Emailing us a new assignment, promotion, or extension — what to include

Applies to: staffing Partners who email assignment requests to Ascen rather than entering them in the platform. If you create assignments yourself, see How do I create an assignment? and Creating clients, jobs, and assignments — what's required and what can delay going live instead.

Summary: Send one email per worker with the full detail listed below. The two things that most often send a request back for a second round are a job title we already have attached to a different job description, and a missing work arrangement (remote, hybrid or onsite). A promotion or a rate change is a new assignment, not an edit to the existing one.

What to include for a new assignment

• Worker — full legal name and the email address they will actually use for this assignment. Their onboarding invitation goes to that address, so a typo stalls everything silently.

• Client / end client, and the worker type — W-2 employee or independent contractor.

• Start date, and end date if the assignment is fixed-term.

• Job title and a real job description — see the section below, this is where most delays start.

• Pay rate and bill rate, and the basis: hourly, or a weekly fixed fee. If it is a weekly fixed fee, give us the hourly equivalents as well.

• Work arrangement — remote, hybrid or onsite, and the work location if it is not remote. Please state this up front; it is the single most common thing we have to come back and ask for.

• Timesheet approver — name and email of the person at the client who will approve time.

• PO number and department, if the client requires them on the invoice.

• Anticipated hours per week, where relevant.

Job titles: one title, one job description

A job title in Ascen is attached to a specific job description. If you send a title we already have on file for that client but with a different description, we cannot quietly reuse it — the description is what our job risk review and workers' comp classification read, so the same title covering two different sets of duties would put the wrong classification on somebody's assignment.

When that happens we will come back and ask you to differentiate the title. Two useful things to know:

• Even a small distinction is enough — "Global Communications Manager" versus "Global Comms Manager"

• The invoice title and the worker-facing job title can differ. If the client needs to see a particular title on the invoice, we can keep that; it is the contractor-facing job title that needs to be unique to the description. Just tell us which you want where.

You can save a round trip by checking whether the title already exists for that client before you send, and by including the full description rather than a one-line summary. See Workers' comp codes (US) — choosing them and getting them approved and Job risk guidelines — which roles Ascen can place for what the review looks at.

Promotions and rate changes

When a worker is promoted or moves to a different role or rate, send it as a new assignment — give us the new title, the effective date, and the new pay and bill rates. Do not ask us to change the title on the existing assignment: the assignment is the record of what someone was doing and being paid at a given time, and overwriting it loses that history.

If the new title is really the same role as an existing job on our side under a different name, say so and name the existing job — that is quicker than us guessing.

If you only need to correct a rate going forward on an unchanged role, see How do I change the bill or pay rates for an assignment?. Note that a rate change applies to work going forward; if a worker was underpaid for work already done, tell us the affected dates and the correct rate and we will handle the back pay separately.

Extensions

For an extension, just tell us the worker and the new end date — no new assignment is needed. Please double-check the dates before sending; a corrected date in a follow-up email is fine, but we act on the first one we see, so send the correction promptly.

After you send it

We will confirm when the assignment is entered and approved, and the worker's onboarding invitation goes out at that point. Approval is not instant — several reviews run first, and a request that arrives with everything above will clear noticeably faster. See How long does it take for an assignment to be approved? and How do I know when my onboarding is complete and I can start work?.

If a start date is close, say so in the email. If anything above is missing we will come back to you rather than guess, and that costs a day.