Learn how to complete onboarding tasks for Upwork Enterprise clients, including agreements, classifications, and compliance steps before starting contract work.
Working with Enterprise clients on Upwork can lead to steady, high-impact work. These clients — from fast-growing startups to global brands — often have ongoing projects and specific onboarding steps before a contract can start.
During onboarding, you may be asked to share details about your business or complete tasks like signing a confidentiality agreement. Companies also determine whether your work qualifies as independent contractor or employee, in line with legal and tax requirements.
Onboarding might include the following tasks or other tasks as needed:
- Confidentiality agreement
- Independent contractor agreement
- Intellectual property (IP) ownership agreement
- Company code of conduct review
- Classification
Please note that you cannot begin work until all required tasks are completed. Any work done before the contract has started cannot be billed through Upwork retroactively, so it's important that work does not start until contracting is 100% complete.
View your onboarding tasks
- To view pending onboarding tasks, go to Your active contracts
- Select Complete tasks on the pending contract
- Hover over the ? icon to see the task details
- Identify whether tasks are assigned to you or someone else in the Owner column. You can also see the progress on each task in the Status column
Complete onboarding tasks
- Go to Your active contracts
- Select Complete tasks on the pending contract
- Select the Start task button
- Complete the task and attach any required files
- Choose the Complete button