Summary
- Late payment is structural in recruitment: work is invoiced after it’s done, and the person chasing is often also the person selling.
- The best tool for a recruitment agency depends on what feature you’re prioritising and your team size.
- Satago and Trove are both focused on smaller teams - Satago, best for invoice financing; Trove best for invoice chasing and late fees.
- Chaser, Kolleno and ezyCollect are designed for bigger teams - which you choose depends on whether you’re prioritising forecasting, team collaboration or payment functionality.
- The focus on big or small teams is reflected in the pricing model: Satago and Trove are fixed; the others vary by revenue or number of users.
Why late payment is common in recruitment
Recruiters are commonly paid as a percentage of the placed candidate’s first year salary, which means they can only invoice once the work is complete. That removes much of the urgency for a client to pay quickly, since the work is already done. It’s a structural issue, and it’s why late payment in recruitment is more common than in most other industries.
It’s compounded by who does the chasing. In a standard recruitment firm, the consultant who placed the candidate is frequently the one also chasing the fee. When the same person is responsible for both selling the next piece of work and chasing payment for the last one, things start to slip.
Pricing model matters too. Recruitment turnover is typically high but margins are thin, particularly in temp recruitment where most revenue goes straight back out to contractors. A lot of credit control software charges based on the revenue or invoice value it processes, which gets expensive fast for a job - sending chasing emails - that doesn’t cost more to do just because the numbers are bigger. A flat monthly fee almost always works out better, which is why it’s a column in the comparison below.
On the permanent side, most placements come with a rebate or guarantee period. If the candidate leaves within a set window, the client can reclaim some or all of the fee, which turns what looked like a paid invoice into a disputed one, sometimes weeks later. That needs handling differently to a straightforward late payment - see handling disputed perm fees and rebate clauses.
What good credit control looks like in a recruitment firm
You don’t need a finance team to do this well. You need a consistent process that can support a busy team member.
Start before the invoice is overdue. A short reminder a few days before the due date, confirming the amount and payment details, removes the “we never received it” excuse and surfaces disputes while there’s still time to deal with them. For temp desks, it’s also the moment to confirm the timesheet is approved.
Send it from a person, not a system. Emails from your own inbox get opened and answered. Emails from an accounts platform’s address get spam-filtered or ignored, and that matters more in recruitment than almost anywhere, because the recipient is a client you want to keep.
Assign each client to the consultant who owns them. The person with the relationship should be visibly attached to the chase, even if the reminders are automated.
Map an escalation path in advance. Decide now what happens after two reminders get no reply, who escalates, when, and in what tone. Two reminders recover about 80% of overdue invoices, so escalating after two starts tackling the long tail of reasons customers don’t pay.
Watch the aged debtor report weekly, and report to your insurer on time. A weekly look at your Xero aged receivables report shows what’s tipping into 60 and 90 days. If you carry credit insurance, most policies require you to notify slow payers within 60 to 90 days, and a documented collections process is part of keeping that cover valid.
Comparing credit control software for recruitment
Different recruitment firms will have different needs depending on what features they are prioritising and their team size. Recruitment shares a lot with credit control for agencies more generally, since the person doing the chasing is often also the person who owns the client relationship. Here is the short list:
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Pricing model | Team size | Late fees |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Satago | Built-in invoice financing | £45/mo | Flat fee | < 50 employees | Yes |
| Trove | Automated invoice chasing and late fees | £50/mo | Flat fee | < 50 employees | Yes |
| Chaser | Cash-flow forecasting | £199/mo | Flat fee | 50+ employees | Yes |
| Kolleno | Bigger teams collaborating in one platform | £650/user/mo | Per user | 50+ employees | Yes |
| ezyCollect | Online payment options | On request | Quote-based | 50+ employees | Yes |
Prices are entry-level and checked July 2026 against each vendor’s published pricing. Most tools charge more as volume grows.
Satago - best for built-in invoice financing; < 50 employees
Satago combines chasing with Experian-backed credit risk scoring and invoice finance in one product. For a recruitment agency weighing up factoring to bridge the pay-contractors-now, get-paid-later gap, having financing in the same tool is helpful. Worth knowing: on the Basic plan, reminders send from Satago’s own address rather than yours - sending from your own domain needs the £80 Premium tier.
Best for: recruitment agencies that want credit control and invoice finance under one roof.
Trove - best for automating invoice chasing and late fees; < 50 employees
Trove is Xero-native and designed for recruitment teams without a dedicated credit controller. It’s a flat £50/month, which suits a high-revenue, thin-margin agency. Reminders send from your own inbox and its AI rotates the wording so repeat chases don’t read as templated. It can also calculate and raise UK late payment fees straight into Xero.
Best for: SMB recruitment agencies looking to automate invoice chasing and late fees.
Chaser - best for cash-flow forecasting
Chaser is one of the most established UK collections tools and spans the wider accounts receivable cycle, with cash-flow forecasting alongside the chasing. That forecasting view is useful for an agency trying to see the funding gap coming.
Best for: agencies large enough to have a finance function that will use the forecasting and reporting.
Kolleno - best for bigger teams
Kolleno is an enterprise-grade platform covering the full AR lifecycle from e-invoicing to collections, priced per user from £650/month. It’s powerful and works best for finance teams that need to collaborate in one system.
Best for: larger agencies and groups with a full finance team who need a collaborative platform.
ezyCollect - best for online payments functionality
ezyCollect is an AR automation platform strong on high-volume collections and an online payment portal so customers can pay as they’re chased. For a temp desk generating a very high number of invoices, the volume handling and self-serve payment options are the draw. Pricing is quote-based and sits at the heavier end.
Best for: Firms requiring built-in payment functionality as part of their invoicing process.
How to choose, as a recruitment agency
Two questions cut through it.
1. How big is your team? If you have a one or two people who manage invoice chasing, Satago or Trove will have the functionality you need. Both are priced accordingly, starting at £45-£50 per month. If you have a finance team with 2 or more individuals, one of the more fully-featured platforms may make more sense.
2. What features do you need? Once you know which 2-3 providers you are considering, you can make the choice based on what your must-have features are. Each provider has its strengths in a specific feature set so deciding which one to go for is straightforward once you know which features to prioritise.
For the wider market beyond recruitment, see our full guide to choosing credit control software and credit control software for UK small businesses.
Frequently asked questions
Why does revenue-based pricing matter so much for recruitment?
Because recruitment turnover is high but margin is thin - most of a temp desk’s revenue goes straight back out to contractors. A tool that charges on revenue bills you as if that topline were profit. A flat fee prices the job for what it is: sending chasing emails.
What’s the best tool if need credit checks?
Some tools (e.g. Chaser) have their own credit data while others (e.g. Satago) use Experian’s database. The third option is a tool like Trove which integrates with Creditsafe to pull data from your existing tool into the platform.
Should the director really be the one chasing invoices?
In the early days, yes - it keeps the relationship personal and the founder close to cash flow. But once chasing is eating hours a week or the overdue book is growing month on month, it’s a sign to formalise the process with a tool rather than hire a credit controller.
What are standard payment terms for recruitment agencies?
Temp and contract placements are often invoiced on 7 to 30-day terms, since the contractor has usually already been paid. Permanent placement fees are commonly 14 to 30 days from the candidate’s start date. Terms are worth negotiating when you sign the client agreement rather than accepting whatever the client proposes.
Is the cause of unpaid invoices different for temp versus perm?
Yes. Temp is a cash-flow-timing problem - you’ve paid the contractor and need the client to pay you. Perm is often driven by a dispute problem, centred on rebate clauses if a candidate leaves early. The two need different handling, which is why it’s worth reading handling disputed perm fees and rebate clauses separately.
