Transferring ownership
How to hand an organization to another member, and what happens to the old owner and to billing.
Where a transfer happens
Ownership of an organization belongs to the Bookbag account, because the organization is shared by every Bookbag product. Transferring it therefore happens there, not inside Openbook.
From Openbook, open Organization → Members & access and click Manage members at Bookbag account. That takes you to the page that owns the decision.
Who can transfer ownership
- The current owner.
- A platform administrator, on the owner's behalf, from the account service's own admin area.
Nobody else — not organization admins, not billing contacts.
The recipient must be a registered member of the organization. Someone with a pending invitation who has not created an account cannot receive ownership; wait until they have registered.
How to transfer
- From Openbook, open Organization → Members & access and follow Manage members at Bookbag account.
- Choose Transfer ownership.
- Pick the registered member who should become the new owner.
- Decide what happens to you (see below) and confirm.
What happens to the old owner
When the transfer completes, the old owner does not vanish by default. Two outcomes are possible:
- They become an admin. This is the standard path — the outgoing owner keeps working in the organization with admin access.
- They are removed entirely. If the person is leaving the company, they can be removed as part of the transfer.
Pick whichever fits; the transfer works the same way in both cases.
What happens to billing
Nothing — a transfer doesn't touch billing. The subscription belongs to the organization, not to the person who happens to own it. The plan, the seats, and the current subscription all continue exactly as they were. Nobody's access changes, no invoices are interrupted, and there's nothing to re-enter on the Billing page.
The one thing that changes is about the future: only future checkouts bind to the new owner's Stripe customer. Openbook keeps one Stripe customer per owner — if you own several organizations, they all bill to that one card and billing identity, with a separate subscription per organization. After a transfer the existing subscription keeps running as-is, and the next time someone checks out — subscribing after a downgrade, say — that checkout ties to the new owner's Stripe customer instead of the old one's.
If your organization is mid-trial or mid-subscription, transfer freely — the trial clock and the subscription are unaffected. See Trials & upgrading.
What happens inside Openbook
Nothing needs to be done here. Openbook reads who owns the organization from the account service, so the new owner's access takes effect the next time the answer is fetched.
Space ownership is a separate thing and is untouched. Each space has its own owner — whoever created it — and a change of organization owner does not move it. Organization owners and admins already have administrator abilities in every space, so the new owner can reach everything regardless.
Common situations
The owner is leaving the company. Transfer ownership at the account service to their successor, then remove the old owner as part of the transfer. Billing continues uninterrupted; the next checkout binds to the new owner's Stripe customer.
You want to hand off day-to-day admin but keep ownership. You don't need a transfer for that — make them an organization admin instead. Transfers are for changing who ultimately holds the organization.
The new owner hasn't joined yet. Invite them first. Once they've registered they become a valid transfer target; pending invitees can't receive ownership.
Something's blocking the current owner from doing it. A platform administrator can perform the transfer on the organization's behalf, at the account service. The same rules apply: the recipient must be a registered member, the old owner becomes an admin or is removed, and billing is untouched.