Recruitment and staffing

Recruitment and staffing receivables, from timesheet to cash.

One client can owe you weekly contractor invoices, a placement fee and timesheet-based billing, each with its own reference and approval route. As placements grow, following all of it up becomes real work. Steinfin keeps those accounts organised, followed up and moving, in your agency's name.

  1. 1 TimesheetContractor submits hours
  2. 2 ApprovalClient signs off Missing approval
  3. 3 InvoiceRaised on approved hours Hours query
  4. 4 Customer APMatched and scheduled PO issue
  5. Follow-upIn your name Promise
  6. PaymentReceived and applied
If any step stalls, payment stalls. The follow-up has to start where the problem is.
Before the reminder

Getting a staffing invoice paid often starts before anyone chases it.

A late payment can come from an unapproved timesheet, a missing billing reference, the wrong PO, placement details, the client's invoice format, a rate or hours query, a finance processing delay or a payment promise that has not landed yet. Steinfin finds the blocker and keeps the next action visible.

Why AR scales quickly

More placements mean more invoices, and more to follow up.

A growing agency adds contractors, timesheets, invoices, client contacts, payment terms and AP processes, and with them more exceptions. Revenue can grow faster than the finance team, and the follow-up is what slips. Steinfin adds managed AR capacity above what your team can absorb.

Early
Placements Invoices Follow-up and queries
Growing
Placements Invoices Follow-up and queries
Busy season
Placements Invoices Follow-up and queries
Finance capacity often stays about the same. Steinfin covers the follow-up above it.
Illustrative. No figures implied.
How you bill

Permanent placements and contract staffing are billed differently.

Not every agency does both. Steinfin sets up the follow-up around the way you actually bill.

Permanent placement

Fewer, larger invoices

  • Placement fee invoiced on start
  • One invoice, or very few, per placement
  • Start date confirmation
  • Placement terms, including any rebate terms
  • Hiring manager or HR involved

Where it stalls: start confirmation, fee queries, a questioned introduction.

Temporary and contract staffing

Many frequent invoices

  • Weekly or monthly billing
  • Invoices built from approved timesheets
  • Many invoice lines and contractors
  • Client approvals every period
  • High transaction volume per client

Where it stalls: timesheet approval, hours or rate queries, POs, payment runs.

One client, many invoices

Follow up the account, not twelve separate reminders.

A staffing client can owe many invoices at once, across branches, cost centres, hiring managers, contractors, POs and payment runs. Chasing each invoice on its own wastes everyone's time. Steinfin tracks which invoices are approved, promised, queried, past due or already paid, so one conversation covers the whole account.

Client account, exampleNorthstar Group
Total open£22,150$27,750€25,900C$37,700
12invoices
2past due
2timesheet query
3promised
  • INV-4801Paid, to match
  • INV-4804In Friday payment run
  • INV-4806In Friday payment run
  • INV-4809In Friday payment run
  • INV-4811Approved, not yet due
  • INV-4812Timesheet query
  • INV-4813Timesheet query
  • INV-4815Past due, no response
  • INV-4817Past due, no response
  • INV-4818Approved, not yet due
  • INV-4819Approved, not yet due
  • INV-4820Approved, not yet due
Next actionFollow up AP Thursday: confirm Friday run, chase the 2 past-due invoices, get timesheet approval for 4812 and 4813
Your clients' AP

Every client pays in its own way.

Larger clients often have a structured AP process. Smaller ones may just have one person who signs off. Steinfin records what each client needs before an invoice can be paid, so invoices are not bounced for the same reason twice.

Client requirements, exampleHolloway Care Services
  • Invoices to a specific AP inbox or vendor portal
  • PO number or job reference on every invoice
  • Cost centre or department code
  • Approved timesheet attached
  • Invoice format they accept
  • Who approves, and when payment runs happen
The right contact

Four people, one account timeline.

A reminder to the wrong person gets passed around. Steinfin tracks each contact's role, their latest response, the next action and anything that needs your input, and brings every answer back into one timeline for the account.

Client accountNorthstar Group
  • Accounts payablePayment runs, remittance, invoice matching"4809 is in Friday's run"
  • Hiring managerTimesheet approval, worker details"Will approve week 32 hours today"
  • ProcurementPOs and supplier setup"New PO issued for the Leeds site"
  • FinanceBudget and queries on rates"Querying the overtime rate"
One account timeline
  1. Procurement issued a new PO
  2. Hiring manager approving week 32
  3. AP confirmed 4809 in Friday's run
  4. Overtime rate query sent to you

Not every client has all of these roles. We work with the contacts each client actually uses.

Payment-run promises

A payment-run promise is not the same as paid.

"These invoices will be in Friday's payment run" is useful, but it is not payment. Steinfin records which invoices, the amount, the date, the contact and the context, then checks the money arrived. If it did not, follow-up continues.

Promise, examplePromise open
Customer
Kingsmere Facilities Ltd
Invoices
INV-5102, INV-5107, INV-5111
Amount
£5,950$7,450€7,000C$10,150
Promise
Next Friday's payment run
Next action
Check receipt on Monday
Hours and billing queries

When the answer needs your team.

Queries about hours, rates, worker names, billing dates, placement details, POs or references are recorded, routed and tracked. Steinfin does not change rates, approve reductions, amend terms, agree credits or accept a dispute.

Client input requiredWith you
Issue
Hours disputed
Customer
Ashcombe Manufacturing Ltd
Invoice
INV-20931
Customer says
Timesheet differs from the approved hours
Needed
Internal confirmation of the approved hours
Next action
Resume follow-up after your response
Placement-fee disputes

Some questions are commercial, and stay with you.

A permanent placement fee can be questioned over the start date, replacement or rebate terms, the fee percentage, a duplicate introduction or who introduced the candidate. Steinfin does not decide any of these. Our role is the process around them.

  1. 1Record

    The client's question, the invoice and who raised it

  2. 2Route to you

    With the account history attached

  3. 3You decide

    The commercial answer, on your terms

  4. 4Track and resume

    Follow-up restarts once it is resolved

Cash application

One payment, many invoices, contractors and weeks.

Staffing clients often pay a batch of invoices in one go, with the remittance arriving separately or not at all. Short payments, deductions, part allocations and unapplied cash follow. Steinfin matches payments to invoices and flags anything that does not add up.

How cash application works
One payment£25,600$32,050€29,950C$43,500
  • INV-101£4,200$5,250€4,900C$7,150
  • INV-102£6,100$7,650€7,150C$10,350
  • INV-103£5,700$7,150€6,650C$9,700
  • INV-104£9,600$12,000€11,250C$16,300
Matched in full
Next week's payment£24,800$31,050€29,000C$42,150

Invoices total £25,600$32,050€29,950C$43,500. Short by £800$1,000€950C$1,350 with no remittance.

Exception, flagged for you
From aging report to work queue

The aging report shows the balance. Not the payment run.

It will not show which invoices wait on timesheets, which are promised or disputed, which payment run is expected, who was contacted or what happens next. That is the work queue Steinfin runs from.

AR aging
  • Kingsmere Facilities Ltd61-90 days£5,950$7,450€6,950C$10,100
  • Brightwater Logistics31-60 days£4,000$5,000€4,700C$6,800
  • Holloway Care Services1-30 days£3,200$4,000€3,750C$5,450
Action view
  • Kingsmere Facilities LtdPayment-run promise Friday
  • Brightwater LogisticsTimesheet approval missing
  • Holloway Care ServicesAP follow-up today

Fictional clients and amounts.

Recruiters, finance and Steinfin

Your recruiters should not have to run AR.

Consultants and account managers get pulled in because they know the client, finance cannot reach the right person, an approval is stuck or a promise was made to them. Their context is valuable, but routine follow-up does not need to sit with them. Steinfin takes that work on and brings relationship-sensitive issues back to the right person.

Recruiters and account managers

Relationship and commercial context

Finance

Financial control and decisions

Steinfin

AR follow-up and tracking

Your client

Approvals, AP processing and payment

Steinfin manages
  • Monitoring outstanding invoices
  • Prioritising past-due accounts
  • Following up the agreed client contacts
  • Tracking promises and missed promises
  • Identifying billing, timesheet and approval queries
  • Requesting your input and tracking the answer
  • Keeping a next action on every account
  • Supporting cash collection and cash application
  • Regular reporting
Stays with you
  • Approving timesheets or billable hours
  • Changing billing rates
  • Approving reductions or credits
  • Amending commercial terms
  • Interpreting placement and rebate terms
  • Accepting or rejecting a dispute

Steinfin does not give employment or contract advice. Where a question needs commercial interpretation, it comes back to you.

Which service fits

Match the problem to the service.

Straightforward approved invoices may only need consistent follow-up. Timesheet and billing problems need more.

Grew quickly and the ledger shows it? AR cleanup sorts old placement invoices, unmatched payments, stale promises and old timesheet queries into a status and a next step first.

Your systems

Keep your accounting system, and your ATS.

Steinfin works alongside Xero, QuickBooks and Sage, through authorised access you grant from your own account, or regular exports. We never ask for your password.

Your recruitment CRM or ATS stays exactly as it is. Steinfin works from your receivables information, not your candidate systems.

Reporting

Regular reporting by client account.

Each update shows account status, promises and payment runs, open queries, next actions and anything that needs your input. On Starter, that is a weekly report.

A good fit

Who Steinfin suits in recruitment and staffing.

  • B2B recruitment agencies and staffing companies
  • Contract or temporary staffing with regular invoicing
  • Many client accounts on commercial terms
  • Several contacts and approval routes per client
  • Billing queries and payment-run promises to track
  • Cash application work at higher volume
  • A finance team without the capacity to keep up
Probably not the right fit

When an agency may not need Steinfin.

  • A very small agency with only a few invoices
  • Mostly paid upfront
  • No recurring B2B receivables
  • You only want legal debt enforcement
Pricing

No separate recruitment pricing.

The same plans apply to every industry. The monthly retainer scales with your ledger: invoice volume, number of clients, query volume, communication workload and whether you need cash application. Plans start from £299$399€349C$499 a month.

View pricing
Your market

Recruitment agency or staffing company.

UK and Irish agencies tend to talk about credit control; US and Canadian staffing companies about accounts receivable. The work is the same. See how Steinfin works in your region.

United KingdomIrelandUnited StatesCanada

Free AR health check

Before adding another finance hire, see where the AR work comes from.

Tell us a little about your invoicing and get an honest read within one business day:

  • How much is overdue, and how far past due
  • Which client accounts hold up the most cash
  • Where a simple change would get payments moving
Get a free AR health check Free, no obligation.
Questions

Recruitment and staffing receivables, answered.

More on other industries.

Can Steinfin manage credit control for recruitment agencies?

Yes. Steinfin runs day-to-day credit control for recruitment agencies and staffing companies: reminders, follow-up with the right client contacts, promise and query tracking, and regular reporting, in your agency's name.

Can Steinfin support staffing companies with high invoice volume?

Yes. Steinfin works at account level, so a client with many weekly invoices is followed up as one account, with each invoice's status tracked: approved, promised, queried, past due or paid.

Can Steinfin follow up invoices waiting on timesheet approval?

Yes. We find out where the approval sits, contact the agreed approver or AP contact, and track it until the invoice can be paid. Steinfin does not approve timesheets or decide which hours are billable.

Can Steinfin track payment-run promises?

Yes. When a client says invoices will be in a payment run, we record which invoices, the amount, the date and the contact, then check the payment arrived. If it did not, follow-up continues.

Can Steinfin manage billing disputes?

Yes, from the Growth plan. Queries about hours, rates, worker names, billing dates, POs or references are recorded, routed to the right person and followed up until resolved. Commercial decisions stay with you.

Who handles disputed rates or placement terms?

You do. Steinfin records the dispute, brings it to you with the account history and resumes payment follow-up once you have resolved it commercially. We do not interpret placement terms, rebate clauses or rate agreements.

Can Steinfin work alongside our recruiters and finance team?

Yes. Recruiters and account managers keep the relationship and provide context when needed, your finance team keeps financial control, and Steinfin runs the routine follow-up and tracking.

Can Steinfin help with cash application?

Yes, as part of the Scale plan. We match payments that cover many invoices, contractors or weeks to the right invoices, and flag short payments, deductions and unapplied cash for you. We never move money.

Can Steinfin clean up old recruitment receivables?

Yes, as part of the Scale plan. Cleanup works through old placement invoices, unmatched payments, stale promises and old timesheet queries, and sorts each item into a status and a next step.

Can Steinfin work with our accounting software?

Yes. Steinfin works alongside Xero, QuickBooks and Sage, through authorised access you grant from your own account, or regular exports. We never ask for your password.

Do we need to change our recruitment CRM or ATS?

No. Steinfin works from your receivables information in your accounting system or exports, so your recruitment CRM or ATS stays as it is. We do not connect to it.

How much does outsourced AR cost for a recruitment company?

The same plans apply to every industry: a monthly retainer that scales with your ledger, including invoice volume, number of clients, query volume and whether you need cash application. The pricing page shows current plans in your currency.

From approved timesheet to money in the bank.

See what is holding up your agency's receivables. It starts with a free AR health check.

Get a free AR health check