A recruitment CRM is where an agency keeps the relationships that pay the bills. Clients, contacts, jobs, notes, calls and emails all live there, and the quality of that record decides how well your team wins and keeps business. Yet many agencies choose a CRM by comparing feature lists, then discover a year later that nobody trusts the data. This checklist covers what to look for in a recruitment CRM, why each point matters and the questions to ask before you sign.
What a recruitment CRM actually does
A general sales CRM manages leads and deals for one product. A recruitment CRM has a harder job, because it manages two markets at once: the clients who give you roles and the candidates you place into them. The client side covers companies, hiring managers, job orders, terms and business development activity. The candidate side, usually called the ATS, covers profiles, CVs and pipeline stages. For the full background on how the two fit together, read ATS vs CRM for recruitment agencies.
For most agencies the practical answer is a platform where both sides share one database. That single point shapes almost everything else on this list.
1. Built for agencies, not adapted from sales
Start by checking that the CRM was designed for recruitment agencies. Generic sales tools can be customised to track candidates, but the result is usually a pile of custom fields that breaks whenever someone changes a process. A recruitment CRM should already understand clients, contacts, jobs, candidates, submissions and placements, and the links between them.
Ask the vendor to show how a new role from an existing client becomes a job, how candidates are attached to it and how a placement flows back to the client record. If any of those steps needs a workaround, keep looking.
2. Clients, contacts and jobs connected
Open a client record during the demo and see what is on it. You should be able to see every contact at that company, every open and past job, every candidate submitted, every placement made and the history of conversations, without clicking through five screens. When a hiring manager moves to a new company, you should be able to update their record and keep the history, because that move is often your next client.
3. Activity logging that happens on its own
A CRM is only as good as the activity in it. If consultants have to type up every call and copy every email, the record will always be incomplete. Look for email and calendar integration that logs activity against the right client, contact and candidate automatically, plus phone and SMS logging if your team works the phones. Then check how easy it is to find that history later from either side of the relationship.
4. Business development built in
Winning new clients is part of every consultant's week, so BD should not live in a separate tool or a spreadsheet. A good recruitment CRM helps you find companies that are hiring, build target lists, record every approach and set follow ups so nothing slips. Our guide to finding companies that are hiring explains a simple weekly routine that your CRM should support.
Ask whether you can prospect from inside the CRM, whether duplicate companies are flagged and whether you can see at a glance which accounts nobody has contacted in months.
5. A pipeline that matches how you deliver
Even if you are buying a CRM mainly for client management, the pipeline matters, because that is where jobs turn into revenue. You want a clear visual pipeline with stages that reflect how your agency works, and automations that send the right update to clients and candidates when someone moves forward. Stage changes should also be visible from the client record, so whoever manages the account can see where every shortlist stands.
6. Revenue you can see, not just activity
This is where many recruitment CRMs stop short. They report on calls made, CVs sent and placements logged, but not on what the work is worth. An agency owner needs to see placement fees by client, the gross profit margin on every deal and a forecast of what is likely to be invoiced in the coming weeks.
When fees and margins live in the same system as the pipeline, they update as deals move. When they live in a spreadsheet, they are always out of date. Look for client value reporting that shows which relationships actually drive the business, and read how to track GP margin per placement and recruitment revenue forecasting explained for the numbers worth tracking.
7. Reporting owners will actually use
Prebuilt reports save time, but every agency eventually asks a question the vendor did not anticipate. Check for both: a solid set of standard reports and a way to build your own without exporting to a spreadsheet. A live dashboard for the weekly sales meeting is a good test. If the numbers on screen match what consultants believe, people will use it. If they do not, the meeting turns into an argument about data.
8. Fit for the Australian market
An Australian agency has local needs. Check which local job boards and tools integrate today rather than on a future roadmap, whether pricing is in Australian dollars and whether support is available during your business hours. Ask how candidate data is stored and handled, and make sure the vendor can explain how the platform supports your obligations under Australian privacy law.
9. Migration and onboarding
The best CRM is no use if moving across takes months or loses your history. Ask exactly what will be imported, including candidates, clients, contacts, open roles, notes and documents, how long it will take and whether migration is included or charged separately. If you are leaving JobAdder, our guide on how to switch from JobAdder without losing data covers the steps.
10. Clear pricing and terms
Ask for per user pricing in writing, the list of paid add ons, the minimum term and the notice period. Ask what happens when you add a consultant partway through a contract. A CRM that looks affordable on the first call can become expensive once add ons and setup fees appear.
Questions to ask in every demo
- Can you show a new role moving from the client record to a placement, live?
- Where are calls, emails and meetings logged, and can I find them from both the client and the candidate?
- How do I find companies that are hiring without leaving the system?
- Where do I see placement fees, GP margin and the forecast by client and consultant?
- Which integrations are live today?
- What exactly is included in migration, and how long will it take?
How Klose Recruit helps
Klose Recruit is all in one recruitment software built in Brisbane by Australian recruiters, with the CRM and ATS sharing one database. Clients, contacts, jobs and candidates sit together, and calls, emails and meetings are logged against the right record. BD prospecting lets you find companies that are hiring through the Apollo database integration, the open web or your own database. Every role runs on a visual seven stage pipeline with stage automations.
The difference is revenue intelligence. Placement fees, GP margin by client and a weighted revenue forecast update live as deals move, alongside more than 30 prebuilt reports, a custom report builder and a live sales dashboard. Integrations include Aircall, Apollo, Jora, Gmail, Google Calendar and SMS, and migration is free on annual plans. See the recruitment CRM built in Australia or explore financial insights.
The takeaway
Choose a recruitment CRM that was built for agencies, connects clients, jobs and candidates in one place, logs activity automatically and supports BD every week. Then hold it to a higher standard than most: it should show what every client and placement is worth, not just how busy everyone has been. Use the checklist and demo questions above, and you will quickly see which platforms can genuinely run your agency.