Recruiting firms have plenty of technology to help them find candidates, manage searches, and make placements. But what happens after a candidate accepts an offer? 

For many firms, that’s where the spreadsheets, manual invoices, commission calculations, and payment follow-ups begin. 

It’s a problem Eli Rubel, founder of Collected, discovered while working with recruiting firms through an accounting business. What started as a conversation with a frustrated client eventually became a software platform designed to help recruiting firms manage everything from placement to payout. 

As Recruiters Websites develops its relationship with Collected, we spoke with Eli about his entrepreneurial background, the financial challenges recruiting firms face, and why he started Collected. 

Q: Before starting Collected, what did your career look like? 

Eli: I’ve had a pretty varied career. I actually started in the art world because I wanted to be a photographer. Eventually, I realized that wasn’t going to support the lifestyle and family I wanted, so I moved into software. 

I started my first software company from my mom’s basement, raised venture capital, and eventually sold that business in 2014. 

From there, I spent time in e-commerce, bought and sold a business, and started several service companies, including marketing, design, and accounting firms. 

That accounting business is ultimately what introduced me to recruiting. 

We started working with recruiting firms, providing bookkeeping and fractional CFO services. I’m not an accountant by trade, but I’ve always been good at identifying problems and finding people who can help solve them. 

That experience gave me a firsthand look at the financial operations behind recruiting firms, which led directly to Collected. 

Q: What was the moment that made you realize recruiting firms needed something like Collected? 

Eli: One of our accounting clients was a direct hire recruiting firm with more than 20 recruiters. The CEO called me one day because he was frustrated with how they managed invoicing and commissions. 

He knew the process was complicated and asked whether I could help him figure out a better way to handle it. 

My first reaction was that there had to be software for this already. 

He told me he’d spent his entire career in recruiting and had never found anything that handled the specific requirements of their business. 

I went looking anyway. 

There was commission software for traditional sales teams and invoicing software for other businesses, but nothing I found really addressed the nuances of recruiting fees, commission splits, and the processes that happen after a placement. 

I also called two friends who owned recruiting firms to see how they handled these things. 

The original client was using calendar invitations to track when candidates started, when invoices needed to go out, which recruiters worked on a placement, and how commissions should be split. 

When I described that process to my friends, they told me it was pretty normal. 

That was my first big realization. If this was how recruiting firms were managing such an important part of their business, there was an opportunity to make it much easier. 

The second realization came after we built the first version of Collected. I started showing it to recruiting firm owners, and the response was consistently that it was much better than what they were doing. 

That’s when I knew we were solving a real problem. 

Q: How would you describe Collected to someone hearing about it for the first time? 

Eli: There’s a lot of software in the recruiting industry, but most of it focuses on everything leading up to a placement. 

You have tools for sourcing, applicant tracking, managing candidates, and filling positions. 

Very little of that technology focuses on what happens after the placement. 

That’s where Collected comes in. We focus on everything from placement to payout. 

That includes generating invoices, following up with clients about outstanding payments, calculating recruiter commissions, and managing commission splits. 

Recruiting firms have all kinds of commission structures and invoicing arrangements. Some use contingent searches, others use retained or contained arrangements, and many have complicated splits between recruiters. 

Collected is built to handle those different situations without requiring someone to manually manage everything through spreadsheets and accounting software. 

The goal is to take those administrative responsibilities off the recruiting team’s plate so they can spend more time doing what they do best. 

Q: What would you say to a recruiting firm owner who believes their spreadsheets work just fine? 

Eli: I hear that fairly often, especially from smaller firms. 

A three-person recruiting firm might genuinely feel comfortable managing its commissions and invoices in a spreadsheet. 

When I talk to firms with 10, 15, or more recruiters, the conversation usually changes. They might say they’ve made their spreadsheets work, but there’s often frustration behind that answer. 

My question is whether the spreadsheet is actually the best use of their time. 

Recruiters make money by recruiting. Every minute spent creating invoices, checking whether clients have paid, calculating commissions, or following up on administrative issues is time they aren’t spending on searches and placements. 

Even if your current system technically works, you have to consider what maintaining that system costs you in time. 

I recently spoke with the head of finance at a recruiting firm with nearly 30 recruiters. She showed me stacks of printed spreadsheets and reports, hundreds of pages she had to reconcile every month. 

That’s a lot of administrative work for something that could be handled differently. 

For smaller firms, it may not be an urgent problem yet. But as the business grows, those processes can become much harder to manage. 

Q: Which features tend to get the biggest reaction from recruiting firm owners? 

Eli: Commission calculations are usually the first one. 

Almost every recruiting firm owner believes their commission structure is uniquely complicated. They assume there’s no way software could account for all their different splits, arrangements, and exceptions. 

When I show them how Collected handles those calculations, that’s often the first moment when they realize how much work they could eliminate. 

The second big reaction comes from payment follow-ups. 

A lot of firms don’t have a consistent process for following up on outstanding invoices. 

They might notice their bank balance isn’t where they expected it to be, start checking which invoices have been paid, search through emails, and figure out who needs another reminder. 

That takes time, and it can mean payments aren’t being followed up on consistently. 

When owners realize Collected can handle that process, too, they start thinking about how much time their teams spend managing the business instead of generating business. 

Q: What do recruiting firm owners underestimate about the financial side of running their businesses? 

Eli: One thing is how important timing can be. 

Let’s say you’ve made a placement and the candidate starts on Monday. Your client owes you a substantial fee, but you don’t send the invoice right away. 

A week or two passes, and maybe the candidate has a difficult start. Suddenly, the hiring manager isn’t quite as excited as they were on day one. 

Now there may be hesitation about paying the invoice. 

You’ve already done the work, but a delay in your process has potentially complicated your ability to collect the fee. 

Another important factor is the experience of your own recruiters. 

As a firm grows, recruiters need to trust that their commissions are being calculated accurately and that they’ll be paid correctly. 

One feature I’m particularly proud of is the recruiter dashboard. 

Every recruiter can see which deals they’re owed commissions on, how their splits are calculated, when they can expect payment, and what they’ve been paid historically. 

If they’re on a draw plan, they can also see their draw ledger. 

Giving recruiters access to that information matters. If you’re trying to build a recruiting firm that attracts and retains talented recruiters, having a clear and trustworthy commission process is part of that experience. 

Q: What financial metrics should recruiting firm owners pay closer attention to? 

Eli: Days sales outstanding (DSO) is an important one. You need to understand how long it takes to collect payment after invoicing. 

I’d also pay close attention to accounts receivable aging and the broader cash conversion cycle. 

How quickly are you moving from doing the work to actually having money in the bank? 

We have a customer that can have close to a million dollars or more in outstanding receivables at a given time simply because of the volume of business they’re doing. 

When you’re dealing with numbers like that, staying on top of outstanding invoices and payment timing becomes incredibly important. 

You can be making placements and generating revenue, but if you aren’t collecting the money efficiently, you’re creating financial risk for the business. 

Q: When a recruiting firm starts growing, what needs to change behind the scenes? 

Eli: I think this applies to almost any business. 

When you’re small, you can get away with handling a lot of things informally. You walk into someone’s office, send a quick Slack message, or take a few minutes to sort something out. 

As the company grows, everyone gets busier. Suddenly, those little tasks become much bigger projects. 

Processes that worked when you had three people might not work when you have 20. 

My advice is to address those problems before they become emergencies. 

We’re seeing recruiting firms come to us because they know their current processes won’t support the next stage of growth. They may not be overwhelmed yet, but they can see where the problems are going to develop. 

That’s a much better position to be in than waiting until everything becomes difficult to manage and then trying to replace your systems while the business is already under pressure. 

Q: What are you working on at Collected that you’re particularly excited about? 

Eli: We recently released a feature focused on post-placement follow-ups. 

Most recruiting firms want their recruiters to stay in touch with candidates and hiring managers after a placement. That might mean checking in during the first week, after 30 days, or at different points throughout the guarantee period. 

The problem is that those follow-ups don’t always happen consistently. 

We built a feature that allows firms to create customized follow-up sequences for placed candidates and hiring managers. 

The messages go out as plain-text emails from the recruiter, so the communication feels personal while helping ensure important follow-ups don’t get missed. 

I’m excited about what that can mean for the candidate experience, client relationships, and future business. 

We’re also planning to expand Collected into the staffing and contract side of recruiting in 2027. 

Q: What’s an important lesson you’ve learned from building businesses? 

Eli: I think it’s easy for founders to fall in love with an idea or the process of building something. 

I’ve certainly done that before. 

What I’ve learned is that building a business is much more rewarding when you know you’re solving a problem people genuinely care about. 

Collected has been a different experience for me because the problem is so clear. 

When I show someone the platform, I can see the relief when they realize there’s a better way to handle something that’s been frustrating them for years. 

That’s much more satisfying than building something and then trying to convince people they need it. 

Q: Where would you like to see Collected five years from now? 

Eli: I’m not trying to build a giant business with Collected. I’m trying to build a really good business. 

Five years from now, I’d love for us to still have a small, close-knit team of people who genuinely enjoy the work they’re doing. 

Most importantly, I want us to have made life easier for recruiting firm owners, leaders, and recruiters. 

If we’ve done that, I’ll consider it a success. 

Introducing a New Industry Relationship 

At Recruiters Websites, we believe recruiting firms benefit from working with partners who understand the specific challenges of their industry. 

Our work focuses on helping recruiting firms strengthen their digital presence, communicate their expertise, and attract the right clients and candidates. Collected addresses a different but equally important part of the business: what happens after a successful placement. 

As firms grow, the systems supporting their marketing, recruiting, financial operations, and client relationships all become increasingly important. 

We’re excited to introduce Collected to the Recruiters Websites community and share how Eli and his team are helping recruiting firms manage their financial operations.. 

Interested in learning more about Collected? Visit collectedhq.com to explore the platform. 

And if your recruiting firm is looking to strengthen its website, content strategy, or digital marketing, contact Recruiters Websites to learn how we can help.