Contractor Guide

Before a contractor starts with you, Empiric verifies their right to work and company registration details or engagement set ups. As standard, we conduct best practice screening checks and misclassification checks for limited company and self-employed individuals. If you have specific screening requirements beyond our standard process, please inform your consultant at the outset - we work with industry approved third party providers to carry these out. Once onboarding is complete, the contractor is set up on our systems and issued access to the timesheet portal so they can begin logging hours from day one. Separately, you will be issued with access to the timesheet portal to approve these hours.

Empiric issues contracts directly to contractors on a business-to-business basis. This means the contract sits between Empiric and the contractor's company - not between you and the contractor, and not between Empiric and the contractor as an individual employee. In certain jurisdictions, self-employed individuals and freelancers may also contract directly with Empiric where this is a permissible engagement model.

Generally, Empiric does not act as an employer. Contractors engaged through Empiric are solely responsible for their own tax declarations and social security contributions. This is a fundamental part of the B2B contractor model. Where a contractor engages via an Employer of Record (EOR) for payroll purposes, the EOR assumes the employer role - Empiric remains the staffing intermediary.

In the Netherlands, contractors can also be deployed as temporary agency workers on Empiric's payroll. Under this model, comparable remuneration applies and as such we will require relevant remuneration information from you as the client to ensure compliance with our legal and tax obligations.

Where jurisdiction-specific tax, legal or compliance obligations are relevant such as IR35 in the United Kingdom, Empiric will advise you accordingly and work with you to ensure the engagement is structured correctly. If you have specific questions about how this applies in your jurisdiction, your Empiric consultant can point you to the right guidance.

Contractors submit their hours monthly, at the end of each month worked, through InTime, our timesheet portal, that records all placement activity. The system is straightforward - contractors select the relevant placement, enter hours worked each day and submit for approval at the end of the week. A full history of all submitted timesheets is available within the portal at any time.

Once a contractor submits their timesheet, your designated approver receives a notification to review and sign off the hours. Approvers log in to https://timesheets.empiric.com/login/auth, check the submitted hours against what was worked and approve or reject accordingly. If a timesheet is rejected, it is returned to the contractor with the option to add a comment explaining why - the contractor can then correct and resubmit.

No timesheet is paid without client approval. You remain in control of what gets authorised at all times.

Rejected timesheets are sent back to the contractor in draft, allowing them to edit and resubmit. Your approver can leave a comment to explain what needs correcting - for example, if the hours logged do not match what was agreed or if the wrong rate has been applied. The corrected timesheet then goes through the approval process again before payment is triggered.

Once a timesheet is approved by the client, Empiric processes payment to the contractor based on the authorised hours. The payment method depends on how the contractor operates. 

Contractors working through their own limited company or as self-employed individuals raise an invoice to Empiric based on the approved timesheet. Contractors working through an EOR are paid via that local payroll provider - either through a self-bill arrangement or via an invoice raised by the local payroll provider on the contractor's behalf. 

In all cases, Empiric manages the payment process end to end. You do not need to handle any payment administration. 

A limited company contractor operates through their own registered business entity. They invoice Empiric for the hours worked and are responsible for managing their own tax affairs through their company.

In certain jurisdictions, self-employed individuals and freelancers may also be engaged directly with Empiric under a B2B arrangement, invoicing for hours worked in the same way. The permissibility of this model varies by country and is subject to local misclassification rules - your Empiric consultant will confirm whether it is available in your jurisdiction.

An EOR contractor works through a third-party local payroll company, which acts as their employer for payroll purposes. The EOR handles their PAYE tax and social security deductions before passing on their take--home pay. In the UK, Empiric works exclusively with FCSA-accredited local payroll providers. In certain jurisdictions, such as Switzerland for example, the engagement structure may differ from the standard models described here. Note that available engagement structures vary by country however your Empiric consultant will confirm which models apply in your jurisdiction.

From your perspective as the client, the process is identical - you approve timesheets and Empiric manages everything downstream.

The timesheet portal gives client approvers access to full historical placement data - including all submitted, approved and rejected timesheets and placement start and end dates. If you need to pull records for audit, reporting or internal sign-off purposes, everything is available within the portal without needing to request it from Empiric separately.

Speak to your Empiric consultant directly or get in touch via phoning +44 (0) 203 675 7777. If you're a new client who hasn't yet been set up with portal access, your consultant will arrange this as part of the onboarding process