Key points
- Most businesses buy workforce services from several suppliers, each with its own system and invoice.
- Every hand-off between them is a place where time, money and control leak away.
- One client-held system removes the hand-offs and puts the data where decisions are made.
The chain most businesses run
A typical flexible workforce touches five kinds of supplier: someone to find people, someone to check them, someone to pay them, someone to insure them and someone to bill and reconcile it all. Each one is reasonable on its own. Together they form a chain.
Where the chain costs you
The costs are rarely on any one invoice. They sit between suppliers:
- The same person’s details typed into several systems.
- Hours that differ between the timesheet, the payroll and the invoice.
- Compliance evidence held by a supplier you have to ask for it.
- Five relationships, five sets of terms and five invoices to approve.
- No single view of cost and margin per assignment.
What one system changes
When the five services share one record of every person, assignment and payment, the hand-offs disappear. Approved hours drive pay and billing at the same time. Compliance is checked before work starts, not chased afterwards. And the client holds the view, rather than waiting for reports from each supplier.
Questions to ask your current setup
A quick way to find the drag in your own chain:
- How many systems hold a copy of the same worker?
- How long after the week ends do you know your true labour cost?
- How quickly could you show an inspector every right to work check?
- How many invoices do you approve for one week of labour?
Questions
What does client-held mean?
The system is built around the client, who sees every assignment, instruction, check, payment and invoice in one controlled view.