A billing transfer is the process of changing the payment profile for a client account to a new profile when an advertiser changes or leaves agencies. During this process, all the accounts under the previous payments profile might need to move to a new paying manager account that belongs to the new agency. If the client account moves to an external manager account hierarchy (such as a different agency), you can start the account transfer process without contacting us.
If the client account stays within your manager account hierarchy and the new payments profile is already linked to your manager account, you can change the payments profile for your client accounts following the instructions below. If the new payment profile isn't linked to your manager account, you will need to link it first. Learn more about manager accounts and payments profile linking for customers on automatic or manual payments.
On this page
Before you begin
- The paying manager needs to be linked to the future payments profile. Learn more about how to link your manager account to a payments profile on monthly invoicing. If you continue to experience issues, contact us.
- You need to be logged in from the current paying manager in order to view the option to Change who pays enabled. You can check your account’s current paying manager by navigating to the 'Billing' tab and selecting 'Settings'.
Note: The primary contact listed in the payments profile must approve any changes made to the payments profile. Learn how to manage payments users in your payments profile. Changes can also be approved by a person using an email address with the same company domain name (for example, person@company.com).
How to make a billing transfer (change who pays)
- Go to Accounts
in your Google Ads manager account.
- Select Budgets in the left menu.
- From the 'Payments account' column, select a client account to edit.
- After you are in the child account, select Billing transfers in the left menu.
- Select the pencil icon
or select Change who pays.
- Note: If the pencil icon or the 'Change who pays' option is greyed out or unavailable, it could be due to several reasons:
- You are not logged in as an admin of the account's current paying manager. Verify the paying manager on the client account's 'Billing settings' page and log in with appropriate credentials.
- The necessary payment profiles (current or future) are not linked to the paying manager account. Ensure that the profiles are linked. Learn how to link your manager account to a payments profile on monthly invoicing.
- The account might be under a Google-managed billing setup, which can restrict direct changes.
- There may be restrictions related to the payment profile type (for example, trying to transfer from self-serve to a monthly invoicing profile without proper setup, or vice versa) or country/currency mismatches between profiles.
- Note: If the pencil icon or the 'Change who pays' option is greyed out or unavailable, it could be due to several reasons:
- Select Internal billing transfer or External billing transfer.
- Internal billing transfer: Select this option if the future paying manager is within your manager account hierarchy.
- If you select this option, proceed to Step 7.
- External billing transfer: Select this option if the future paying manager is a manager account outside your hierarchy (commonly used in agency transitions).
- If you select this option, see how to transfer your client account to another agency.
- Internal billing transfer: Select this option if the future paying manager is within your manager account hierarchy.
- Choose a date for the transfer to take effect or select As soon as possible.
- Next to 'Billing configuration', choose Select existing billing setup or Create new billing setup.
- Select existing billing setup: A new window will open where you can select an existing billing setup.
- Note: Only billing setups associated with your manager account (or any manager account below that) are displayed. If the desired setup isn't shown, you will need to verify who's the paying manager for. This action will add this account to a consolidated invoice.
- Create new billing setup: You can search for a new payments profile that is already linked to your manager account.
- Note: Only payment profiles already linked to your manager account are displayed. If the desired profile isn't shown, you will need to link it before continuing. Learn how to link your manager account to a payments profile on monthly invoicing.
- Select existing billing setup: A new window will open where you can select an existing billing setup.
- Select Save and continue.
- On the 'Budget setup' page, enter your budget details.
- Select Save and finish.
or select Change who pays.
Next steps
Accept the invitation email: The admin or primary contact of the destination payment profile or Google Ads account will receive emails to accept the billing transfer (for example, Account Transfer Agreement, Budget Agreement or Service Agreement). These invitations must be accepted to finalise the transfer. It is important to act on these emails promptly.
