Sign up and set up your account

Create your freelancer account from scratch — plan, business details, payment, and your first look at the dashboard.

6 min readA working freelancer account, on the right plan, ready to take on its first client.

1
Go to the sign-up page
Open the sign-up page using the button below — it takes you straight to the freelancer sign-up rather than the general one. Keep this guide open in its own tab and work alongside it.
There is no password to choose. Enter your email address and we send you a short code instead — one less credential to manage, and nothing to forget later.
Use the email you actually run your business from. It becomes the address clients see on invoices and proposals, and you can change the display name later but the login stays put.
Open the sign-up page
2
Enter the code from your email
Within a few seconds you get a six-digit code. Type it into the boxes — it submits itself once the last digit lands, so there is no button to hunt for.
The code is short-lived. If it expires before you get to it, go back and request another; nothing is lost.
Nothing arrived? Check spam, and confirm you typed the address correctly on the previous screen — a typo sends the code somewhere else entirely.
3
The Freelancer plan
There is one plan: Freelancer. It covers the multi-client launchpad and domains, weekly Pulse across every client, branded invoicing with payouts to your bank, lead tracking, audits, Relay updates and the ad manager. It also earns you a share of each client subscription you bring in.
It is a monthly subscription, and the price is shown on the sign-up screens before you pay.
4
Tell us about your business
Your name, your business name, and up to three services you offer.
Take the business name seriously — it is what clients see on everything you send them. "Northbeam Digital" reads like a business; your own name works too if that is how you trade.
The services are optional and only shape a few defaults. Pick the closest three and move on; you are not committing to anything.
5
Skim what you are getting
The next screen lays out the whole workbench in four columns, reading left to right in the order the work actually happens: find clients, win and onboard them, deliver, then keep them and get paid.
It is worth thirty seconds. Most of the tools named here get their own guide in this Academy, and knowing they exist saves you going looking for something you already have.
6
Add a card to start your subscription
Add a card to start your Freelancer subscription. That is what unlocks the workbench, so there is nothing to decide here except the card.
This is the subscription you pay us. What you charge your own clients is entirely separate, and you set it yourself later.
Getting paid by your clients needs one more thing — connecting Stripe, so money lands in your bank. You can do that now if prompted, or from Account whenever you are ready.
7
Accept the legal documents
A one-time run through the agreements — privacy, terms, and a few notices specific to your region. Tick and continue through each.
This only happens once. You will not be asked again unless one of the documents is updated.
8
You are in
This is your dashboard, and it is deliberately quiet until you have clients.
Down the left, the navigation follows the shape of the work: Acquire to win clients, Deliver to run them, Create to make the output. Team and Account sit at the bottom.
Anchor is the character up top — the assistant that helps you bring on your first client. The cards along the bottom are the three sensible first moves: research a domain before you pitch, track a domain you are chasing, or save a lead.