Running a hiring process through email is common for small businesses, agencies, and growing startups that haven't committed to an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Candidates email their CVs and cover letters to a generic address like careers@yourcompany.com, and the team reviews them manually.
When applications reach tens or hundreds, this becomes overwhelming. Reviewing each email individually, extracting the candidate's name, the role they applied for, and their contact details, and entering everything into a tracking spreadsheet is inefficient. Mail Sheet can automate this entire workflow.
The Problem with Manual Applicant Tracking
- No Centralized Database: Application details are buried across hundreds of email threads, making it impossible to compare candidates side by side.
- Duplicate Efforts: Multiple team members open and review the same emails, wasting time without coordinated notes.
- Late Responses: Without a structured tracker, strong candidates slip through the cracks and accept other offers while you're still reviewing.
Step 1: Set Up a Dedicated Careers Inbox Label
Configure a Gmail filter to label all emails sent to careers@yourcompany.com (or emails with subjects containing "application" or "CV") with a label like "Job Applications". This creates a clean pool of emails for Mail Sheet to process.
Step 2: Open Mail Sheet in Your Applicant Tracker
Create a Google Sheet named "Applicant Tracker 2026" with columns: Candidate Name, Email, Phone, Applied Role, Date Received, and Status. Open Mail Sheet from the Extensions menu in this sheet.
Step 3: Use AI Mode to Handle Varied CV Emails
Job application emails vary wildly in format—some are formal cover letters, others are brief messages with a CV attached. Mail Sheet's AI Mode handles this variation gracefully. Set your label filter to "Job Applications" and enter the extraction prompt:
"Extract the Candidate's Full Name, their Email Address, their Phone Number if present, and the Position or Role they are applying for from the email body. If the position is not explicitly stated, infer it from the context."
Step 4: Enable Daily Automation
Turn on Auto-Run to process new applications once a day (e.g., every morning at 9 AM). Your hiring team will arrive at work to find the overnight applications already neatly logged in the spreadsheet, ready for collaborative review and status updates.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Mail Sheet pull candidate details from a resume attachment, not just the email body?
Mail Sheet's AI Mode focuses on reading the email body and subject line to identify the candidate's name, contact details, and applied role, since most applicants include this information directly in their message. If a candidate only attaches a CV with no summary in the body, it is best practice to still ask applicants to state the role and their name in the email itself so the parser has text to work with.
What columns should an applicant tracking Google Sheet include?
A simple applicant tracker works well with columns for Candidate Name, Email, Phone, Applied Role, Date Received, and Status. Mail Sheet logs each parsed application as a new row matching these columns, so your hiring team can filter and sort candidates by role or update the Status column as interviews progress.
How does the parser handle applications that do not clearly state the position?
Because job application emails vary so much in format, you can instruct the AI Mode prompt to infer the applied position from context clues in the email, such as a mention of a job posting or referenced job ID, when it is not explicitly stated. This keeps the Applied Role column populated even for informal or brief applications.
Transform Your Recruitment Workflow
Automating your applicant tracking eliminates manual data entry, ensures no candidate is overlooked, and gives your hiring team a shared, organized pipeline from day one.
Ready to streamline hiring? Join the Mail Sheet waitlist today.