Custom secondment hours and rate agreements software
Appfront builds software that enables staffing agencies to record their temporary workers' hours, have them approved by the client, and settle them against the rate agreements per assignment: the sales rate charged to the client, the professional's wage or purchase rate, and the surcharges in between. That way, the invoice and the payroll are based on the same approved hours.
What is software for temporary staffing hours and rate agreements?
Software for temporary staffing hours and rate agreements does two closely connected things. It records a temporary worker's hours per assignment and per period, has the client approve those hours, and knows which rates apply to each assignment: what the client pays per hour, what the professional costs or earns, which surcharges apply for overtime or unsocial hours, and how travel expenses are handled. The client invoice and the professional's pay or supplier invoice both follow from those two things.
Without software, hours arrive as a spreadsheet or screenshot, the client approves them by email, the rate agreements sit in the assignment confirmation, and someone in the office calculates the invoice by hand. That works until the first dispute with a client over a surcharge, or until the first month when the invoice and the payroll are based on different hours and the margin shifts for no clear reason.
We build custom software because rate agreements differ from one agency to the next. An agency with professionals on its payroll calculates differently from one that places self-employed contractors, and a framework agreement with a large client has tiers and discounts that no off-the-shelf package accommodates. The software should understand your agreements, not a generic version of them.
Hours per assignment
The professional records hours per assignment and per day, the client approves them in a separate environment, and those approved hours become the source of truth for both invoicing and pay.
Rates per assignment
Sales rate, purchase rate or wage, surcharges, travel expenses and tiers per assignment, with a validity period.
Invoice and payroll from the same source
Approved hours multiplied by the rate agreement, flowing into invoicing and into payroll or supplier invoices, without retyping.
How we build your software for temporary staffing hours and rate agreements
We start with your assignment confirmations, because that is where the rate agreements the software needs to know are set out. Then we build the chain of hours from registration through to settlement.
Which types of rates, surcharges, tiers and travel expense arrangements occur. We review a selection of assignment confirmations and framework agreements together.
The professional records hours per assignment, and the client approves them in a separate environment, with a reminder if they don't. Rejecting hours sends them back to the professional with a reason.
Rates per assignment with validity dates, and the calculation of invoices and pay from the approved hours, including surcharges and tiers.
Invoices go to your accounting system, pay to your payroll package, and self-employed contractors' supplier invoices to your creditors. After that, we take over the software's management.
What software for temporary staffing hours and rate agreements actually does
The components below appear at almost every staffing agency. Which ones you need depends on your contract types and your clients.
Hours recording per assignment
Per day, per assignment and per type of hour: standard, overtime, unsocial, travel time. On mobile or in the browser.
Client approval
The client approves or rejects hours per period, with a reason, in a separate environment without needing a login to your system.
Rate agreements with validity
Sales rate, purchase rate or wage, surcharges and tiers per assignment, with a start date and an end date.
Margin per assignment
What the client pays and what the professional costs, per assignment and per month, with the variance against the agreed rate.
Invoicing per client
Invoices per client and per period, with the breakdown the client expects and the approved hours attached as an appendix.
Payroll and purchase invoices
Approved hours go to the payroll package for employed professionals, or become a purchase invoice for self-employed professionals.
Who we build timesheet and rate agreement software for
The software is designed for agencies where margin per assignment is the business, and where hours and rates currently pass through too many hands.
Staffing agencies with employed professionals
Hours to the client and to payroll, with surcharges that differ by collective agreement and by assignment.
Intermediaries for self-employed professionals
Either the professional invoices, or you invoice on their behalf. The approved hours form the basis for both invoices.
Interim and consultancy agencies
Assignments with a day rate, a monthly maximum and agreements on travel time. Settlement must balance per assignment.
Agencies with framework contracts
Large clients with volume tiers, discounts and their own approval process. The software needs to understand that contract.
Test your idea first: a working prototype in 1 day
With OneDayBuild, we turn your idea into something tangible in one day for €1,150, so you can see whether further development is worth the investment. Decide to go ahead with the full build? Then we credit the full cost.
Explore OneDayBuild →Technology and integrations
The software consists of an environment for the professional, an approval environment for the client and the back-office administration. If you are concerned with the wider operations of a staffing agency, from recruitment to placement, see our page on staffing software. For timesheets without the rate side, there is timesheet software, and you can read about how we work on building software.
If your people work at clients who must approve hours each week, see our app for flexible staffing timesheets.
Why choose Appfront for your timesheet and rate agreement software?
In staffing, the money lies in the difference between two rates. Software that shows that difference per assignment pays for itself at the first discrepancy you catch.
One source for invoices and payroll
The approved hours are the single source of truth for both sides. A margin that drifts means an agreement that doesn't match, not a calculation error.
Clients approve without hassle
An environment that requires no login to your system, with reminders and escalation. Hours left unapproved are the biggest delay in invoicing.
Your contracts, including the difficult ones
Volume tiers, discounts, maximums and surcharges set out in the assignment confirmation are rebuilt faithfully. The software knows the contract, not an approximation of it.
Security and privacy in timesheet and rate agreement software
Rates and margins are the core of your business and should not end up with the professional or the client. Access is governed by role: the professional sees their hours and their own rate, the client sees the hours and the sales rate, and the office sees everything. Every access to rate data is logged.
Approved hours are locked. A correction after approval goes through a fresh approval by the client and remains visible as a correction, so that if an invoice is disputed, the history of every timesheet line can be traced.
Frequently asked questions about timesheet and rate agreement software
Questions staffing agencies ask before getting started.
It records the hours of placed professionals per assignment, has the client approve them, and settles them against the rate agreements for that assignment: sales rate, purchase rate or wage, surcharges and volume tiers. The invoice to the client and the payroll or purchase invoice for the professional both come from the same approved hours.
No. The temp worker gets their own environment with a link per period, approves or rejects with a reason, and receives a reminder if they don't respond. This is deliberately low-threshold, as unapproved hours are the biggest cause of delays in invoicing.
Yes. Volume tiers, discounts per period, monthly maximums and travel time arrangements are recorded per assignment or per client, with a validity period. The calculation follows the contract: if the contract changes, the configuration changes, not the code.
Yes. For a freelancer, the purchase rate is the basis of their invoice to you, or of the invoice you issue on their behalf. The approved hours form the basis for both sides, and the software keeps employed and self-employed workers separate in the settlement.
Allowances for overtime, irregular hours and public holidays are recorded per assignment, with the source: the professional's collective agreement, the agreement with the client, or both. The software calculates them automatically based on the type of hour registered.
Yes. Approved hours go to the payroll package with the correct pay components, and invoices go to the accounting software, in the format those packages expect. We align with what you use.
Sometimes it is, and in that case we'll say so. Custom development pays off when your rate agreements don't fit the package, when client approval doesn't work well at present, or when invoicing and payroll don't draw from the same hours and the margin therefore varies unexplainably.
Are your hours and rates per assignment reconciled?
Tell us what your rate agreements look like and where the settlement currently goes wrong. We'll review a few assignment confirmations with you and show what software would concretely deliver in your situation.