Connecting your ATS to Power BI
With a Power BI integration on your ATS you see placements, time-to-fill and margin live, instead of in a monthly export. Bullhorn, Carerix, OTYS and Recruitee each have an API that supports this. A dashboard on one source costs indicatively €3,000 to €8,000; the Power BI Pro licence €12.10 per user per month (Microsoft, 2026).
- Fixed monthly fee
- Fixed project price up front
- Microsoft and Google
- Response to your request within one business day
How do you get your ATS data live in Power BI?
Via your ATS's API: Power BI periodically pulls candidates, vacancies, stages and placements from it and refreshes the dashboard automatically — no manual exports, no last week's sheet. The strength is in the combining: put your accounting or time tracking alongside the ATS in the same data model, and you see not only how much you place, but also what each placement yields. You can see what such a data flow looks like in our interactive Flow-Lab; what a single integration costs is covered in What does an API integration cost?
Want to get a feel for how such a cockpit works first? On our dashboard demo page, eight dashboards run live in the browser. And on the recruitment page, read how the dashboard fits into the broader automation of your agency — from placement to invoice. More integrations are in the integrations overview.
From Excel export to live dashboard.
For agency reporting there are three maturity levels. The first two are already in your ATS licence; the third combines sources and is where Power BI earns its keep.
| Option | Type | Indicative cost | Suitable for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Excel export from your ATS | Manual | included in your ATS licence | One-off analyses; out of date the moment you open it |
| Standard reports in the ATS | Built-in | included in your ATS licence | KPIs within the ATS itself, with the vendor's definitions and limits |
| Power BI on the ATS API | Custom dashboard | one source indicatively €3,000–€8,000, with accounting or hours added €8,000–€20,000 (see What does a Power BI dashboard cost?); licences €12.10 per user/mo (Microsoft, 2026) | Live KPIs across systems: fee pipeline, source ROI and margin per placement, also across multiple brands or offices |
Per ATS, only the route by which the data comes out differs:
| ATS | Connection method | What this means |
|---|---|---|
| Bullhorn | REST API | Mature, extensively documented API; virtually every field and stage can be retrieved |
| Carerix | GraphQL API | Request exactly the fields the data model needs per query; see also our page on connecting Carerix |
| OTYS | OTYS Web Services (OWS) | Web service layer that exposes the same functions the OTYS interface itself uses — virtually all data can be retrieved |
| Recruitee | REST API with webhooks | Straightforward to retrieve; webhooks signal changes, handy for frequent refresh |
Which recruitment KPIs can you get out — and which not?
Counts — candidates, vacancies, placements — come from any ATS report. The KPIs you steer an agency on, such as source ROI and margin per placement, require data from multiple systems and therefore a dedicated data model.
| Data | Standard ATS report | Power BI integration |
|---|---|---|
| Placements, vacancies and candidates per stage | Yes | Yes |
| Time-to-fill per client and per consultant | Limited — the definition is fixed in the ATS | Yes — with your own definition and reference dates |
| Source ROI: what each recruitment channel costs and yields | No — channel costs sit outside the ATS | Yes — by combining source data with advertising or accounting data |
| Margin per placement | Limited — the fee yes, the costs no | Yes — combined with accounting or time tracking |
| Trends and history over multiple years | Limited — depends on the reporting module | Yes |
| Multiple brands or offices in one view | No | Yes |
Three questions, then you know the route.
Are the reports in your ATS enough?
Yes → stay there; they are in your licence and require no maintenance. No — you're missing margin, source ROI or your own definitions — → on to question two.
Do you want to combine ATS data with accounting or hours?
Yes → then you end up with Power BI and a data model across multiple sources; that is exactly where it is stronger than any ATS report. No → a dashboard on just your ATS is lighter and sits at the lower end of the price band.
Are more than a handful of people looking at it?
Yes → factor in the licences: everyone who views the dashboard interactively needs Power BI Pro. No → start small, with licences for the people who actually steer on it.
The rule of thumb: as soon as a KPI needs data from two systems — margin, source ROI — you end up with Power BI; until then your ATS reporting is usually enough.
Where recruitment dashboards run aground in practice.
KPI definitions that no one has recorded
Does time-to-fill count from the intake or from publication of the vacancy? Without recorded definitions, the management team debates the dashboard instead of the figures. Record the definition and reference date per KPI before the build begins.
API limits and refresh
ATS APIs have limits on the number of requests. An integration that pulls everything every fifteen minutes runs into them. A good refresh schedule pulls only changes and refreshes as often as the steering cycle requires — for most agencies, hourly or daily is more than enough.
Polluted ATS data
Placements without an end date, stages every team uses differently, old vacancies left open: the dashboard makes every bit of sloppiness visible. Plan a short data check before going live and make agreements about data entry — otherwise the team distrusts the figures.
A dashboard without an owner
If the ATS changes its API or a token expires, the dashboard quietly stops refreshing — and everyone steers on old figures. Set up monitoring on the refresh and one owner who gets the alert when something stalls.
What agencies ask us up front.
What does a recruitment dashboard in Power BI cost?
A dashboard on one source — your ATS — costs indicatively €3,000 to €8,000. If you combine ATS data with accounting or hours in one data model, count on €8,000 to €20,000. On top of that come licences: Power BI Pro costs €12.10 per user per month (Microsoft, 2026). We work with a fixed project price up front.
How long does it take to build?
A first working dashboard is often live within one to three weeks, depending on how clean your ATS data is and how many sources we connect. We deliver in iterations, so you quickly have something usable and can refine the KPI definitions along the way.
Which ATS systems can you connect to Power BI?
Bullhorn, Carerix, OTYS and Recruitee, among others — and virtually any other ATS with an API. Only the route differs per system: Bullhorn and Recruitee via their REST API, Carerix via the GraphQL API and OTYS via the OTYS Web Services.
What happens if the ATS changes its API?
Then the integration has to be updated, otherwise the refresh stalls. That's why we actively monitor dashboards we manage, as part of a fixed monthly fee: a failed refresh is spotted and fixed before anyone steers on outdated figures.
Do we need to switch ATS for a good dashboard?
No. Power BI pulls the data from your current ATS; switching is not necessary. The quality of the dashboard depends mainly on how consistently your team fills the ATS — polluted stages or missing dates show up directly in the figures.
Ready for a view of your entire pipeline?
Book an intro call — or start with the free Operations Scan and see where the reporting hours leak away at your agency.