CRM for Recruitment Agencies: A UK Guide
A CRM guide for UK recruitment agencies: the two-sided pipeline, right to work expiry, Conduct Regulations records, rebate windows and where an ATS takes over.
On 7 April 2026 the Fair Work Agency began operating, taking over from the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate and the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority. If you run a recruitment agency, the body that can turn up and ask to see your records changed this year, and the records it can ask for are the ones most small agencies keep worst.
That is the reason recruitment deserves its own CRM guide rather than a generic one. Every other business in this series sells to one party. An agency has two, and it has to keep a defensible paper trail on both.
The two-sided pipeline
A recruiter's day is two pipelines running at different speeds. Candidates move fast and go cold in days. Clients move slowly, over weeks. A placement only happens where the two meet, and most agency CRMs are bought, configured and then abandoned because they were set up as one pipeline instead of two.
In practice that means two record types and two stage lists, joined by a third thing: the placement. Candidate stages are about readiness. Client stages are about commitment. The placement record is what your invoice, your rebate liability and your compliance file all hang off.
Where a CRM ends and an applicant tracking system begins
This is the question agencies get wrong most often, usually by buying one product and expecting it to do both jobs. The split that holds up is by direction of travel: an ATS processes applications inbound against a vacancy, a CRM manages relationships that outlive any single vacancy.
| Belongs in the CRM | Belongs in an ATS or job board tooling |
|---|---|
| Client relationships, terms of business and fee agreements | Job adverts and multi-posting to boards |
| Business development pipeline and vacancy pipeline | Inbound application capture and parsing |
| Candidate relationships you want in two years, not this week | Bulk CV screening against one role |
| Availability, document expiry and compliance dates | Interview scheduling against a vacancy |
| Placement records, rebate windows and renewals | Candidate-facing application status portals |
| Every conversation with candidate and client | Structured scorecards and assessment stages |
A single-desk agency placing permanent roles can often run the whole thing on a CRM and a job board account, with no ATS at all. A high-volume temps desk cannot: the application throughput will drown a CRM. If you are moving off spreadsheets and unsure where to start, our guide to moving a client spreadsheet into a CRM covers the migration order.
Availability is a date field, not a status
"Available" is the most useless word in a recruitment database, because it was true when somebody typed it and is probably false now. Two fields fix it: available from, and last contacted. Then "available" becomes a filter you can trust, because you can exclude anyone you have not spoken to in three weeks.
For temps desks, add the shift pattern they will accept and the maximum travel distance. Those two fields cut the shortlist faster than any keyword search over CV text, and they are the questions you otherwise ask the same candidate four times.
Document expiry is the one set of dates you cannot miss
You must check that someone is allowed to work in the UK before you employ them, and you could face a civil penalty if you employ an illegal worker without having carried out a correct check. Checks are done online with a share code, on original documents, or through an identity service provider using Identity Document Validation Technology. Biometric residence cards and permits are no longer accepted. The detail is on the government's guidance on checking a job applicant's right to work ↗.
Two things from that guidance turn straight into CRM fields. Where a person's right to work is time-limited, you have to check their documents again as expiry approaches. And you must keep copies during the employment and for two years after it ends, with the date the check was made recorded.
So each candidate record needs the date the check was done, the method used, and an expiry date with a reminder running ahead of it. A spreadsheet will hold those. It will not tell you, on a Monday morning, which four people on assignment have a document expiring this month.
The same applies to anything else the role demands. Under Regulation 19 of the Conduct Regulations an employment business must confirm the work-seeker's identity and confirm they have the experience, training, qualifications and any authorisation required by the hirer, by law or by a professional body, and must keep evidence that those checks were done. Certificates, professional registrations and DBS dates all expire, and all belong on the record with a date.
Placements, rebates and transfer fees
Rebate and free-replacement periods on permanent placements are commercial terms. The Conduct Regulations do not cap what you charge a hirer; fee levels are treated as a business to business agreement. What matters operationally is that the clock starts on the placement date and nobody remembers it three months later.
Transfer fees on temporary workers are different, because those are regulated. The Fair Work Agency's guidance on the Conduct Regulations 2003 ↗ sets out the rules, and they are date-driven in a way a CRM is genuinely good at.
| Rule | What it means for your records |
|---|---|
| A transfer fee must be stated in your terms of business with the hirer, including when it applies and the time limits | Store the signed terms against the client record, with the version and date |
| The relevant period is 14 weeks from the day after the worker's first assignment with that hirer, or 8 weeks from the last day they worked for them, whichever ends later | Both dates have to be on the placement record, not inferred from timesheets |
| A gap of more than 42 days between assignments makes the later assignment count as the first | Assignment start and end dates, per assignment, not one lumped total |
| You must offer the hirer an extended period of hire as an alternative to paying the fee, and they must be free to choose | Record the offer being made; without it the fee is unenforceable |
That last row is the one that costs money. If you never offered the alternative, the requirement to pay a transfer fee is unenforceable, and a cheerful email saying "we discussed it on the phone" is not a record. Log the offer as an activity on the placement.
Timesheets almost certainly live somewhere else
Most agencies run timesheets and pay in a separate system, and that is the right answer. Timesheet capture, approval, PAYE, umbrella arrangements and self-billing are payroll problems, and no small-business CRM does them properly.
One rule from the guidance is worth knowing if you are tempted to gate payment on your own admin: an employment business must not withhold pay from a worker for work they have done because the worker has not provided a hirer-confirmed timesheet, provided the business can satisfy itself by other means. Build your process so a missing timesheet triggers a chase, not a withheld payment.
What the CRM should hold is the link: which candidate, on which assignment, for which client, from which date to which date. That is what reconciles a payroll report against a client invoice when the two disagree.
Retention, which is stricter here than anywhere else
Most businesses in this series have one retention question. An agency has three, pulling in different directions.
| Data | Floor |
|---|---|
| Conduct Regulations records on work-seekers and hirers (Regulation 29) | At least 12 months after creation, and at least 12 months after you last provided work-finding services to that work-seeker or hirer |
| Right to work check copies | During employment and for 2 years after the person stops working for you, with the check date recorded |
| Candidate CVs and notes you keep for future roles | No statutory figure. Storage limitation under the UK GDPR means you set a period, document it, and delete on schedule |
Two practical notes. The guidance is explicit that you do not have to keep details of a work-seeker you took no action for, so a pile of unused speculative CVs is not a record you are obliged to retain. And records can be kept off the trading premises as long as they are accessible and can be produced at the premises they relate to by the end of the second business day after a compliance inspector asks.
The third row is the hard one, and it is where agencies get complaints. A CV sitting in your database for six years because nobody set a rule is not compliant just because it might be useful. Put a retention field on the candidate record, set a review date, and actually run the deletions. Our guide to GDPR compliance in a CRM covers the consent and messaging side, which matters when you email a candidate you last placed in 2023.
What to ignore
- CV parsing and semantic search, until your database is big enough for search to beat memory. Under a few thousand candidates, good fields beat clever matching every time.
- Revenue forecasting by weighted probability. A permanent placement either happens or it does not, and candidates drop out for reasons no probability field predicts. Forecast off submitted-to-interview ratios instead.
- Candidate portals, unless you have the volume to need them. A portal nobody logs into is worse than an email.
- Anything that tries to be your payroll. Keep timesheets and pay where they are.
- Automated outreach at scale. It is the fastest way to a complaint about your agency, and it puts your domain reputation at risk for the sake of volume you cannot service anyway.
The four numbers worth tracking
Agencies measure placements and revenue, then wonder why nothing improves. These four tell you where the desk is actually broken.
| Number | What a bad result is telling you |
|---|---|
| Vacancies taken to shortlist sent | You are accepting roles you cannot fill, or taking briefs too thin to work from |
| Submitted to interview | Your screening is not matching what the client actually wants |
| Interview to offer | A client-side problem, or candidates who were never that interested |
| Placements still in post at the end of the rebate window | The real measure of a good placement, and the only one that protects your fee |
Track where each vacancy came from as well. After a year you will know which clients, referrals and channels your billings actually come from, rather than guessing. Our guide to lead attribution explains how to set that up without a marketing team.
Frequently asked questions
Do recruitment agencies need a CRM or an applicant tracking system?
Both do different jobs. An ATS handles inbound applications against a specific vacancy: adverts, parsing, screening, scheduling. A CRM handles relationships that outlive the vacancy: client terms and fee agreements, business development, candidate availability, compliance dates and placement records. A small permanent desk often runs on a CRM plus a job board account. A high-volume temps desk needs both.
How long must a recruitment agency keep records?
Under Regulation 29 of the Conduct Regulations 2003, records on work-seekers and hirers must be kept for at least 12 months after creation and for at least 12 months after you last provided work-finding services to that work-seeker or hirer. Right to work check copies must be kept during employment and for two years after the person stops working for you. Candidate data you hold for future roles has no statutory figure, so under the UK GDPR you set a retention period, document it and delete on schedule.
Who regulates recruitment agencies in the UK?
The Fair Work Agency, which began operating on 7 April 2026 and brought together several enforcement bodies including the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate. It acts as the state regulator for employment agencies and employment businesses in England, Scotland and Wales. Agencies based in Northern Ireland are likely to be regulated by the Employment Agency Inspectorate instead.
How do I track right to work expiry in a CRM?
Put three fields on the candidate record: the date the check was carried out, the method used, and the expiry date where the person's right to work is time-limited. Set a reminder to fire well ahead of the expiry date, because a follow-up check has to be done as it approaches. Then you can filter for everyone with a document expiring in the next 60 days rather than finding out after the fact.
Should timesheets go in the CRM?
No. Timesheet capture, approval and pay belong in payroll or a dedicated timesheet system. The CRM should hold the assignment link: which candidate, which client, which dates. That is what you reconcile invoices against, and those assignment dates are also what the transfer fee rules depend on.
Can an agency charge a candidate a fee?
Generally no. Employment agencies and businesses are prohibited from charging work-seekers a fee for finding or trying to find them work, with narrow exceptions for performers, certain other entertainment workers and photographic or fashion models. Fees for genuinely unrelated services are possible, but Regulation 13 requires written details of those charges up front and a way to withdraw without detriment.
Where Kabooly fits
Kabooly is built for UK businesses the size of most agencies: a desk or two, a few thousand contacts, no IT department. Two pipelines cover candidates and vacancies. Custom fields hold available-from dates, document expiry and assignment dates. Reminders handle the follow-up checks and the rebate window you would otherwise diarise by hand.
Our CRM for recruitment agencies page covers the setup in more detail, and the guide for accountancy practices shows the same compliance-dates-as-pipeline pattern in a different profession. If you want to test it, start a free trial and load one live vacancy plus its shortlist before you decide.