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Contracts overview

A contract is where a placed candidate becomes hours worked, pay, and an invoice to your client. This article walks through the lifecycle so you know which area to reach for at each stage. Payroll itself sits in its own section (see Payroll).

The contract as a bridge​

A contract is the formal link between a placed candidate, a vacancy, a client and a rate card. Until a contract exists and is active, you cannot record timesheets, expenses, payroll or invoices against the placement.

Each contract carries:

  • The candidate and their pay type (PAYE employee, contractor, umbrella, fixed-term).
  • The vacancy and client location they are working at.
  • The rate card or contract-level overrides used for pay and charge.
  • Start and (optionally) end dates.

Contract detail tabs​

A contract record is split into focused tabs so you can review the placement without leaving the record:

  • Details for the core contract, candidate, client and placement information.
  • Financials for pay, charge, margin and variation information.
  • Documents for generated, uploaded or signed contract documents.
  • Compliance for contract-level compliance checks.
  • Schedule for the agreed working pattern.
  • Expenses for contract-linked expenses.
  • Timesheets for timesheets generated or managed against the contract.

Common contract actions can include Extend, Duplicate, Terminate and Add, depending on the contract status and your permissions.

The lifecycle​

Most contracts move through the same stages:

  1. Create. Book a shortlisted candidate and RecSphere offers to create a contract for them. Confirming pulls the employment type, vacancy match, division, specialty, grade, client, dates and financials straight onto the contract. You can also create one via the Add contract button.
  2. Send and sign. RecSphere checks compliance, then contract documents are sent for signing. Statuses can show whether the documents have been sent to the candidate, sent to both parties, signed by one party, or are ready to finalise.
  3. Finalise. When both parties have signed and payroll identifiers have been checked, the contract can be finalised. Finalisation generates timesheets and marks the candidate and vacancy as booked where applicable (see Payroll).
  4. Timesheets drafted. On finalisation RecSphere drafts every timesheet for the contract's duration up front. Each one is sent to the candidate the week before it is due.
  5. Approved. The client or recruiter approves each timesheet (and any expenses).
  6. Payroll runs. Finance opens a pay period, pulls in approved timesheets, expenses and adjustments, and produces payslips.
  7. Invoice issued. RecSphere generates a draft invoice using the charge rates from the same data, ready to send or sync to Xero.

For the CRM contract status meanings, see Contract status definitions.

Projections: original, forecast and actual​

A contract carries a live financial picture, not a single fixed number:

  • Original. When the contract is created it shows the original value and margin, based on the hours over the contract period.
  • Forecast. While the contract is live the value and margin update in real time. Add shifts or extend the contract and the projection recalculates, then locks for the duration.
  • Actual. At completion the contract shows the actual value and margin from the hours that were worked.

So the lifecycle of the numbers runs original to forecast (while live) to actual (at completion).

The pages involved​

You will move between these sub-pages during a typical cycle:

  • Contracts for setup, activation and rate overrides.
  • Timesheets for capture, approval and rejection feedback.
  • Expenses for mileage, travel and equipment claims.
  • Invoices for client billing.
  • Adjustments for one-off bonuses, deductions and corrections.
  • Payroll for pay calculation, PAYE/NI or PAYG/Super, and pay file export.

If you operate in Australia, see Australian payroll for the AU-specific tax codes, leave types and workers' compensation settings.

Test with one contract first

Run a full cycle on one contract before processing a bulk payroll. It is much faster to spot a rate card or tax setting issue on one candidate than to unwind a 200-row pay run.