Worksome is an external workforce platform to source, engage, classify, and pay external talent (contractors, freelancers, consultants, and agency workers) in one system. It runs worker classification on every engagement by default and pays talent in 150+ countries and all 50 US states. It replaces the spreadsheets, email threads, and disconnected tools most teams use to manage people who aren't on payroll.

Worksome is built for mid-market and enterprise companies that engage roughly 25 to 10,000 contractors. The teams who use it most are talent acquisition, HR and people, procurement, contingent workforce program owners, operations, and finance. It's a strong fit for agencies, consulting firms, media, and technology companies that rely on specialist talent, and it's also used in financial services, pharma, and retail.

All of them, in one place: independent contractors, freelancers, sole traders, consultants on a statement of work (SOW), limited company contractors, and talent you engage through staffing agencies. When a role needs to be employment, Worksome can employ that person through its Employer of Record (EOR) service. One system covers every type of external worker, so you don't need a separate tool per category.

Worksome follows the lifecycle of an engagement:

1. Talent Pooling. Bring your known freelancers, alumni, referrals, and agency-supplied talent into a private talent pool, then broadcast roles to them.
2. Classify and contract. Worksome assesses each engagement against local rules (IR35 in the UK, employee-versus-contractor tests in the US, and equivalents in other jurisdictions) and generates a jurisdiction-specific contract.
3. Onboard. Contractors complete a simple digital onboarding flow, including right-to-work and business document checks, and are typically ready to start within 72 hours.
4. Pay. Approve timesheets and invoices, then pay gross or through payroll in 150+ countries, with Agent of Record (AOR) or EOR coverage where needed.
5. Data & Reporting. Track spend, agency fees, time to hire, and compliance status in live dashboards. AI-generated insights flag trends and risks in plain language, and every engagement keeps audit-ready documentation.

Most contractors are onboarded within 72 hours, and the average time to productivity is 3 days. Customers report 80% faster time to hire on average. Carlsberg cut its time to hire to 2 days, and Network N processes contracts 75% faster.

An external workforce platform is the system of record for everyone who works for a company without being on its payroll: independent contractors, freelancers, consultants, and agency workers. It combines what used to take four tools (talent sourcing, worker classification, contractor payments, and spend reporting) in one place. Worksome built the category because a VMS, a freelance management system, a marketplace, and an EOR provider each cover only one part of that job.

Worksome covers in one platform what usually takes a vendor management system (VMS), a freelance management system (FMS), an EOR or global payroll provider, and a freelance marketplace. Each alternative covers only part of the job.

It can, but it doesn't have to. Some customers retire a legacy VMS and run their whole program on Worksome, including agency broadcasting, attribution, and automated agency payouts. Others keep their VMS for high-volume, agency-supplied temp labor and use Worksome for the direct and independent contractors their VMS was never built to handle. Worksome connects to most VMS platforms through its open API, so you can start with the workers your VMS misses and expand from there.

A VMS manages your staffing suppliers: requisitions, rate cards, SOWs, and consolidated supplier invoices. It doesn't classify individual workers, source talent directly, or pay workers themselves. Worksome manages the talent directly: it engages, classifies, and pays each worker, and gives you a private talent pool you can re-engage without agency markup. See how Worksome works alongside your VMS.

Worksome includes everything a freelance management system does, and more. An FMS is software for sourcing, onboarding, managing, and paying freelancers in one place. Worksome adds what most FMS tools leave out: built-in classification with indemnification, AOR and EOR services, staffing agency management, and multi-entity governance for enterprise programs. Read more about Worksome's FMS.

Managing an external workforce starts with assessing the engagement, documenting the arrangement and using contracts that reflect how the work will be performed. Worksome helps organisations bring these steps into a single hiring workflow, creating a clear record for each engagement.

Worker misclassification can arise where someone engaged as an independent contractor should instead be treated as an employee under applicable law. Potential consequences can include tax and social-security liabilities, penalties and claims for employment rights or benefits. The assessment is fact-specific and can vary by jurisdiction.

Worksome provides dedicated classification assessments for UK and US engagements. For other jurisdictions, including cross-border engagements, Global Classification provides a recommendation based on general labour and employment principles rather than any one country's specific legal test.

The assessment helps organisations make an informed engagement decision and retain a record of the information considered.

For eligible engagements classified through Worksome, contractual indemnification may be available, subject to the applicable agreement, eligibility requirements, exclusions and limits. Customers should refer to their Worksome agreement for the exact scope of any coverage.

A contractor engagement is not always the right route. Depending on the country and the circumstances, options may include engaging the individual as an employee through an Employer of Record service or payroll, where available. Any engagement model should reflect the facts of the working relationship.

An Agent of Record sits between your company and an independent contractor. It classifies the engagement, issues a compliant local contract, collects tax documentation, and pays the contractor, taking on reclassification risk on your behalf. Worksome acts as AOR in 150+ countries, with automated tax forms, contractor benefits programs, and audit-ready paperwork for every engagement. Learn about Worksome AOR.

An Employer of Record legally employs a worker on your behalf in a country where you don't have a local entity. The EOR runs payroll, withholds and remits taxes, administers statutory benefits, and handles local employment compliance. You keep full control of the person's day-to-day work, projects, and performance. Learn about Worksome EOR.

Use AOR when the person is genuinely an independent contractor: project-based, controlling how they work, often serving other clients. Use EOR when the role is employment in substance, such as a full-time team member you direct day to day, or when classification says the role can't be contracting. Worksome offers both, so classification decides the route instead of whichever vendor you already have.

An EOR is the legal employer, using its own entity, so you can employ people in countries where you have no entity at all. A PEO is a co-employment arrangement: your company stays the legal employer and must already have a registered entity, and the PEO handles HR administration like payroll and benefits. Choose an EOR to employ in a new country; choose a PEO to outsource HR where you already operate.

Worksome's EOR covers 150+ countries through its own entities and a vetted partner network. Key markets include the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, India, Singapore, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, the UAE, and South Africa. Each comes with a localized employment contract, statutory benefits, and payroll in local currency.

Worksome pays contractors and employees in 150+ countries and all 50 US states, gross or through payroll. Invoicing, approvals, and payments run in one flow, and workers are paid in their local currency. Payments go to the workers themselves, not just through approval of a supplier invoice.

On your agreed payment terms, with an option to pay faster. With Prepay & Factoring, Worksome pays contractors within 0 to 45 days while your company settles with Worksome in 30 to 60 days, subject to terms. Your talent gets paid quickly, and your finance team keeps its cash flow.

You receive one consolidated invoice instead of hundreds. Contractors submit invoices or timesheets in Worksome, managers approve them, and Worksome bills your company once and pays every worker. You can allocate purchase orders, filter invoices, and manage invoices from third-party suppliers in the same place.

Worksome consolidates EOR payroll into one monthly invoice in USD, GBP, or EUR, then handles conversion and distribution to each worker in their local currency. If your company needs to be invoiced in another currency, such as DKK, ask your account team.

Yes, where it applies. When Worksome acts as AOR or EOR, it calculates and withholds local income tax, social security, and mandatory contributions, and handles currency conversion. Rules on withholding for independent contractors vary by country, so Worksome's team confirms the treatment for each market you pay into.

Worksome integrates natively with Workday, SAP, Oracle, Coupa, Greenhouse, and Lever, and connects to HRIS, ATS, ERP, procurement, and finance systems through its public API. It also works with third-party integration platforms like Zapier and Merge, supports webhooks for real-time events, and offers SSO via SAML 2.0 and SCIM provisioning. If you need an integration Worksome doesn't ship today, the team builds custom integrations regularly. See integrations.

Yes. Worksome has a public REST API for pushing and pulling data between Worksome and your own systems, plus webhooks for real-time events. Documentation is at docs.worksome.com.

Yes, through the open API. Worksome pushes and pulls data with most VMS platforms, so worker data and program spend stay in sync without disrupting your existing VMS configuration.

Yes, both. The Worksome CLI gives customers full platform control from the terminal: script bulk approvals, pull JSON for internal pipelines, or let local agents take actions. Worksome also ships a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, so AI assistants like Claude and Copilot can query and act on your workforce data directly. Both use a personal access token scoped to the user's role, with the same permissions and audit trail as the browser.

Worksome Intelligence is included on every plan at no extra cost. It includes Worksome Assistant (instant answers on contracts, workers, and payment status for your team), the Talent Assistant (answers for contractors on payments, contracts, and classification), the AI Job Description Assistant, and Worksome Insights (AI commentary on spend, hiring trends, and program health). Learn about Worksome AI.

Worksome is priced on one of two models, and you choose: a percentage of your total contractor spend, or a flat annual subscription. There are no per-seat fees and no per-contractor licenses. Your quote depends on contractor volume, the countries you operate in, and the add-ons you switch on, so every price is tailored rather than taken from a rate card. Request a quote.

Spend-based pricing suits programs where contractor volume moves month to month or is growing fast. A fixed subscription suits larger, predictable programs where finance wants budget certainty for the year.

No. Internal seats are unlimited, and so is the number of contractors in your talent pools. Adding hiring managers, approvers, or admins never increases your price.

Everything you need to run a program day to day: private talent pools, built-in classification and compliance, global payments, vendor and agency management, reporting and insights, the API and integrations, and Worksome Intelligence (AI). Nothing in that list is gated behind a premium tier.

Add-ons cover heavier, situational needs, and you only pay for the ones you turn on.

No. Worksome isn't a recruitment agency, staffing firm, or public talent marketplace, and it doesn't supply workers. It manages the talent you bring: your freelancers, alumni, referrals, and people supplied by your staffing agencies. Within Worksome you can build private talent pools and broadcast roles to them and to your agencies, but the talent comes from your own network.

No. Worksome isn't a job board. You can share roles with your own talent pools and partner agencies inside the platform, but Worksome doesn't advertise vacancies to the public.

No. Worksome doesn't deliver project work or outsourced services. If you engage a freelancer or agency to do that work, Worksome can engage, classify, and pay them.

Probably not yet. Worksome is built for programs of roughly 25 contractors and up, where classification risk, payment volume, and visibility start to cost real time and money. If you engage a handful of freelancers, a lighter tool may suit you for now. If you need to employ one person abroad, Worksome EOR works for a single employee.

Worksome supports many hands-on roles, such as event staff, production crew, and field technicians, through classification, AOR, and EOR. Coverage depends on the country, the role, and how the work is structured. Tell us about the roles you engage, and we'll confirm the right setup.