ATS (Applicant Tracking System)

What is ATS (Applicant Tracking System)?

An ATS (applicant tracking system) is software for managing hiring - posting jobs, collecting applications, and moving candidates through interview stages - and it is separate from core HR, which manages the people you already employ.

In HR the ATS is the recruiting side of the stack. It holds the candidate pipeline: job posts go out, applications come in, and each candidate moves through stages - screening, interview, offer - with notes and status attached. The word 'applicant' is the giveaway; an ATS works with people who do not work for you yet.

That is what separates it from an HRIS or core HR system, which starts once someone is hired and handles records, leave, and pay. The two get confused because both live under 'HR software', but they solve different problems, and plenty of teams run one without the other.

Whether you need a dedicated ATS comes down to hiring volume. A team filling roles every week gets real value from candidate tracking and job-board integrations; a team that hires a few times a year usually manages fine with a shared inbox and a spreadsheet, and gets more from core HR done well.

HREvio is core HR, not an ATS - applicant tracking is on the roadmap, not shipped. So if hiring is your daily workflow, pair it with a dedicated ATS; if managing the people already on the team is the real job, that is the part HREvio is built for.

Related terms

• HRIS (Human Resources Information System)
• Core HR
• ATS vs HRIS

See also

• HREvio vs Treegarden
• HREvio vs Sloneek