Year-End ATS Cleanup: Make Your Life Easier Before 2026 Hits

Your ATS is probably a mess right now. Old requisitions that never got closed, candidate records with outdated information, duplicate profiles, notes that don't make sense, and job descriptions that haven't been updated since 2023.

End of year is the perfect time to clean this up. You'll start 2026 with a functional system, better data, and way less frustration when you're trying to find anything.

Here's what to focus on.

Close Out Dead Requisitions

Go through your open requisitions and close everything that's not actually active. Jobs that got filled but never marked as closed. Roles that got canceled but are still showing as open. Requisitions that have been "on hold" for six months and are never coming back.

Close them all. If a role comes back later, you can reopen it or create a new req. But leaving old requisitions open clutters your dashboard, skews your metrics, and makes it impossible to tell what's actually active.

While you're at it, check which hiring managers have open reqs. If someone left the company three months ago and their requisitions are still open assigned to them, reassign them or close them. Don't start 2026 with ghost requisitions attached to people who don't work there anymore.

Archive Old Candidates

If someone applied two years ago, didn't get the job, and hasn't been active since, they don't need to be in your active candidate pool. Archive them.

Most ATS platforms have archive functions that move old candidates out of active view but keep them searchable if you need them later. Use it. Your active candidate pool should be people you're actually considering for roles - not everyone who's ever applied.

Before archiving, add a note about why they weren't selected if one isn't already there. "Not enough experience," "compensation mismatch," "moved forward with other candidates," whatever. Future you will appreciate having context if you need to reference these profiles later.

Fix Duplicate Candidate Profiles

Candidates apply multiple times. They use different email addresses. They update their names. Your ATS creates duplicate profiles. Then you have three profiles for the same person with different information on each one.

Most ATS platforms have duplicate detection features. Use them. Merge duplicate profiles so you have one clean record per candidate with complete history. This matters for reporting, candidate experience, and not accidentally reaching out to the same person three times because you didn't realize they already applied.

Update Job Descriptions and Templates

When's the last time you updated your job description templates? If the answer is "not recently," they probably need work.

Go through your standard JD templates and update them:

• Remove outdated skills or technologies
• Add new requirements that have become standard
• Fix salary ranges if they're no longer competitive
• Update company descriptions and benefits information
• Remove any language that sounds dated or might be exclusionary

If you have job descriptions that got customized for specific roles but never updated in the system, now's the time to clean those up too. Future you will thank past you for having current, accurate JD templates ready to go when hiring kicks off in January.

Clean Up Your Interview Feedback and Notes

Scroll through your candidate notes and interview feedback. If you see vague comments like "not a fit" or "meh" with no context, that's useless data.

You can't fix old notes, but you can set a standard for 2026: interview feedback should be specific, clear, and useful for decision-making. No more one-word assessments. No more "I'll follow up verbally" notes that never get followed up.

Use the end of year as a reset point. Start 2026 with a commitment to better documentation. Your hiring managers, your colleagues, and future you will all benefit from having actual useful notes instead of cryptic fragments.

Review Your Candidate Tags and Statuses

If your ATS uses tags or custom statuses to track candidates, review them. Are you using tags consistently? Are there custom statuses that made sense once but nobody uses anymore? Are candidates stuck in statuses that don't reflect reality?

Clean it up. Standardize your tagging system. Delete unused custom fields. Move candidates into accurate statuses.

The goal is to start 2026 with a system where tags and statuses actually mean something consistent, not a chaotic mess where every recruiter has their own interpretation of what "warm lead" means.

Archive Completed Hiring Workflows

If your ATS stores interview templates, hiring workflows, or email templates, go through them and archive anything that's outdated.

Interview guides for roles you're not hiring for anymore. Email templates referencing old benefits or policies. Workflows that don't match your current process. Get rid of them or update them.

You want your active templates to be current and accurate. Having old, outdated templates floating around just increases the chance someone accidentally uses one and sends candidates incorrect information.

Check Your Integrations

If your ATS integrates with job boards, LinkedIn, calendar tools, or other platforms, check that those integrations are working correctly.

Job postings that were supposed to sync but didn't. Calendar integrations that broke and nobody noticed. LinkedIn integration that's been posting jobs to the wrong company page for three months.

Better to discover and fix these issues now than to find out in January when you need them working.

Update Your Reporting and Dashboards

If you have standard reports or dashboards you run regularly, review them. Are they still pulling the data you need? Are there new metrics you want to track in 2026?

End of year is a good time to adjust your reporting setup so you start 2026 tracking the right things. Time-to-fill, source of hire, candidate pipeline, diversity metrics, whatever matters for your organization.

Make sure your reports are accurate, useful, and not pulling data from fields that are half-empty because nobody fills them out consistently.

Document Your ATS Processes

While you're in cleanup mode, take an hour to document how your team actually uses the ATS. What stages do candidates go through? What do your status labels mean? How do you track source of hire? What's your process for closing requisitions?

Write it down. Create a simple guide. This helps with:

• Onboarding new recruiters
• Ensuring consistency across your team
• Having a reference when someone asks "how do we track this?"

You don't need a 50-page manual. You need a one-pager that explains your core processes and conventions. Future you (and your coworkers) will appreciate having this when questions come up.

Set Up For Q1 Success

Once your ATS is clean, think about what you'll need ready to go for Q1:

• Draft requisitions for roles you know will open in January
• Updated candidate pipelines for priority roles
• Sourcing lists for hard-to-fill positions
• Templates and workflows tested and ready

The more you prepare now, the faster you can move when hiring kicks off in the new year. Q1 is usually busy. Don't start it with a messy ATS and a bunch of administrative cleanup you should have done in December.

The Bottom Line

ATS cleanup isn't glamorous, but it makes your job significantly easier. Spend a few hours at year-end closing old reqs, archiving outdated candidates, fixing duplicates, and standardizing your data. You'll start 2026 with a functional system instead of a chaotic mess.

Your future self - the one frantically trying to fill 15 open roles in February - will be very grateful that past you took the time to clean things up properly.

Block time on your calendar this week. Close the dead requisitions. Archive the old candidates. Fix the duplicates. Update the templates. Clean up the data. Start 2026 with a system that actually works instead of one that's held together with duct tape and wishful thinking.