---
title: "Placement rules and adjusters: a deep dive"
description: How placement rules and adjusters work in Konquest — building rule criteria, applying burdens and adjustments, ordering them, and using rules in your schemes.
---

[Skip to content](https://konquest.io/en-gb/knowledge-base/placement-rules-and-adjusters-a-deep-dive#main-content)

English - United Kingdom

Show submenu for translations

![konquest\_knowledge\_base](https://konquest.io/hs-fs/hubfs/konquest_knowledge_base.png?width=640&height=100&name=konquest_knowledge_base.png)

Open main navigation

Close main navigation

- English - United Kingdom
  
  Show submenu for translations
- [Contact us](mailto:support@konquest.io)

[Contact us](mailto:support@konquest.io)

 How can we help you?

- There are no suggestions because the search field is empty.

1. [Konquest](https://konquest.io/en-gb/knowledge-base?hsLang=en-gb)
2. [Placements](https://konquest.io/en-gb/knowledge-base/placements?hsLang=en-gb)
3. [Placement Rules](https://konquest.io/en-gb/knowledge-base/placements?hsLang=en-gb#placement-rules)

# Placement rules and adjusters: a deep dive

## Rules and adjusters are how you shape your placement data in Konquest so it reflects the way your business actually calculates margin and commission.

### Overview

Rules let you describe a group of placements or values — "approved placements", "contract work at 20% margin or more", "the first year of a placement" — and adjusters let you change how values within those groups are calculated, for example by applying a burden to pay, moving a value into a different period, or excluding certain line items from margin.

Once set up, rules can also be used directly in your schemes to decide which billings accumulate towards a plan and which are confirmed for payment.

You'll find both under **Placements \> Settings** 

![](https://konquest.io/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-Oct-06-2026-09-35-21-6434-AM.png?width=1792&height=243&name=image-png-Oct-06-2026-09-35-21-6434-AM.png)

This is split into two sections:

- **Rules** — the conditions that identify which placements and values something should apply to.
- **Burdens and adjusters** — the changes you want to make to values that match a rule.

![](https://konquest.io/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-Oct-06-2026-09-35-58-1495-AM.png?width=797&height=889&name=image-png-Oct-06-2026-09-35-58-1495-AM.png)

### Building a rule

**A rule is a named set of one or more criteria, and you choose whether a placement or value has to meet all of them or just one.** At the top of each rule is a match type setting:

- **All** — every criterion in the rule must be met.
- **Any** — at least one criterion must be met.

Use **All** when you're narrowing things down (for example, approved *and* contract), and **Any** when you want to catch several different scenarios with one rule (for example, placements at either of two client companies).

![](https://konquest.io/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-Oct-06-2026-09-36-27-6040-AM.png?width=285&height=217&name=image-png-Oct-06-2026-09-36-27-6040-AM.png)

#### Rule criteria

**Each criterion checks one specific thing about a placement or one of its values.** The criteria available are described below.

##### Approval

Matches placements that have been approved.

##### Completed

Matches placements that have been marked as completed.

##### Company name

Matches on the client company name. You can choose how the match works:

- **Equals** — an exact match on the full company name.
- **Contains** — the company name includes the text you enter anywhere within it.
- **Starts with** / **Ends with** — the company name begins or ends with the text you enter.

How useful each option is depends on how company names are recorded in your source system — if the same client appears with slight variations (for example "Acme Ltd" and "Acme Limited"), **Starts with** or **Contains** will usually be more reliable than **Equals**.

![](https://konquest.io/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-Oct-06-2026-09-37-30-0932-AM.png?width=540&height=292&name=image-png-Oct-06-2026-09-37-30-0932-AM.png)

##### Terms

Matches placements by their terms — **Permanent** or **Contract**.

##### Custom field

**Custom field criteria are usually the most powerful and most widely used way to build rules.** Your placements can carry as many custom fields as your business needs, and this criterion lets you target any of them:

1. Choose the custom field from the **Field** drop-down. Only fields that are configured on your account are listed.
2. Choose the value you want to match from the values drop-down. This lists every value that currently appears in that field across your placements, so you can pick it rather than typing it.

For example, you could pick a **Job Title** field and target placements for one specific role.

![](https://konquest.io/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-Oct-06-2026-09-38-12-2738-AM.png?width=637&height=506&name=image-png-Oct-06-2026-09-38-12-2738-AM.png)

##### Minimum margin

Applies to contract work, and matches values whose margin percentage is at or above the figure you set. For example, a value with £100 pay and £200 charge has a margin of 50%, so it would match a minimum margin of 50%.

##### Value date before

**Every value generated from a placement — whether it comes from a timesheet, a transaction, or a field on the placement itself — has a date attached to it.** This criterion matches values dated before the date you set. For example, setting 1 October matches only values dated before 1 October.

##### Days from start date

Matches values that fall within a set number of days of the placement's start date. This is particularly useful for plans that pay differently in the first, second and third year of a placement — for example, **within 365 days** of the start date gives you the placement's first year.

##### Named date

Matches placements where a particular date has been recorded. As long as that date exists on the placement, the criterion is met — for example, you might only want a rule to apply once a specific milestone date has been filled in.

#### Inverting criteria to build ranges

**Every criterion can be inverted, which flips it to match the opposite condition — and pairing a normal criterion with an inverted one is how you build ranges.** For example, an inverted **Approval** criterion matches placements that *aren't* approved, and an inverted **Value date before** effectively becomes "value date on or after".

To build a range, add the same criterion twice — once as normal and once inverted — and set the rule to **All**:

*Margin between 50% and 70%*

1. Add a **Minimum margin** criterion set to 50% — this means "at least 50%".
2. Add a second **Minimum margin** criterion set to 70% and tick **Inverted** — this means "below 70%".

*Values in a date window*

1. Add an inverted **Value date before** criterion set to the start of the window.
2. Add a normal **Value date before** criterion set to the end of the window.

*Second year of a placement*

1. Add an inverted **Days from start date** criterion set to 365 — not within the first year.
2. Add a normal **Days from start date** criterion set to 730 — within the first two years.

Repeat the pattern with 730 and 1,095 days to create a third-year rule.

If a range rule seems to be matching far more than it should, check the match type first — a range set to **Any** instead of **All** will match almost everything. For more on exactly where range boundaries fall and how rules are evaluated, see [How do placement rules decide which billings a condition applies to?](https://konquest.io/en-gb/knowledge-base/how-do-placement-rules-decide-which-billings-a-condition-applies-to?hsLang=en-gb)

#### ![](https://konquest.io/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-Oct-06-2026-09-38-47-0066-AM.png?width=1720&height=491&name=image-png-Oct-06-2026-09-38-47-0066-AM.png)

#### Placement-level and value-level rules

**Some criteria are checked against the placement as a whole, and others against each individual value on it, so a rule can apply to some of a placement's values without applying to the placement itself.** Criteria such as Approval, Completed, Terms and Company name describe the whole placement. Criteria such as Minimum margin, Value date before and Days from start date describe individual values, which matters most for contract placements where there are many values over the life of the placement.

For example, a rule requiring 30% margin is worked out against each contract value separately. Some values on a placement may meet it while others don't, so the rule applies to those individual values rather than to the placement as a whole. When you view a placement, you may therefore see one set of rules applying at placement level and different rules applying to particular values.

![](https://konquest.io/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-Oct-06-2026-09-39-49-8246-AM.png?width=400&height=115&name=image-png-Oct-06-2026-09-39-49-8246-AM.png)

 

![](https://konquest.io/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-Oct-06-2026-09-40-10-1424-AM.png?width=1192&height=275&name=image-png-Oct-06-2026-09-40-10-1424-AM.png)

### Burdens and adjusters

**Adjusters change how matching values are calculated, and each one is triggered by a rule you've already set up.** When adding an adjuster, give it a unique name, choose the rule that should trigger it, and complete the settings for that adjuster type.

#### Pay percentage

Reduces the commissionable margin by a percentage of the pay amount. For example, a 5% pay percentage on a value with £1,000 pay reduces its margin by £50.

#### Revenue percentage

Reduces the commissionable margin by a percentage of the revenue (charge) amount, rather than pay.

#### Hourly burden

Applies an hourly cost for each hour worked, using the hours on each timesheet. It can be set up as:

- **Flat rate** — a fixed amount for every hour worked.
- **Pay percentage** — a percentage of the hourly pay rate.
- **Charge percentage** — a percentage of the hourly charge rate.

#### Hourly rate margin

Recalculates margin as **(charge rate − pay rate) × hours worked**, using the rates on the placement. This overwrites any margin from timesheets or other transactions on the matching dates, so use it when you want margin to come purely from the placement's rates and the hours worked rather than from the figures on each transaction.

#### Earn code filter

**Each value is made up of line items — such as holiday pay or taxes — and each line item has an earn code.** This adjuster excludes line items matching the earn code you choose from the margin calculation. They still appear in the breakdown of the value, so you can see them, but they don't affect the margin figure.

#### Value date

**By default, Konquest decides which date each value uses based on where the value came from — this adjuster moves each value onto another of the placement's dates instead.** For example, if you have timesheet values that would normally be dated by the timesheet, you can choose to date them by the payment date instead. This is a common way to make commission follow when money is actually received.

Because the value date decides which period a value falls into, changing it can move values between periods on your statements. Values that end up on the same date are merged into one, so this adjuster is usually best placed last (see Adjuster order below).

#### Month-end rollover

**Lets you set a month-end cut-off for your billings without needing a custom calendar on your schemes.** Choose a weekday, from Monday through to Sunday, and any value falling after the last occurrence of that weekday in its month is moved onto the 1st of the following month.

For example, if your contract billings close on the last Friday of each month, choose **Friday**, and anything dated after the last Friday will move to the 1st of the next month.

As with Value date, values that land on the same date are merged, so this adjuster is usually best placed last.

#### Fixed amount

Adds a fixed amount to each matching value — for example, £200 on each matching value. Use a negative amount to make a deduction instead.

If your values are in different currencies, the amount is converted into each value's currency using the exchange rate on that value's date.

![](https://konquest.io/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-Oct-06-2026-09-40-53-6294-AM.png?width=894&height=433&name=image-png-Oct-06-2026-09-40-53-6294-AM.png)

#### Adjuster order

**Adjusters are applied in order, and changing the order can change the result.** Two things are worth bearing in mind when you set the order.

**Earn code filters and burdens.** Where you place an earn code filter decides whether your burdens are charged on the filtered line items:

- **Earn code filter before your burdens** — the filtered line items are excluded from everything that follows, so they won't be included in any burden calculation or in the margin.
- **Earn code filter after your burdens** — your burdens are calculated with those line items included, and the line items are then excluded from the margin.

Neither is right or wrong; it depends whether your burdens should be charged on those line items.

**Date-moving adjusters go last.** Value date and Month-end rollover both move values onto new dates, and any values that land on the same date are merged. Placing them after your other adjusters means each value is burdened, filtered and adjusted on its own first, before it's moved and combined with others.

When setting up several adjusters, think through what each one should "see" and order them accordingly.

![](https://konquest.io/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-Oct-06-2026-09-41-25-5249-AM.png?width=512&height=301&name=image-png-Oct-06-2026-09-41-25-5249-AM.png)

### Seeing rules and adjusters on your placements

**Once rules and adjusters are set up, you can see exactly where they apply.** Each placement has a burdens and adjustments section showing every adjuster applied to it and to its values.

You can also search your placements by rule. On the **Placements** page, search for the name of a rule — for example, a rule called "Approved" — and Konquest will bring back the placements that match it. This is a quick way to check a new rule is picking up the placements you expect before you rely on it.

![](https://konquest.io/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-Oct-06-2026-09-41-54-2929-AM.png?width=1785&height=245&name=image-png-Oct-06-2026-09-41-54-2929-AM.png)

### Using rules in your schemes

**As well as driving adjusters, rules can be used directly in your schemes to control what counts towards a plan and what gets paid.** Every rule on your account is available to select in your scheme settings, in two places:

- **Accumulation rules** — only billings that meet the selected rule accumulate towards the scheme. For example, selecting a "20% margin" rule means billings below 20% margin are excluded from the scheme entirely.
- **Payment rules** — decide whether a billing is **Confirmed** for payment or still **Projected**. For example, a payment rule using an "Approved" rule means billings only become confirmed, and so payable, once the placement is approved.

![](https://konquest.io/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-Oct-06-2026-09-42-20-0266-AM.png?width=1486&height=247&name=image-png-Oct-06-2026-09-42-20-0266-AM.png)

### ![](https://konquest.io/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-Oct-06-2026-09-42-41-7834-AM.png?width=1490&height=244&name=image-png-Oct-06-2026-09-42-41-7834-AM.png)

### Summary

- Rules and adjusters live under **Placements \> Settings**.
- A rule is made up of criteria — Approval, Completed, Company name, Terms, Custom field, Minimum margin, Value date before, Days from start date and Named date — matched on **All** or **Any**.
- Any criterion can be inverted, and pairing a normal and an inverted criterion under **All** creates a range.
- Some criteria are checked against the whole placement and some against individual values, so a rule can apply to some values on a placement but not others.
- Adjusters are triggered by rules and include pay, revenue and hourly burdens, hourly rate margin, value date and month-end rollover adjustments, fixed amounts and earn code filters.
- The order of your adjusters matters, particularly for earn code filters.
- You can see applied adjusters on each placement and search placements by rule.
- In schemes, rules control which billings accumulate (accumulation rules) and which are confirmed for payment (payment rules).

### Need help?

If a rule or adjuster isn't behaving as you expect, contact your Konquest support contact with the rule or adjuster name and an example placement, and we'll help you check how it's set up.

Taking the time to set up your rules and adjusters properly means your margin and commission figures reflect how your business really works — so the numbers on every statement are ones you can trust, with no surprises on pay day.

- [Integrations](https://konquest.io/en-gb/knowledge-base/integrations?hsLang=en-gb#main-content)

    - [MCP](https://konquest.io/en-gb/knowledge-base/integrations?hsLang=en-gb#mcp)
- [Consultants](https://konquest.io/en-gb/knowledge-base/consultants?hsLang=en-gb)
- [Managers](https://konquest.io/en-gb/knowledge-base/managers?hsLang=en-gb)
- [Statements](https://konquest.io/en-gb/knowledge-base/statements?hsLang=en-gb#main-content)

    - [Updates](https://konquest.io/en-gb/knowledge-base/statements?hsLang=en-gb#updates)
- [Placements](https://konquest.io/en-gb/knowledge-base/placements?hsLang=en-gb#main-content)

    - [Placement Rules](https://konquest.io/en-gb/knowledge-base/placements?hsLang=en-gb#placement-rules)
    - [Import](https://konquest.io/en-gb/knowledge-base/placements?hsLang=en-gb#import)
- [Teams](https://konquest.io/en-gb/knowledge-base/teams?hsLang=en-gb#main-content)

    - [Team Enrolments](https://konquest.io/en-gb/knowledge-base/teams?hsLang=en-gb#team-enrolments)
- [Users](https://konquest.io/en-gb/knowledge-base/users?hsLang=en-gb)

[mailto:support@konquest.io](mailto:support@konquest.io) <https://www.linkedin.com/company/konquest>

Copyright © 2026, Konquest