How to Track Candidates: Demand, Medical, Visa, Flight

Candidates get stuck not because the process is hard but because nobody noticed a small delay. A medical report sits in a drawer for a week. A passport copy is unclear and nobody asks again. A visa stamping date passes without anyone reconfirming the flight. A clear pipeline with an owner and a date at every stage turns these hidden delays into a visible list. This guide shows how to build one. It describes record keeping only: the legal steps and forms you must follow are set by the authorities and your licence, and you must confirm them yourself.

Start with the demand

Every placement begins with a demand from an employer. Record it as a separate object, not as a note on a candidate. Capture the employer name, country, trades, number required, terms offered, date received and your internal reference. Keep a status for the demand such as open, in progress, fulfilled or closed. Then link candidates to it. This lets you answer "how many are left?" in a second and avoids oversupplying or undersupplying one employer while another waits.

Define stages that match your agency

A typical stage list looks like this, but you should change it to suit your process:

1. Registered: basic details and passport copy received
2. Shortlisted for a demand
3. Interviewed or selected by the employer or their representative
4. Medical: referred, report received, result recorded
5. Documents: checklist complete and submitted
6. Visa: submitted, stamped, received
7. Pre-departure: insurance, orientation and other required papers recorded
8. Ticket: flight date and details entered
9. Departed: confirmed and file archived

Give each stage a responsible person, such as processing officer, accounts or the manager, and a target number of days. Anything exceeding the target appears on a delay report.

The document checklist per candidate

Create a checklist for each demand type, because requirements differ by country and employer. Typical items include passport copy, photographs, citizenship copy, educational or skill papers, medical report, contract copy, insurance paper and orientation record. For each, store the scan, the received date and the status. A candidate should not move to the next stage while a mandatory item is missing, or at least the system should warn the user.

Dates that deserve reminders

Date	Why remind
Passport expiry	Short validity may block processing
Medical validity	Reports can lapse before departure
Visa validity and submission deadlines	Missing them forces rework
Interview or orientation date	Candidates must be informed in time
Flight date	Final reconfirmation and travel preparation

Reminders should list the candidate, the date, the stage and the person who must act. The exact validity periods and rules are set by the relevant authorities and employers; enter the ones you have verified.

Keep communication in the file

Much of the real work happens by phone and WhatsApp. Note each call: the date, who spoke, what was promised. When a family member says "you told me two weeks ago", you can check. Short status messages prepared from the record, for example "Your medical report has been received and your file is with the visa team", reduce repeated calls and keep everyone consistent.

Track money against the stage

Record every receipt, refund and expense against the candidate and demand, with date, amount and purpose. Be careful with promises about fees; follow the rules that apply to your licence and issue proper receipts. A candidate's ledger should always show what was paid, what is due and what was returned. Accounts that match the pipeline stop most later disputes. For general bookkeeping, see our accounting software.

The daily and weekly routine

• Every morning: open the pending-today list, with documents missing, dates due and calls to return.
• Every week: review candidates per stage, and anyone over the target days.
• Every month: review departures, demand balances and sub-agent performance.

Handling failures honestly

Not every file ends in departure. A candidate may fail a medical, withdraw, or lose a demand. Record the outcome, the reason and any refund. This honest history protects the agency and helps spot patterns, such as many withdrawals from one source.

Where software fits

The manpower agency software we build turns this method into a daily tool: demands, stages, checklists, reminders, accounts and WhatsApp-ready messages in one place. It is a record-keeping system, designed around your own process.

Measuring the pipeline

Once stages and dates are recorded, a few simple numbers tell you how healthy the agency is. The average days spent in each stage shows where files wait. The share of candidates who reach departure from each demand shows how well you select. The number of candidates per sub-agent who reach medical and beyond shows who sends serious applicants. You do not need complex analytics, only consistent dates, and a monthly look at the averages. When one stage is consistently slow, look for a process cause such as a single person handling too many files before blaming the candidates.

Sharing status without sharing too much

Candidates and families deserve updates, but not everyone should see everything. Decide which fields can be shared, usually stage and next step, and which are internal, such as employer terms and commission. In software, a status message is generated from the stage and checked by staff before it is sent over WhatsApp, which keeps updates accurate and consistent between staff members.

Next step

Write your stage list and checklist on one page this week and try it on ten live candidates in a spreadsheet. Then message us on WhatsApp and we will show you how the same method looks in a system built for it.

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