Manage Google payments users, permissions, and notification settings

This document describes how to configure access permissions for Google payments accounts and profiles.

A Google payments profile stores the following information:

  • Name, address, and tax ID (when required legally) of who is responsible for the profile.
  • Credit cards, debit cards, bank accounts, and other payment methods you've used to buy through Google in the past.
  • Receipts and other information about past transactions.

Every Cloud Billing account is linked to a Google payments profile.

Access permissions for Google payments profiles and Cloud Billing accounts are configured in two different systems depending on what type of access you want to provide.

If you need to configure access permissions for a Cloud Billing account, see Manage access to Cloud Billing accounts.

Google payments users and permissions

Google payments users, payments permissions, and email notification options are managed from the Google payments center Settings page. These settings are connected to the Google payments center and to your payments profile. See Cloud Billing concepts for more information.

You can add other users to any Google payments business profile that you manage. For each person you add to a payments profile, you decide if they can invite other users, buy or sign up for paid Google services, view your payment history, or make changes to the profile. You can also set their email notification preferences.

This document describes how to manage the user accounts of the Google payments profile linked to your Cloud Billing account. You can manage the payments users by accessing the Payment settings page in the Billing section of the Google Cloud console.

You can also manage your Google payments profile and payments users in the Google payments center. See Google payments help for more information.

About payments profile account types

Google payments profiles can be set up as one of two account types: Business or Individual. The account type is used for tax and identity verification. After the payments profile is created, the account type can't be changed. Make sure to choose the one that best fits how you plan to use your Google payments profile.

  • If you want more than one user on your payments profile, then you must set the account type to Business.
  • If you create a payments profile with an account type set as Individual, only one user — the creator of the Google payments profile — is associated with the payments profile, and no other users can be added.

Permissions required to manage payments users

To make the changes described in this document, you need the following permissions.

If you want to manage payments users from the Payment settings page in the Cloud Billing console, you need permissions on your Cloud Billing account and your Google payments profile.

  1. On the Cloud Billing account, you must be either a Billing Account Administrator or Billing Account Viewer. For more information, see Overview of Cloud Billing Access Control.
  2. On the Google payments profile, at a minimum, you need the Manage users permission, but you might need the Admin permission to complete some of the user management tasks. For more information, see the payments help center article on managing user permissions

If you want to manage payments users in the Google payments center, you only need permissions on your Google payments profile. You don't need Cloud Billing account permissions if you're not accessing the Payment settings page in the Billing section of the Google Cloud console.

Tips:

  • The creator of the Google payments profile is automatically granted the Admin with all permissions permission on the payments profile.
  • The payments profile Admin can manage all users of the payments profile, including adding or removing users, and setting or modifying all payments profile permissions for a user.
  • On the payments profile, the Manage users permission lets you add and update payments contacts, but you can't assign admin-level permissions to users, and you might not be able to remove an existing user.

Accessing the payments settings page

You can access the Payment settings page of your Google payments profile from either the Google Cloud console or Google payments center.

Google Cloud console

To access the Payment settings page in the Google Cloud console, do the following:

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Payment settings page.

    Go to Payment settings in Cloud Billing console

  2. At the prompt, choose the Cloud Billing account connected to the payments profile that you want to update.

    The Payment settings page opens for the selected Cloud Billing account.

Google payments center

To access the payments Settings page in the Google payments center, do the following:

  1. Sign in to the Google payments center.

    If you have more than one Google payments account, the payments profile that you most recently viewed opens. To manage a different payments profile, select the payments profile from the drop-down menu at the top of the page.

  2. Select the Settings tab.

Updating payments profile users and notification settings

To change the payments profile users or the notifications you want to receive, do any of the following.

Add a user to a payments profile

  1. Access the payments profile Settings page using either the Google Cloud console or Google payments center.
  2. On the payments Settings page, under Payments users, click Manage payments users.
  3. On the Manage users page, click + Add a new user.
  4. Enter the contact's name, phone number (optional), and email address.
  5. To choose the new user's permissions, click Permissions. Learn more about profile permissions.
  6. To choose the new user's email preferences, click Email preferences. Learn more about email preferences.
  7. Optional: Select the Primary contact checkbox to designate this user as the primary contact. Every profile must have a primary contact. There can be only one primary contact on a profile.

  8. When you're finished, click Invite.

    The user's name displays as Pending until they accept your invitation. To use the payments profile, the user must accept your invitation within tw0 weeks.

    To accept your invitation, users must do the following:

    1. Open the email invitation.
    2. Click Review and accept.
    3. At the bottom of the next screen, click Accept.

Why can't I add a new user to my payments profile?

If you go to the Google payments settings and access the Manage users page and you don't see an option to add a new user, the reasons could include the following:

  • The payments profile is set up as an individual account rather than a business account. You can't add users to an individual account. This setting can't be changed.
  • You don't have the permissions needed to add a new payments user. Contact your Cloud Billing account administrator or Google payments profile administrator.

Resend an email invitation

To resend an email invitation to a user, follow these steps:

  1. Access the payments profile settings page using either the Google Cloud console or Google payments center.
  2. On the payments Settings page, under Payments users, click Manage payments users.
  3. Locate the user you sent an invite to.
  4. Open their contact record by clicking the Down arrow .
  5. Click Resend invitation.

Update settings for a payments profile user

  1. Access the payments profile Settings page using either the Google Cloud console or Google payments center.
  2. On the payments Settings page, under Payments users, click Manage payments users.

  3. To open a user's record, click the Down arrow on the name of the contact you want to update.

    To update the contact details:

    1. Under Contact details, click Edit .
    2. Enter the updated contact information.

    3. Click Save.

    To update the user permissions:

    1. Under Permissions, click Edit .
    2. Choose the Google payments permissions for this user.

    3. Click Save.

      Can't edit the permissions? If you don't see the edit icon, the reasons could include the following:

      • The user you want to edit is the only administrator-level user on this Google payments profile. Every profile must have at least one user designated as a payments profile Admin. To edit the user permissions, first grant the administrator permissions to another user.
      • You don't have the necessary permissions to edit the payments user. Contact your Cloud Billing account administrator or Google payments profile administrator.

    To update payments notifications for a user:

    1. Under Email preferences, click Edit .
    2. Select the type of notification level: All payments email, Administrative payments email only (for example, account suspension notices), or No payments email.

    3. Click Save.

      Can't edit the email preferences? If you don't see the edit icon, the reasons could include the following:

      • The user you want to edit is an Admin or the primary contact. The primary contact and all administrator-level users must use the All payments email preference, to receive all payments notifications.
      • You don't have the necessary permissions to edit the payments user. Contact your Cloud Billing account administrator or Google payments profile administrator.

Remove a user from a payments profile

  1. Access the payments profile Settings page using either the Google Cloud console or Google payments center.
  2. On the payments Settings page, under Payments users, click Manage payments users.
  3. To open the user's record you want to remove, click the Down arrow next to the name of the user.
  4. Choose Remove.
  5. To confirm you want to remove that user permanently, click Yes.

Why can't I remove a user from the payments profile?

If you go to the Google payments Manage users page and expand the user you want to remove, but you don't see an option to remove the user, the reasons could include the following:

  • The user is set up as the primary contact. Every payments profile must have a primary contact. You can't remove a user who is designated as the primary contact. To remove the user, first reassign the primary contact role to another user.
  • The user is set up as the only Admin for this profile. Every payments profile must have at least one user designated as a profile administrator. To remove the user, first grant the Admin role to another user.
  • You don't have the permissions needed to remove a payments user. Contact your Cloud Billing account administrator or Google payments profile administrator.

About the primary contact

Each Google payments profile has one primary contact who receives all payments emails. This is the person Google will contact with any payments-related questions.

Every payments profile must have a primary contact. You can't remove a user who is designated as the primary contact, but you can reassign that role to another user.

To reassign the primary contact:

  1. Access the payments profile Settings page using either the Google Cloud console or Google payments center.
  2. On the payments Settings page, under Payments users, click Manage payments users.
  3. To open a user's record, click the Down arrow on the name of the contact you want to designate as the primary contact.
  4. Select the Primary contact checkbox.
  5. Click Save.

For some products, the primary contact might get an email receipt when anyone makes a payment using that Google payments profile.

About payments profile permissions

Set the permissions to give different users different levels of access to the same Google payments profile. A user can receive email notifications even if no permissions are selected. You can set permissions as follows:

  • Read access: Users can view all information and documents related to all products linked to this payments profile.

  • Edit payments profile: Users can edit the following information in the payments profile:

    • Business name
    • Address
    • Payments methods
    • Tax information
    • Payments account settings

    Note that users with the edit permission can make manual payments to an automatically paid, self-serve Cloud Billing account, as long as that user is also a Billing Account Administrator or a Billing Account Viewer on the Cloud Billing account.

  • Sign-up and purchase: Users can use the payments profile to buy or sign up for more Google products or services.

  • Manage users: Users can add, edit, and remove users of the payments profile and change their permissions.

  • Admin with all permissions: Users have all current and future permissions as they become available, and can add, edit, manage, and remove users for the payments profile.

To set the Admin permission for a user, you must be an Admin on this Google payments profile. Users with the Manage users permission can set only up to the same level of permissions that they're granted on their user account. For example, a user with Read access, Edit payments profile, and Manage users permissions can add a new user and assign the new user the same or fewer permissions.

About email preferences

You can set email preferences for each Google payments user. Additionally, if yourCloud Billing account is configured for invoiced billing, you can separately configure a list of contacts to send invoices by email.

Email preferences for Google payments users

Set the types of email notifications the payments user receives. Note that if the user is designated as the primary contact or if the user is granted admin permissions, you must set email preferences to All payments email.

  • All payments email: All payments email includes administrative email, as well as transactional messages such as payout alerts, or when there might be issues with test deposits to verify your bank account.

  • Administrative payments email only: Administrative email includes account management messages about tax forms, customer suspensions, Terms of Service updates, and account closure.

  • No payments email: No notification messages are sent.

Send invoices by email to contacts you specify

In addition to the email preferences for Google payments account users, if your Cloud Billing account is configured to be paid by Invoice, you can also configure a separate list of contacts to receive only invoices by email. These contacts don't need to be set up as payments account users to receive invoices by email.

For more information, see Enable contacts to receive invoices by email.