Import
Bring your jobs into Vakanssi from WP Job Openings, Simple Job Board, or WP Job Manager, plus candidate applications from WP Job Openings and Simple Job Board, safely and in small batches, without touching the original data.
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Switching to Vakanssi from another hiring plugin? You do not have to re-enter your jobs and applicants by hand. Vakanssi can import them for you from three of the most common plugins:
- WP Job Openings: jobs and applications
- Simple Job Board: jobs and applications
- WP Job Manager: jobs only
The Import tool is part of the free plugin. It reads your existing data and copies it into Vakanssi. It never changes or deletes the originals, so nothing is at risk and you can keep the old plugin running until you are happy with the result.
Why WP Job Manager is jobs only
WP Job Manager’s core plugin has no built-in applications feature: applications only exist through a separate paid add-on. Vakanssi imports your WP Job Manager job listings. If you also use that add-on for applications, move those candidates over by hand, or keep WP Job Manager active until you have worked through them.
Finding the Import screen
The importer is the Migrate from another plugin card on the Tools screen: Hiring, then Tools, then Import. The card appears only when Vakanssi finds data from a supported plugin.
Because this is a one-time job on most sites, Vakanssi does not make you go looking for it. When it finds that data, it shows administrators and HR / Compliance users a dismissible notice at the top of the Hiring screens, saying what it found, with an Import them button that links straight to the card.
The same importer is also offered as a step in the setup wizard if Vakanssi finds data the first time you set up the plugin.
Since v0.32.11, it is linked from there a second way too: if the existing page you connect as your careers page already lists jobs from another hiring plugin, the wizard leaves that page alone and points you here instead of stacking a second job board on it.
Dismissed the notice?
Dismissing the notice hides it for good for your user account, even though the Import tab itself is still there. Open it any time from Hiring, then Tools, then Import, or reopen it from the setup wizard.
Using a different plugin?
If your site also holds jobs from a hiring plugin Vakanssi has no importer for, the migration card adds a note naming it (or, when Vakanssi does not recognize the plugin, the type of data it found), and saying it cannot bring that data across automatically.
A site whose only hiring data comes from an unsupported plugin gets no card, so no note either. Let us know which plugin it is and we will look at adding support.
Got a plain spreadsheet instead?
This importer is for moving data out of another hiring plugin. If you just have a CSV of job listings (built by hand, or exported from somewhere else), use Import jobs from a CSV instead: it is the Import jobs (CSV) card on this same Tools, then Import tab, with a column-mapping step.
Running an import
- Click Import them on the notice on your Hiring screens, or go to Hiring, then Tools, then Import (or follow the Import step of the setup wizard on first run).
- Find the plugin you are moving from in the table. It shows how many Jobs and Applications Vakanssi found.
- Click Import on its row. The import starts and the Progress column updates as it goes, for example “3 of 12 jobs · 0 of 40 applications”.
- Leave the page open until it reads finished. It works in small batches, so it never times out, and it keeps going on its own while the tab is open.
Vakanssi imports jobs first, then the applications attached to them, so every applicant lands on the right job. Applications whose job was deleted or moved to the trash in the old plugin are skipped, and the import log lists each one.
When it is done, the Progress column shows the final counts, and a note says the import finished, that your source data was not modified, and that you can now deactivate the old plugin. An import log for that source follows.
For WP Job Openings and Simple Job Board, each applicant’s status comes across too, not just a fresh “new” entry: in-process lands on a screening or review stage, shortlisted on a shortlist or interview stage, rejected on your Lost stage, and selected on your Won stage, matched by what your pipeline stages are actually named and typed.
A status Vakanssi does not recognize is placed in your first stage and noted in the import log, so nothing is silently reassigned.
What makes it safe to run
- It never touches your originals. The import only reads your old data. Your jobs and applicants stay exactly as they were in the other plugin, so you can compare the two side by side.
- You can run it again. The import is safe to repeat: a finished source shows Run again. Anything already brought across is skipped rather than duplicated, and anything you have added to the source since the last run is picked up. If a batch is interrupted, click Continue import to pick up where it left off.
- Small batches. It processes 25 records at a time, so even thousands of applications import without straining your site or hitting a timeout.
- One batch at a time. Only one batch per source runs at once. Start a second one while the first is still working, in another tab say, and Vakanssi says another batch is already running; wait a few moments, then continue.
- A failed batch never duplicates anything. If a batch of applications hits a rare database error while saving its progress, Vakanssi rolls that whole batch back rather than leaving it half-saved and asks you to try again. Click Continue import and the batch runs again from its start, so you never end up with the same application imported twice.
After the import
Once the import finishes, review your new jobs and applications in the Hiring menu. When everything looks right, you can safely deactivate the plugin you moved from. Because your job listings are now regular Vakanssi jobs, they appear on your careers page and can be picked up by Google for Jobs like any other role.