How to Cancel a Bullhorn Contract (Notice Periods and Auto-Renewal)

To cancel a Bullhorn contract you need to identify which exit route applies and hit its deadline. Bullhorn's published terms for one of its services require written notice of non-renewal at least 30 days before the current term ends, while terminating for convenience mid-term requires at least 90 days notice. Your own signed agreement is what actually governs, so read it first, calculate the deadline from your renewal date, send notice in the form the contract specifies, and keep written confirmation.

Key takeaways

• Bullhorn's published terms for one of its services set out two different exits: written notice of non-renewal at least 30 days before the current term expires, or termination for convenience with at least 90 days notice. (Source: Bullhorn published terms of service.)

• Those two routes are not interchangeable, and confusing them is how agencies end up committed for another year.

• Your own order form and master agreement govern your specific terms, which may differ from any published page. Read yours and get anything unclear confirmed in writing.

• Send notice in the exact form your contract requires, and keep written confirmation. Reviewers on Trustpilot report cases where a cancellation was acknowledged and the contract still auto-renewed afterwards.

• Export your data while your account is active and in good standing, not after you have given notice.

Bullhorn's published terms: 30 days notice to stop a renewal, 90 days to terminate early

Bullhorn publishes terms of service for its services online, and the termination section is specific. For the service covered by that page, the terms state that the subscription term renews automatically for the same period as the initial term unless either party gives written notice of non-renewal at least 30 days before the current term expires. Separately, either party may terminate for convenience, meaning for no particular reason, by giving at least 90 days notice before the termination date. (Source: Bullhorn published terms of service.)

Two important caveats before you plan around those numbers.

First, published terms cover a specific service, and Bullhorn sells several products. Your own order form and master subscription agreement may set different periods, and a negotiated enterprise contract frequently does.

Second, and this is the practical point: the number in your contract is the only number that matters. Treat any figure you read online, including the ones above, as a prompt to go and check your own paperwork rather than as your deadline.

Non-renewal and termination are two different exits with two different deadlines

This distinction catches people out, and understanding it can be the difference between leaving on time and paying for another year.

Non-renewal means you let the current term run to its natural end and tell the vendor not to roll it over. You still pay for the remainder of the term you are in, but nothing beyond it. In the published terms above, that requires 30 days notice before expiry.

Termination for convenience means ending the agreement mid-term, before the current period is up. In the published terms above, that requires 90 days notice. Note that a right to terminate does not automatically mean a refund of fees already paid for the term, so check what your contract says about amounts already invoiced.

The practical implication: if your renewal is three months away, non-renewal is almost certainly the cheaper and simpler route. If you are eight months into a twelve-month term and want out now, you are looking at termination, a longer notice period, and a conversation about what you still owe.

Work out which route you are on before you write to anyone, because the deadline and the wording differ.

Your real deadline is the term end date minus the notice period, not the renewal date

A notice period is not a deadline on its own. You need two dates to produce one.

Find your term end date. This is on your order form. Note whether your term ends on the anniversary of your start date or at the close of a month or quarter, because some agreements only permit an exit at particular points.

Count the notice period backwards from that date. Thirty days notice means your written notice has to reach the vendor thirty days before the term ends, not thirty days before you would like to stop paying.

Put both dates in a calendar with reminders. The deadline itself, and a reminder at least a month before it. This is the single most effective thing you can do, because the common failure is not disagreement with the vendor, it is simply forgetting.

Industry-wide, this is a widespread pattern rather than a Bullhorn-specific one. One analysis of software contracts reports that 69% include an auto-renewal clause with a cancellation notice period of between 30 and 90 days. (Source: BetterCloud data, cited by ContractSafe, 2026.) Auto-renewal clauses are normal. They are also designed so that inaction favours the vendor.

Five steps to cancel Bullhorn and get the cancellation confirmed in writing

1. Read your termination clause and confirm the route. Non-renewal or termination for convenience, the notice period for each, and whether notice must go to a specific address, department or contact.

2. Send notice in the exact form the contract requires. If it specifies written notice to a named department, an email to your account manager may not satisfy it. If it permits email, send it to the address the contract names and copy your account manager.

3. Get written confirmation, and keep it. Ask for acknowledgement that your notice has been received and that the contract will not renew. Save the email thread.

4. Diarise a check before the renewal date. Around a month before your term ends, confirm in writing that the cancellation is still recorded. This step exists for a reason: reviewers on Trustpilot report cases where a cancellation request was acknowledged and confirmed, and an auto-renewal notice arrived two months later anyway. (Source: customer reviews on Trustpilot.) A second written confirmation is cheap insurance.

5. Export your data before anything changes. Do this while your account is active and in good standing rather than after notice is served. More on that below.

Export everything before you give notice, including notes, attachments and custom fields

Your candidate database is the business, and access can end when the term does. Take a full export early and keep it.

Ask in writing what a standard export includes, then request candidate records, client and company records with contacts, jobs and placements, call notes and activity logs, email history where it sits in the system, CVs and documents, any custom fields your team built, and your consent records.

The four things most likely to be missing are notes, attachments, email history and custom fields, because these are often stored separately from the core records or excluded from a standard export unless specifically requested. Ask about each one by name.

Also ask what an export costs. Verified users on review sites report per-field hosting fees on custom fields, with one describing around $1,500 to create a field and $500 a month to host it. (Source: TrustRadius verified user reviews, checked 2026.) Bullhorn's UK small-agency pricing page states no hidden costs, so terms may differ by contract and region, establish the figure in writing while you are still a customer. Our guides on switching CRM without losing candidate data and how overnight migration works cover the export and verification steps in more detail.

Mid-term and cannot wait: run an overlap or ask for early release in writing

If your notice window is months away and staying put is costing you, you have two realistic options.

Give notice and run the overlap. Start on a new system now, accept that you are paying out the Bullhorn term, and ask your new vendor about a bridge rate covering the overlap months so you are not carrying two full subscriptions at once. Our explainer on how a contract bridge works sets out what to ask for.

Ask about early release in writing. Some vendors will discuss it. It is worth asking, but do not build a plan on it until you have a written answer.

Either way, do the data work first and do not switch off Bullhorn until your new system is populated and checked. If you want the wider argument for why annual terms cost small agencies more than the subscription line suggests, we covered that in the true price of an annual contract CRM.

Shortlists has no annual term, no notice period and no auto-renewal to diarise

Shortlists is a recruiting CRM built for 3-to-10 seat UK agencies, and the contract terms are deliberately the opposite of the structure above.

Billing is month to month at $120/user/month. There is no annual term, no auto-renewal clause to diarise and no notice period to calculate. You cancel when you want to, and your data stays exportable at no charge, so there is no fee to leave and no export negotiation.

Migration in is free and run by the Shortlists team rather than an external partner, with most agencies live within 48 hours of sending their export. If you are mid-term with Bullhorn, ask about a bridge rate for the overlap. Shortlists is SOC 2 compliant, GDPR-compliant and EU-hosted in Stockholm, and used by 55+ UK recruitment agencies.

If you are mid-term with Bullhorn, you can use Shortlists at $40 per user a month until your existing term ends. The principle behind all of it: the software carries the admin so your team keeps the work that wins placements. AI takes the admin. The craft stays with you.

See the Shortlists pricing page, the Shortlists and Bullhorn comparison, and how free migration works.

Frequently asked questions

Open your order form today and write down three dates

Open your order form today and write down three things: your term end date, your notice period, and the form and address notice must take. Calculate the deadline, put it in a calendar with a reminder a month ahead, and take your data export while your account is active.

Shortlists is built for 3-to-10 seat UK agencies, and used by 55+ of them, month to month with no notice period.

• Try it free for 14-days and see how your data would sit in it before committing to anything.

• Book a Demo and we will map out your migration and the timing around your current contract.

• See how free migration works, the candidate database, and the full comparison pages.