What it is
Billings is the revenue a recruitment consultant generates in a given period, the number that actually lands on the P&L rather than something that predicts it. On a permanent desk that means the placement fees invoiced, typically a percentage of the placed candidate's first year salary. On a contract or temp desk it means the margin between the pay rate and the bill rate, invoiced every time a worker submits a timesheet. Some desks run both and add the two together into one combined billings figure.
Whatever the mix, billings is the number a billings board displays, the figure a manager reviews at month end, and the amount commission is actually paid against. It is deliberately a cash-in-the-door number, not an activity score.
Billings is the only recruitment metric that actually pays the bills. Everything else on the desk exists to predict it.
Why it matters
Billings is kept separate from every leading indicator that feeds it. Win rate shows what share of BD conversations convert. Time-to-fill shows how fast a role closes. The BD pipeline shows what is currently in motion. None of those numbers pays the bills, literally, until it shows up as an invoiced fee or a margin line. A desk can look strong on every leading metric and still miss target if the mix of roles or the agreed rate card is wrong, which is why experienced managers watch billings, not busyness.
Billings also compounds unevenly across the year. A perm placement lands as one lump sum on a single invoice, so a quiet month early in a search can be masked by a large deal closing at the end of it. A temp desk bills every week an assignment runs, so its billings curve is smoother but starts from a lower fee per placement and depends on keeping workers on assignment.
How boilr handles it
boilr does not run invoicing or payroll, that stays with the agency's finance system. What it changes is the volume of billable opportunity that reaches a consultant's desk in the first place. Your AI sales employee finds and enriches companies that match your ICP, detects buying signals that indicate a role is about to open, and drafts outreach tasks so the consultant can act while a signal is still live, rather than after the requisition has already gone out to a PSL. More qualified conversations at the top of the pipeline is what eventually shows up as billings at the bottom.
Because boilr tracks which signals, accounts and messages a consultant actually acted on, the Company Brain can connect targeting decisions back to the placements and temp fills that followed. Over time that turns billings from a lagging number a manager checks at month end into a feedback loop that sharpens which signals and account types the AI sales employee prioritises next.
