Recruiters earn placement fees, usually split between people, with a clawback if the placement falls through in the guarantee period. Those three things (the fee, the split, the guarantee) are what make recruiting commission harder than a flat sales plan. If you run placements in HubSpot, you can track all of it with data on the deal.
First, an honest note on where you track
Many staffing teams run on a dedicated applicant tracking system (ATS), not a CRM. If your placements live in an ATS, that is where the fee data is, and you would track commission there. This guide is for teams that run their sales pipeline in HubSpot, with each placement as a deal. If that is you, read on.
What makes recruiting commission different
- Placement fees. Commission is a share of the fee, which may be a percentage of salary or a flat amount per placement.
- Splits between recruiters. The classic split is between the person who won the job order (the client side) and the person who found the candidate (the candidate side). Even splits and weighted splits are both common.
- The guarantee period and clawback. If the candidate leaves inside the guarantee window, the fee is refunded or the placement is redone for free, and the commission comes back with it.
Handle the split
- Agree the split first. Client side and candidate side, even or weighted. Before the placement is made.
- Record it on the deal. Both recruiters and their shares, in HubSpot, not in someone’s head.
- Pay each share and show it on both statements.
There is a full guide in how to split commission between reps.
Handle the guarantee-period clawback
- Store the guarantee date. The date the window closes, on the deal.
- Set the trigger. The candidate leaves or is let go before that date.
- Reverse the commission. Full or prorated, depending on your agreement with the client.
- Net it off the next pay run and show the reason, so it does not look like a mistake.
More detail is in how to handle commission clawbacks.
Why HubSpot and spreadsheets struggle
HubSpot books the fee at close, with one owner and one amount. It does not split the fee between two recruiters and it does not watch a guarantee date to reverse a past payment. A spreadsheet can do both, but you have to remember to go back weeks later, find the placement, check whether the candidate is still there, and reverse it by hand. That is exactly the step that gets missed, and a missed clawback pays on a placement that did not stick. See can HubSpot calculate commissions.
Where Provikka fits
Provikka reads your HubSpot deals, splits the fee between the recruiters, and holds the guarantee date so it can reverse the commission if the placement falls through. Set the rules once, and each recruiter sees their own share and any clawback with the reason shown.
Want to try the numbers first? The free commission calculator handles splits and clawbacks. No signup.