How to record placements, calculate fees, track invoices, and manage payment collection.
4 min readIn this video you'll see what happens when someone you placed says it isn't going well, and how to handle it.
After Maya starts at Brightline, she gets a short check-in on her first day, and again after her first week. Brightline's main contact gets one too. It goes on its own, and you can change that in Settings, Automations.
The check-in asks one thing: how's it going?
Maya picks an answer, here Minor concerns,
adds a line in her own words, and clicks Submit.
An answer that says it's going well is simply kept on her placement. But a concern, or an answer that says she's left or never started, comes to you.
Open Needs you, and click Maya's row.
Her check-in answer shows who answered, which check-in, the answer, and her words.
Click Open placement.
On Overview, Retention Tracking keeps every check-in answer for this placement, newest first.
Now pick up the phone, to Maya, to Brightline, or both. That's your call: PlacementFlow doesn't answer her for you.
When it's dealt with, go back to Needs you and click Mark handled.
The answer leaves the list, and the placement shows the day you handled it.
And if she does leave, End placement early, on the placement page, reopens the role, as you saw in the last video.
Next: seeing how your desk is doing.
When a candidate accepts an offer, you record a placement. This tracks your revenue, manages invoicing, and monitors retention. This guide covers the full placement lifecycle.
The job status updates to "Filled" and the candidate is marked as placed.
When a candidate accepts an offer, PlacementFlow creates the placement and its invoice automatically, in the same step. The salary, fee percentage, and start date carry over from the offer — you don't need to re-enter them.
For permanent hires, fees are calculated as a percentage of annual salary:
Fee = Annual Salary × Fee Percentage
Example: $60,000 salary at 20% fee = $12,000 placement fee
Enter the salary and fee percentage — the fee amount calculates automatically.
For contractors, enter the hourly or daily rate and the total placement fee you will invoice. The fee is not calculated for contract placements.
Each placement has an invoice status that tracks collection:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Not invoiced | Placement recorded, invoice not yet sent |
| Invoiced | Invoice sent to client |
| Part paid | Some payment received |
| Paid | Full payment received |
| Overdue | Past due date |
| Written off | Uncollectible |
| Disputed | The client disputes the invoice |
On the placement detail page, click Edit Invoice to add:
PlacementFlow checks due dates daily. If an invoice passes its due date without full payment, the status automatically changes to "Overdue" and you receive a notification.
When you receive payment:
The system automatically updates:
You can record multiple payments for split or staged payments.
Each placement stores its own currency. When you create a placement, select the currency that matches your invoice. Revenue reports display amounts in their original currency.
PlacementFlow tracks candidate retention at three checkpoints:
| Milestone | When | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| 90 Days | ~3 months after start | Early warning for short tenure |
| 180 Days | ~6 months after start | Mid-term retention check |
| 365 Days | ~1 year after start | Long-term placement success |
You'll get a notification when each milestone is reached.
If nobody records that the candidate left, PlacementFlow assumes they were retained 14 days after each milestone and marks it Auto-assumed.
Retention milestones build an auditable record of what your desk delivered. When a placement stays 90+ days, that outcome is on your track record — useful for client renewals, case studies, and proving the quality of your placements. Early terminations are recorded too, so the picture stays honest.
If two people share credit for a placement, use the Fee split card on the placement detail page: pick an account manager and set their share, and the rest stays with the recruiter. Click Save split. With no account manager, the recruiter keeps 100%.
Once a placement is recorded, it appears in your revenue dashboard. Track invoice status, record payments as they arrive, and complete retention check-ins at each milestone. Your placement history becomes an auditable track record you own.