Recovering Unpaid Invoices for Recruitment Agencies

Most agency invoices are triggered by an event — a candidate accepting an offer and starting work — rather than by delivering a tangible product. That makes the question “did the placement actually happen, and on what terms?” central to any unpaid invoice. Clients commonly push back by saying the candidate never started, started later than billed, left within a rebate window, was already known to them, or was introduced under different fee terms.

Because the fee is tied to facts and to your terms of business, the agencies that get paid are usually the ones that can show a clear, dated chain of evidence linking the introduction to the start. WolfX is built to help you assemble that chain in one place so it is ready for internal review, a solicitor, or a pre-action letter.

For a placement-fee invoice, the evidence that matters tends to fall into a few categories. Gathering it early — while emails and confirmations are easy to find — makes a far stronger case than reconstructing it months later.

The agreed start date usually does two jobs: it triggers the fee and it starts any rebate clock. If you bill before the candidate starts, or before the start can be evidenced, a client has an easy reason to delay. Keeping the confirmation of the actual start — an email from the client, the candidate, or an onboarding record — alongside the invoice makes the timing defensible.

Invoice timing also matters for late-payment interest, which generally runs from the day after payment was due. WolfX helps you keep the invoice, the start-date proof and the due date together so the position is clear if the debt has to be escalated.

A rebate clause typically reduces or refunds the fee if a placed candidate leaves within a defined window. Whether a rebate or fall-through applies is a question about your contract terms and the facts of what happened — for example, why the candidate left and when. WolfX does not interpret or adjudicate those terms and does not decide who is right.

What it can do is help you organise the relevant evidence — the terms of business, the start and leave dates, and the correspondence around them — so you, your solicitor, or a court can review the position with the full picture in front of them. If the fee is genuinely owed after that review, the same evidence supports a Letter Before Action.

WolfX is software, not a law firm or a debt collection agency, and it does not guarantee recovery. It helps you build an evidence-backed recovery workflow: store the placement records in an Evidence Vault, organise the overdue-invoice evidence, and prepare a Letter Before Action or a Court Readiness Pack for review. A Court Readiness Pack is a structured bundle for internal, solicitor or pre-action use — it is not a court filing and not an official court document.

For a company debtor, a Letter Before Action follows the Practice Direction on Pre-Action Conduct, which typically allows at least 14 days to respond. The Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims, with its 30-day reply window, applies only where the debtor is an individual or sole trader. WolfX does not currently file court claims, collect payments directly, or send physical post.