A Bring Your Own (BYO) agency invitation lets known clients invite agencies to join Upwork. Benefits include automated payments, global exposure, and Upwork Payment Protection. To start, the agency owner activates the invite, sets up the account, adds payment methods, completes the profile, and upgrades to Agency Plus to invite team members.
What is an invitation to join Upwork as an agency?
Clients can send a Bring Your Own (BYO) invitation to agencies they know outside Upwork. They're asking you to join Upwork and continue doing business with them through our platform.
What are the benefits of joining Upwork as an agency?
Upwork helps you connect with businesses and may help simplify managing your agency, collaborating with clients, and invoicing. With Upwork, you’ll experience:
- Simplified invoicing and payment processing: Work is covered by Upwork Payment Protection and clients are invoiced automatically on hourly contracts
- Get paid within days of completing work: Payments become available for withdrawal within days of completing your work
- Find additional work with global companies: Find work with clients from over 180 countries
How do I set up an agency account after I'm invited by a client?
Before creating an Upwork account, you should:
- Identify the agency account owner; this person will have full access to and responsibility for the agency account
- Identify account email address to receive project requests and client communications
Please note: If you received a BYO freelancer invitation and not a BYO agency invitation, you will need to create a freelancer account prior to creating your agency.
Set up your agency account:
- Click on the link from your invite to activate your account
- Enter basic information to set up your account
Next steps:
Once the agency account is created, you'll need to accept the contract. Then, you can go back to your account settings to:
- Add a payment method: Setting up a payment method is required to withdraw earnings
- Add a billing method: A billing method is required to pay for your Agency Plus membership fee or to make other purchases on Upwork, such as Connects
- Complete your agency profile: Having a complete profile will help your agency stand out
How do I add additional team members as an invited agency?
- Go to your account settings and select Membership
- Enter your promo code or credit card to upgrade to an Agency Plus membership
- Go to Teams & Members
- Select Invite New User
Tip: If the agency member will not be working on Upwork outside the agency, you can set their profile to exclusive. You should discuss this and come to an agreement with your team.