Software for independent recruiters

An independent recruiter gets paid once per hire, often months after the first call, so the paperwork has to be right before the first resume goes out: the fee, when it's due, what happens if the hire leaves early, and how long a candidate you introduced counts as yours. SoloWOS keeps that agreement, the submissions and the invoice together. Your ATS or LinkedIn keeps the candidates.

From an intake call to a paid placement

1. A hiring manager books a 45-minute intake call on your booking page. The booking form asks the role, salary range, location or remote, and the target start date.
2. Send a proposal summarizing the search: for example, 20% of first-year base salary on contingency, or a retained search at 25% paid in thirds (at signing, at shortlist, at hire). Lines are dollar amounts, so price the fee against the salary you agreed on.
3. The full terms go out through E-Signatures: fee, payment terms (for example, due 15 days after the start date), the guarantee (for example, one free replacement if the hire leaves within 90 days) and how long candidate ownership lasts (for example, 12 months from submission).
4. Submit each candidate as a PDF profile with Document Tracking: resume plus your notes, contact details removed. Require an email to view, turn off downloads and add a watermark, and you have a record of who on the client's team opened it and when.
5. Screen candidates on your own meeting type, and send each finalist a single-use booking link for a prep call before the client interview.
6. When the hire starts, send the placement invoice with a card pay link and your ACH details. Reminders go out 3 days before the due date and 3 and 7 days after.
7. Three automations on "invoice paid" create check-in tasks at 30, 60 and 90 days, so you talk to the hire and the manager before the guarantee period ends.

A typical week

• Monday: an intake call for a controller role at a manufacturing company. The proposal and fee agreement go out that afternoon.
• Tuesday: you submit three candidate profiles. By evening, the CFO and the HR director have each opened two of them.
• Wednesday: five screening calls. One finalist books her prep call from your single-use link.
• Thursday: last month's placement started Monday, so the invoice goes out. The 60-day check-in task for an earlier hire shows up on your board.
• Friday: the pipeline shows two searches in Conversation and one at Proposal sent. The follow-up automation already emailed the one that's gone quiet.

All 13 tools, one by one

A recruiter uses the deal and billing tools heavily and a couple of others hardly at all. Here's each one, honestly:

• Link in Bio: one page with your specialty, open searches you can share publicly, your intake call booking and your candidate interest form, for your LinkedIn featured section.
• Short Links: a short link to a public job description for a LinkedIn post or a meetup slide, with clicks counted so you know which post sent candidates.
• Forms: a candidate interest form (role, location, salary expectations, availability) and a client intake form. Ask only what the job needs, and no resumes: forms can't take uploads.
• Scheduling: intake calls with hiring managers, candidate screening calls and finalist prep calls, each its own meeting type with its own questions.
• Proposals: the search proposal: contingency or retained, the fee as a dollar amount on the agreed salary, a deposit for the retained portion and an expiration date.
• E-Signatures: the fee agreement with the guarantee and candidate ownership terms, signed by the client's authorized signer, with an audit trail certificate you can point to if a fee is disputed.
• Document Tracking: candidate profiles as watermarked PDFs that need an email to view, with downloads off; you see who on the client's team opened each one and when.
• Screen Recording: a 5-minute video introducing your shortlist to a busy hiring manager, so they hear why each candidate fits before they open the profiles.
• Notes & Boards: a board per search with candidates as tasks moving from sourced to submitted, interviewing, offer and placed, plus a page with the intake call notes.
• Time Tracking: worth it on retained searches: time each search to see your real hourly return on a 25% fee, and compare it with contingency work.
• Invoicing: the placement fee invoice with a card pay link and your ACH details, the retained installments from the proposal, and reminders when a client drifts past due.
• Expenses: job board postings, LinkedIn Recruiter, background check fees you pay and travel for client visits, with receipts, as CSV for your tax preparer.
• Automations: when a placement invoice is paid, create check-in tasks 30, 60 and 90 days later; it fires on every paid invoice, so it suits a practice billed mostly on placements.

Discrimination and licensing rules for recruiters

• The EEOC says an employment agency, including a recruitment company, is covered by the federal anti-discrimination laws it enforces if it regularly refers people to employers, no matter how many employees the agency has. An agency may not honor an employer's discriminatory preferences.
• Keep your intake form and booking questions to the job's real requirements, and don't record protected traits on candidate profiles or in notes.
• Some states license employment agencies. In New York, an agency that charges a fee for placing a candidate with a third-party employer needs an Employment Agency License from the Department of Labor, or from the city's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection inside New York City; some executive search firms that never charge applicants are exempt. Check your state's labor department.

This is general information, not legal advice. Rules vary by state; check yours with a lawyer or your licensing board.

SoloWOS, Recruit CRM or Loxo: which fits

Recruit CRM and Loxo are recruiting platforms with an applicant tracking system and a CRM. They're where candidates live; SoloWOS covers the agreement, the submissions and the invoice. Many solo recruiters use one of each.

Choose Recruit CRM or Loxo if:

• You source and track hundreds of candidates across several searches and need a real candidate database.
• You want pipelines per job and a browser extension for adding candidates.
• You're starting out and Loxo's free plan covers your candidate tracking.

Choose SoloWOS if:

• Candidates already live in a free ATS or a spreadsheet, and the gap is the fee agreement, the submission record and getting paid.
• You want intake calls, proposals, signed terms and invoices in one account.
• You place a handful of hires a year and a per-user ATS subscription is more than you need.

Prices and features checked on October 23, 2026 on each company's site.

Start with these three

E-Signatures for your fee agreement, Document Tracking for candidate submissions, and Invoicing for the placement fee. Add the 30, 60 and 90-day check-in automations after your next placement.

Free tools that help

• Sales pipeline calculator to work out how many intake calls it takes to make this year's placements.
• Hourly to salary calculator to turn a candidate's hourly rate into the annual salary your fee is based on.
• DSO calculator for how long clients take to pay your placement fees.
• Invoice late fee calculator for the late-payment clause in your fee agreement.
• Early payment discount calculator if you offer a discount for paying within 10 days.

What SoloWOS won't do for a recruiter

• No applicant tracking, job board posting, resume parsing or candidate sourcing.
• Candidates can't upload resumes through a form or the portal.
• No commission splits between recruiters, and no payroll for contract placements.
• Fee percentages aren't calculated for you: each proposal or invoice line is a dollar amount.
• SoloWOS doesn't file taxes, issue 1099s or collect sales tax for you. Invoicing sends the invoice with a pay link (card through your Stripe account) and your other payment details; your accountant or tax software handles the rest.