Margin and money controlThe problem: nobody can read four hundred payroll lines

Find the line that costs you money in week one.

Nobody can read four hundred payroll lines properly. TalentCore reads the week's margin report, runs 17 rules over every line and hands you a short list. A person looks at every flag and decides.

Talk to us See how it works

17 rulesRun over every worker line of the weekly margin report.
4 gradesCritical, high, medium or low, so the worst lines come first.
Read on your own serverMargin Check does not send your report to an outside service.

Margin check Week ending 8 November

PrintExport

Lines read412

Worth a look09

Companies37

On never-charged lines£0£208.00

All flags1 critical4 high3 medium1 low

Worker	Client	Hours	Pay/hr	Charge/hr	Net	Why
Lou B.	Example Packaging	40	£14.20	£13.90	-£188.00	Charged less than it cost	Mark checkedJo M., Wed 10:14
Tia F.	Sample Retail	38	£11.90	£16.50	£34.58	Pay rate below minimum wage	Mark checked
Omar S.	Demo Logistics	45	£16.00	£22.10	£51.30	Margin well below the rest of that client	Mark checked
Dom K.	Example Foods	64	£12.90	£18.40	£96.00	Over 60 hours	Mark checked
Raj K.	Example Foods	42	£12.90	£17.90	£63.84	Same worker twice on one client	Mark checked
Nia W.	Sample Retail	36	£12.75	£17.90	£43.20	Margin under 10%	Mark checked
Ana T.	Example Foods	40	£12.90	£18.40	£60.00	No NI on a normal week	Mark checked
Mo O.	Demo Logistics	45	£19.00	£22.10	£139.50	Pay rate unlike the rest of that client	Mark checked
Eve H.	Test Wholesale	16	£13.00	£0.00	-£272.48	Paid but never charged	Mark checked

Looked at by Jo M. Note: charge rate was never put up in April. Corrected from this week.

Example figures, drawn for illustration.

What it doesThe problem: a rate that was never put up, found at the year end

What a placement makes, before you quote and after you pay.

Six tools on the same set of rates. Each one turns a pile of numbers into a short list for a person.

Each week
Margin CheckEach client's own normal
Billed vs PaidBilled, expected and paid
Before you quote
Margin CalculatorThe true margin on a rate
Cost AnalysisA whole contract, not one rate
Across the business
Money RulesEvery figure, and who decided it
Profit and forecastWhich clients pay, and what is coming

Each client's own normal

Upload the weekly margin report from your payroll and Margin Check reads every worker line. Some rules look at the line on its own. Others compare it with the rest of that client, which is what catches a rate that was never put up. Open a flagged line and mark it reviewed, with a note, your name and the time.

Minimum wage is checked against the rate in force for the week of the report.
A printable view and a spreadsheet export of what was flagged.
Report layouts differ between payroll providers. We check yours with you before you rely on it.

Example Packaging 22 lines this week

All clients

Typical pay rate£12.90

Typical charge rate£18.60

Typical margin9.1%

Out of step1

Charge rate, each line

Lou B. £13.90

£12£14£16£18£20

Charge rate unlike the rest of that client. £4.70 an hour under the typical rate, and under what the line cost.

Billed, expected and paid, side by side

For each client and week, Billed vs Paid sets three figures together: what you billed, what the hours and rates say you should have billed, and what the work cost in pay. The gap between billed and expected should be nil. Anything else is a billing error to look at.

A missed or doubled invoice shows up as a number, in the same week.
The page says plainly what it can and cannot see, and labels its margin as gross.

How invoices are built

Billed vs Paid week ending 8 Nov

Client	Billed	Expected charge	Paid	Gap
Example Foods	£9,456.00	£9,456.00	£6,912.40	nil
Sample Retail	£3,484.00	£4,260.00	£3,108.00	-£776.00
Demo Logistics	£5,752.00	£5,752.00	£4,320.00	nil
Test Wholesale	£2,046.00	£2,046.00	£1,512.50	nil

Sample Retail: 40 worked hours were never billed. One line is missing from the invoice.

Matching grain: client + week. Margin is before oncosts.

The true margin on a rate

Enter the pay and the charge. The Margin Calculator adds holiday pay, employer NI, pension, the apprenticeship levy and your other costs, and shows what is left in pounds and per cent. You know whether a rate works before you agree it on the phone.

The statutory rates are the same ones payroll books. Change one here and it changes both.
Only PAYE carries holiday, NI, pension and levy. Other worker types are costed their own way.

Pay Rate (£/hr)£13.60

Charge Rate (£/hr)£18.20

Charge Rate (£/hr)£19.40

Worker Pay Rate	£13.60
Holiday Pay (12.07%)	£1.64
Employer NI (15%)	£1.93
Apprenticeship Levy (0.5%)	£0.08
Pension (3%)	£0.46
SSP/SMP Provision	£0.10
Total Cost of Sale	£17.81

2.1% margin, £0.39 an hour. Not enough.

8.2% margin, £1.59 an hour.

Cost a whole contract, not one rate

Cost Analysis works a tender or a managed service out line by line: skill, hours a week, weeks, charge and pay. On-costs are included, and the worker type changes the cost, since umbrella and limited company workers carry no employer on-costs. Save a scenario and come back to it.

A minimum margin you set. It is 8% until you change it.
Saved scenarios, by name and client.

How bids are run

Scenario Calculator Example Packaging, 12 weeks

Role / Skill	Worker Type	Hours/wk	Charge	Margin %
Picker, days	PAYE	300	£17.20£17.60	4.8%7.0%
Counterbalance	PAYE	80	£19.40	8.2%
Class 2 driver	Umbrella	90	£22.00	13.6%
TOTALS		470	£104,304£105,744	7.4%8.7%

Min margin target 8%Below targetViable

Save Scenario

Every money figure, and who decided it

Money Rules is one screen listing every figure the system uses to work out money. Each rule shows its value, a plain sentence on what it does, what it costs to get wrong, and every screen it feeds. That list of screens is worked out from the software itself.

Each rule is never set, due another look, or checked with a name and date.
A change will not save without a reason. The history is kept.
Separate permissions to view and to change.

Money Rules What this system is assuming about money right now

Employer NISet by the Government
15%Due another lookChecked

Added to the cost of every PAYE hour. Get it wrong and every margin you quote is wrong with it.

Where this is usedPayroll runMargin CalculatorCost AnalysisClient profitability

Who confirmed it, and from what sourceAccountant's letter, April 2026

Checked by Jo M., 11 Nov 2026. Source: accountant's letter, April 2026.
Holiday accrualSet by law
12.07%Checked
Minimum marginYour own decisions
8%Checked
Sick pay set-asideAsk the accountant first
£0.10Never set

Which clients pay, and what is coming

Client profitability is a preset report. It takes revenue and deducts pay and employment on-costs, to give a true margin for each client. The financial forecast looks the other way: it combines confirmed bookings with past patterns to project revenue by week, for one branch or the whole company.

You learn which accounts really pay for your desk.
The forecast runs up to 8 weeks ahead.

Every preset report

Client profitability after pay and on-costs

Example Foods11.8%
Demo Logistics9.4%
Sample Retail7.1%
Example Packaging2.3%

8-Week Revenue forecast, all branches

16 Nov23307 Dec1421284 Jan

ConfirmedPredicted

Example, illustrative figures.

Why it matters

Every flag is a prompt for a person, never a verdict.

For recruiters and for leaders

For recruiters

Know the rate works before you agree it.

You know whether a rate works before you agree it on the phone.
A wrong rate on your client gets spotted in week one, not at the year end.
When a figure on a payslip or invoice is questioned, one place says where it came from.

TalentCore for recruiters

For business leaders

Leakage measured every week, not found at year end.

A report nobody can realistically read line by line becomes a short list.
Nobody sells a rate that looks profitable and loses money once on-costs land.
No default quietly passes for a decision. You can see which numbers have been signed off.

TalentCore for business leaders

The specifics

How the money is checked.

8 facts

Each line is how the product behaves today.

17rules: Run over every worker line of the weekly margin report, a PDF from your payroll.
4grades: Critical, high, medium or low, so the worst lines come first.
8%: The minimum margin in Cost Analysis until you set your own.
8weeks: How far ahead the financial forecast projects revenue.
Client and week: The level Billed vs Paid works at: billed, expected, paid, gap and gross margin.
One set of rates: The Margin Calculator and payroll read the same statutory figures.
Five kinds of owner: Money Rules groups each figure: set by law, set by the Government, your own decisions, ask the accountant first, technical defaults.
Read on your own server: Margin Check does not send your report to an outside service.

How it connects

The same rates, from quote to payslip.

6 links

Tell us about the rate that never got put up.

Ask us, and the reply comes from a person who knows agency margins. We will show you the week it would have been flagged.

Talk to us info@talentcorecrm.com