Contingency recruiting agreement
- Fee on one placement
- $18,000
- A year of placements at this fee
- $216,000
- Fee at risk during the rebate period
- $4,438.36
- Cash waiting on payment terms at any time
- $17,753.42
The numbers on this page come from the inputs you enter and the method stated: 3,600 seconds to an hour, 52 weeks to a year, twelve months to a year, and nothing else. No industry shrinkage figure, no occupancy benchmark and no assumption about your attrition; every one of those is yours to enter.
The figures above start from a worked example ($18,000). Change any input and the answer updates as you type.
Download the Contingency recruiting agreement worked example (CSV)
The contingency recruiting agreement is the document a small agency signs with a client, and its three numbers decide whether the agency makes money: the fee, the rebate, and the payment terms. Enter the salary, your fee percentage, the rebate period in days, your payment terms and the placements you make a year, and this sheet returns the fee on one placement, a year of placements at that rate, the fee at risk through the rebate window at any moment, the cash sitting unpaid on your terms, and the monthly income the rate implies. On the worked example a $90,000 placement at 20% is $18,000, and twelve a year is $216,000: but $4,438 of fee is inside a 90 day rebate window at any time and $17,753 is waiting on 30 day terms. An agency that reads only the first number and not the other two is the reason profitable desks run out of cash.
The rebate is a liability, not a formality
90 days of rebate on twelve placements a year means roughly a quarter of one fee is refundable at any moment. It is small until two placements leave in the same month, which is precisely when it is not.
Terms turn revenue into a waiting room
$17,753 of cash on 30 day terms is a month of income that exists on paper and not in the bank. Shortening terms is usually worth more to a small agency than raising the fee by a point.
The monthly figure is the one to plan on
$18,000 a month at this rate is what the desk actually earns. Annual totals flatter a business whose costs are monthly.
Contingency recruiting agreement: common questions
What rebate period is standard? Commonly somewhere between 30 and 90 days, sometimes sliding (full refund early, partial later). This site publishes no standard: enter what your agreement says.
Is contingency better than retained? Different risk, not better. Contingency is paid on success and priced for it; retained is paid in stages and pays for the work whether or not it lands. The sheet works contingency because that is what the measured query asks about.
Does this replace a lawyer? No. It works the money in an agreement; the drafting, the enforceability and the terms themselves are for your solicitor. Nothing on this site is legal advice.
Orgplanly Pro
Keeping what you make
The worksheet answered today's question. Pro keeps the answer: the plan you just worked saved against the team it belongs to, re-opened at the next review instead of rebuilt, branded and exported for the budget meeting.
- Download the finished checklist or intake form as a file the client accepts
- The paperwork goes out clean, without the Kickoffo watermark
- Re-use the checklist for the next client instead of rebuilding it
- Your firm's logo on every checklist and form you send
- Export every client's onboarding at once when the account review or the buyer asks
- Send the plan for review from the record, not a spreadsheet
- Not part of Orgplanly today; your billing stays where it is
- Not part of Orgplanly today; your ledger stays where it is
$90per month, whole team
Start Orgplanly Pro PricingOrgplanly Pro renews monthly at $6.50 per user per month until you cancel; the price and renewal terms are shown before checkout.
Where the constants in this tool come from
US Bureau of Labor Statistics: Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey.