How to consolidate paid accounts or transfer ownership of a project

Overview

Do you have more than one paid Fieldwire account? Our process for consolidating accounts consists of grouping individual paid accounts under one centralized account owner. This allows you to more easily manage your license/user count and keep track of your invoices. If you are in the process of transferring individual paying accounts to a central paying account, then you may also need to manually transfer your project(s) to the centralized paying account. 

Alternatively, you may need to transfer your project from your Basic account to the paid account if you are the owner of a project under a Basic Plan and have been invited to a paid account. 

Table of Contents

• When to consolidate paid accounts
• How to consolidate accounts
• Examples of account consolidations
• When to transfer a project to your paying account
• How to transfer a project to your paying account

When to consolidate paid accounts

There is no "one size fits all" when it comes to Fieldwire and paying for your accounts. However, you may want to consolidate paid accounts when there are multiple users who each pay for their own Fieldwire subscription, and you want one, centralized, person/account to "own" the billing process as well as pay for all users in your organization. 

Note: When a project is transferred to a different account, all users on the account or project are added to the main account. Ensure the correct people are on the Project before transferring project ownership to avoid any unexpected additional users.

How to consolidate accounts

Consolidating accounts can be tricky, so it is important to follow these steps below:

1. All users who are consolidating their accounts with a "main" account must downgrade their paid accounts to the Basic, free tier 
   • They can do so by following the steps here: How do I downgrade or cancel my Fieldwire Subscription?
   • IMPORTANT: If there are any 'Account Form Templates' on the account, please push these to a project prior to downgrading your subscription. These can be added to the new account after the project has been transferred. Take a look at this article for more details: Introduction to Account-level Templates
2. The new, "main" Account Owner invites all users to their account as Account Users: How to Invite or Remove a User from Accounts or Projects
   • Verify who has been added to your "main" account by checking under the 'People' tab on the project dashboard. Everyone listed on the Account 'People' tab is covered by your account.
3. The users from each 'Basic' account will transfer all of their projects from their accounts to the "main" paid account
   • To learn how to transfer projects, check out the When and how to transfer a project sections below
4. After these steps are completed, the individual paid accounts will be consolidated under one centralized Account Owner.

Step 2:

Examples of account consolidations

Example 1: 

Situation: Dinesh and Maisie are both paying for accounts. Their company wants the billing to be centralized (with Maisie as the Account Owner) so she can pay for everyone. 

To do this: 

1. Dinesh downgrades his account to the Basic version
2. Maisie invites Dinesh to her account as an Account User
3. Dinesh can then open the project and 'Transfer' the projects to Maisie's paying account by selecting the email address of the user who you want to be the new owner of the project on the Settings tab. This should be the same email address as the Account Owner for the new, "main" account.

Example 2

Situation: Conifer Construction Inc. has 4 paid accounts under Tammy, Jorge, Alex, and Riley. The account owner, Riley, wants to pay for everyone to centralize billing.

The process is exactly the same:

1. Tammy, Jorge, and Alex downgrade their accounts so they are no longer paying for Fieldwire.
2. Riley invites Tammy, Jorge, and Alex to their account as Account Users.
3. All users can now open the projects they wish to transfer to Riley's account, and select 'Transfer to my Pro/Business/Business Plus account' (screenshot above).

When to transfer a project to your paying account

If your project says "Basic Plan" rather than"Pro", "Business" or "Business Plus" even though you are covered under a paying account, you will want to transfer your project.

Note: When a project is transferred to an account, all users on the project are added to the main account. Ensure that the correct people are on the project before transferring project ownership.

Note: If a project is on an Account under a unique, Enterprise-invoiced Plan, it cannot be transferred.

How to transfer a project to your paying account

Projects can be transferred from a 'Basic' plan to a Pro, Business, or Business Plus subscription as a part of account consolidation. If you'd like to close out a project instead, please refer to this guide: How to Close out a Fieldwire Project.

Before starting with the project transfer process, it is important to check your permission levels.

• Account Permission: You will need to have access to the account that will own the project as an Account User or Account Manager. If this is not the case, you must ask someone in the organization to add you as one. You can view the 'Account' permissions from the 'People' tab on the project dashboard.
• Project Permission: Ensure that you are a Project Admin on the project that will be transferred. 
  • Note: You can view the Project permission statuses on the Project 'People' tab, under the 'Access' tab
• Keep in mind that account permission levels work differently than project permission levels. Here are the articles that explore the distinctions of each:
  • Introduction to Account Permission Levels: Managers, Account Users, and Project Users
  • Introduction to Project Permission Levels: Administrators, Members, and Followers

Account Permission Level:

Project Permission Level:

Once you have verified you have the proper permission levels, follow these steps to transfer a project:

1. Open the pertinent Project
2. Navigate to the Settings (gear icon) for that project
3. Scroll down to the Project actions section
4. For the Project Owner dropdown, select the email address of the user who you want to be the new owner of the project. This should be the same email address as the Account Owner for the new, "main" account.
5. The Account Owner/Managers will receive an email to confirm the project transfer.
6. The Account Owner/Manager need to click on the link in the email to confirm the transfer.

After this is been completed, the project will now be covered by the "main" paid Pro, Business, or Business Plus account.

 Email to confirm project ownership transfer:

IMPORTANT: If you are on an upgraded Fieldwire subscription and wish to transfer your project to another paying Account that you are not planning on joining, then you can do so by following these steps:

1. Client 1 invites Client 2 to the project as an Admin.
2. Client 2 must go to Project Settings and click "Transfer to my Plan". 
   • After this, a banner will appear saying "Project has been transferred". However, Client 2 still need to complete the next step for the project transfer to take effect.
3. Client 2 will receive an email, and they need to click the link provided to officially take ownership of the project. If this is skipped, the project will not be fully transferred.

More information

• Account management & pricing
• Account Manager Playlist (Web)
• Q&A: I'm an Account Owner/Manager. How do I gain access to Projects covered under my Account?