Change the account owner
This article explains how to change the owner of your FreeAgent account. This process will grant ownership of the account to someone else.
There are a few scenarios when you might want to change the owner of your FreeAgent account. For example, you may have sold your business to someone else, or there was a mistake made in the setup process.
Please note:
- The new account owner needs to have been added as a user and verified their email address.
- Only the existing account owner can make this change. If your FreeAgent account is on an accountant's Practice Dashboard, you will need to contact your accountant and ask them to change the account ownership in your account.
- In the situation where the current owner of the account is not able to fulfil the following process due to sickness, death, or another reason, you'll have to contact the support team directly using the blue Help button at the bottom-right of the screen.
- Users with an advisory role (e.g. accountant) cannot be made the new account owner.
1. Select the relevant user
Select 'Settings' from the drop-down menu in the top-right corner and then select 'Users'.
Select the ‘Change Account Owner’ button.
Then, select the ‘Change account owner’ button next to the user that you wish to transfer ownership of your account to.
What if the user has an unverified email address?
If the user that you want to transfer your account ownership to does not have a verified email address, you’ll see a notice telling you to send the verification email and ask the recipient to verify it.
To do this, select the ‘Send verification email’ button next to the relevant user.
A pop-up window will appear asking you to confirm if you want to send the verification email to this user. To do so, select ‘Yes, send a verification email’.
Once the verification email has been sent, you'll see a pop-up message saying that the verification email has been sent to the relevant user.
The email recipient will need to verify their email address themselves before you're able to proceed with the next step.
2. Transfer ownership
It’s important to note that once this process has been completed, the account cannot be retrieved by the previous owner, but the new account owner can transfer ownership back if necessary.
Check that you’re transferring the account ownership to the correct user. If not, you can select ‘Change user’.
You’ll have to select the checkboxes to confirm your understanding of the following:
- The new account owner will receive full (level 8) access, including the ability to delete all data.
- If required, billing details will need to be updated separately.
- Only the new account owner will be able to reverse this change.
Once you’ve confirmed your understanding, you’ll need to enter your FreeAgent password. Select ‘Transfer account ownership’ to complete the process.
A pop-up window will appear saying that the account owner has successfully been changed.
Both the old and new owners of the account will receive emails confirming the change of ownership.