Transfer ownership | Free Invoice Automation Docs

Every account has an Owner: the person with every permission, including the ones no other role can ever have, such as deleting the account. When the business changes hands, a partner takes over, or you simply want someone else in charge, you transfer ownership so the account, its businesses, documents, clients and history carry on without interruption under a new Owner.

Why ownership matters

The Owner role is special:

It holds every permission key, and it cannot be edited or deleted.
Some powers belong to the Owner only and can never be given to another role: deleting the account (account.delete) and transferring ownership.
By default it is also the only role with billing (billing.manage) and Export everything (account.export).
The Owner can never be deactivated or removed by anyone.
An account always has at least one Owner. Nothing, including a role change or a removal, can leave it without one.

Because the Owner cannot be removed, transferring ownership is the way to hand over the account. Deleting your login or leaving is not.

Who can transfer ownership

Only the current Owner. Ownership transfer is checked against the Owner role itself rather than a permission key, so there is nothing to tick on another role: an Admin, even one with team.manage, cannot transfer ownership or give themselves the right to do it. Trying to put it on another role returns permission_not_grantable.

Before you start

Think about billing. If the account is on Team, the subscription belongs to the account and the new Owner manages it from then on. Check Settings > Billing together so the new Owner knows the renewal date and card.
Export a copy if you need one. Export everything is an Owner power. Do it before you hand over, while you still hold it. See Export your data.
Make sure the new Owner can sign in. They should have a login and be able to receive email at the address on it. Turning on two-factor is strongly recommended for any Owner.

Transfer ownership in the web app

Open Settings > Team

You must be the Owner of the account selected in the switcher.

Choose to transfer ownership

Pick the person who will become the Owner.

Transferring ownership is a sensitive action. If you have not signed in within the last few minutes, the app asks you to sign in again before it continues.

Confirm

The app shows what will change and asks you to confirm. After confirming, the new Owner holds every permission, including billing, export and account deletion. The transfer is written to the audit log.

Permissions are read on every request, so the change applies straight away for both of you.

Through the API

The capability is transfer_ownership, at POST /v1/account/transfer-ownership. Two safeguards apply:

Fresh sign-in. The action needs a recent sign-in, so it is done by a person in the web app session. API keys cannot perform fresh-sign-in actions. A request without a fresh session returns fresh_signin_required.
Confirmation. It is a destructive action, so it needs "confirm": true. Without it you get a preview of the change and confirmation_required. See Drafts and confirmations.

401 fresh_signin_required

{
  "error": {
    "code": "fresh_signin_required",
    "message": "Please sign in again to transfer ownership.",
    "details": {},
    "request_id": "req_0193f2e1-5b6c-7d8e"
  }
}

Capability	Route	Who	Hint
Transfer ownership	`POST /v1/account/transfer-ownership`	The Owner only	Destructive, fresh sign-in

Rules

Rule	Why
Only the Owner can transfer ownership.	It hands over every power in the account.
It cannot be granted to another role.	Prevents anyone from promoting themselves.
It needs a fresh sign-in.	A session left open on a shared computer cannot give your account away.
It needs explicit confirmation.	It is hard to undo: only the new Owner can transfer it back.
An account always keeps at least one Owner.	There is always someone who can manage billing, export and deletion.
Every transfer is audited.	You can always see who owned the account and when it changed.

Plans

Ownership transfer is available on every plan. On Free, the account has only the Owner and at most one view-only Accountant.

Errors

Code	HTTP	When
`fresh_signin_required`	401	You need to sign in again first.
`permission_denied`	403	You are not the Owner.
`permission_not_grantable`	403	Someone tried to give ownership transfer to a non-Owner role.
`last_owner`	409	The change would leave the account without an Owner.
`confirmation_required`	428	The request did not include `"confirm": true`.

Roles and permissions

Why the Owner role is fixed

Members and invitations

Bring the new Owner into the account

Delete your account

Close the account instead of handing it over

Upgrade to Team

Billing passes to the new Owner