Free hiring pipeline template

A spreadsheet that tells you what happens next

Track candidates, ownership, evidence, and follow-up in a practical CSV template built for a founder running the first few hiring processes.

Opens in Google Sheets, Excel, Numbers, and most spreadsheet apps. No email required.

Hiring pipeline3 active candidates
Candidate
Stage
Next step
Owner
Mara Liu
First interview
Schedule technical conversation
Founder
Ravi Bains
Review
Review work samples
Engineering
Elena Park
References
Complete second reference
Founder

What is included

The fields a small hiring team actually needs

The template is intentionally small. It tracks enough context to create accountability without turning the spreadsheet into a database nobody wants to maintain.

  • Current stage and owner
  • Last activity and next step
  • Priority and key evidence
  • Open question and decision

How to use it

Keep the tracker useful after the first week

  1. 01

    Make each row one candidate for one role

    Avoid combining multiple roles or duplicate applications in a single row. A clear unit of work makes ownership and follow-up easier to see.

  2. 02

    Use a short, shared stage list

    Start with application review, first interview, team interview, references, offer, hired, and closed. Add complexity only when the process truly needs it.

  3. 03

    Record the next action, not just the status

    A stage tells you where a candidate is. The next step, owner, and date tell the team whether anything will actually happen.

  4. 04

    Write evidence before writing a verdict

    Capture the concrete work, context, and interview evidence behind a decision. This keeps the tracker useful when more than one person reviews a candidate.

When the spreadsheet stops working

Move before candidate context spreads across five tools

A sheet is enough while one person owns a small pipeline. It becomes fragile when resumes live in email, feedback lives in chat, and several people update stages at different times.

Loam replaces that patchwork with structured candidate profiles, AI briefs, sourcing, signals, and a shared hiring record.

See the ATS for startups

Start where you are

Use the template today. Move to Loam when the pipeline grows.