In our January release the continual improvements programme focuses on key areas identified by customers and internal stakeholders. Shift scheduling capabilities have been extended with batch SMS functionality, enabling consultants to communicate with multiple candidates simultaneously during shift management. Report Builder now includes client relationship tracking, providing enhanced visibility for business development activities. Job workflow terminology has been refined across contract jobs and placements, with clearer labelling of Client and Applicant Notice Period fields to reduce confusion and improve data accuracy. Areas of work include but are not limited to:

This release delivers targeted enhancements to the Access Recruitment CRM jobs workflow, focusing on improving the efficiency of job input and management. Key improvements include refined handling of contract rates when shift-level rates are applied, ensuring the Job basic rate is applied message only displays when a default rate is configured, and enhancements to the Adjust Placement Shift Times wizard with new options to remove outdated shifts and create comprehensive audit trails of all changes made. These refinements address customer feedback to streamline jobs processes, enabling users to manage larger pipelines more effectively whilst maintaining accurate tracking of all modifications to job and shift details.

This release introduces comprehensive search enhancements to the Contract Placements form, improving how users find and work with placement records. Search results now return in the full contract placement view, providing immediate access to comprehensive data points and available actions for each record, such as extending and editing placements, and viewing custom column data. These improvements reduce time spent navigating records, support faster decision-making during peak recruitment periods, and enhance data accuracy by making it easier to verify existing placements before creating duplicates.

This release addresses critical customer feedback by enhancing the Review List with configurable custom columns and saved tag file options, alongside resolving a blocking issue in the Applicant Actions workflow where CV sends created by different consultants resulted in blank screens. These improvements increase efficiency across permanent and contract recruitment workflows, enabling consultants to better track their placement pipelines, manage shortlisting activities, and drive all candidate progression directly through Access Recruitment CRM. By strengthening support for all recruitment activity types, this work directly contributes to the platform's North Star Metric of jobs successfully filled.

This release elevates the Placement and Availability Managers with four key enhancements that provide consultants and managers with instant, actionable data summaries. Totals tiles have been introduced to both Placement Manager and Availability Manager, providing at-a-glance visibility of key metrics without requiring manual calculation or reporting. The Availability Manager gains additional analytical capability with a Total Shifts column per Applicant, enabling quick assessment of candidate activity levels and availability patterns. A new Reserved Summary Card further enhances the Availability Manager by surfacing critical reservation data directly within the interface. These enhancements address key pain points around time pressures and the need for rapid visibility of placement and availability data, enabling consultants, resource consultants and team leaders to make faster, more informed decisions. By consolidating essential metrics and summaries directly within these intuitive tools, this release strengthens their position as comprehensive workforce management solutions that work in synergy with Scheduling 2.0, supporting proactive placement management and reducing administrative overhead across temp, contract and permanent recruitment workflows.

This release addresses customer feedback on rates management efficiency by introducing a non-mandatory grade option for central rates management, providing greater flexibility in how organisations structure their rates frameworks. Enhanced timesheets import functionality now supports expense input, streamlining the process of capturing costs and reducing manual data entry. Additionally, exploratory work on a rate calculator widget investigates opportunities for automated margin calculations. Together, these enhancements enable recruiters and finance teams to manage contract rates more efficiently, reduce timesheet adjustments, and ensure accurate rates flow through to payroll processing, ultimately supporting improved pipeline management and margin control.