The ATS business case, decoded: 10 takeaways from our playbook

If you’re staring down a tangle of spreadsheets, agency invoices and a hiring backlog, you don’t need another sales pitch. You need a business case that wins budget fast. We’ve distilled ten practical takeaways from our ATS Business Case Playbook to help you make that case with confidence - and to show what’s waiting for you when you dive into the full guide.

Download the full guide

1) Open with proof, not promises

Lead your case with a sharp outcome: a modern ATS can cut time-to-hire by at least 40% while reducing agency reliance and surfacing real-time analytics. That’s the credibility hook your CFO needs to lean in.

2) Frame the ‘why now’ in the language of risk

Don’t just list pain points. Tie staff shortages, time-to-hire bottlenecks, outdated tech and fragmented data to measurable risk - from service impact to compliance exposure - and quantify the cost of doing nothing.

3) Gather data like a finance partner would

Your evidence pack should include 12–24 months of time-to-hire and cost-per-hire, stage-by-stage durations, candidate drop-off, advertising costs and agency spend, plus internal feedback from HR, hiring managers and candidates. This is the raw material for your ROI narrative.6

4) Make the ‘adopt now’ table impossible to ignore

A one-page comparison lands well with executives. Show how a modern ATS improves mobile candidate experience, speeds hiring by up to 40%, integrates via open APIs and replaces multi-tool costs with a predictable SaaS profile and robust reporting.

5) Build the cost model the board expects

Price in licence and implementation, then offset with forecast savings: reduced job board spend through automation, lower agency usage, time saved via workflows and self-service, and fewer manual interventions like spreadsheets and duplicate data entry. That’s how you move from cost to investment.

6) Show your implementation muscle

Executives fund what looks deliverable. Appoint a single owner, confirm supplier expertise and bake in change management, communications and training. It signals you’ll land the tech and the adoption.

7) De-risk the decision upfront

Address information security, GDPR, and procurement routes such as frameworks like G-Cloud. Add references and case studies to demonstrate the software works in environments like yours. It turns objections into green ticks.

8) Link benefits to every stakeholder

Make it real: candidates complete applications on any device and track progress; managers get instant insight, automated scheduling and tailored reporting; leaders gain live dashboards on time-to-hire, conversions and channel ROI; ED&I leads see bias checks and protected-characteristic metrics.

9) Surface operational savings people can feel

Call out the automation that frees capacity: screening and selection, communications, approvals, interview scheduling, integrated checks like Right to Work and DBS, and automated reporting. Then convert the time saved into salary cost to show year-one payback logic.

10) Package it like a board paper

Use a clean executive structure: expected benefits with year-by-year savings, the cost model, the implementation plan and timelines, change and communications, risks and mitigations, and an appendix with success metrics and links to demos or webinars. It’s how decisions get made.

The ATS business case playbook

An ATS business case lands when it moves beyond features to outcomes tied to strategy: faster hiring reduces the cost of unfilled roles, a better candidate experience lifts brand perception, inclusive processes widen reach, and robust reporting powers smarter workforce planning. That’s how you speak to the organisation, not just HR.

Inside the full playbook we go step by step - from stakeholder mapping to ROI calculators - with templates you can lift and run with. If you’re already collecting the evidence above, you’re halfway there. If not, the checklists make it painless to assemble.

When you’re ready to turn this into a board-ready narrative, our playbook shows you exactly how to make the numbers sing and the risks shrink - so you can unlock budget and start hiring smarter.