Candidate and client intake
Applications and briefs arrive by email. Someone retypes the details and chases the documents that are missing.
Recruitment
Spend your day on placements,
not on the admin around them.
10PM provides recruitment business automation from London. I help founder-led agencies organise relationship records, follow-up tasks and reporting, then explore intake, billing or other connections around the way the agency works.
By Anne Peire
At a glance
- Who it fits
- Founder-led agencies with a small team of consultants
- What it removes
- Retyping at intake, follow-ups kept in memory, CRM updates, weekly reporting
- Proof
- A recruitment agency in London, live since September 2026
- Where it starts
- A free conversation, then a £350 Process Review or a broader Review from £650
The problem
The information is there.
Nobody can use it.
Every application, call and client conversation is recorded somewhere: a spreadsheet, a job board, an inbox, a notebook. Everything that happened is written down. Very little of it can be found when it matters.
Follow-ups live in a consultant’s head. When the week gets busy, a client goes quiet and nobody notices. When a consultant leaves, part of the pipeline leaves with them.
And the founder’s real questions stay open. Which sectors respond? Which clients are worth the effort? Answering means assembling a picture by hand, so it can be left undone.
A recruiter’s memory should not have to be the system.
Where the time goes
Where recruitment teams
lose the most time
Four areas account for most of it, and all four repeat with every role and every client.
Common candidates in a recruitment agency
- Applications turned into a record, with missing documents requested
- Follow-up tasks at set intervals after each contact
- Contacts moved to nurture or dormant on rules you agree
- Interview confirmations and reminders prepared as drafts
- An alert when a key client has gone quiet
- A weekly report for the founder, from the same data
- Placement invoices prepared when a start date is confirmed
- Client and candidate data moved out of spreadsheets into one CRM
Client work
From tracking activity
to deciding with it
A founder-led recruitment agency in London had activity recorded across spreadsheets, email and notes. All of it was written down, and none of it could be used to decide where the effort should go next.
The work started with understanding how the business really operates and what a complete record looks like. Records were then brought into one place, activity tracked the same way each time, and reporting designed backwards from the founder’s own questions. The team received a written guide and a handover.
The founder was clear that this was not a time-saving project. The tracking was daily work either way. What changed is what that work now produces.
“This will allow me to see the bigger picture and understand where to go next, using real data rather than guesstimates.”
An early account: commercial impact has not been measured yet. Read the case study
In practice
Start with the relationship process
| Area | What it means |
|---|---|
| Relationship CRM and reporting | The delivered recruitment example brings records together, creates follow-up tasks and reports on the founder’s priorities. |
| Candidate and client intake | An option to scope around your forms, ATS or CRM, with a person reviewing missing or uncertain information. |
| Placement billing and ATS connections | Feasibility depends on supported access, records and permissions. We agree those before quoting the implementation. |
Industry context
Recruitment
A fee agreed is not cash collected.
REC highlights late payment and fee disputes, with the pressure particularly acute in temporary staffing.
What we can work onPlacement or timesheet approvals, complete billing records and payment queries with a clear owner and next action.
Help for recruitment businessesIndustry context, not an endorsement of 10PM. The practical responses are examples to scope; they are not measured client outcomes.
How we get there
From your first question
to a working solution.
We agree the right depth of discovery first. Each paid stage has its own deliverables and fixed fee; you decide whether to continue after it.
First, a free 15-minute conversation to understand the challenge and agree the appropriate next step.
Understand your business
We explore the process, what you want to achieve and how your team prefers to work. I challenge the proposed solution if the underlying problem is different.
You receiveA clear process map, written recommendations and an agreed priority.
Check the tools and feasibility
During separately scoped Process Design, I check the connections, permissions, costs and exceptions that could affect the solution.
You receiveA documented workflow, feasibility findings and the requirements for a reliable build.
Agree the scope and price
Before implementation, we agree what will be built, the timeline, responsibilities and how we will check that it works.
You receiveA written proposal with a fixed build price, acceptance checks and any ongoing costs.
Build and test
I build the agreed solution and test normal cases, exceptions and approvals. Your team reviews it against the checks we agreed.
You receiveA working solution, a demonstration and the agreed checks completed before handover.
Document, train and hand over
I show your team how to use the solution, what to monitor and how to handle exceptions. We clarify ownership and support.
You receivePractical instructions, a walkthrough and clear support terms so your team can run it.
One recurring processFocused Process Review · £350Several connected prioritiesBusiness Process Review · from £650
Discovery, Process Design and implementation each have an agreed scope and fee. You choose the appropriate discovery service; buying both is not required. Testing, documentation and team handover are included in the agreed implementation scope.
Before we talk
What agencies ask
before starting.
Recruitment has its own tools and habits. These are the questions that come up first.
Do you work with our ATS or CRM?
I start from what you already use. Many recruitment systems have connections other tools can use, some have very few, and I check yours before anything is designed. Before 10PM I spent years in B2B software, including HR technology, so I know how these systems are sold and where they tend to fall short.
Will messages go to candidates or clients automatically?
The system creates tasks, reminders and drafts. A person checks and sends anything that reaches a candidate or client. Decisions about candidates and relationships remain with your team.
We are not ready to change our CRM. Is there still a point?
Often, yes. Sometimes the answer is to clean up and connect the system you already have, rather than replace it. The Review tells you which, before you spend anything on a build.
Is this about saving time, or about better decisions?
It can be either, and it is worth knowing which before you start. In the recruitment case study below, the founder was explicit that the value was a clearer view of the business rather than hours saved.
What does the Review involve?
A conversation about how your week actually runs, then analysis and a written report. Under two hours of your time. From £650.
Ideas to explore
Two ways to keep relationships moving.
A new enquiry in the right place.
Capture the contact and context, assign an owner and agree the next action in the client record.
Explore an enquiry example ↗A conversation with a follow-up.
Prepare the summary and proposed next steps from approved notes, then check and send the client message.
Explore a meeting follow-up ↗Keep reading
Related
Your business
Which follow-ups are living
in someone’s head this week?
Tell me how your week runs, from brief to placement, and I will tell you where I think the time and the information are going.
15 minutes · No charge
Prefer to write? anne@10pm.works