Sales commission software for recruitment agencies
Recruitment commission rewards billings, but the maths is unusually unforgiving — thresholds, contractor margin and rebate clawbacks all have to line up before anyone gets paid correctly.
How commission works in recruitment agencies
Perm desks usually pay a percentage of the placement fee, often on a tiered scale that steps up once a consultant clears a billing threshold (the 'cost of sale'). Contract and temp desks pay on margin instead. Many agencies blend both, plus team or split-desk shares.
Where the spreadsheet breaks
Two things break spreadsheets: the threshold (commission only applies to billings above the cost-of-sale figure, so every month resets the running total) and rebate clawbacks (if a placement falls inside the rebate period, the commission already paid has to come back — cleanly, without a row war).
How Commit handles it
Commit calculates commission on placements synced from HubSpot as deals: tiered rates above a threshold, splits between consultants on the same placement, and a clawback when a placement is reversed after commission has been paid. Each consultant can see how their number was built. It calculates on the deal value you sync, so a contract desk paid on margin needs the margin recorded as the deal amount. Test your own desk structure in the free trial.
See it on your own plan
Commit models recruitment agencies’ commission — thresholds, splits, clawbacks and all — and shows every rep exactly how their number was built.
Frequently asked questions
How is recruitment commission usually calculated?
Most perm desks pay a tiered percentage of the placement fee above a billing threshold (cost of sale); contract desks pay a percentage of margin. Commit applies tiered rates to the deal value synced from HubSpot, so a contract desk needs the margin recorded as the deal amount.
How do you handle rebate clawbacks?
When a placement is reversed after commission has been paid, Commit records a clawback against the original commission, shown on the consultant's statement and kept in the audit trail. The rebate period itself is set by your client terms, not tracked in Commit.
See commission software for other industries.