Workchute separates identity from marketplace activity. Each signed-in identity belongs to exactly one party, while a party can have an owner and multiple invited users. The party can both post work and provide services, so there is no customer-versus-vendor account choice during sign-up.
Sign in or create an account
Use Sign in when you already have an identity and Sign up when you need one. A restricted Workchute page can also offer these choices and return you to the requested task after authentication.
Workchute then opens its identity-provider page. Enter the requested identity details, complete any email-verification step, or choose one of the configured sign-in providers shown there. Those choices belong to the running environment, so the identity-provider page is the authority for what is currently available.
Available Google, Microsoft, and Apple options appear as small square logo buttons side-by-side below the form. Select the logo for your account provider. Each button has a Continue with provider label for screen readers and a matching hover title.
When Continue with Microsoft is shown, you can use a personal Microsoft account or a work/school account. Your organization may require approval. You may be asked to verify your email. If that email already belongs to a Workchute account, follow the account-verification prompt to connect it; choosing Microsoft alone does not merge accounts. Then continue with the usual onboarding or return to your task.
When Continue with Apple is shown, sign in with your Apple Account and choose whether to share your email or use Hide My Email. Workchute accepts Apple's private email address and asks for your name during normal onboarding. If your shared email already belongs to a Workchute account, follow the verification prompt to connect it. A hidden email cannot automatically connect to an account using your usual email address. For an invitation, use the exact invited email, or ask the owner to invite your private email address instead. Signing out of Workchute does not sign you out of your Apple Account.
After a successful sign-in, Workchute returns an enabled, personally ready party member to the safe Workchute destination that started the flow. Before creating a new party, Workchute checks the exact verified email for an eligible Team or ownership invitation and routes that person through invitation acceptance. A new identity without an invitation goes to owner onboarding first. If you began a guest job or bid in this browser, Workchute preserves that continuation. A job you reviewed and submitted with Sign in to post is posted after any required onboarding; an unfinished job or bid is not sent automatically.
If you use Sign in or Sign up from the unsaved Description step after starting on Home, Workchute carries the original homepage introduction into the signed-in Description step. Save additional edits with Continue before leaving the form. See Post and manage jobs.
An existing account can sign in even when its Team access cannot continue the guest draft. Workchute keeps the draft unexecuted and explains that more access is needed; sign-in itself is not reported as failed.
Recover an interrupted sign-in
For a Workchute email-verification message, open Verify email once. The link confirms your address and signs you in to Workchute in the browser that opens it, even if you started sign-up in another browser. If that browser was signed in to a different account, it switches to the account you are confirming. Keep the verification link private.
An existing, ready account returns to home. If you still need to complete your profile, accept an invitation, review the current agreement, or finish another required account step, Workchute takes you there first. Verification does not complete those steps for you. A used or expired verification link cannot sign you in again; use normal sign-in, or request a new verification message if your address is still unverified. Account-linking and password-reset emails have their own confirmation flows.
An authentication return is single-use and can expire or fail if the flow was opened in a different browser context. When Workchute shows We could not sign you in, use Sign in again on that page instead of reusing or editing the return URL. The page can also show a request reference that support can use without exposing the sign-in details.
For a guest job or bid, restart sign-in from the same browser that holds the draft. Another browser cannot recover that continuation. A reviewed posting intent continues after sign-in; a bid still needs your Send bid action.
Complete owner onboarding
Onboarding creates the party profile used by both customer and vendor work. Enter your display name; it becomes your party name unless you enter a business name in the optional business details. Required controls have a red asterisk.
Location and property type are optional during onboarding. You can add them later. Head office may be a verified city, province or state and country, without disclosing an exact property. Lead distance matching uses that city's approximate center once processing finishes. Posting a job still needs the location and any property details requested by its form; a supported full postal code or ZIP can supply a rough job location.
Optional profile details include a photo, About Us, public Services Provided and Qualifications. Services use the existing category catalog. About Us and Qualifications each allow up to 4,000 characters. Qualifications are your own statements, not verified credentials.
Valid section changes, including photo changes, save automatically with JavaScript. If a save fails, correct the input or use Retry. There is no Save progress button. Finish saves and validates the form in browsers without JavaScript. The single agreement checkbox remains unchecked until you accept; Finish records that exact receipt and profile completion together.
Lead categories are optional. Leave them untouched to continue without setting them up; there is no Setup/Skip choice. Existing saved choices remain intact. With JavaScript, Use my services for Leads copies eligible public service selections into the available Lead slots. On the free plan, parent categories are omitted and only the available child-category allowance is filled. A short message explains any omissions. Paid and trial choices use the live allowance. Public services and private Lead subscriptions remain separate.
Set a Head office and default radius when configuring Leads. The form shows the current category and radius limits. Set individual category distances later under Leads → Lead settings. Resaving onboarding preserves those individual radii.
Upgrade plan saves valid current information before opening the real owner plan page. You do not need to finish onboarding first. Returning from checkout alone does not grant paid access; Workchute waits for confirmed entitlement. Use Resume setup to return when that journey started in onboarding. The agreement wording and versions have not changed.
A complete Workchute profile and an exact agreement receipt accepted by the running release are both required for profile-gated work. If your existing receipt is no longer accepted, /onboarding shows only Review the current agreement. Review the linked documents, select the agreement control, and choose Continue. This does not ask you to recreate the party profile. If the documents changed while the form was open, Workchute leaves the control unchecked and asks you to review the current versions again.
If a secure form token expires after sign-in, Workchute returns the form with the entries it could preserve. Review them and save again. If address lookup or picture processing is unavailable, keep the rest of the form and retry that field later where the page permits it.
Ordinary signup returns you to Home after onboarding. Opening an empty job or bid form does not create a saved draft or send you to draft recovery.
When you chose Sign in to post on a completed guest job, finishing onboarding posts it and opens My Jobs. Without JavaScript, use Post job after onboarding. A guest bid still returns to its confirmation and requires Send bid.
Accept a Team or ownership invitation
Start from the current invitation link. Workchute asks you to continue through a purpose-specific fresh authentication. Choose Create account when you need to create sign-in credentials for the invited email, or Sign in when you already have those credentials. Both choices retain the invitation reference and require the exact verified invited email; Workchute does not guess or reveal whether an account exists. The confirmation is explicit and single-use, so an expired, cancelled, already used, or mismatched invitation does not attach an account.
An owner receives the same immediate neutral result when an invite address is not eligible, including when it is already reserved by a user in another party. Workchute does not say why the address was ineligible and does not create a pending invitation or send invitation email. The pending-invitations list shows only real eligible work and remains the durable management record.
A new Team member provides only a personal display name, language, timezone, and the current legal agreement. It identifies the inviting party and selected access, but does not ask the invitee to create or edit business type, Head office, services, subscriptions, or other owner onboarding fields. A returning disabled member reuses the existing same-party account and personal history. Every new or returning member starts caught up on old chat messages but may browse the party's full conversation history.
An ownership recipient follows the same personal-only rule when their details or an accepted personal legal receipt are missing. Accepting ownership does not reuse the outgoing owner's legal receipt.
Sign in with an inactive membership
When Workchute shows that the account is inactive, the user remains associated with the same party but cannot open its protected pages. The account cannot self-reactivate, create a replacement party, or move to another party. The current party owner must send a new Team invitation to the same verified email; the user then repeats the secure acceptance flow.
Password recovery, logout, ownership invitations, and ongoing profile settings are covered in Account, profile, and settings. How the current Terms and Privacy Policy are presented and renewed is covered in Terms, Privacy, and your agreement.
Use Forgot password? on the sign-in page to request the provider-managed reset flow. Workchute does not reveal whether an address belongs to an account. After returning, sign in with the new password and complete any pending onboarding step. Use Sign out from an authenticated page to end the current Workchute session; it does not delete the account, party, jobs, or settings.