Choosing it
When a new workspace is set up, choose Professional services, then answer What kind of firm? with Recruitment & staffing. That opens a recruitment workspace, and the preview beside the question shows what it starts with. Every other kind of firm opens the General workspace, and says so.
A recruitment workspace uses the agency's words:
- a lead is a Lead, and Leads & pipeline reads Business development;
- an account is a Client;
- an engagement is a Mandate, and the Engagements row reads Mandates;
- an offering is a Service: Permanent placement and Retained search to begin with.
People › Talent, which is about the agency's own staff, reads Succession here, so "talent" never means two things in one workspace.
The workspace starts with four departments: Executives, Business Development, Consulting and Finance. Consulting is the desk that works Candidates.
Mandates
A mandate is one vacancy a client has asked you to fill. Several openings for the same role are a count on one mandate, not several mandates.
A mandate opens when a lead is won (it files no offer letter and no instalment plan), or with New mandate on the Mandates page. Its page shows the client, the fee basis and the estimated fee, the openings filled, how long it has been open, and the Shortlist above its billing.
The fee terms come from the mandate's own terms if it has them, otherwise the client's, otherwise the workspace's, and the page says which. A workspace that has set nothing starts from 15% of the first year's gross package, due on the start date, with a 90-day guarantee that gives all of the fee back (or a free replacement) to day 30, half to day 60 and a quarter to day 90. That is a starting point, not a reading of the market.
Mandate details, on the mandate's page, changes the role, the number of openings and the salary band (monthly gross, from and to). Team leads (level 2) and above, and anybody who works Candidates, can change them. The fee in the same sheet (a % of the first-year package, or a fixed fee) sets this mandate's own terms, and only a manager (level 3) who works Candidates can change it; everybody else reads "The fee is set by a head of delivery."
Candidates
Work › Candidates is the agency's pool. Add candidate asks for a name and a phone number or an email first, and Rople checks they aren't already there. Nigerian numbers written as 0803…, 234 803… or +234 803… are the same number to the check.
Lawful basis. Every candidate needs one before they are saved:
- They agreed to be kept on file (consent), with how they agreed;
- They applied for a role (contract), with how they applied;
- We found them (legitimate interests), with whether our privacy notice has been sent. Not yet puts Privacy notice to send in the owner's My work.
What was agreed and when goes on the candidate's consent log, which is added to and never rewritten.
Retention date. Each candidate shows Keep until a date, two years from their last activity unless the workspace has set a different period. Past it, the record reads Past their retention date, with the choice to ask for consent again or delete their details.
Status. Active, Placed, Not looking, Do not contact and Restricted. A candidate who is Do not contact or Restricted can't be put forward again; live submissions stay as they are.
The CV. Add it with the candidate or later from their record: PDF, Word or a picture of the CV, up to 4 MB. The upload notice says that Rople never asks for a candidate's religion, state of origin, date of birth or photo, and there are no fields for them. A CV is kept privately, and opening one is recorded.
Who sees what. Everybody who can open Candidates sees the pool: name, headline, skills, status and owner. A candidate's pay (current and expected, monthly gross) and CV are for their owner, a consultant with a live submission for them, a manager (level 3) in Consulting, and org admins. Anybody else sees Hidden for your seat where the figure would be. Finance never sees a candidate's CV or pay; it sees a placement's agreed salary and fee.
Shortlists
Work › Shortlists is every candidate in play, mandate by mandate, and a consultant's morning screen. Each mandate's page has the same board for that mandate alone.
Put forward adds a candidate to a mandate at Sourced. From there:
Sourced › Screened › CV sent › Interview › Offer › Placed, with Out for anybody rejected or withdrawn.
- Screen moves a candidate to Screened.
- Send CV sends one or several. Each candidate must have agreed to be put to that client, with how they agreed and the date; without it the CV can't be sent. Send by WhatsApp or email, or say it has already gone, then Mark sent. Once a CV is sent, its date and who sent it are locked.
- The same candidate put to the same client on another mandate within the workspace's window (180 days to begin with) brings a warning, not a block.
- Book interview books it through Meetings. The meeting's title never carries the candidate's name. Record feedback says how it went, and Book the next round follows on.
- Not this time takes a candidate off the shortlist. It asks who said no (We did, The client or The candidate) and why.
- Nobody is placed by moving a card. Placed is reached by recording the placement.
My work raises the rows that move a shortlist: CVs screened and not sent, interviews today or tomorrow, feedback due, offers waiting on a candidate.
Placements
Clients › Placements lists who started where, the fee and the guarantee.
Record placement, from an accepted offer, asks for the agreed salary (monthly gross), the day the offer was accepted and the start date, and shows the fee before anything is saved. The fee is worked out on the year: monthly pay × the months in the package × the fee % (or a fixed fee), never below the minimum in the terms, rounded once to the whole naira. The placement credits one consultant today.
When the fee is invoiced. The workspace's rule raises the fee on the start date or when the offer is accepted (start date unless changed). The fee becomes a billing item on the mandate, ready to invoice in Finance › Billing, with the invoice's VAT and any WHT, and Collections chases it as any other. Fee not invoiced appears in My work until it is.
Retained search. A retained search is billed in stages, set on its proposal: for example a third on engagement, a third when the shortlist is presented and a third on placement. A stage named after one of the search's milestones falls due when that milestone is done. On the mandate, Mark the shortlist presented completes the Shortlist presented milestone, and its stage becomes ready to invoice. When the placement is recorded, the last stage becomes whatever is left of the actual fee. If more was billed before it than the fee comes to, the placement shows the difference so it can be credited.
Confirm start. On the start date the consultant is asked Did they start? Yes, a new start date, or They didn't start.
The replacement guarantee. Each placement runs a guarantee from its start date, with the days left shown on it. Its consultant is told before it ends (7 days to begin with). When the end passes with nobody leaving, the placement reads Guarantee cleared.
A leaver. Record leaver takes the day they left and why (Resigned, Let go, Role removed, Other). Rople works out which day of the job that was and what the terms give back. A manager in Consulting then decides Refund or replacement:
- Replacement reopens the mandate with the shortlist as it was; the next placement has no fee and links to this one.
- Refund goes on a credit note against the fee's invoice while the fee is unpaid. Once money has been received, the rest of a refund is raised as a payment request in Payables, approved like any other.
- No refund closes it with a reason, for example a guarantee the terms void because the fee was overdue.
Fell through. An offer withdrawn, a counter-offer or a start that never happened is Mark fell through, with the reason. A manager in Consulting marks it; a start reported missed reaches them in My work. A fee not yet invoiced is removed; an invoiced one is cancelled with a credit note.
Outsourcing
Clients › Outsourcing is for staff the agency employs and deploys to a client, billed every month.
- New outsourcing agreement: one per client. It asks when it starts and ends, the management fee (a % of gross pay, a % of total staff cost, or a fixed amount per head), the bill day, the variations cut-off and the payment terms.
- Add staff: name, role at the client, start date, monthly gross pay and statutory costs, as entered. Pension, NSITF, ITF, group life and health cover are entered as your payroll shows them, with an optional breakdown. Rople adds them up; it doesn't calculate PAYE or pension. Deployed staff are not Rople users and take no seat. End deployment takes them off.
- The monthly bill. Raise this month's bill drafts it from the staff on the agreement: monthly pay with the month's variations (absence, overtime, arrears), the statutory costs, total staff cost, the management fee and VAT. Nothing is saved until you raise it, and it is invoiced through Finance › Billing.
- VAT and WHT. VAT is charged on the management fee only unless the agreement says the whole bill. The WHT the client deducts is worked out on the fee alone, and the bill shows the payment to expect.
- The desk shows staff deployed, this month's bills, Funded, not collected (pay the agency has funded before the client paid) and the management fees, which are the agency's revenue on these bills.
My work raises a bill ready to prepare or invoice, an unpaid bill as payday comes, and a deployment ending.
Consultant figures
Shortlists and Placements show Placed this month and the fees billed, read from placements and never typed. A consultant sees their own; a manager in Consulting sees the team's and the workspace's. Fees billed are net of refunds, fees collected never exceed fees billed, and a fee shared between consultants adds up to the desk's figure.
Showing the pack
To demonstrate a recruitment workspace from Rople's own, use the Demo pack switch in the top bar and choose Recruitment & staffing. Candidates, Shortlists, Placements and Outsourcing appear in the sidebar, with the pack's words. Choose the pack marked "(ours)" to go back; the switch also lapses after a week. It changes only what this browser shows.
Not there yet
- Holding a refund as credit for the client's next fee. A paid fee is refunded through Payables.
- The screens for the retention review and the data-subject request log. The fields behind them ship now.
- Editing a credit split across more than one consultant.
- A CV over 4 MB.
- Changing a client's terms or the workspace's recruitment rules on screen. A mandate's own fee is set in Mandate details.
- Part months on an outsourcing bill are not worked out: a starter or leaver in the month is flagged to check the amount.
How it connects
- Leads become mandates in Leads and pipeline, and a mandate is an engagement in Clients and accounts.
- Fees and monthly bills are invoiced and chased in Billing and collections; refunds of money received are approved in Procurement.
- Interviews are meetings in Meetings and tasks.
- A retained search's stages are milestones on the mandate's delivery project (Projects).
- Everything to do arrives in My work.