Forecast an issued, open recruiting placement invoice only after separating the placement event, candidate start date, client acceptance, contractual fee trigger, invoice date, due date, and current open balance. Assign a collection week only when current evidence supports the timing. A successful placement or expected start may support an upstream billing schedule, but it is not automatically an open receivable.

Direct answer for an executive recruiting invoice

An executive recruiting invoice belongs in the four-week population when the authorized source shows it as issued and open. Retained-search milestones, candidate acceptance, and start dates can explain the billing trigger, but the collection week still needs current customer-side evidence. Preserve those events as supporting fields rather than replacing the invoice record with the engagement schedule.

Recruiting contract structures vary, so the firm's executed client terms remain the source of truth. The Recruitment & Employment Confederation's contract library distinguishes documents for permanent placements, temporary workers, and other recruitment models. That variety is a practical reason to preserve the actual contract reference and billing trigger instead of using one assumed workflow for every placement.

Executive search does not create a separate AR rule

Executive recruiting may use retained, contingent, staged, or other contract-specific billing structures. That commercial label does not change the forecast boundary: include an amount in invoice-level AR only after the authorized accounting source shows an issued open invoice. Keep search milestones, placement expectations, and future billing triggers in an upstream schedule.

For each executive recruiting invoice, preserve the engagement reference, billing trigger, source invoice, open amount, due date, client-side approval evidence when applicable, internal owner, and next review date. Avoid exposing candidate personal data in the finance review.

For retained search, keep each contract-defined billing milestone separate from the final placement or start event. For contingent search, do not assume the placement event creates an open receivable until the source invoice exists. In both models, the collection week requires customer-side evidence beyond the recruiting milestone.

Separate the placement-to-cash stages

Use a visible status for each stage:

  • **Introduction or search active:** No placement fee receivable is assumed.
  • **Offer accepted:** A commercial milestone exists, but the invoice trigger still depends on the agreement.
  • **Candidate started:** Start evidence is recorded when relevant to the fee terms.
  • **Client acceptance confirmed:** Any required approval or purchase-order evidence is present.
  • **Invoice issued:** The transaction appears in the authorized accounting source.
  • **Invoice open:** The source shows a remaining receivable balance.
  • **Receipt applied:** Payment is tied to the invoice in the accounting source.

Do not add the placement fee to open AR before the source invoice exists. If management wants visibility earlier, keep the expected billing event in a separate upstream schedule.

Build the invoice evidence row

For each issued open placement invoice, preserve:

  1. Client, invoice number, invoice date, due date, and open amount.
  2. Placement or assignment reference without exposing candidate private data.
  3. Contract version and the fee-trigger field used by the business.
  4. Observed start, acceptance, purchase-order, or portal status when applicable.
  5. Any rebate, replacement, dispute, or documentation condition requiring review.
  6. Internal owner, next action, and next review date.
  7. Expected collection week, evidence label, and later observed outcome.

Intuit's A/R aging guide explains the transaction-level aging report used to identify open and overdue items. Add placement evidence alongside that source; do not overwrite the ledger dates or amounts.

Keep the forecast and contract review bounded

A due date is a ledger fact, not proof that the client will pay in that week. A start date may support the fee trigger, but it does not prove receipt timing. A rebate or replacement condition may be commercially material, but finance should route its interpretation to the authorized owner rather than turning this workflow into legal advice.

The staffing cash-flow guide addresses temporary staffing and payroll exposure. This page has a different intent: permanent or fixed-term placement invoice evidence. The collection-assumptions template provides owner, blocker, and review fields. If one client dominates the expected week, use the customer-concentration framework.

When the executed agreement includes a replacement or refund condition, track it beside the invoice rather than silently netting the source balance. The placement-guarantee forecast framework separates invoice state, collection evidence, and contract-specific contingency review.

For collaborative placements, the recruiting split-fee workflow keeps the gross client receivable and the partner-agency share as linked but separate records before management reviews net liquidity.

AR Pulse analyzes an authorized customer-provided QuickBooks receivables export and returns a ranked cash-action list plus a four-week collections forecast. It does not request QuickBooks credentials, interpret recruitment contracts, contact clients, or promise payment outcomes. Recruiting finance teams with a clean invoice-level export can apply for AR Pulse.

For the agency-wide operating view, the recruiting collections forecast guide connects placement pipeline, billing readiness, open invoices, client evidence, and weekly reconciliation without counting future fees as current AR.