How to Change Business Manager on Facebook

Need to hand over the reins of your Meta Business Suite or just add a new manager? You're in the right place. Navigating the backend of Facebook feels like its own special kind of puzzle, but changing who's in charge doesn't have to be a headache. This guide skips the jargon and gives you clear, step-by-step instructions for the most common scenarios: adding or removing an admin, transferring ownership, moving assets, and properly giving access to partners like marketing agencies.

First Things First: Know Who's in Charge

Before you can change anything, you need a quick lay of the land. Your entire business presence on Meta - including your Facebook Page, Instagram account, ad accounts, and pixels - is housed inside a Meta Business Suite (what many still call Business Manager). Think of the Business Suite as the secure container, and your Pages and ad accounts as the valuable assets inside it.

Within this container, people have different levels of access. The two most important roles are:

• Admin: This is the top-tier level of access. An Admin can do everything: add or remove people (including other admins), change business settings, add or remove assets like Pages and ad accounts, and see all financial information. They hold the keys to the entire kingdom.
• Employee: This role has limited access. You, as an admin, assign them specific tasks on specific assets. For example, you can give an employee permission to create posts on a Page and run ads on an ad account, but prevent them from seeing billing details or adding new users.

Your first step is to see who currently has admin access. If you're not an admin yourself, you won't be able to make any of the changes below and will need to ask a current admin to either promote you or perform these actions for you.

How to check current admins:

1. Go to business.facebook.com/settings.
2. On the left-hand menu, under "Users," click People.
3. You will see a list of everyone with access to your Business Suite. The column next to their name will show their role as either "Admin" or "Employee."

Now that you know who's who, you can move forward with making changes.

How to Add or Remove an Admin in Meta Business Suite

This is the most frequent task you'll perform. Whether you're bringing on a new business partner, giving a trusted team member more responsibility, or removing someone who has left the company, the process is straightforward.

Adding a New Admin

Adding someone as an admin gives them complete control over your business assets. Only do this for someone you trust implicitly, like a co-founder or senior manager.

Step-by-step instructions:

1. Go to Business Settings > People.
2. Click the blue Add button.
3. Enter the work email address of the person you want to invite. Always use their professional email.
4. On the next screen, toggle on Admin access. This is the most important step! Read the confirmation box carefully - it will remind you what this permission level entails.
5. Click Next.
6. You'll now be asked to assign them to specific assets (Pages, ad accounts, catalogs, etc.). Since you're making them a full admin, they'll have the power to assign these to themselves later, but it’s good practice to assign them what they need from the start. Select the assets and choose the permission level for each.
7. Click Invite.

The person will receive an email invitation to join your Business Suite. Their status will show as "Pending" until they accept it. You can always resend the invitation if they can't find it.

Important Note: It is a smart business practice to have at least two trusted admins. If one person is the sole admin and loses access to their Facebook account for any reason, the entire Business Suite and all its assets can be lost forever. Adding a trusted second admin is your safety net.

Removing an Existing Admin

When a team member or partner leaves, removing their access is a critical security step.

Step-by-step instructions:

1. Go to Business Settings > People.
2. Click on the name of the person you need to remove.
3. On the far right of their name, click the three-dot icon and select Remove.
4. A confirmation pop-up will appear showing all the assets they will lose access to. Review it and click the red Remove button.

Their access will be immediately revoked across all Pages, ad accounts, and other assets connected to your Business Suite.

What About Transferring Ownership? Here’s How It Works

The concept of "ownership" in Business Manager can be confusing because there isn't a literal "Transfer Ownership" button. For all practical purposes, "owning" the Business Manager means being an admin. Therefore, transferring ownership is a two-step process: you add the new person as an admin and then remove the old admin.

If you are the current owner looking to hand over control to someone else, simply follow these steps:

1. Follow the instructions in the "Adding a New Admin" section to invite the new owner and grant them full admin access.
2. Wait for them to accept the invitation. This is very important - don't remove yourself until you confirm they are active.
3. Once they are set up as an admin, they can then follow the "Removing an Existing Admin" steps to remove your access. Alternatively, you can go into Business Info and under 'My Info,' click 'Leave [Your Business Name]' to remove yourself.

You've now effectively transferred control of the Business Suite to the new admin.

Moving a Facebook Page or Ad Account to a Different Business Manager

This situation often comes up when a company restructures, is acquired, or switches the agency managing their assets. It’s more complex than changing people’s roles and comes with some strict rules.

Moving a Facebook Page

You can move a Facebook Page from one Business Manager to another, but there's a specific sequence of "release and claim."

The checklist before you start:

• You must be an admin of the Business Manager that currently holds the Page.
• You must also be an admin of the new Business Manager you want to move the Page into.

Step-by-step instructions:

1. In the current Business Manager, go to Business Settings > Accounts > Pages.
2. Select the Page you want to move and click the Remove button. This releases the Page from being controlled by the business.
3. Note: In some cases, Meta imposes a waiting period before the Page can be claimed by another business account after removal. Be prepared for a potential delay.
4. Now, log into the new Business Manager where you want the Page to live.
5. Go to Business Settings > Accounts > Pages.
6. Click the blue Add button and select Add a Page.
7. Enter the name or URL of the Facebook Page you just removed. Since you are an admin of the Page itself, it should be approved instantly.

The Page is now owned and managed by the new Business Suite.

Moving an Ad Account

This is where it gets tricky. In most cases, you cannot move an ad account from one Business Manager to another, especially if it has a payment history. The ad account is legally tied to the business entity that set it up.

Instead of moving it, the standard professional practice is to grant access through a partnership. If a new business truly needs to own the ad account, the only option is often to deactivate the old one and create a brand new ad account within the new Business Manager. This is a last resort, as you'll lose all the historical data, pixel optimization, and audiences associated with the old account.

The Right Way to Give an Agency Access (Without Making Them an Admin)

When you hire a marketing agency or contractor, you might be tempted to just add them as an admin and call it a day. This is a massive security risk. You're giving an external party total control over your entire business infrastructure.

The proper and secure method is to use the "Partners" feature. This allows you to grant another business specific permissions for the specific assets they need to work on, without giving them the keys to everything.

How to assign a partner:

1. Ask your agency or partner for their Business Manager ID. They can find this under Business Settings > Business Info.
2. In your Business Manager, go to Business Settings > Users > Partners.
3. Click the Add button and choose Give a partner access to your assets.
4. Enter the Business ID they provided and click Next.
5. Now you see a multi-column assignment window. On the left, choose an asset type (e.g., Pages, Ad Accounts, Pixels). In the middle column, choose the specific asset (e.g., your company's Facebook Page). On the right, toggle on the specific tasks you want to allow them to perform (e.g., Create ads, Publish content).
6. Assign all the necessary permissions across all the relevant assets. The best part is you're giving granular control, you're not blindly granting an all-access pass.
7. Click Save Changes.

Your partner will get a notification that you’ve shared assets with them, and they can then assign those assets to people on their own team. When your contract ends, you can simply go back to the Partners section and remove their access with a single click.

Final Thoughts

Managing who controls your Meta Business Suite boils down to correctly handling people, assets, and partners. Whether you're adding a team member or moving your entire Facebook Page, understanding these core functions gives you full command over your online presence and keeps your digital assets secure.

Once you've sorted out your permissions, the real work of managing your social media presence begins. This is exactly where we felt the friction ourselves. After getting access set up, we still had to juggle different apps to plan our content calendar, schedule posts, and reply to comments. That's why we built Postbase. Our visual calendar makes it simple to see your whole content strategy at a glance, and our unified inbox tidies up all your messages and comments into one organized stream, so you can spend less time switching tabs and more time building your brand.