TL;DR: The monthly platform fee is not enough to compare employer of record (EOR) providers. Get written answers about the exact country, legal-employment model, total cost, FX, deposit, payroll cutoff, benefits, data, intellectual property, support, and termination before you sign.
An EOR proposal looks simple because it turns a complicated employment system into one invoice. The complexity has not disappeared. It has moved into the agreement, operating model, payroll calendar, and exit terms.
Use these 25 questions on the sales call and in the contract review. Ask for country-specific answers. A global answer to a local employment question is usually not an answer.
Coverage and legal employment
1. Do you support this exact country for EOR employment today?
Do not accept contractor coverage, payroll-only coverage, or a roadmap country as EOR coverage. Ask whether a new employee can be onboarded now and what restrictions apply to the role.
2. Which legal entity will employ the person?
Get the entity's legal name and country. Ask whether employment is delivered directly or through a local operating partner, and who appears on the employment agreement and payslip.
3. Are there restricted roles, industries, locations, or compensation structures?
Regulated professions, commission-heavy roles, directors, work at client sites, public-sector work, and employees with contracting authority may need additional review.
4. What does the EOR handle, and what remains our responsibility?
Separate legal employment, payroll, benefits, filings, HR administration, day-to-day management, workplace safety, immigration, corporate tax, and data obligations.
5. How do you assess contractor-versus-employee classification?
An EOR should not tell you every contractor is safe or every role must be employed. Ask what facts it collects and when it recommends local counsel.
Contracts, benefits, and onboarding
6. How is the local employment agreement created and reviewed?
Ask who maintains the template, how country changes are incorporated, and whether your company can review the commercial terms before the employee sees them.
7. How long does onboarding usually take in this country?
Get the median operational range and the causes of delay. Shor's typical EOR range is 7-14 business days, but registrations, visas, missing documents, and payroll cutoffs can extend it.
8. What information must we and the employee provide?
Ask for the checklist before promising a start date. Confirm how identity, tax, bank, and benefit information is collected securely.
9. Which benefits are mandatory, and which are market-standard?
Get the employer cost, employee deduction, insurer, waiting period, dependent rules, and cancellation terms for every benefit.
10. Do you support the compensation we intend to offer?
Confirm salary currency, bonus, commission, allowances, expenses, overtime, signing payments, and equity. Do not bury non-standard compensation in a notes field.
Price, FX, deposits, and invoices
11. What is the platform fee for this country?
Ask whether the published price is the actual country price, a starting price, or an annual-contract discount. Shor publishes country-based EOR pricing of $299-449 per employee per month.
12. Which employer costs are passed through?
Request a sample calculation showing gross salary, employer taxes, mandatory contributions, benefits, bonuses, insurance, reserves, and the platform fee.
13. What FX rate or margin will be used?
Ask for the margin as a number, the reference rate, the moment the rate is set, and where it appears on the invoice. Shor uses a flat 2% FX margin when conversion applies and shows it before approval.
14. What deposit or reserve will you hold?
Get the formula, currency, reason, adjustment rules, where it is held, and the conditions and timeline for return. A refundable deposit is still cash unavailable to your startup.
15. Can we see a real, redacted sample invoice and payslip?
The invoice should separate salary, employer costs, benefits, one-time items, FX, fees, deposits, and credits. The payslip should explain gross-to-net pay without exposing employer-only commercial terms.
Payroll operations
16. What are the payroll and funding cutoffs?
Ask for the calendar by country, including public-holiday adjustments. Confirm what happens when a start date or compensation change misses cutoff.
17. How do we fund payroll, and when is funding considered received?
Understand accepted funding currencies and methods, settlement time, prefunding requirements, and whether a balance can be reused across employees.
18. What happens if payroll is underfunded or a salary payment fails?
Ask who is alerted, how quickly, what the employee is told, whether another rail is attempted, and who owns resolution. Get the escalation path in writing.
19. How are variable pay, expenses, corrections, and off-cycle payroll handled?
Ask about submission deadlines, approvals, supporting documents, fees, tax treatment, and which countries allow off-cycle runs.
20. Who checks payroll before it is approved?
You should be able to review gross pay, employer costs, deductions, one-time items, FX, and the total debit before money moves.
Support, security, and data
21. Who responds when something goes wrong on payday?
Ask whether you get a named person, regional HR team, ticket queue, or account tier. Record the operating hours and escalation path, not just a sales response-time promise.
22. Where is employee data stored, who can access it, and how is it transferred?
Request the data-processing agreement, subprocessor list, retention and deletion terms, incident process, and cross-border transfer mechanism. For European personal data, the European Data Protection Board explains how standard contractual clauses support international transfers.
23. What can we export if we leave?
Confirm access to agreements, amendments, payslips, invoices, payroll reports, benefit records, and employee data. Ask what is deleted, returned, or retained after termination.
Intellectual property, termination, and exit
24. How does intellectual property move from the employee to our company?
Ask for the exact chain of rights. Local employee-invention, copyright, moral-rights, and remuneration rules can override a generic US assignment. Equity and IP are related to employment, but they are not solved by payroll software.
25. What happens when an employee or our company leaves?
Get the notice, severance, final-pay, benefit, immigration, deposit-return, data-export, and provider-switch process. Ask whether the commercial agreement can end while local employee obligations continue.
The red flags
- One global answer for every country
- A price quote without statutory costs or deposit terms
- “Mid-market FX” without the actual margin and reference time
- Contractor coverage presented as EOR coverage
- A guaranteed start date before employee documents are reviewed
- “We handle compliance” with no split of responsibilities
- No sample invoice, payroll calendar, or offboarding process
- An annual commitment that does not explain what happens when headcount falls
- IP language that assumes every country follows US work-for-hire rules
- Support promises that disappear from the written agreement
How Shor answers the commercial questions
Shor supports EOR employment in 26 markets, contractor management in 150+ countries, and managed payroll where your company already owns a supported local entity. EOR pricing is $299-449 per employee per month, contractor pricing is $19 per month, and own-entity payroll is $50-60 per employee per month.
FX is a flat disclosed 2% when conversion applies. Country-specific deposits are quoted before signing. There are no setup fees, minimums, or annual lock-ins, and service is month-to-month with 30-day cancellation. Local employee notice, severance, payroll, and benefit obligations continue according to the employment agreement and country law even if the platform relationship changes.
FAQ
What is the most important question to ask an EOR? Ask who legally employs the person in the exact country and what remains your company's responsibility. Price matters, but the legal and operating model determines what you are buying.
Should I choose the cheapest EOR? Choose on all-in cost and operational fit, not the platform fee alone. FX, employer contributions, benefits, deposits, payroll failures, support, and termination can outweigh a small monthly fee difference.
Do EOR providers hold security deposits? Some countries or employment cases require deposits or reserves. Ask for the amount, currency, adjustment rules, and refund conditions before signing.
Does an EOR handle permanent-establishment risk? An EOR handles local employment obligations but does not provide automatic protection from corporate tax. Read Does an Employer of Record Prevent Permanent Establishment Risk? and get country-specific tax advice.
Can I switch EOR providers later? Yes, but the employee may need to leave one legal employer and join another. Plan contracts, notice, payroll, benefits, data transfer, and deposits as an employment transition rather than a software toggle.