Project reference · Employment without an entity, payroll and monthly billing
A budget before the month, the real cost after it.
A Western European manufacturing group had chosen a manager in Ukraine but had no company there, and planned to open one later. It needed a bridge. We employed the manager on a six-month contract, paid salary, taxes and travel costs, and billed the group in a rhythm it could check: a prepayment on the agreed budget before each month, and the difference to the actual cost after it.
2 invoices a month: a prepayment on the budget, a closing invoice on actual cost
Billing
0 companies the client had to open in Ukraine to employ its manager
Structure
6 months on a fixed-term labour contract, ended on its planned date
Term
1 manager, employed and paid by us, reporting to the client
Team
The shape of it
Two invoices a month, and nobody out of pocket
The budget is paid before the month, the difference after it. Each closing invoice is simply actual cost minus prepayment.
The brief
What the client actually needed
The group's people team asked for a temporary construction: the new manager on someone else's payroll for about six months, then employed by the group's own Ukrainian company once that existed. The manager would travel most of the time, work from home, and needed a phone, insurance, travel costs and a car.
We answered in two parts. First, how we would employ the manager: a civil-law service contract or a labour contract, with what each allows and costs. Second, how we would bill: direct cost plus our mark-up, a monthly prepayment on an agreed budget, and a closing invoice on the actual cost.
The client chose a fixed-term labour contract. Its people team and the manager reviewed our draft service agreement and labour contract, and the manager was on our payroll within days of their approval.
Why it matters
A Ukrainian payslip does not look like a Western one
In Ukraine the employer pays a social contribution on top of gross pay, the employee's taxes sit between net and gross, and some costs can be reimbursed through a company while others cannot. Every payment from abroad is also checked by the bank against a signed contract and act. A fixed monthly fee would have left one side over- or under-paid every month. A budget paid in advance and the difference paid afterwards keeps both sides even, provided the client can see what each invoice is for.
The hard parts
Where it gets difficult
A fixed term the law takes literally
A fixed-term labour contract has to end on its exact date. One extra working day and it becomes open-ended, and ending it later costs severance. We tracked the end date from the start, asked the client for its decision well before it, and costed an extension in writing, best case and worst case.
A budget invoice read as our fee
In the first weeks the client took the prepayment invoice for our monthly fee. We rewrote the explanation in four lines: two invoices at the start of each month, one for the new month’s budget, one for the difference on the month just closed. The next payments arrived within days.
A car for a manager on the road
We priced four routes: a lease through us, a lease by the client abroad or locally, or a rental for the term. A short lease is expensive and takes weeks to arrange, and if the client provides the car itself, local tax rules stop us from reimbursing fuel. For costs a company cannot reimburse, we suggested a company card in the manager’s hands.
A results bonus through payroll
The client agreed a bonus with the manager, calculated after month-end on actual results. We added it to the next month’s budget and paid it with the next salary run, with the taxes on top, so the manager received exactly the agreed amount.
Paper in both directions
Each month the client approved the timesheet before we ran payroll. Scans of the calculation, act and invoices went out first; then originals signed by us went by post for the client’s signature and stamp, with one set returned. At the client’s request every pack also went to its finance mailbox, so it entered the normal payment run.
An ending with nothing left open
When the fixed term ran out, we paid the last half month and the unused leave the law requires, sent a final closing invoice that settled every balance, and signed a short termination agreement with the client. There was no severance and no open item on either side.
What we did
Structure, employ, run, adjust, close
- First weeks — Structure. An offer with two employment routes and the billing model; answers on contract type, probation, car and expenses; draft service agreement and labour contract.
- Start — Employ. Fixed-term labour contract signed; the manager on our payroll within days of the client’s approval.
- Every month — Run. Timesheet approved, salary and taxes paid, travel booked; calculation, act, closing invoice and next prepayment sent as one pack.
- When asked — Adjust. A results bonus added to the budget; an extension costed in writing before the deadline.
- Month six — Close. Last pay and unused leave settled, final closing invoice, termination agreement signed.
The client never ran a Ukrainian payroll. It agreed a budget, checked one calculation a month and paid the difference.
In the client’s words
“Ok. Everything is clear now.”
The client’s manager, after our four-line explanation of the two monthly invoices.
How we work
We do not show you another company’s name
The client and its manager are not named here, and they will not be named in a meeting either. We are glad to talk this project through in detail. What we will not do is discuss the last client that way with you, or you with the next one.
Next step
Need someone on the ground before your own company exists?
Tell us who, from when, and the pay and costs you have in mind. We will show you the labour contract, the monthly budget and the closing calculation, line by line, before anything starts.