Professional services
Bookkeeping for recruiters and staffing firms
You pay your people every week. Your clients pay you when they feel like it. That gap is where staffing businesses get into trouble.
Updated October 4, 2026
In short
Independent recruiters earn placement fees, and staffing firms bill clients for contract workers they pay weekly. Margins can be thin and clients often pay late, so the books need to show who owes you and what each placement really earns. Most fall in our Moderate or Complex tier.
How the money moves
How money comes in and goes out
For a direct-hire recruiter, income comes in lumps: a placement fee, often 15 to 25% of first-year salary, invoiced when the candidate starts and paid weeks later.
Contract staffing is steadier but tighter. You bill the client an hourly rate, pay the worker a lower one through payroll or as a contractor, and keep the spread. If the client pays in 45 days and you pay workers every Friday, you're financing the gap, sometimes with a payroll funding line.
Common problems
Where the books usually go wrong
Receivables drifting
One large client paying late can wipe out a month of cash. Without a current aging list, it creeps up on you.
Margin you can't see
Bill rates, pay rates, payroll taxes and workers' comp all move. Without matching them monthly, a contract can lose money for months before anyone notices.
Guarantee periods
When a placement leaves inside the guarantee window, the refund or replacement has to land in the books in the right month.
Every month
What we do every month
- Record client invoices and keep an aging list of what's overdue
- Record payroll and contractor costs from your provider and tie them to billings
- Track funding-line advances, fees and repayments separately from revenue
- Report gross margin by month, and by client if you want it
- Keep contractor payments ready for 1099s
A month of books, for example
Consider a two-person firm placing travel nurses on contract and doing a few direct hires a quarter. Each week workers are paid through their payroll provider. Each month we'd match those costs to the hours billed, flag that one hospital is now at 60 days, and show that their direct-hire fees carried a quiet month on the contract side.
Illustrative example, not a client story.
Getting started
What we need from you
- Access to your bookkeeping software and payroll provider reports
- Your invoicing records or ATS billing exports
- Statements for any payroll funding line
Software and statements we work from
- Client invoices and ACH
- Gusto
- ADP
- Paychex
- Payroll funding statements
- QuickBooks Online
Price
What it costs
Solo recruiters usually fit Simple or Moderate. Contract staffing firms with weekly payroll and a funding line typically sit in Complex, $600 a month and up.
One flat monthly price, set after the free review. See the pricing guide or estimate your tier.
Questions
Common questions
Can you show margin per client or per placement?
Yes, with classes or customer-level reports. It's the most useful report a staffing firm can have.
We use a payroll funding company. Can you handle that?
Yes. Advances, factoring fees and repayments are recorded separately, so your revenue and margin stay accurate.
Do you chase our late-paying clients?
We keep the overdue list current and flag it every month. Collections themselves we'd talk about in the review.
How do refunds inside a guarantee period get recorded?
As a reduction of that placement's revenue in the month it happens, so your reports stay honest.
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