Staffing Owners do you use a back office support company for your billing or handle in house

For the past few months I have been interviewing back office support companies. For me being a startup it takes alot off my plate to have a back office company take the part of doing all the administrative tasks so I can just focus on recruiting.

I wanted to get some opinions as to if any other staffing agency owners use this service. If so what do you think about it

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Permalink Reply by pam claughton on January 15, 2013 at 6:54pm

George,

What is the work you are looking to not do? There's very little admin work in the beginning. Unless you are referring to contract staffing and dealing w/the timesheets, etc? You may want to look into using a service for that. I use ECS out of Binghamton, NY, they work nationally and will handle all of that stuff for your contractors and best part part is they pay them and you before the client pays. Most of these services make you wait until the client pays, they don't. They are a little pickier as to who they'll approve for a client, they run a d & b on your clients to make sure there are no red flags...but I see that as a bonus as well, because I'd rather know up front if there are potential payment issue. I've never had them say no yet to a client, so don't think it happens often. They charge a fixed percentage of the pay rate, which is also nice. Many of the other services charge it on bill rate and have you call in each time for a quote which is crazy. Just google them, ECS Employer Contractor Services and ask for Ed Kelley. I've used them for several years now and love it.

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Permalink Reply by George Pitts on January 15, 2013 at 7:15pm

Pam,

Thank you so much for your info. The back office support im looking at does the same. I am very interested in ECS now as they pay you before the client pays. The companies I was looking at pay the worker but not you until the client has sent a check. The other company I looked at does pay you and the client before payment however they dont handle the contracts at all thats something you have to handle and the other company that doesnt pay first does handle the contracts as well so I havent been able to find anyone that does both. It appears ECS does so I will be giving them a call tomorrow morning. Pam thank you so much for your feedback. BTW how long have you been in business I always like to ask owners that just to build myself up that I can be there one day ;)

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Permalink Reply by pam claughton on January 18, 2013 at 7:38am

Hi George, I'm in my 19th year of recruiting, and my company, Custom Search Group is in it's 9th year of business. ECS has a great contract that you can send your clients, breaks it all down by hours, so you can do a conversion at various points in the process with no fee after six months. Just be sure to build in enough profit on your margin so that it works out to at least your normal direct fee in that period. And yes, we get paid weekly, profit report comes via email every Thursday letting you know how many hours your people worked the week before and what your profit is. That amount is direct deposited usually by the next day. It's always fun to get that email every Thursday! My business is mostly direct hire, but I always have a few contractors out as well and that weekly cash flow is nice. :)

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Permalink Reply by George Pitts on January 18, 2013 at 1:34pm

Thank you so much Pam for all this great information. I am waiting on Ed Kelly to call me back. I am so excited and nervous at the sametime. 19 years is quite an accomplishment Pam