Guide · ATS
ATS vs HRMS: What Each Does, How They Connect
An applicant tracking system (ATS) runs hiring: jobs, applicants, interviews and offers. A human resources management system (HRMS) runs the workforce once people are employed: their records, attendance, leave and pay.
The short answer
In Suntel360, the ATS and HRMS are separate products joined by one link, from the ATS to HRMS. Recruiters sign in to the ATS with their HRMS employee login. Creating, editing or deleting a job sends HRMS the job ID, the hiring team before and after, and its status. No candidate data crosses, and a hire creates no HRMS employee.
From sign-in to hire: where each system's part begins and ends
1. Recruiters sign in with their HRMS identity
The ATS has no sign-in of its own. Recruiters use their HRMS employee login, and each of their ATS requests carries that login's token. The ATS checks the token, asks HRMS for the employee's identity, role, status and effective permissions, and refuses the request if the employee is not found, not active, or must change their password. Permissions come from the person's ATS role, such as Recruiter or Interviewer, plus any ATS permissions granted in HRMS. An ATS access record covers all jobs or only the jobs listed. The ATS screens sit inside the HRMS web app, shown only where the organisation has ATS access and the user holds an ATS permission.
2. Jobs and their hiring teams are kept in the ATS
A job in the ATS carries its details, such as employment type, salary range, closing date, required skills, requirements, responsibilities and interview feedback questions. Its status is Draft, Active, Closed or On hold. It also carries a hiring team, a list of HRMS employee IDs. Separately, a person can be assigned to a job as Recruiter or Hiring Manager; that assignment stays in the ATS and is not sent to HRMS. Of all this, HRMS receives only the job's ID, hiring team and status.
3. The hiring-team sync carries four fields
Creating, editing or deleting a job makes the ATS call HRMS with four fields: the job ID, the hiring team before and after the change, and the job status, or deleted. HRMS keeps a list of assigned job IDs on each team member's employee record. For an Active job, it adds the job to every current member and removes it from anyone taken off the team. For a Closed or deleted job, it removes the job from the team as it stood before the change. Draft and On hold change nothing. The ATS reads the list back to show each member the applications for their jobs.
4. Candidates apply, and their data stays in the ATS
Candidates have no account or status-tracking portal. They see the public job listings, apply to a job that is Active, and hear back by email: when the application is received, and when it reaches Screening, Shortlisted, Interview or Rejected. On application, the ATS extracts the resume's text where it can and stores it, but computes no score. Candidate data stays in the ATS: the hiring-team sync carries no candidate name, email, resume, score or stage.
5. Resume analysis runs when a recruiter starts it
Scoring does not run on its own. A user with the analyse permission starts an analysis, and each run first computes a rule-based match from 0 to 100, built from the resume's fit with the job's skills, requirements, responsibilities, title and experience: 80 or more is a strong match, 60 or more moderate, 40 or more weak. AI refines that result only where AI has been set up and switched on for the organisation; it is off by default. Otherwise the rule-based result is saved with the reason AI was not used. Either way, a required skill counts as matched only if the resume text contains it.
6. Six stages, in order
Each application moves through Applied, Screening, Shortlisted, Interview, Offer and Hired, in that order; skipping a stage is refused. Rejected can be reached from any stage before Hired. On hold is a stage too, reachable only from Interview, and leads back to Interview or on to Rejected. Leaving Interview for Offer or Rejected needs a completed final round with feedback; On hold needs at least one completed interview with feedback. Hired and Rejected are final: the application closes and cannot be reopened.
7. Offer, appointment letter, hire, and nothing sent to HRMS
Once an offer is Accepted, the appointment letter, a file uploaded to the offer, can be emailed to the candidate as an attachment, once only. The candidate is marked Hired only after that email is sent; if sending fails, nothing is saved. After the letter is sent, the offer can no longer be edited. Hired closes the application. No HRMS employee is created and no candidate details are passed on, so adding the new joiner to HRMS is a separate step in HRMS.
ATS and HRMS in Suntel360, side by side
| Compared | ATS | HRMS |
|---|---|---|
| What it is for | Hiring: jobs, candidates, applications, interviews and offers | Employees: records, attendance, leave, payroll, payslips and performance |
| Who works in it | Users by ATS role, such as recruiter, hiring manager and interviewer | Employees, each with an HRMS role and permissions |
| Sign-in | None of its own: the HRMS employee login | The employee login the ATS also relies on |
| Records it holds | Jobs, candidates, applications, resume analyses, interviews, offers, audit log | Employee, attendance, leave and payroll records, plus each hiring-team member's assigned ATS job IDs |
| What it passes to the other | The hiring-team sync (job ID, team before and after, status), and the employee ID it looks up | When asked: the signed-in employee's identity, role, status and permissions, and their assigned job IDs |
| What it never passes on | Candidate name, email, resume, score or stage | Leave, attendance or payroll data |
| When a candidate is hired | Application marked Hired and closed | Nothing: no employee record is created |
A comparison, not sample data. The fifth row is everything that crosses between them.
What Suntel360 ATS does, and does not do
It does
- Signs recruiters in with their HRMS employee login, checking the employee in HRMS on every request.
- Sends HRMS a job's ID, hiring team and status when the job is created, edited or deleted.
- Moves applications through six stages in order, plus Rejected and On hold.
- Scores resumes on request: a rule-based match every time, plus AI only where it has been set up and switched on for the organisation.
- Marks a candidate Hired only after an accepted offer and a sent appointment letter.
It does not
- Create an HRMS employee when a candidate is hired.
- Send candidate or application data to HRMS: no name, email, resume, score or stage.
- Receive leave, attendance or payroll data: from HRMS it gets only the signed-in employee's identity, role, status and permissions, and their assigned job IDs.
- Score resumes automatically when they arrive; someone has to start an analysis.
- Give candidates an account or a status-tracking portal: they view public jobs, apply and receive emails.
Questions
Does a hired candidate become an employee in HRMS?
No. When the appointment letter is sent, the application is marked Hired and closed in the ATS. The ATS has no call that creates an HRMS employee; its only calls to HRMS check a signed-in user, read assigned jobs and sync a job's hiring team. The new joiner is added in HRMS separately.
What data does the ATS send to HRMS?
Beyond the employee ID it uses to look up a signed-in user and their assigned jobs, only the hiring-team sync: the job ID, the hiring team before and after the change, and the job status, or deleted. HRMS stores just the job ID on each team member's record. Candidates, applications, resumes, scores and stages stay in the ATS.
Which job changes update HRMS?
Creating, editing or deleting a job sends the sync, and HRMS acts on the job status. Active adds the job to current team members and removes it from anyone taken off; Closed or deleted removes it from the team. Draft and On hold change nothing. Assigning someone to a job as Recruiter or Hiring Manager is not synced.
Does the Suntel360 ATS use AI to score resumes?
Only where AI has been set up and switched on for the organisation; it is off by default. A user starts each analysis, and it first computes a rule-based score from 0 to 100. If AI is not used, that result is saved with the reason. A required skill counts as matched only when the resume text contains it.