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Human Resources

Independent Contractors

Any outside individual or company that provides a service to the university in exchange for compensation is considered an independent contractor. Please review the information below to answer questions about independent contractor requirements, approvals, and payments.

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  • Individuals and businesses must meet specific requirements to be engaged as an independent contractor. Independent contractors at BYU generally meet all of the following criteria:

    • A person or company who offers services to the general public. They differ from employees in several ways, including that they normally perform work for multiple clients and have autonomy over the work they perform;
    • Not a current or recent BYU employee or a company that employs or is owned by a current or recent BYU employee (recent = paid by BYU in the same tax year or within 6 months if crossing over a tax year); and
    • An individual or company that is providing a service that is NOT similar to that of current BYU employees OR that is providing a service for a short period of time to do work that BYU employees do when a department does not have the capacity to complete work by a specified deadline

  • Yes! It is mandatory to submit a preapproval request through the Independent Contractor Approval Portal (icapproval.byu.edu) prior to engaging with and subsequently paying an independent contractor at BYU. All requests must be submitted and approved before work has begun each time a department wishes to use an independent contractor.

    Exceptions to the requirement for pre-approval through the independent contractor approval portal are limited to the following categories of services:

    • Common carriers (e.g., airline, bus, train, taxi, ride-hailing service such as Uber/Lyft)
    • Lodging (e.g., hotel, short-term rental such as Airbnb/VRBO)
    • Food (e.g., restaurant, catering)
    • Admission to ticketed public attractions (e.g., museums, exhibitions)

  • To receive approval to engage with an independent contractor to provide services for BYU, simply follow these steps:

    1. On the “Home” page of the Independent Contractor Approval Portal (icapproval.byu.edu), select the "New Engagement Request" link and search for the individual or business you want to engage.
      1. If found, select the “Start New Request” or “Clone Previous Request” buttons on the right side of the supplier’s information listed in the search results.

      2. If not found, go to workday.byu.edu and search for the "Create Supplier Request" task. This process will include uploading a completed and signed Form W-9 with the contractor’s Employee Identification Number. For additional information about how to complete this task, search for and review the “Create Supplier Request” Article in Workday. This will generate a Supplier ID that you can then use to search for the supplier in the approval portal. It typically takes about a day for new suppliers to appear in the portal. Once the supplier is found in the portal, select the “Start New Request” button on the right side of the supplier’s
        information listed in the search results.

        Note: Being set up as a supplier in Workday does NOT guarantee that the individual or company will be approved to provide services to the university. Rather, it is only the first step in the approval consideration process.

    1. Once you begin an engagement request in the portal, answer questions relating to the service(s) the person or company will provide.
    2. When complete, the portal will show a confirmation that your request has been submitted for review.

  • The HR Operations Center reviews each independent contractor engagement request submitted through the approval portal to ensure it meets BYU’s independent contractor guidelines. Additional reviews may be conducted by Risk Management and Safety, the Office of Information Technology, and/or Regulatory Accounting if needed. If supplementary information is needed in order to evaluate your request, you will be contacted.

    If approved, you will receive an email notification that includes an Independent Contractor Transaction Approval Number (ICTAN) generated by BYU. The ICTAN must be referenced in the Internal Memo field of any associated purchase requisition to verify pre-approval of the request.

    Departments will typically receive a notification of the approval or denial of their request within three business days of its submission.

    As needed, you may go to the Open Requests tab of the approval portal to check the status of your requests, manage access, and see the ICTAN for approved requests

  • Yes. The Office of General Counsel and Risk Management and Safety have advised that where the university is paying an independent contractor for approved services, there should be a written agreement in place, regardless of the amount of compensation.

    The following standard contract templates have been approved for campus use:

    Based on answers provided when submitting an independent contractor portal engagement request, approval notifications will include a link to the recommended contract/agreement template. As outlined in all approved standard contract templates, independent contractors must agree to adhere to all applicable BYU standards and policies in performing services for the university.

    If your department needs to alter a template or needs to utilize a different contract/agreement, contact your department’s Office of General Counsel representative.

    When requesting payment to an independent contractor, a contract will need to be attached to the purchase requisition in Workday.

  • Once a department has received a notification that their request to engage with an independent contractor has been approved and an ICTAN has been issued, a purchase requisition may be initiated by following these steps:

    1. Visit the Workday website (workday.byu.edu) and enter “Request Non-Catalog Items” into the main search bar, and then select the associated task link in the search results.
    2. For Request Type, select the “Service” radio button
    3. Complete all other Request Details
    4. Select the “Add to Cart” button at the bottom of the page.
    5. Once you are ready to proceed with the payment request, select the shopping cart icon in the top right corner of the page and click on the “Checkout” button.
    6. In the “Internal Memo” field, list the ICTAN for the engagement request received through the Independent Contractor Approval Portal when the engagement request was approved.

    Note that a copy of the completed contract (typically using one of the standard contract templates) must be uploaded for each independent contractor payment request.

    For additional information on how to complete the payment requisition, search for and review the “Create Purchase Requisition” Article available in Workday.

  • The following offices are prepared to help with your various questions related to independent contractors:

     

    HR Operations Center (icapproval@byu.edu | 801-422-3562) for questions about:

    • Whether an individual or business may be engaged as an independent contractor to complete work for your area
    • IC approval portal request updates

    Purchasing Supplier Desk (suppliers@byu.edu | 801-422-0895) for questions about:

    • Setting up a supplier

    Purchasing Front Desk (purchasing@byu.edu | 801-422-3872) for questions about:

    • Creating a purchase requisition to pay for an approved independent contractor engagement

    Office of General Counsel (your area’s General Counsel representative) for questions about:

    • Contract requirements
    • Edited/Alternative contract options

    Risk Management (risk_mgmt@byu.edu | 801-422-4468) for questions about:

    • Insurance requirements
    • Work involving minors

    Tax Office (taxstudent@byu.edu | 801-422-7100) for questions about:

    • Tax law related to independent contractors
    • IRS Forms: W-9, 1099

    Compensation (your area’s assigned Compensation Partner) for questions about:

    • Supplemental pay or other forms of compensation to current BYU employees
    • Employee-Vendor questions

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