5 reasons to automate your recruitment agency back-office

Everywhere you look in life, automation makes things easier and saves on effort – from cars and coffee machines, to apps and Alexa. So why should your business be any different?
One of the challenges recruitment agencies face is the high level of admin involved in running your day-to-day operations. From chasing outstanding timesheets to creating accurate invoices, these tasks are essential, but they take up a lot of time.
This is where automation can really change the game for recruitment entrepreneurs. By embracing back-office technology, your agency can cut the time – and therefore the cost – of administrative tasks, and focus on growing your business.
Let’s look closer at some of the benefits that automation can bring to your recruitment agency…

1. Automatically collate timesheets and match them to invoices

Recruitment agencies invest so much time in processing contractor timesheets and creating invoices based on each of your submissions; time that could be better spent on other, more valuable business activities.
Back-office technology can transform this process by automatically collating timesheets submitted in any format – online, faxed or handwritten – in a single place, and matching those timesheets to client invoices.

2. Integrate timesheets and expenses

Taking the time out of timesheet processing is only half the battle. Many recruitment agencies devote significant resources to processing contractor expense forms, which need to be checked, formatted and submitted as part of the client invoicing process.
Technology can change the game here too, by automatically integrating expenses with timesheets when you are creating invoices.
A good back-office platform will be able to categorise each expense and set rules on how they must be submitted – rejecting any claims that don’t follow the format. This way, the onus is on your contractors to get it right first time, rather than your staff having to follow up on incorrectly submitted claims forms.

3. Take the effort out of chasing timesheets and expense forms

Many hours are wasted each week by agencies chasing contractors who haven’t filed their paperwork correctly and on time. This is an area where tech can take the job out of your team’s hands.
Instead of arduous manual chasing, back-office software can automatically follow up thousands of outstanding timesheets with the click of a button. For a fraction of the effort, contractors will be able to correct and re-send their documentation, reducing the time it takes to receive all relevant materials and invoice your client.

4. Follow up invoices to ensure you get paid promptly

One of the other great time-wasting activities within recruitment agencies is chasing invoices for payment. And, even more than missing timesheets, delays in invoice processing can have a significant impact on your business cash flow.
Like timesheets and expenses, technology can automate the follow up process for outstanding invoices, to help your business – and your contractors – get paid quicker. And more time plus better cash flow means you’ll have more resources available to invest in value-adding activities.

5. Get an analytic snapshot of your business performance

It’s easy to view recruitment technology as just a means of reducing your admin burden and speeding up everyday tasks, but it can also help you to better understand your business performance.
A good back-office software solution will include business intelligence reporting, which automatically pulls through the latest data, so you can get a complete overview of your company performance on a single dashboard.
With a real-time view of your gross margins and gross margin percentages, your agency is empowered to make even better business decisions.
ETZ’s back-office software automates key business operations to save your recruitment agency time and money. Book a demo to see the benefits of our platform for yourself.