Overview

Contractor onboarding is how you collect the information needed to pay independent contractors through Zeal.

Zeal provides a customizable onboarding experience that allows contractors to securely submit their personal information, tax forms, payment details, and company-specific requirements before receiving their first payment.

As contractors complete onboarding, their information is automatically added to their contractor profile, reducing manual data entry and helping ensure contractor payments are accurate.

Before You Begin

Before inviting contractors, we recommend completing the following:

• 📄 Create a Company

• 📄 Tax Setup

• Configure any custom onboarding requirements, such as 📄 Add Custom Paperworkor 📄 Configure Custom Attributes

How Contractor Onboarding Works

Contractor onboarding follows four simple steps.

Step 1: Configure Your Onboarding Experience

Before inviting contractors, decide which onboarding steps you want to include.

Depending on your organization’s needs, contractors can complete:

• Personal information

• Account creation

• Form W-9

• Payment method (bank account, Instant Pay, Paycard, etc.)

• Identity verification (optional)

• Custom paperwork

• Custom attributes

• Instant Pay or Paycard enrollment

Step 2: Invite Your Contractor

Navigate to People, then select Add Contractor.

After creating the contractor, generate an onboarding link that can be:

• Copied and shared manually

• Sent directly by email

Contractors can complete onboarding from:

• Desktop browser

• Mobile browser

• Your white-labeled mobile app (if enabled)

Step 3: Contractor Completes Onboarding

Contractors complete each assigned onboarding step at their own pace.

As information is submitted, Zeal automatically validates and stores it in the contractor profile.

Depending on your configuration, contractors may complete:

Step 4: Review Contractor Information

Once onboarding is complete, review the contractor’s information before issuing payments.

From the contractor profile, you can review:

• Profile information

• Payment settings

• Form W-9

• Documents

• Custom paperwork

• Custom attributes

• Identity verification (if enabled)

This gives you a complete view of everything submitted during onboarding.

Tracking Onboarding Progress

You can monitor onboarding progress from the People page.

From there you can:

• See which contractors haven’t started onboarding

• View contractors currently in progress

• Confirm when onboarding is complete

• Resend onboarding invitations

• Generate new onboarding links if needed

If a contractor only needs to update one section—such as their payment information or Form W-9—you can send 📄 Shareable Linksinstead of asking them to complete onboarding again.

Troubleshooting

A contractor lost their onboarding link.

Generate a new onboarding link from the contractor’s profile or resend the invitation by email.

A contractor needs to update their information.

Use a Shareable Link to request updates to a specific section, such as their payment method, Form W-9, or personal information.

Do contractors complete Form I-9?

No. Form I-9 is only required for employees. Contractors typically complete 📄 W-9 Formsinstead.

Related Articles

• 📄 Create & Onboard Contractors

• 📄 W-9 Forms

• 📄 Shareable Links

• 📄 Contractor Payments and Payment Items

• 📄 Timelines: Speeds and Disbursement Methods​