Candidate Payouts

Why It Matters

Paying candidates for completing work — take-home assignments, portfolio submissions, questionnaires — signals respect for their time. Paid stages improve completion rates and attract stronger applicants. The payout system handles the full lifecycle: configuration, candidate claims, team processing, and automated reminders.

Enabling Payouts on a Stage

Payouts apply to stage types where the candidate submits a deliverable — questionnaires, portfolio uploads, code assignments, and video submissions. Stage types without a submission step (team review, live interview, reference check, offer) can’t offer a payout. Open the stage configuration panel and toggle Enable payout. When enabled, two fields appear:

Field	Description
Amount	The payout amount (e.g. 500.00)
Currency	One of USD, EUR, GBP, or PLN

The payout is created automatically when the candidate submits the stage’s deliverable — not when they first reach the stage. There’s no manual step — once the submission is in, the candidate receives an email notification and sees a prompt in their candidate portal.

You can enable payouts on multiple stages in the same pipeline. Each stage tracks its payouts independently.

Company Payout Settings

Before candidates can submit invoices, configure your company details in Hiring Settings > Payout Company Details. These details are displayed to candidates who select the Invoice payment method.

Field	Description
Company Name	Your legal entity name
Company Address	Billing address (multi-line)
Tax ID	VAT or tax identification number
Invoice Submission Email	Where candidates should send invoices
Payment Instructions	Additional notes (e.g. PO number requirements, payment terms)

If these fields are empty, candidates selecting Invoice will see a generic message. Fill them in before enabling payouts.

Optional Finance Handoff

Hiring can email a secure payment request to the people who process candidate payments, so they do not need a Kit account or another dashboard. In Hiring Settings > Payout & Invoicing, enter a Finance Payment Inbox and verify it from the email Kit sends.

The two addresses have different jobs:

• Invoice Submission Email is shown to candidates and receives their invoices.
• Finance Payment Inbox is private. If it is verified when a candidate submits valid invoice, PayPal, or donation details, it receives a secure action link for that payout.

They may be the same shared inbox, but Kit keeps them separate so recruiting and finance responsibilities can be routed independently. Leaving the finance inbox blank preserves the manual workflow described below.

On a payout’s details page, Send to finance starts the handoff when a ready payout was not sent automatically. If delivery fails, use Try sending again. If finance already has the request, Send again replaces it with a new one. Every retry or replacement goes to the currently verified Finance Payment Inbox, creates a separate audit attempt, and deactivates the previous secure link. Check with finance first when payment may already be in progress.

The request email includes the amount, a masked payment method, and a stable reference. Full payment or donation details stay behind the secure link. Its first page is deliberately masked so automated email scanners cannot collect candidate-submitted details; finance must choose to reveal them in that browser. The link lets its holder record the transaction or donation reference and their name. For donations, they can also upload an optional receipt. The link does not sign them into Kit, and Kit does not move the money.

How Candidates Claim Payment

Once a candidate submits the deliverable on a paid stage, they see a banner in their candidate portal with a Submit Payment Details button. They choose one of three methods:

Invoice

The candidate provides bank transfer details:

• Recipient name and company
• IBAN and BIC/SWIFT code
• VAT number (optional)
• Billing address

Your company details (name, address, tax ID, invoicing email, payment instructions) are displayed so the candidate can reference them on their invoice. The submitted invoice and PayPal payment details are encrypted at rest.

PayPal

The candidate provides their PayPal email address. Your team sends payment directly via PayPal.

Donate to NGO

Instead of receiving payment, the candidate can ask your company to donate the amount to a non-governmental organization. They provide:

• NGO name
• NGO website URL

The candidate supplies the organization and website; Kit does not verify either. Finance should independently confirm the organization and donation instructions before sending money.

Once the candidate submits complete details, the payout becomes ready for payment and your hiring team is notified via email and in-app notification. If a verified finance inbox is configured, Kit creates an auditable finance attempt and sends the request automatically for invoice, PayPal, and donation payouts.

Processing Payouts

Navigate to Hiring > Payouts to see the payout dashboard. It’s split into two sections:

Actionable

Payouts that need attention are grouped by who owns the next step: waiting for the candidate, ready for manual payment, being sent to finance, with finance after a secure request was accepted for delivery, or needing attention after delivery retries failed.

For each payout, you can view the candidate’s submitted payment details and take action:

• Send to finance — Email the current verified Finance Payment Inbox from any ready payout, including a donation. Failed requests can be retried, and accepted requests can be replaced with a new secure link.
• Mark as Paid — For invoice and PayPal payouts. Enter a payment reference (e.g. wire transfer ID, PayPal transaction number) and optional notes. The candidate receives a confirmation email with the reference.
• Confirm Donation — Manual fallback for donation payouts. Enter a donation reference, optionally upload a PDF, PNG, or JPG receipt up to 10 MB, and add optional notes. The candidate receives a confirmation email mentioning the NGO.

Finance can record either a payment or donation from its secure link. Donation completion requires a reference; the receipt is optional because some organizations provide only a confirmation number or email. Kit records every queued request, accepted send, deliberate link access, and completion in the payout activity timeline, including the historical recipient and the externally supplied attribution. A typed name records what the link holder supplied; it is not identity verification.

Completed

Payouts that have been processed. Shows the paid/donated date, who processed it, the payment or donation reference, any uploaded receipt, and any notes.

Automated Reminders

A daily background job (runs at 9:00 AM) checks for payouts in the Info Submitted state that are due for a reminder. The first reminder is sent on the very next 9:00 AM run after the candidate submits their details — there’s no waiting period for the initial nudge. After that, the job only sends a follow-up reminder if at least 3 days have passed since the last one, so your team gets reminded roughly every 3 days until the payout is processed. The reminder count is tracked per payout — so your team can see how many times they’ve been nudged about a particular payment.

Reminders only fire for payouts where the candidate has already submitted their details and finance has not taken ownership. Payouts still waiting on the candidate, or payouts with an active finance request, don’t trigger hiring-team reminders. If delivery ultimately fails, the payout returns to your team’s attention and reminders resume; you can retry the finance handoff or record it manually.

Payout Statuses

Status	Meaning
Awaiting Candidate	Payout created, waiting for candidate to submit payment details
Ready for Payment	Candidate submitted details; no verified finance inbox is handling it
Sending to Finance	Kit queued the secure payment request, but delivery has not been accepted yet
With Finance	A secure payment request was accepted for delivery by the configured finance inbox
Needs Attention	Delivery failed after automatic retries; retry the finance handoff or use the manual fallback
Paid	Team marked the payout as paid (invoice or PayPal)
Donated	Team confirmed the charitable donation

Quick Checklist

1. Fill in candidate-facing company payout details in Hiring Settings
2. Optional: add and verify a separate Finance Payment Inbox
3. Enable payout on the desired stage(s) — set amount and currency
4. Publish the job and let candidates apply
5. When candidates submit the deliverable on a paid stage, they’ll be prompted to submit payment details
6. Monitor the Payouts dashboard and activity timelines
7. Send or retry finance requests from the payout page; each replacement deactivates the previous link
8. Let finance record payments and donations from secure links, or use the manual fallback
9. For donations, verify the candidate-supplied organization independently and record a reference