Mandate Cost Calculator for Recruitment Agencies (Excel)

What's Included in This Mandate Cost Calculator

Recruitment agencies price mandates by fee rate, but they run on hours. A mandate that looks attractive at 25 percent can lose money once research, outreach, interviews and the occasional dropped placement are counted. This Excel workbook shows what one mandate costs you, what is left on average and from which fill rate it pays off.

1. A calculator for one example mandate: salary of the role, fee rate, advance, fill rate, drop-out in the guarantee period, hours per step, hourly cost, tool cost and third-party cost.
2. The result as an expected value: expected fee, total cost, contribution margin, cost per placement, fee per working hour, break-even fill rate and expected annual result.
3. A scenario for less search effort: what changes if research and outreach take less time, including the extra mandates your freed-up hours could carry. The percentage is your own assumption.
4. A mandate list for 20 mandates: status, hours, fee received, refund and cost per mandate, with your actual fill rate, drop-out rate and return per hour at the top.
5. A fee model comparison: pure success fee, retainer in thirds and an exclusive mandate with an advance, for the same role, with cash in at the start and the worst case.
6. A short guide in five steps.

Key Features That Save You Time

• It counts hours, not only fees. Six work steps from briefing to administration add up to the hours per mandate, priced at your fully loaded hourly cost.
• It counts what goes wrong. The drop-out rate and the refund in the guarantee period are part of the expected fee, so a placement that leaves is not booked as a full win.
• It shows the break-even fill rate. You see from which share of successful mandates the work pays for itself, and whether that share is realistic.
• It uses your own numbers. All example values are freely chosen. Replace them with the figures from your mandate list.
• It compares fee models on one page. Retainer and success fee carry different risks, and the comparison puts them side by side.

How to Use This Mandate Cost Calculator

1. Start on the Mandates sheet and enter your last 10 to 20 mandates: status, hours, fee and refunds. This gives you an honest fill rate and return per hour.
2. Copy your fill rate and drop-out rate into the Calculator sheet and enter your hours per step and your hourly cost.
3. Read the break-even fill rate. If it is close to your actual rate, the mandate type is at the edge of profitability.
4. Use the scenario for less search effort with your own assumption, and test it in a pilot on real mandates before you plan with it.
5. Compare the three fee models for a typical role and decide where an advance is worth negotiating.

Why This Mandate Cost Calculator Works

In our conversations with recruitment agencies, one observation comes up again and again: agencies think in mandates, not in seats or licences. Per-seat prices fit them badly, because the real cost of a mandate is time. The calculator follows that logic. It starts from the mandate, adds the hours, and ends with a contribution margin per mandate and per working hour.

It is deliberately honest about uncertainty. Everything is an expected value: fee times probability, minus refunds. If a mandate only pays off at a fill rate you have never reached, the sheet says so. For the cost side of software, see what software costs per mandate and recruitment software costs for agencies.

The scenario is pre-filled with the cost of one Atlas Recruiter seat at list price, 299 euros per month net, as of 29 October 2026 and current on the pricing page. Atlas is a search and outreach tool, not a mandate or fee system: it does not track fees or placements, so keep that part in this workbook or your own CRM.

A Closer Look: The Example Numbers

The example mandate has a salary of 70,000 euros and a fee rate of 25 percent, so the fee on placement is 17,500 euros. With a fill rate of 50 percent, a drop-out rate of 10 percent in the guarantee period and a refund of half the fee, the expected fee is 8,312.50 euros.

On the cost side the example counts 46 hours at 55 euros, 450 euros of tool cost per mandate (9,000 euros per year over 20 mandates) and 150 euros of third-party cost: 3,130 euros in total. The expected contribution margin is 5,182.50 euros per mandate, the cost per placement 6,260 euros and the break-even fill rate about 19 percent. All of these figures are freely chosen examples, not benchmarks.

In the scenario, 30 percent less time on research and outreach lowers the hours per mandate from 46 to 39.4. With one extra Atlas Recruiter seat at 3,588 euros per year, the margin per mandate rises by about 184 euros. The larger effect is capacity: the same hours carry about 3.4 more mandates a year, worth about 18,000 euros if you win them. Whether the 30 percent holds for you is exactly what a pilot should show.

Who Should Use This

• Owners and managing partners of recruitment agencies who price mandates and want to know what they really earn.
• Recruiters and consultants who want to understand their own return per working hour.
• Agencies that consider a retainer or an advance and want to see the effect before they negotiate.
• Teams that evaluate a sourcing tool and need a business case with their own numbers.

If you are building the business case for a tool, see what we offer for recruitment agencies.

FAQs

How is the expected fee calculated?

The advance, plus the fill rate times the remaining fee, minus the expected refund: fill rate times drop-out rate times refund share times the fee. It is an average over many mandates, not a forecast for one.

What fill rate should I enter?

Your own. The Mandates sheet calculates it from your closed mandates. The 50 percent in the example is a freely chosen value.

What does a mandate really cost me?

Hours times your fully loaded hourly cost, plus a share of your tools and any third-party cost. The calculator shows all three and adds them.

Is a retainer better than a success fee?

It depends on your fill rate, your drop-out risk and how committed the client is. The fee model sheet shows the effect for your numbers. It does not recommend one model for everybody.

Is this tax or legal advice?

No. Fee rates, guarantee periods and refund rules depend on your contracts. The file is a working aid.

Can I use the calculator for one recruiter or for the whole agency?

Both. For one recruiter, enter that person's hours, hourly cost and mandates per year. For the agency, use the team's averages and divide the total tool cost by the total number of mandates. Do not mix the two in one file, because an average hides the difference between a strong and a weak mandate type.

How often should I update it?

Once a quarter, from the mandate list. Fill rates and hours drift, and a calculator with last year's numbers gives last year's answer.