Configuring Archive Reasons

8 min

Archive reasons let your team record why candidates are rejected or drop out of the recruiting process, and they form the foundation for reporting and analysis in Ashby. This article covers how to add new archive reasons, edit existing ones, archive reasons to remove them from active use, and delete and remap reasons when a full removal is needed. For guidance on building an effective taxonomy and analyzing archive reasons in Ashby Analytics, see Best Practices: Managing & Analyzing Archive Reasons.

Permissions & access

Archive reasons are available on all plans:

Foundations	Legacy Plus	Plus	Enterprise
✅	✅	✅	✅

By default, only Organization Admins can configure archive reasons. Elevated Access users can be granted access to archive reasons through Additional User Permissions.

Adding archive reasons

You can add archive reasons by following these steps:

Navigate to Admin > Jobs & Applications > Archive Reasons.

Click + New to add a new archive reason.

Ashby Admin Candidate Archive Reasons page showing a list of archive reasons, with the + New button highlighted in the upper-right corner.

Fill in the Reason field with the title of the archive reason and select the Reason Type.

Reason types group archive reasons into broad categories for reporting:

Rejected by Organization: Your organization ended consideration. For example, skills or experience, work authorization, location, references, or the role being filled.

Rejected by Candidate: The candidate withdrew or declined. For example, accepting another offer, compensation, career growth, timing, or remaining with their current company.

Other: Use for process or data-cleanup reasons that don’t represent a candidate or organization-driven rejection. For example, a position being closed, a candidate transferring to another role, or cleanup due to inactivity.

Create Reason panel in Ashby with fields for the reason name and reason type. The Reason Type dropdown is open, showing options for Other, Rejected By Candidate, and Rejected By Organization.

Select Create.

Editing archive reasons

To edit the Name or Reason Type on an archive reason, click on the archive reason and make your changes. Edits are automatically saved.

Archiving and deleting archive reasons

You can archive an archive reason to prevent its future use while keeping it available for historical reporting. To fully remove an archive reason and update the historical archive reason on the job considerations that use it, delete and remap it.

Archiving an archive reason

Default archive reasons cannot be archived. Ashby also prevents you from archiving an archive reason used in an auto-reject configuration or automation.

To archive an archive reason:

Navigate to Admin > Jobs & Applications > Archive Reasons.

Select the archive reason you want to archive.

Click Archive.

Candidate Archive Reasons settings page with the "Not Aligned with Guild Values" archive reason selected. The details panel shows the reason as Active, with a Reason Type of "Rejected By Organization," and the Archive button highlighted in the upper-right corner.

Restore an archived archive reason by clicking the Restore button.

Archived “Failed Phone Screen” reason in Ashby, with the Restore button highlighted. The reason type is set to “Rejected By Organization.”

Deleting and remapping an archive reason

Delete and remap an archive reason to fully remove it and replace it in the job considerations that currently use it. You cannot undo the deletion of an archive reason.

Archive reasons must already be archived before you can delete the reason.

Navigate to Admin > Jobs & Applications > Archive Reasons.

In the top-right dropdown, change the view from Active to Archived.

Candidate Archive Reasons settings page with the status filter set to "Archived." The dropdown shows Active and Archived options, with Archived selected and highlighted.

Select the archive reason you want to remove, then click Delete.

Candidate Archive Reasons settings page with the archived "Failed Phone Screen" reason selected. The details panel shows its Reason Type as "Rejected By Organization," with Restore and Delete options available and the Delete button highlighted.

Review the number of job considerations associated with the archive reason.

Delete Archive Reason dialog for "Failed Phone Screen," indicating that two related job considerations must be updated before the reason can be deleted. Each job consideration includes a required dropdown to select a replacement archive reason.

Select the active archive reasons you want those job considerations to use instead.

Click Start to confirm the remap.

If you want to update the archive reason for individual archived job considerations without deleting it, see How do I change the archive reason on an archived job consideration?.