Repeatable sections: employment history, education and references

How to build application form sections that candidates repeat for each job, qualification or referee, and how the answers reach the candidate profile.

A repeatable section is a group of questions that a candidate answers more than once: one set for each job they have held, each qualification they have gained or each referee they name. This article covers how to build one, how to connect it to the candidate profile, what candidates see, how employment gap checks work and where the answers end up.

Who can do this

System Admin and HR users can build and change repeatable sections. You can do it in a template (Settings, then Application Form Templates, under the Templates group) or on the Application Form step of a job. Members and hiring managers cannot edit application forms.

The employment gap settings sit under Settings, then Compliance, then Gap Analysis. System Admin and HR users can open that page, but only a System Admin can change it.

How a section is built

There is no separate "repeatable" question type. You tick Repeatable on a question and place it in a section. Every question in the same section is repeated together, and each one is a sub-field of that section. Sub-fields can be Text, Paragraph, Email, Phone, URL, Date, Dropdown, Multi-select, Checkbox or Signature questions. Headings and content blocks do not collect answers, so they do not belong in a section.

Each section has a purpose, which decides where its answers can be saved:

• Employment history: answers can be saved to Work History on the candidate profile, and the dates take part in gap checks.
• Education history: answers can be saved to Education on the profile. Study dates also fill gaps between jobs.
• References: answers create referee records on the profile.
• Custom (answers only): the default. Answers stay with the application and nothing is copied to the profile.

Adding a ready-made section

1. Open the form and select Add pre-built.
2. Choose References, Employment history or Education history.

The section arrives with its purpose set and every question already connected to the matching place on the profile. Once a section has been added, its entry shows Added in the menu and cannot be chosen again. Some questions in these sections, such as Employer and Referee email, cannot be deleted one at a time. To remove the whole section, select the bin icon beside the Group: label above it and confirm with Remove section. This deletes every question in it, including the locked ones.

Building your own section

1. Add a question with Add Field and open its details.
2. Tick Repeatable.
3. Under Repeatable section, choose New section… and type a name in Group label. Candidates see this name as the heading of the section.
4. Choose a Section purpose. Leave it as Custom (answers only) if the answers do not need to reach the profile.
5. Add each further sub-field as its own question, tick Repeatable, and pick the same section from the Repeatable section list. Choosing an existing section also picks up its purpose.
6. Select Save.

Renaming the group label later does not split the section. The questions stay together. If you pick New section… for a question that should have joined an existing section, it becomes a second section with its own Add another entry button, so check the list before you choose.

A job's application form can hold up to 200 input questions, and every sub-field counts towards that total.

Saving answers to the candidate profile

Every answer-collecting question (apart from File upload) has a Save answer to list. In a section with a purpose, it offers only the destinations for that purpose. Choose one and confirm the box titled Connecting this question changes it by selecting Connect. Connecting a question has these effects: it becomes required if the destination needs an answer, its question type is locked, and, for essential questions such as Employer or Referee email, it cannot be deleted while connected. Choose Keep as form answer only to undo a connection.

These rules are checked when you save, and the error message names the question at fault:

• A question must be the type the destination expects. A Start date destination needs a Date question.
• Each destination can be used once in a section.
• A section can save to one place only, and it must match the section purpose.
• A References section must connect both a referee name and a referee email.

If you are unsure which questions to connect on an existing form, select Heal / Auto-map. It suggests connections based on the question wording, lists them for you to accept or decline, and changes nothing until you apply them and select Save.

Minimum and maximum entries

When a question is repeatable, Minimum entries and Maximum entries appear. Both are optional. Enter whole numbers of 1 or more, with the maximum no lower than the minimum, otherwise the form shows Enter whole numbers of 1 or more, with the maximum no less than the minimum. The limits apply to the whole section, whichever question you set them on.

With no minimum, candidates start with one entry and cannot remove the last one. With a minimum of 3, they start with three blank entries and cannot remove any below that. With a maximum, the add button switches off once the limit is reached.

What candidates see

The section appears under its group label. Each entry is a numbered box (Entry 1, Entry 2) holding the sub-fields. Candidates can:

• select Add another entry to add a new set of questions;
• use Move up and Move down to reorder entries;
• use Remove this entry to delete one, unless they are at the minimum.

At the maximum, the button is disabled and the text Maximum of N entries reached. appears. If a candidate tries to move on with too few entries, they see Add at least N entries to "Section name" before continuing. The same limits are checked again when the application is submitted.

Required sub-fields must be answered in every entry, so an entry cannot be left half empty. Entries where all sub-fields are optional can be left blank. Show when rules work entry by entry, so a question can appear in one entry and stay hidden in another. See How conditional logic works on application forms.

Employment gap checks

Gap checks are optional and off by default. Turn them on under Settings, Compliance, Gap Analysis. Each change saves as you make it.

• Show gap analysis on the public application form: shows candidates a warning for each gap they leave.
• History window: All history, Last 5 years, Last 10 years, Last 15 years or Last 20 years. Only gaps that end within the window are flagged.
• Minimum gap to highlight: 1, 2, 3 or 6 months. The default is 1 month.
• Require gap explanations from candidates: candidates cannot submit until every highlighted gap has an explanation.

The form finds gaps using only the questions connected to Start date and End date in an Employment history section, and the same two in an Education history section. It does not matter which pages they are on, so the usual set-up of employment on one page and education on another works. These rules apply:

• An entry with no start date is ignored.
• An entry with no end date counts as a current role, and nothing after it can be a gap.
• Overlapping jobs are treated as one continuous period.
• A gap is the time between the end of one job and the start of the next. It needs at least two separate employment periods.
• Any part of a gap covered by an education entry is removed.
• Gaps are measured in whole calendar months and must reach the minimum you chose.

Candidates see the warnings at the end of the form, before they submit. Each reads There is a N-month gap in your history between [start] and [end]. with a box labelled Briefly explain this gap. The card turns green once explained. Candidates can also clear a gap by adding a work or education entry that covers the period. If they change dates so a gap no longer exists, its explanation is dropped. When explanations are required and one is missing, the candidate sees Please add a brief explanation for each highlighted gap in your history before submitting.

Where the answers appear

Application Responses. On the candidate profile, each entry is shown as its own block headed with the section name and entry number, for example Employment 1.

Work History and Education. When a section is connected, submitting the application copies its entries to the Work History and Education sections of the profile. An Employment entry needs an employer to be copied. An Education entry needs a school or a qualification. If the candidate's CV already produced the same job (same employer, ignoring capital letters, and the same start date), the existing entry is updated in place and no duplicate is created. Blank answers never overwrite what is already there, and nothing on the profile is deleted. The Work History card shows the number of days between jobs when a gap is longer than 28 days, whatever your Gap Analysis settings are. System Admin and HR users also get a Download gap analysis button that produces a PDF of employment history and gaps, using your window and minimum gap. It looks at employment only, not education.

References. Each referee with both a name and an email address is added under References on the profile, visible to System Admin and HR users. Submitting the form does not send a reference request. That stays a manual step (see Requesting and managing references). If the candidate already has a referee with the same email address, the entry is merged into it.

Downloaded application form. Download Application Form prints each entry as a block headed with the section name and entry number.

Data exports. A System Admin can include repeatable questions in a data export under Settings, Compliance, Data Exports. Each question becomes one column per entry, labelled with the entry number in brackets, such as Employer (2). The number of columns matches the largest number of entries found on any application in the export.

Changing a form that already has applications

Changing where a question saves its answer affects new submissions only. To bring existing applications for a job into line, save the form, then select Repair employment history on the job's Application Form step and confirm. It fills only Work History, Education and References sections that are still empty, from the answers already saved. It never overwrites recruiter edits or re-adds entries that were deleted, and it skips unfinished applications and erased candidates. A message reports how many were updated, skipped or failed. The button is disabled while you have unsaved changes. On a job, if you accept a Heal / Auto-map suggestion that connects a question to a section, the repair runs automatically after you save.

Limits to remember

Answers longer than these limits are cut when copied to the profile. The full answer stays in the application.