This guide covers how to streamline your application review process by using the auto-reject feature.

Auto-Reject allows you to reject candidates whose application submissions match certain conditions automatically. Rejection conditions apply to the selected application form for a given job. For example, if you have a location-based application question, you can configure a rule within the job posting to automatically reject candidates located outside of the targeted area.

Auto-reject rules can only be configured to run at the point of the candidate's application submission and cannot run at other stages in the interview process.

Watch the following optional video for an overview of Auto-Reject, or follow the steps below.

To set up an Auto-Reject condition:

This screenshot highlights 6 key areas of auto-reject configuration setup:

You can click + Create New Auto-Reject Rule to create additional auto-reject rules. Ashby applies auto-reject rules to applications in the order they are listed.

Once configured and activated, Auto-Reject evaluates all new applications. Auto-reject does not currently support applying the rule to historical applications.

When setting up your auto-reject conditions, first click Add Field to Match. You can select a question on your application form and determine the answers that trigger the auto-reject tool.

Once you've selected your question, you see the following options for determining an answer that leads to automatic rejection. This example is for a question with a multiple-choice answer field.

Is empty/unassigned: No answer has been added or selected. Select this if you want to automatically reject a candidate if they have not answered the question.

Is not empty/unassigned: Any answer has been added in response to the application form. Selecting this automatically rejects any candidate who has answered the question.

Equals: Select or add a value here. If the candidate has responded with the exact same answer, they are rejected automatically.

Depending on the field type, you may see additional options. Here is another example where the field type is one that can be typed into directly, rather than selecting a specific answer, as above.

Contains: The answer contains the text you add to the Add text to match field beside the drop-down menu. If the applicant's answer contains this text, they are rejected automatically.

Starts with: Ashby rejects the application if the answer starts with the text specified in the Add text to match field.

Ends with: Ashby rejects the application if the answer ends with the text specified in the Add text to match field.

Similar to: Ashby rejects the application if the answer is similar to the text in the Add text to fuzzy match field. For example, if localization is added to the Add text to fuzzy match field and the applicant includes the word local in their application, this constitutes a fuzzy match.

While configuring your auto-reject rules, you see the operators And, Or, and Not.

And: This option adds an All are True condition to the rule, so you can set multiple conditions and, as long as all conditions are met, the candidate is rejected. In this example, the candidate is rejected if they select No for both of the specified questions. If they select Yes for one of the two, they are not rejected automatically.

Or: This option adds an Any can be True condition to the rule. If any of the conditions listed are met, the candidate's application is rejected automatically. In this example, if the candidate selects No for either question, their application is rejected automatically.

Not: This option adds a The following is not true condition to the form. Candidates who do not meet the criteria specified in the rules are rejected automatically. In this example, if the candidate does not select Yes as their answer to the question, they are automatically rejected.

You can also add these operators within one another! If you are using the Not operator and want to add multiple conditions the candidate needs to meet, select the And operator once you've set up your first condition to add another. In this example, both questions need to be answered Yes for the candidate to pass through to the Application Review stage. If a candidate answers Yes to one question and No to the other, they are rejected automatically.

When there is an active configuration and Auto-Reject is enabled, you need to create a new draft condition to make edits. The active condition continues to run until the draft condition is activated.

To deactivate an active configuration, switch off the Auto-Reject Enabled toggle in the Automation tab of the selected job posting.

Once disabled, the tag beside the Auto-Reject Application heading turns red and displays Disabled.

If you'd like to review rejected candidates, you can find all archived candidates within the candidate pipeline of your job in the Archived view. You can then add an advanced filter to display only auto-rejected candidates.

To search for those candidates:

This screenshot highlights two key auto-reject activities on the candidate profile:

If an application is submitted through an application request link, Ashby does not check those applications against auto-reject or application limit rules.

You can set up application limits if you are seeing candidates apply multiple times for the same role or department. More on configuring these at Application LimitsApplication Limits.

No, auto-reject rules can only be configured on the job posting and so will only be applied to applications at the point of submission via your job board.

Organization Admins have access to Archive Reasons by default. Users with Elevated Access roles do not automatically inherit this permission, so it needs to be granted separately under their Additional User Permissions. More on this at Additional User Permissions.