This system map belongs to the placement guarantee hub. The worked placement guarantee dispute tells one story; this page shows the plumbing that lets anyone tell such a story from records.
Where each piece of a dispute is kept
A placement guarantee dispute is assembled from records nobody designed to sit together. Four systems are common.
The ATS holds the job order, with requirements and often the fee, and the placement, with the start date and, in many firms, the guarantee period. Where change requests are used, it also holds the history of edits made after a placement was approved.
The email inbox holds most of what happens after the start: the hiring manager's note that the job has changed, the notice that the hire is leaving, the first message disputing the fee.
The CRM or ticketing tool, where one is used for client service, holds the claim as a case with a reference, an owner and a status.
Accounting holds the outcome: a credit note, a refund, or the invoice for a replacement placement at no fee.
The linking keys, system by system
| System | Record | Linking key | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|
| ATS | Job order with fee and guarantee terms | Job order ID | Account manager |
| ATS | Placement with start date | Placement ID, carrying the job order ID | Back office |
| ATS | Change request on the placement | Placement ID on the request | Back office |
| Email inbox | Role-change and resignation messages | Placement ID or candidate name typed in the text | Recruiter or account manager |
| CRM | Placement guarantee claim case | Case reference, with the placement ID if entered | Account management lead |
| CRM | Decision memo | Case reference | Operations director |
| Accounting | Credit note or refund | Credit memo reference citing the placement | Finance controller |
| ATS | Replacement placement | New placement ID, linked to the original if noted | Recruiter |
Two keys do most of the work: the placement ID and the claim's case reference. Every other join is only as good as the habit of typing one of them into the next system.
Five joins and how each one fails
| Join | Connects | What usually breaks it |
|---|---|---|
| Terms | Placement to job order and fee terms | Guarantee wording kept only in a signed PDF, not in fields |
| Start | Placement to its corrections | Start date overwritten by a direct edit, with no request |
| Claim | Client's claim to the placement | Claims handled by phone or email with no case opened |
| Change | Evidence of the role change to the claim | Notes that name the candidate but not the placement |
| Outcome | Decision to credit or replacement | Credit booked as a lump discount on a later invoice |
The start join deserves extra attention because the guarantee window is counted from the start date. In Bullhorn, for example, the vendor's support blog flags a wrong start date as a frequent slip and makes approved change requests the route for later edits, and its knowledge base describes a list view of those requests. For the map, that means the start join is a separate record with its own key (the placement ID on each request), not a property of the placement itself. Where it is missing, the map should say "final value only" for that hop. The Bullhorn data export page covers what else sits in placement history.
One claim traced through four systems (Illustrative)
Fictional, written for this page. A 240-person finance and accounting staffing firm places a controller with a manufacturing client under a 60-day replacement guarantee.
| Step | System | Record | Key carried forward |
|---|---|---|---|
| Order | ATS | Job order JO-4471, controller, fee and 60-day replacement terms | JO-4471 |
| Start | ATS | Placement PL-9032 created from JO-4471 | PL-9032 |
| Correction | ATS | Change request moves the start date two weeks later, approved by back office | PL-9032 |
| Change | Email inbox | Client asks the controller to also run payroll; recruiter replies citing PL-9032 | PL-9032 typed in the subject line |
| Claim | CRM | Case C-2218 opened when the controller leaves on day 52 | C-2218, with PL-9032 entered |
| Decision | CRM | Memo: replacement owed, payroll duties noted for the new search | C-2218 |
| Outcome | ATS and accounting | Replacement placement PL-9177 at no fee; zero-value invoice cites PL-9032 | PL-9177 linked to PL-9032 |
Every hop in this case carries a key, which is why it can be read end to end. The corrected start date matters too: counted from the original date, the departure would have fallen on day 66, outside the 60-day window. Many real firms will not have every hop. A common picture is solid ATS and accounting joins with a patchy middle, and that is still worth describing honestly. The same promise, event, claim and outcome pattern shows up in carrier invoices on the freight audit exceptions page.
Questions for the back office and finance
Ask these at metadata level and write down the answers, not examples.
- Are guarantee periods and remedies stored as placement or job order fields, or only in client agreements?
- Since which year have start-date corrections gone through change requests?
- Is there a case type or tag for placement guarantee claims, and does it record the placement ID?
- Do recruiters put the placement ID in emails or notes about changes after the start?
- Do credit notes and refunds name the placement they relate to?
- Are replacement placements linked to the original in the ATS?
- When does access to any earlier ATS end, and was its change history imported?
Qualification and open items
The records are the firm's own operating records, but client agreements carry confidentiality terms and the placed person's details are personal data; who owns candidate data at a staffing agency explains those layers, and staffing firm ATS data licensing covers the wider question. The operations director sponsors; the CEO, or the owner-CEO in an owner-run firm, approves and signs, often with the CFO advising.
An introduced firm needs 50+ full-time employees at peak (contractors excluded), a documented operating history, rights to license and an authorized contact. Companies in the U.S., Canada and the EU qualify, as do companies in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, South Africa, Latin America, the UAE and Saudi Arabia when at least 90% of the data is in English. Join quality, de-identification, client consent, buyer interest and any offer stay unknown until SourceX reviews the opportunity. To write the answers into a handoff, use the placement guarantee brief template.
Next step
Refer a company. Earn up to $100,000. Default reward: 25% of Actual Supplier Payout, capped at $100,000 cumulatively per referred company. Eligibility and payment conditions apply, and a signed Schedule A or addendum can differ. A lead, meeting or signature alone does not trigger payment.
If the answers show that placement IDs travel from the ATS into claims and credit notes for several years, register as a partner, check the firm against who qualifies and read the program terms before you introduce its operations director.