How to add (or remove) a manager on your Google Business Profile

Adding a manager to your Google Business Profile is a 90-second task that most operators get slightly wrong — and the consequences show up a year later when an agency you fired still has access, or an ex-employee is the only one who can edit hours.

This is the short, opinionated version. The steps to add and remove managers, the three permission levels and what they actually do, and the rules that keep your listing under your control no matter who comes and goes.

The three roles, what they mean

Google Business Profile has three permission levels:

Owner

• Full control. Can edit everything, post, respond to reviews, add and remove other users, transfer ownership.
• Only one Owner per listing. Adding another Owner means transferring ownership.
• This should always be an account controlled by the entity that legally owns the brand presence — not an individual employee, not an agency, not a contractor.

Manager

• Can edit profile info, post, respond to reviews, view performance.
• Cannot remove the Owner or transfer ownership.
• Can add and remove other Managers (in some cases — see permissions notes below).
• This is the right role for almost everyone else — marketing employees, agencies, tools (like Recenzi), trusted contractors.

Site Manager

• Limited role: can post, respond to reviews, upload photos.
• Cannot edit core profile info (name, address, phone, category).
• Useful for franchisees, junior staff, or location-level employees who shouldn't be able to change brand-level info.

The mental model: Owner is the brand. Manager is anyone who needs full operational control. Site Manager is anyone who only handles day-to-day content.

How to add a manager

Three minutes, web dashboard:

1. Sign in to business.google.com with the Owner account.
2. If you have a single location, you're already on the management view. If you have multiple, select the location you want to share access to. (For an entire location group, you can add a manager at the group level — covered below.)
3. Find the "Menu" or three-dot icon. Click Business Profile settings → People and access.
4. Click Add in the top right.
5. Enter the email address of the person you want to add. They need a Google account on that email (a Gmail address or any email tied to a Google account).
6. Choose Manager or Site manager. (Avoid making someone an Owner unless you mean to transfer ownership.)
7. Click Invite.

The invitee receives an email with an accept link. They have 7 days to accept before the invite expires.

Once accepted, they appear in the People and access list. They can immediately use the profile under their own login — no shared password, no fragile sticky note in a desk drawer.

How to add a manager to a location group (multi-location)

For a location group, you add managers once at the group level and they get access to every location in the group. (If you don't have a location group set up yet, our multi-location operator's guide walks through the right setup pattern.)

1. Sign in to business.google.com.

2. Click Businesses in the left rail.

3. Click the location group name.

4. Click Manage users.

5. Click Add in the top right.

6. Enter the email, choose Group manager or Group owner (sparingly), invite.

A group manager has the same per-location permissions as a regular Manager, applied across every location in the group. This is the right pattern for agencies and tools that work across your portfolio.

How to remove a manager

Even faster:

1. Sign in to business.google.com.
2. Navigate to the location (or location group) where the manager has access.
3. Open Business Profile settings → People and access (or Manage users for a group).
4. Click the person's name.
5. Click Remove.
6. Confirm.

Access is revoked immediately. They lose the ability to view or edit anything tied to that listing.

Transferring ownership

This is the one that goes wrong most often, so it deserves its own section.

If an Owner leaves the company, retires, or sells the business, ownership needs to transfer to a new account. The process:

1. The current Owner adds the new Owner account as a Manager.
2. The current Owner goes to People and access, clicks the new person, and changes their role to Primary Owner.
3. The original Owner becomes a regular Manager and can be removed.

The catch: this assumes the original Owner is still cooperative and accessible. If they aren't — if they've left and won't respond — you have to go through Google's listing reclamation process, which is slow (typically 2-6 weeks) and not guaranteed.

The lesson: always have at least two Manager accounts on every listing, owned by stable, brand-controlled emails. When the Owner leaves, you have leverage. When you have no second account, you're at Google's mercy.

The rules that save you pain

After watching dozens of operators tangle this up, the patterns that keep things clean:

1. Owner = the brand, always

Never let an agency, contractor, or individual employee be the Owner. When they leave, you lose the listing — or have to fight Google for months to reclaim it.

The Owner account should be a brand-controlled email (corporate domain, not Gmail) under the direct control of the people who actually own the business. Treat it like the domain registrar account — boring, locked down, with documented ownership succession.

2. Two-Manager rule

Always have at least two Manager accounts active on every listing. If one leaves, you still have control.

This sounds obvious. About 70% of the listings we look at violate it.

3. Agencies and tools get Manager, not Owner

Adding an agency or marketing tool as a Manager is right. Adding them as an Owner — even temporarily, even with promises to transfer back — is wrong. Don't.

4. Site Manager for franchisees and location staff

Franchisees and location-level employees should be Site Managers, not full Managers. They can do their day-to-day work (post, respond to reviews, upload photos) without being able to accidentally (or intentionally) change the address, phone, or business name.

5. Audit access quarterly

Once a quarter, open People and access on every listing and confirm everyone listed should still be there. Ex-employees, former agencies, contractors who finished their work months ago — remove them.

For multi-location portfolios, this is the access drift that quietly creates risk. The audit takes 20 minutes a quarter and saves you weeks of cleanup later.

If you haven't run through the broader management workflow yet, our GBP management walkthrough covers what each role actually does day-to-day.

Common scenarios

"I want to give my agency access without sharing my Google login."

Add them as a Manager. They use their own account; you keep your login secure.

"I'm hiring a contractor for 90 days and want temporary access."

Add as Manager. Calendar a reminder for day 91 to remove. Do not skip the reminder.

"I sold the business. How do I transfer everything?"

The buyer creates a Google account. You add it as Manager. You transfer Primary Owner. You're removed. Cleanest if done in the week before the sale closes.

"My former employee was the Owner and they've left."

If they'll cooperate: have them add a new Manager (you), then transfer Primary Owner to you, then remove themselves.

If they won't: file a request to transfer ownership through the Business Profile help center. Google reviews and arbitrates. Expect 2-6 weeks. Have documentation ready (incorporation papers, domain ownership, lease, anything that proves brand ownership).

"An agency we fired still has access."

Sign in as Owner. Go to People and access. Remove them. Done.

If you don't have Owner access — see the previous scenario.

Adding Recenzi as a Manager

If you use Recenzi (or evaluate it), the right setup is:

1. Add the Recenzi onboarding email as a Manager at the location-group level.
2. Recenzi pulls every signal across every location in the group through this access.
3. When you stop your subscription, remove the access — takes 30 seconds.

We're a tool, not an Owner. You stay in control of your listing at all times.

FAQ

How many managers can I add to a Google Business Profile? No hard limit. We've seen profiles with 20+ managers active. Audit them; don't hoard them.

Does the manager need a Google Workspace account or can they use a regular Gmail? Either works. Any email tied to a Google account is fine.

Can a manager remove the Owner? No. Only an Owner can transfer or remove the Primary Owner role.

Can multiple people share one Owner login? Technically yes, but bad practice. Shared logins create accountability gaps and security holes. Each person should have their own Manager account.

What happens if I delete the Google account that's the Owner of a listing? The listing enters a degraded state where Google may eventually remove it. Always transfer ownership before deleting an account.

Can I see a log of who edited what on the profile? Google has limited audit history visible in the dashboard — recent edits show in the activity log, but a full audit trail isn't exposed. For multi-location operators who need accountability, Recenzi tracks edit-level activity per location.

Can I add a manager who doesn't have a Google account yet? You can send the invite to any email. They'll need to create or sign in to a Google account on that email to accept.

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Adding managers is easy. Keeping access clean over years is the discipline.

Two Manager accounts on every listing. Owner = the brand. Quarterly audit. That's the whole playbook.

If you're managing access across many locations and the audit is starting to feel impossible, start a Recenzi free trial — we track access patterns across your portfolio along with everything else.

— Team Recenzi