Contractor of Record (COR)
ChatGPT 
Perplexity 
Claude 
Grok 
Google AI Mode A Contractor of Record (COR) is a provider that engages independent contractors on your behalf and becomes your counterparty: it signs the local services agreement with the contractor, verifies their classification, collects invoices and pays them. That reduces misclassification risk; whether any liability actually moves to the provider depends on the indemnification clause in the COR agreement. You keep directing the work; the legal engagement sits with the provider.
How it works
- You find the contractor and agree scope and rate, as usual.
- The COR provider runs a classification assessment and signs a compliant local contract with the contractor.
- The contractor invoices through the platform; you pay the provider one consolidated invoice.
- If a tax authority challenges the classification, the provider — not you — is the counterparty on the contract; what it covers, if anything, is set by the indemnification clause and its caps.
COR vs the neighbouring models
| Model | Contract with the worker | Misclassification liability |
|---|---|---|
| Contractor management software | You | You |
| COR | Provider | Per the indemnity clause — published terms cap or exclude it |
| Agent of Record (AOR) | Provider (as agent) | Limited — read the clause |
| Employer of Record (EOR) | Provider employs the worker | Provider (as employer) |
Two cautions. The term is not standardised: some vendors label plain tooling “COR” while the contract with the contractor stays in your name, so check who signs and what the indemnification clause says, not the name. And a COR can’t launder genuine employment — if the working relationship fails an employment test, the fix is conversion via an EOR, not a different intermediary.
Compare providers with an explicit COR offering in our Contractor of Record rating.