A contractor onboarding checklist is short if it is honest and long if it has absorbed every past problem. This page describes the four groups of line a workable one has, what genuinely has to be collected before a start date rather than after it, and the parts that are your counsel's rather than the checklist's. It is written for the operations person who will run it, not for the person who signs the agreement.
Group one: identity and tax details
Who this counterparty legally is and the taxpayer identification details you will need at year end. For a US contractor that centres on Form W-9; for a non-US one the W-8 series applies. Collecting these before the first payment rather than before the first year-end is the difference between a routine December and a scramble, and it is the single most commonly deferred item on any contractor list.
Group two: the agreement and its evidence
The signed agreement, and whatever it requires as evidence: insurance certificates, licences, confidentiality terms, any right-to-work or eligibility checks your firm's obligations impose. The checklist's job is to record that each was collected and when, not to judge whether it was sufficient.
Group three: how they get paid and how they work
Banking or payment details, the rate and its basis as agreed, invoicing instructions, and the access the work needs. This group is where most delays actually live, because access requests route through people who are not part of the onboarding conversation and have no visibility of the start date.
Group four: what closes it
A confirmed start date, a named point of contact on your side, and an explicit statement that onboarding is complete. Contractors are especially prone to the failure where they believe they have started and nobody has told the team, because unlike an employee there is no first day everyone attends.
Questions people ask about contractor onboarding checklist
How long before the start date should this run?
Long enough that the access requests can clear, which is usually the slowest item and is rarely under a week.
Do we need insurance evidence?
That is your firm's requirement to set, and its counsel's to advise on. The checklist records that you asked and what arrived.
Can one checklist cover contractors and vendors?
Largely yes. The identity and payment groups are nearly identical; the work-specific access differs.