping is correct you’re ready to turn on your Zap!