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Recruitment automation around your ATS/CRM

We treat recruitment automation, for an agency, as the work between systems: Key Information Documents, right to work checks, timesheets, the Agency Workers Regulations 12-week clock and IR35 status statements. We build software that does this around the ATS/CRM you already run, with your team checking the exceptions.

This is not a replacement for your recruitment agency software. Bullhorn, Vincere and JobAdder publish APIs that expose placements, so we build alongside them. Temporary and contract work made up 76.7% of the industry's GVA in the REC's 2024/25 status report, and carries most of the rules below.

Start a projectWhat we would build

Where the time goes

  • Registering a temp

    Before agreeing terms, an employment business gives each new temp a Key Information Document: two sides of A4 at most, with a representative pay example, reissued within five business days of any change. A February 2026 government consultation said KIDs are often not received, issued late or missing details.

  • Taking a job and sending CVs

    Before introducing anyone, the agency must get the hirer's dates, duties, hours, required qualifications and known health and safety risks. Adverts go out through multiposting tools and CVs come back to be parsed. Details given to a client by phone must be confirmed in writing within three business days.

  • Timesheets, pay and bill

    Each week or month, temps submit timesheets, clients approve them, and the back office runs payroll or sends hours to an umbrella, then invoices. Pay may not be withheld because the hirer has not paid or a signed timesheet is missing. Non-payment of wages was the largest complaint category to the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate in 2021/22.

  • The AWR 12-week clock

    After 12 calendar weeks in the same role with the same hirer, a temp gets the same basic pay and conditions as a comparable direct recruit. Any week with some work counts. Breaks of six weeks or less, sickness or jury service of up to 28 weeks and holidays pause the clock; maternity, adoption and paternity leave count towards it.

The systems you already run

We build around them, so nobody has to move their work to a new platform.

  • Bullhorn ATS & CRM

    Holds candidates, jobs, shifts and clients, and integrates with Gmail and Outlook. Its REST API uses OAuth 2.0, covers placements and pay and bill records, and supports event subscriptions.

  • Access Vincere Evo

    Recruitment CRM/ATS linked to Access FastTrack360 for payroll and billing. Its API v2 uses OAuth 2.0 plus a key from Vincere Support, covers placements and timesheets, and sends webhooks.

  • JobAdder

    Recruitment CRM/ATS whose API v2 uses OAuth 2.0 and covers candidates, jobs, placements, placement timesheets, payroll billing and candidate privacy, with webhooks.

  • Firefish

    CRM for UK contract, temp and perm agencies, with a public API. Its Timesheet Portal link is one-way, sending placement details and rates every 15 minutes.

  • Mercury

    Agency CRM and back office on Microsoft Dynamics 365. Mercury publishes a Public API through its developer portal, with a subscription key and a tenant ID issued at onboarding; we would confirm its coverage with Mercury.

What we would build

  • Onboarding and compliance portal

    Issues the right KID for each pay route (PAYE, umbrella or limited company), logs when it was given and reissued, and records agreement to terms. Right to work runs through the Home Office online check, a certified digital provider, or a manual document check that must stay available, with copies kept for employment plus two years.

  • Timesheet and pay-and-bill bridge

    Pulls placements and rates from your CRM, gives clients an approval screen, and checks each run before payroll against the National Minimum Wage, 12.07% holiday accrual for irregular-hours workers and day-one statutory sick pay. A slow client approval never holds up pay.

  • AWR 12-week tracker

    Counts qualifying weeks per worker, hirer and role, applies the pause and reset rules, and records written notice of a role change. It holds the hirer's comparator pay and holiday terms and prompts the uplift at week 12.

  • IR35 and umbrella register

    Logs each Status Determination Statement received and passed down, and who is fee-payer. Keeps the umbrellas you use with their due-diligence evidence, and flags connected or overseas parties, which change who carries PAYE liability.

Rules we build around

The software keeps the dates, records and evidence these ask for. The duties stay with you, and we would check how they apply to your business with you.

  • Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003

    Terms agreed before any service, hirer details obtained and passed on, suitability confirmed before supply, no withholding of temps' pay, and limits on transfer fees. Records are kept for at least a year, and any held off-site must be retrievable within two business days of a Fair Work Agency request.

  • Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006

    Right to work is checked before work starts, by one of three prescribed methods. Employment businesses check their temps, and the civil penalty is up to £60,000 per illegal worker. From 1 October 2026, the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 extends checks to workers' contracts.

  • Off-payroll working (IR35) and umbrella PAYE rules

    Public bodies and medium or large private clients issue a Status Determination Statement, agencies pass it down, and the fee-payer deducts tax and National Insurance. For payments from 6 April 2026, the agency contracting with the end client must make sure an umbrella operates PAYE correctly.

Where AI helps

AI should not reject a candidate alone: under UK GDPR Articles 22A to 22C, a significant decision without meaningful human involvement needs safeguards, and the ICO's 2024 audit found tools inferring gender or ethnicity from names. A right to work check must use one of three prescribed methods, so an AI tool cannot stand in for one.

  • Reading CVs from email and job boards into candidate records and flagging likely duplicates, with a consultant confirming any merge.
  • Reading photographed or PDF timesheets against the placement's rates and flagging excess hours, pay below the minimum wage or missing holiday pay, for the back office to sign off.
  • Pulling expiry dates and qualifications from uploaded documents into the compliance file, with your compliance lead checking each one.

Software we built and still run

  • 4dayweek.io

    We built and run 4dayweek.io, a job board for four-day-week and nine-day-fortnight jobs. Its AI reads each ad and extracts base salary (dropping implausible figures), location, remote or onsite working, schedule, skills and seniority. Golden tests against real models must pass before any prompt or model change.

    How we built 4dayweek.io

Questions

Will it work with our CRM?

Bullhorn, Vincere and JobAdder publish OAuth-based APIs that expose placements, with webhooks or event subscriptions, and Firefish has a public API, so we build on the CRM you have. We found no public API for Access Recruitment CRM, so we would ask Access first.

Does the software make us compliant?

It enforces the workflow and keeps the evidence, but the duty stays with you. You stay liable for right to work checks done by a certified provider, and the KID must reach the temp before terms are agreed.

Can it evidence our umbrella due diligence?

Yes: which umbrellas you use, what was checked and when. Further umbrella rules under the Employment Rights Act 2025 were consulted on in 2026 and are not yet in force.

How long can we keep candidate data?

There is no single period; the ICO's draft guidance asks for documented retention periods. Some periods are fixed: Conduct Regulations records for at least a year, right to work copies for employment plus two years. Subject access requests are answered within one month.

Related

Other industries: Accountants.

Sources

Every rule, date and figure on this page comes from the sources below, checked on 31 October 2026. Rules change: check anything that matters with the source or your adviser.

The 52 sources

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