Specialists & professional services

External professionals and consultants: expensive to buy in, rarely in view

Pactos brings requirement, contract, delivery and invoice together – even when the delivery is not a timesheet.

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Companies manage their external professionals and consulting services with Pactos

Vaillantunique PersonalserviceVolvoKNUTH WerkzeugmaschinenNoerpel GruppeHive TechnologiesManpowerSCS Supply Chain StaffingBürgerTalent Spring Expertum
Everyday reality

Five places where external professionals become unnecessarily expensive

  1. Past procurement
  2. Four contract types
  3. Unclear distinction
  4. Delivery, not hours
  5. Access left open
Without Pactos

The consultant is there before procurement knows about it

The department has a problem and knows a suitable contact. That quickly turns into an order through the cost center, without a framework agreement, without comparing rates and without checking whether a suitable provider already exists.

With Pactos

Engagement with a template and an approval

Consulting too runs as a requirement through clear templates and approval stages per entity and cost center. Procurement sees the request before the engagement and knows which framework agreement applies.

Without Pactos

Four contract types, one filing place

Staff Leasing, service contracts, Statements of Work and interim mandates often sit on the same drive. In the end, only someone who reads every contract individually knows which obligations apply.

With Pactos

Every type with its own obligations

Pactos maps the contract types separately. With Staff Leasing, equal pay and the maximum assignment period count; with a Statement of Work, acceptance and the record of delivery; with freelancers, a clean distinction.

Without Pactos

The distinction is documented nowhere

Whether someone works independently or is in fact embedded in the organization shows in daily work. In an audit, what counts is what was documented traceably.

With Pactos

Practice becomes traceable

Chains of instruction, equipment, acceptance of the work and cover arrangements are documented directly on the assignment. Pactos makes the distinction traceable but does not make a legal decision.

Without Pactos

The record of delivery is not a timesheet

With fixed-price projects and clearly delimited services, milestones and acceptances count, not hours. Systems that only know timesheets therefore often do not fit the actual delivery model.

With Pactos

Hours or milestone, both hold up

Time and material runs through timesheets, fixed price through the acceptance of milestones. The invoice is checked against what was actually agreed.

Without Pactos

Access stays open after the project

External people often get accounts, access rights and hardware. When the project ends, the contract ends, but not automatically every access. That may only come to light at the next audit.

With Pactos

Access ends with the assignment

Accounts, permissions and issued equipment are linked directly to the assignment. When the assignment ends, it is clear what has to be returned or blocked, and who is responsible for it.

Who works for you

Four kinds of external workforce, four different sets of obligations

With external professionals, Staff Leasing, contracted work, self-employment and interim mandates often meet in the same company. Pactos maps the differences cleanly and brings costs and records together in one place.

Freelancers and self-employed

IT consultingSoftware developmentProject managementSpecialist planning

Specialists for a limited time, engaged directly or through an intermediary. The day rates are usually high, while the contractual commitment is deliberately kept flexible.

What matters

The distinction from false self-employment, status determination in case of doubt, their own equipment, no integration into your process and holiday planning.

Consulting and project delivery

ImplementationMigrationConcept designAudits and expert opinions

What is bought in is a clearly delimited service with a goal and a deadline. How the provider organizes their team is up to them.

What matters

A delimited scope of work, acceptance per milestone, the contractor's own authority to instruct, documentation of delivery instead of a timesheet.

Leased employees

Administrative processingEngineering officeBack officeCustomer service

The classic route for covering vacancies and load peaks in administration and engineering, for example in insurance, public administration or industry.

What matters

The provider's temporary staffing license, equal pay, maximum assignment period per person and hirer, working time records.

Interim management

Division managementInterim financeRestructuringBridging a vacancy

Leadership roles for a limited time, with substantial responsibility and far-reaching rights in the company.

What matters

Contract type and authority to represent, access rights to systems and data, confidentiality and an orderly handover at the end of the mandate.

The modules that make the difference with professionals and consulting

Every module is part of the standard. These six are particularly relevant day to day with external professionals and consulting services, and each one leads to the full description.

Requests and guided buying Report a requirement, distribute it to provider groups in stages, and track orders with their status. Shift planning Plan shifts per site, hangar and hall and see gaps before the slot expires. Timesheets Capture and approve hours digitally: the basis for the invoice being right. Compliance check Keep checks, clearances and provider documents per person and monitor deadlines. Billing and invoice verification Map premiums, collective agreements and programs, and check the invoice against the purchase order and the record. Analytics Analyze volume, costs and provider performance per site and program, at the push of a button.
Reporting a staffing requirement in Pactos: role, quantity, shift model, site and distribution route in one form.
Every clearance is stored directly with the person, including type, check and expiry date. Once it has expired, access is blocked too.
Records and deadlines

What has to be evidenced with external professionals

These records decide whether an engagement is traceable in an audit. Pactos keeps them directly with the person and the provider, including the deadline and the check history.

An overview for orientation, as of August 2026, not legal advice. Which records your operation needs in an individual case depends on the contract type, the activity and the site.

Four things that run differently after the rollout

Engagement runs through procurement again

Consulting and freelancers also run through requirement, template and approval. Engagements outside the framework agreement come to light before they are triggered.

Every contract type with its own obligations

Staff Leasing, Statement of Work, service contract and mandate are kept separate, each with the deadlines and records that apply to it.

Delivery is evidenced, not asserted

Hours or milestones are carried into invoice verification as the record of delivery. Discrepancies come to light before payment.

Access ends with the assignment

Accounts, permissions and issued equipment are linked directly to the assignment. At the end of the project it is clear what has to be returned or blocked.

What customers achieve with Pactos

70 % less administrative work when requests and assignments run centrally through Pactos instead of through mailboxes and lists.
25 % less effort in candidate management thanks to CV scoring, duplicate checking and interview scheduling.
> 5.000 staffing providers in the network, for short-notice demand at sites where your regular vendor cannot deliver.
FAQ

Common questions about external professionals and consulting

How does Pactos help with the distinction from false self-employment?
It documents, it does not decide. Chains of instruction, own equipment, acceptances and cover arrangements sit on the assignment and can be evidenced in an audit. The legal assessment remains a question of how the contract is drafted and how it is actually carried out; in case of doubt the status determination procedure under § 7a SGB IV settles it.
We buy fixed-price projects, not hours. Does that fit?
Yes. Work and services run with their own scope of work and acceptance per milestone, not through timesheets. Time and material and fixed price can run side by side, and invoice verification draws on whatever has been agreed in each case.
Does the maximum assignment period also apply to administrative and technical roles?
Yes, it hangs on the leasing, not on the activity. The clock runs per person and hirer and accounts for interruptions. Departures under a collective agreement are possible and are documented together with their basis.
With us, engagement happens in the department. Does Pactos change that?
Responsibility stays where it is. What changes is visibility: the requirement runs through a template and the approval stages you define. Procurement and controlling see the same picture as the department.
What happens to system access after the project ends?
Access and issued equipment hang on the assignment. When it ends, the offboarding list shows what has to be taken back, with an owner and a date. The withdrawal itself is done by your IT; it is documented here.
How do day rates and invoices come together?
Rates sit on the framework agreement and on the assignment, not in the individual case. The invoice preview shows what the assignment costs before the invoice arrives; the check reconciles invoice, approval and record and flags discrepancies.

What companies with a high share of consulting work with at Pactos

Vendor Intelligence

The VMS for the external workforce: staffing requests, providers, assignments, times and billing.

Compliance Intelligence

Retrieve and check your providers' documents and certificates automatically.

Tender Intelligence

Run a tender and compare when a site needs new providers.

Workforce Intelligence

Ask questions about shifts, records and costs in natural language.

Keen to find out more about Pactos?

In a joint call we show you what your current workflows look like in Pactos and where you save time.

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