What is a Missed Fee?

A missed fee occurs when a recruitment agency introduces a candidate to a client, but the client hires that candidate without paying the agreed recruitment fee. This often happens months after the original introduction, sometimes under a different job title, through another department, or via a different hiring route.

The agency did the work, made the introduction, and created the opportunity, but never receives the revenue they are contractually entitled to.



Missed fees are commonly referred to as backdoor hires, and they represent one of the largest sources of hidden revenue loss for recruitment agencies.

Most missed fees are not obvious or immediate. They happen quietly over time, which is why they are so difficult to detect manually.

Typical scenarios include:

• A candidate rejected initially but hired later when budgets change

• A candidate hired by a different team or office within the same company

• A job title changed slightly to appear as a different role

• A client hiring the candidate directly after the ownership period is assumed to have expired

• A candidate returning to a client months later through an informal route

With hundreds or thousands of introductions made every year, it becomes almost impossible to track every outcome manually.

Most agencies underestimate how much revenue they lose through missed fees. Even a small number each year can represent tens or hundreds of thousands in lost income.

The real impact goes beyond the immediate fee:

• Lost recruiter commission and motivation

• Reduced revenue per recruiter

• Inaccurate performance and forecasting data

• Clients unknowingly developing poor hiring habits

Without proper tracking, missed fees remain invisible, and invisible revenue cannot be recovered.

bobcheck exists to identify missed fees and help recruitment agencies recover the revenue they have already earned.

By connecting to your ATS and monitoring candidate movement, bobcheck automatically detects when candidates you introduced join your clients. Instead of relying on manual LinkedIn checks or chance discoveries, bobcheck gives you clear visibility and evidence.

Agencies use bobcheck to:

• Recover lost fees from previous introductions

• Protect future placements from being missed

• Gain visibility across every candidate they introduce

• Increase revenue without increasing placements