Ashby provides a variety of features that make it easy to schedule interviews and collect feedback on candidates. This article focuses on the manual scheduling flow, showing how to schedule an interview manually from an existing interview activity or by creating a new one. This is an option you can use if you've already determined a suitable time with the candidate.

See the table below for information on who can schedule a candidate for an interview, either by sending out a direct booking link or manually scheduling interviews.

When a schedule interview activityschedule interview activity has been configured on a job's interview plan, it appears automatically in the Activities & Progress section of the candidate's profile when they are moved to that stage. You can manually schedule an interview directly from this activity, which is the recommended and most common way to manually schedule.

To manually schedule an interview from an existing activity:

The calendar interface opens with the interview type and interviewer panel already filled in. From here, continue to Step 2: Select the time, attendees, and meeting rooms.

If you do not have an existing interview activity to schedule from or need to create one ad hoc, you can manually create the interview and then schedule it.

Alternatively, click + New Interview, Schedule Interview, then Manual Schedule.

When scheduling interviews manually, the calendar interface is where you set up the bulk of the schedule. On this screen you decide:

The first column in the calendar view shows the current schedule — a summary of all events the candidate is participating in on the day of the interview.

Use the date picker to switch the day on which the interview takes place. Click the date to open the full calendar, or use the arrows to move between days.

To the right of the Interview Date date picker, you will also see some additional options:

Check Multi-Day Schedule to jump to other dates on the calendar without automatically switching the date of the interview. This is useful when scheduling multiple interview events in one go.

Check Candidate Availability to overlay the candidate's availability on the calendar, if they have submitted it.

Use the See Employee Calendar dropdown to preview the calendars of potential interviewers. You can filter or scroll to find the calendar you'd like to see.

For onsite interviews, use See Room Calendar to view room availability.

To see the calendar for a specific Zoom user, select them from the See Zoom Calendar dropdown. This option will only show if Disable Zoom Event Access? is unchecked in your company's Zoom integration settings.

On the right side of the screen, there is a panel that shows interview details including the interview type, time, the interviewers, and rooms.

Click Add Interview to add additional interview events to the same day. To schedule interviews across different days, see How do I use multi-day scheduling? .

Use the interview dropdown to select or change the interview type. You can click + New Shared Interview in the interview selector dropdown to create a new shared interview type inline.

Once you've selected an interview type, use the panel controls to configure your interview further:

When you click Add Room, the meeting room selector surfaces the most relevant rooms at the top based on a few criteria:

Rooms are grouped by building or location, and buildings are prioritized when they're relevant to the selected interviewers; for example, where an interviewer is working that day or where they've recently held interviews.

Available rooms appear at the top of each building's list with a green checkmark, so you can confirm a room works before selecting it.

If you update the interview time or swap out an interviewer, reopening the room selector refreshes the results based on your latest selections.

If your organization has meeting room pools configured, you can select a room from a pool rather than specifying a room directly. Follow these steps:

Once you've selected an interview time and picked the interview panel, you're ready to configure calendar events and notifications.

In this step, you can choose whether Ashby creates or updates calendar events and sends email notifications for the candidate and interviewers. You can also preview and edit calendar invite information, configure interview reminders, and set up confirmation emails.

On the Calendar Invites tab, use the Calendar Invites and Notifications dropdown for each audience. Each dropdown controls whether Ashby adds or updates calendar events and sends email notifications. We generally recommend sending out calendar invites when scheduling an interview.

For the candidate, choose one:

For interviewers, choose one:

If you don't send calendar invites now, you can send them later from the Scheduling Activity's More Action dropdown > Send Invite to Candidates/Interviewers on the candidate profile or the schedule overview under the View All Scheduling Options option.

In the Candidate Invite and Interviewer Invite sections, you can preview the calendar invites that are sent out. To make any changes to either invite, click Edit.

If you've added multiple interview events to your interview, you see some additional options when it comes to sending out calendar invites in the Manage Candidate Invites section. You can select from the following options:

Send one invite per block: The candidate receives a separate calendar invite for interview events that are more than 30 minutes apart. If they have two interview events with a 15-minute break between the two, they receive one calendar invite. If they have two interview events with a one-hour break in between, they receive two calendar invites.

Send one invite per interview: The candidate receives a separate calendar invite for each interview event, regardless of how far apart they are.

Send one invite per day: The candidate receives a calendar event per day they have interview events. So if they have one interview event on Monday and the other two on Tuesday, they receive two calendar invites. If they have one interview event on Monday, one on Tuesday, and one on Wednesday, they receive three calendar invites.

You can also click Edit on each interview calendar invite to update the calendar invite title and description per invite, so if you have specific information relevant to only one interview event, it can be added only to the relevant invite.

On the Invite Settings screen, modify the details of both invites.

Finally, if you have the Coderpad, CodeSignal Interview, or HackerRank integrations in place, you can also specify which events (if any) use the integration. A unique assessment link is generated for each event that the integration has been enabled for and is automatically included in both candidate and interviewer invites.

On the Interview Reminders tab, you can configure reminders for both candidates and interviewers.

To add an interview reminder for a candidate, click Add Candidate Reminder. To add a reminder for interviewers on your panel, click Add Interviewer Reminder.

If you'd like to send a confirmation to the candidate for their interview, you can configure a confirmation email on the Candidate Confirmation Email tab.

You may also see an AI Notetaker tab on this page if your organization uses AI NotetakerAI Notetaker.

Once you've reviewed and configured the calendar invite, reminders, and confirmation email, click Schedule to complete the scheduling process.

When you need to reschedule interviews, navigate to the current schedule through the Reschedule button on the activity (where you can click Manual Reschedule or Request More Availability).

You can also click the View Schedule option beneath the interview details, then click the Manual Schedule button on the following Current Schedule page.

If you've navigated to Reschedule, then Manual Reschedule, you're immediately taken to the calendar and interview details to make any changes. When rescheduling, all details except for the interview calendar (or the Calendar field within Invite Settings) can be modified. This includes changing interviewers; select a new interviewer in the calendar interface the same way you would when scheduling for the first time. The only events that are updated are the ones directly impacted by the reschedule; all other invites are not resent. Review the Step 2: Select the time, attendees, and meeting rooms section above for more details.

During rescheduling, within the Communication > Calendar Invite tabs, use the Calendar Changes and Notifications section to choose how Ashby updates calendar events and notifies the candidate and interviewers. The available choices depend on your calendar integration.

With Google Calendar, the candidate's dropdown includes:

The interviewers' dropdown includes:

Ashby supports a two-way syncing option whereby if you move an interview event in Google Calendar to a new date and/or time, the changes are synced and reflected in Ashby.

The calendar event needs to be moved on the account's shared interview calendar (the calendar determined in the Communication tab of your interview) if it wasn't scheduled via the direct booking option.

For an interview scheduled via a direct booking link, the calendar invite can be moved on the shared calendar, or the meeting organizer can move the interview on their personal calendar if they don't have access to the shared calendar.

These changes are then synced back to Ashby and new calendar invites are sent out. You do not need to resend the invites from Google.

If the interview is rescheduled via Google Calendar, an event is added to the candidate's feed showing that rescheduling happened outside of Ashby.

Updates to the schedule in Ashby are dependent on Google syncing times. They should show in Ashby within a minute or so, but could take longer.

When you need to cancel interviews, either click Actions on the scheduled interview and select Cancel Interview…, or click View Schedule.

When viewing the current interview schedule, you see the option to cancel the interview.

When cancelling an interview, candidates receive a cancelled event notification (similar to the invite notification they receive when an interview is scheduled and calendar invites are sent). This happens both when cancelling directly from the candidate profile and when cancelling the interview as part of archiving the candidate's job consideration.

When an interview has already happened in the past, use the Log As Completed option to log this interview without having to manually schedule it. This is available for unscheduled, single-event interview activities.

For a full guide, check out How do I use multi-day scheduling?How do I use multi-day scheduling?.

You can review calendar details at a glance by visiting the current activities section of the candidate profile and toggling the event using the Details button. In this view, you see the date and time of the interview, the location, and the organizer.

No. Calendar invites can either be sent at the time of scheduling or sent manually from the scheduled interview activity on the candidate's profile. Indicators on the interview activity on the candidate profile will show whether or not calendar invites have been sent and if candidates and interviewers have accepted or declined the calendar invite.

To send a calendar invite manually for an interview that has already been scheduled:

Create schedule interview activities to streamline scheduling. This pre-populates standard activities when a candidate reaches a certain stage (e.g., application review). More on this at Setting up Schedule Interview ActivitiesSetting up Schedule Interview Activities.

You can read more on requesting candidate availability at Direct Booking & Candidate Availability LinksDirect Booking & Candidate Availability Links.

We recommend setting up a shared interview calendar and adding anyone on your hiring team who scheduled interviews to prevent scheduling issues when team members are away. More on this at What is a shared calendar?What is a shared calendar?.

For more information on the scheduling status on a candidate profile, check out Understanding Candidate Activity Statuses.

No. Use manual scheduling for multi-event panels. Log completed interview is intended for a single-event interview activity.

You can add an email address as text in the invite description, such as a contact address, by editing the invite. This does not add that person as an attendee or send them the invitation. Ashby bases interviewer invites on the interview panel. If someone needs to receive the calendar invitation but should not be added as an interviewer, add them as an attendee to the event in Google Calendar after scheduling.

When an interviewer declines a calendar invite for an interview, a record of the decline is recorded in Ashby. If the meeting organizer for the interview has Interview declined by interviewer notifications enabled in Personal Settings > Notification Settings, then they will be notified. If the interviewer then accepts the invite later, the record will be updated in Ashby. The interviewer will only be replaced if the interview is rescheduled manually or if Automatically Replace Interviewer on Decline is enabled for that interview activity or in Scheduling Defaults. If enabled, Ashby swaps in an eligible alternate for that slot and resends the invites, as long as the decline is received before the cutoff (24 hours by default). It won’t auto-replace within the cutoff window or if there’s no eligible alternate, so the scheduler will need to manually reschedule in those cases.

If the interviewer then accepts the invite after they have been replaced, it will not have an impact on the rescheduled interview. The alternate will still be on the panel for the interview and the interview would need to be manually rescheduled to add the original interviewer back to the panel.