Free tool
Client update and search capacity calculator
Count the weekly hours your open searches spend on status writing and feedback chasing, then see how many searches are left in the week you have.
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Placement fee and desk revenue calculator
Enter your average placed salary, fee percentage and yearly placement count to see what actually lands after fallout, splits and the fixed cost of the desk.
Every recruiter can quote their fee percentage. Far fewer can say what a year of placements leaves once a couple of hires fall off inside the guarantee, a partner takes a share on split deals, and the desk itself costs money whether or not anyone starts. This calculator does that arithmetic in one pass so you can see the gap between billings and what the firm keeps.
Use realistic inputs rather than good ones. The average placed salary should be the average you actually close, not the retained controller search you are proudest of. The fallout figure should include the candidate who resigned in month two and the one whose role was pulled after the offer, because both cost you the same way.
Your result
Average fee per placement
$28,600
The invoice you raise on a typical start before anything comes off it.
Gross billings for the year
$400,400
The number recruiters quote at conferences, and the least useful one here.
Billings kept after fallout and splits
$313,113
What the firm still holds once guarantees and shared fees are settled.
Left after fixed desk cost
$259,113
This is the pool that pays the recruiters and anything the firm reinvests.
These figures ignore invoice timing, so a strong year on paper can still be a tight one in the bank until starts convert to cleared payments.
Why fallout hurts more than the percentage suggests
A placement that falls off in month two does not simply remove one fee. It usually costs a replacement search you run for free, at the same sourcing effort as the original, on a client who is now less patient. If you model fallout as a flat reduction in billings you are understating it, because the replacement work displaces a search that could have earned a fresh fee.
That is why the guarantee terms in your fee agreement deserve as much attention as the rate. A replacement guarantee and a refund guarantee produce very different years on the same fallout rate, and a shrinking guarantee window changes the exposure again.
Reading the last line honestly
The final figure is what remains before either recruiter takes any pay. On a two person desk it has to cover both draws, taxes, and the reserve you need for the month a big invoice slips. Firms that treat gross billings as income are the ones surprised by a quiet quarter, because the fixed costs of the desk keep running whether or not a search closes.
If the last line comes out uncomfortable, three levers move it: raise the blended fee rate, raise the average placed salary by changing which roles you accept, or cut the number of searches you carry that were never going to fill. The third one is usually the fastest and the hardest.
Questions about this calculator
Should I use base salary or total compensation?
Use whatever your fee agreement defines as the fee basis. Many boutique agreements bill on first year base only, while others include guaranteed bonus or sign on. If your agreements differ by client, run the calculator twice and compare the two shapes of work.
What if I do not run split deals?
Set the split share to zero and the calculation removes that line. If you split only occasionally, estimate the blended effect rather than the rate on a single deal, since one shared fee across fourteen placements moves the yearly figure much less than it feels like it should.
Does this account for retainers already invoiced?
Not directly, because a retainer changes the timing of cash rather than the total fee on a filled search. Where retained work matters is on searches that never fill, since the engagement portion is earned regardless. Model that separately from your placement math.
More free tools and working documents
Working document
The client shortlist checklist
Everything that has to be true before a slate goes to a hiring manager, and what to do in the days after it lands.
Now make that number hold across every open search
The figure on this page came from your own placements, your own fee percentage and your own week, so it is worth more than any benchmark. Keeping it honest means every submission, every stage change and every piece of client feedback landing in the same place instead of three reply threads. Ask for a demo and bring the inputs you just entered, and we will show you which part of that number a live shortlist actually moves.