---
title: "Moderate Jobs"
label: "Job moderation"
description: "Review free and aggregated job submissions before they appear on your board."
publishedAt: 2026-02-10
updatedAt: 2026-10-23
order: 5
status: "published"
faqs:
  - question: Does moderation apply to paid job submissions?
    answer: "No. Paid submissions (one-time, bundles, or subscriptions) publish automatically after payment. The Require job approval setting only affects free submissions and aggregated jobs."
  - question: Does moderation apply to jobs I create from the dashboard?
    answer: "No. Jobs you create directly from the dashboard publish immediately, regardless of moderation settings. The same is true for CSV and XML imports and recurring XML feed syncs."
  - question: What happens when I approve a moderated job?
    answer: "The job publishes and becomes visible on your board. The expiration countdown starts from approval, not from submission, so employers get their full posting duration."
  - question: When I approve an aggregated job, will future updates from the source need approval again?
    answer: "No. Once you approve an aggregated job, future updates and reposts to that same job (such as title cleanups or expiry refreshes) bypass moderation. Only brand-new aggregated jobs land in the queue, so moderators do not have to re-approve the same listing."
  - question: I just turned approval on. Will my live aggregated jobs go back for approval?
    answer: "No. Turning the setting on only affects new jobs from that point forward. Existing live jobs stay live."
  - question: Does an aggregated job awaiting approval add its company to my board?
    answer: "Not until you approve it. The jobs list shows the company's name with a New badge, and the job editor shows it under Company with the note New company, added if you approve this job, plus a link to the company's website when there is one. When you approve the job, the company is added to your board, or matched to one you already have with the same website. Rejected jobs leave nothing behind."
  - question: How do I stop backfill importing jobs from a company I keep rejecting?
    answer: "Open one of its jobs awaiting approval, click the arrow next to Reject and choose Exclude company from backfill. After you confirm, every job from that company awaiting approval is rejected and backfill stops importing its jobs. Its published jobs stay up, and the company can still post jobs on your board itself."
  - question: How do I know when jobs are waiting for approval?
    answer: "The notification bell in your dashboard shows one entry, such as 3 jobs awaiting your approval. It covers free submissions and aggregated jobs held for review, and it updates as more jobs arrive instead of adding a new entry each time."
  - question: Do jobs wait in the queue forever?
    answer: "No. An aggregated job that is still awaiting approval 30 days after it arrived is removed, and it is also removed earlier if the source reports that the posting has closed. Free submissions stay in the queue until you approve or reject them."
---

Job moderation lets you review free and aggregated submissions before they go live. This is especially valuable for niche boards where content quality defines your reputation. If you're running a curated board (say, a design-only job board or a climate tech board), moderation ensures every listing meets your standards before candidates see it.

Paid submissions bypass moderation entirely and publish automatically after payment clears. This creates a natural incentive for employers to upgrade: pay for instant publishing, or submit for free and wait for approval.

## Prerequisites

Choose which sources need review and define the standards you will apply before enabling moderation. Keep a draft test submission available so you can verify the selected mode without delaying a real employer unexpectedly.

## How moderation works

The Require job approval setting controls which incoming jobs wait for your approval before they go live. You can apply it to:

* **Free submissions** posted through your public submission form or the employer dashboard, including invoice posts that publish when the invoice is issued.
* **Aggregated jobs** pulled in by the backfill integration.
* **Both** at once, or **neither** to publish everything automatically.

When a source is moderated, those jobs arrive in your dashboard with **Awaiting approval** status. You review the details, decide whether the listing meets your standards, and click **Approve** to push it live or **Reject** to remove it.

The notification bell in your dashboard keeps one entry for the queue, such as **3 jobs awaiting your approval**. Free submissions and aggregated jobs held for review both count toward it, and the entry updates as new jobs arrive, so the bell does not fill up with one notification per job.

The setting does not affect paid one-time purchases, paid bundles, paid subscriptions, CSV or XML imports, recurring XML feed syncs, or jobs you create directly from the dashboard. Those publish immediately.

## Choose what needs approval

1. Go to **Settings → Features**.
2. Find the **Require job approval** card.
3. Pick one of the four options:
   * **Off** publishes everything automatically.
   * **Free** holds free public submissions for review.
   * **Aggregated** holds new aggregated jobs for review.
   * **Both** holds free submissions and aggregated jobs.

The setting saves automatically. Future submissions matching the chosen scope will require your approval before going live.

If your board has the backfill integration disabled, only **Off** and **Free** appear. The aggregated options show up automatically once backfill is on.

## Review and approve jobs

1. Click **Jobs** in the sidebar.
2. Filter by **Awaiting approval** status to find pending submissions. Each held job carries an **Awaiting approval** badge.
3. Click the job title to review the details. You can edit the job before approving it.
4. If the listing meets your standards, click **Approve** in the editor, which saves your changes and publishes the job. If it does not, click **Reject**, which removes the job straight away. To leave the job as it is, close the editor.

You can also approve or reject a job from its three-dot menu in the jobs list.

**Publish**, **Unpublish**, and **Duplicate** are not offered for a job awaiting approval. Use **Approve** or **Reject** instead.

The expiration countdown starts when you approve the job, not when it was submitted. This ensures employers get their full posting duration regardless of how long the review takes.

### Approve or reject several jobs at once

1. Filter the jobs list by **Awaiting approval**.
2. Select the jobs you want to act on.
3. Click **Approve** or **Reject** in the selection bar.

Approving publishes the selected jobs one at a time and counts each against your plan's active job limit. If the limit is reached partway through, Cavuno stops and tells you how many were approved and how many did not fit. Rejecting asks you to confirm once and then removes every selected job. **Publish all** does not include jobs awaiting approval.

### What happens when you reject a job

A rejected job is removed from your board's dashboard and cannot be restored. If it was a free submission, the poster receives an email saying it was not approved. A rejected aggregated job is not imported again.

### Companies of aggregated jobs

When you approve a job from a company that isn't on your board yet, the company is added at that point. Rejected jobs leave nothing behind, so your Companies list holds only employers with jobs you chose to publish.

While the job awaits approval, the jobs list shows the company's name with a **New** badge. Hover over or focus the badge to see that the company is added to your board if you approve a job. In the job editor, the company is selected under **Company**, with the note **New company, added if you approve this job** and a **View website** link that opens the company's website in a new tab. To publish the job under a company you already have, pick that company in the editor before you approve. If the company was removed from your board while the job was waiting, approving asks you to pick a company first.

### Exclude a company from backfill

When a company's aggregated jobs never fit your board, you can stop them at the source while you review one of them:

1. Open a job from that company that is awaiting approval.
2. Click the arrow next to **Reject** and choose **Exclude company from backfill**.
3. Check the confirmation, which names the company and counts its jobs awaiting approval, then confirm.

Every job from that company that is awaiting approval is rejected, and backfill stops importing the company's jobs. The job you opened is rejected right away and the company's other jobs follow in the background, so a long queue can take a moment to clear. Its published jobs stay up, and the company can still post jobs on your board itself. To manage excluded companies later, see the [company blocklist](/docs/managing-companies/company-blocklist).

### What employers see

Employers see their held post as **Awaiting approval** in their dashboard. They cannot publish it themselves, even if you have edited it, until you approve it.

## Example review

For example, hold a free submission when its application URL points to a different company, its location contradicts the description, or the posting is duplicated. Correct or reject it rather than publishing first and investigating after candidates see it.

## Updates to approved aggregated jobs

After you approve an aggregated job, future updates from the source (title cleanups, salary refreshes, reposts of expired jobs) patch the job in place without re-entering the queue. Approval is a one-time decision per job, not a recurring task. If you later decide an already-approved aggregated job should not be on your board, archive or delete it from the dashboard, and the backfill integration will not re-import it. To take it down for a while instead, unpublish it: it stays off your board, and backfill does not publish it again. Publish it yourself when you want it back.

This is why the daily backfill summary email can show a higher number than the review queue. The email counts every job that arrived in the last 24 hours — both brand-new jobs and reposts of previously-approved ones. Only brand-new jobs land in the approval queue, so the count on the review page is normally smaller than the email headline.

## Expiration with moderation

For free and aggregated jobs, the expiry date is calculated from your board's default posting duration at the time of approval. For paid jobs (which skip moderation), expiration starts at payment. This means a free job that sits in your moderation queue for three days still gets the full 30-day posting window once approved.

## Using moderation as a monetization lever

Moderation can support a freemium model: free submissions wait for review while eligible paid submissions publish after payment. State the review timing you can actually meet, then compare free-to-paid conversion and employer feedback before treating the delay as a useful differentiator.

## How many aggregated jobs can wait

When aggregated jobs need approval, the jobs awaiting approval count toward a ceiling of 120% of your plan's active job limit, together with your published jobs. Once your published and held jobs reach that ceiling, the backfill integration stops holding new jobs until you approve, reject, or unpublish some. This keeps the queue to a size you can review.

Aggregated jobs that are still awaiting approval 30 days after they arrived are removed automatically. If the source reports that a held job has closed, it is removed straight away.

## If a job is missing from the queue

Clear other dashboard filters and select **Awaiting approval**. Paid jobs and previously approved aggregated jobs do not enter the moderation queue. If a new free or aggregated job should have been held, recheck the moderation setting that applies to its source.

## Next steps

After approving a test submission, use [Job workflow](/docs/managing-jobs/job-posting-workflow) to verify its active and expiry states. If moderation is part of a paid offer, document the difference in [pricing plans](/docs/monetization/create-pricing-plans).