This article explains what Account Owners and Contract Owners are in Personio, and how you can assign and remove them.

What are Account Owners?

Account Owners are the designated people in your company who can contact the Personio Customer Support team through the Find Answers section in case of account-related or technical questions. If needed, they can grant (temporary) account access to Customer Support staff. For more information on granting access, read our article Impersonation Access by Personio.

An Account Owner is also authorized for GDPR-related instructions, such as requesting information about log files or creating a bulk export of all company data that is stored in Personio.

Note For the security of your account and to prevent misuse, Personio employees are required to provide information and service only to those employees who are listed as Account Owner or Contract Owner.

What are Contract Owners?

Employees who are assigned the role of Contract Owner are Personio's point of contact for all financial matters such as invoicing, renewal and upgrades. They can contact the Personio Customer Growth team through the Find Answers section in case of subscription-related requests.

A Contract Owner is also authorized for GDPR-related instructions, such as submitting a deletion request.

Tip Invoices from Personio are delivered to the email address listed under Settings > SUPPORT > Subscription and Billing > Billing information, not the email address of the Contract Owner.

Differences Between Account Owners, Contract Owners and Administrators

The table below gives a clear overview of the different rights of Account Owners, Contract Owners and Administrators.

Note We strongly recommend that Account Owners and Contract Owners are also assigned the role of Administrator. Otherwise, they cannot read our Data Processing Agreement (DPA) or make changes to the account settings. For more information on the Administrator role, read our article Which Access Rights Are Only Available to Administrators?

Tips
▶︎ You can assign up to two Account Owners and up to two Contract Owners.
▶︎ One person can be both an Account Owner and a Contract Owner.
▶︎ The person who creates the Personio account automatically becomes an Administrator, an Account Owner and a Contract Owner.

Assign Account Owners and Contract Owners

Follow these steps to add an Account Owner or Contract Owner in Personio:

1. Go to Settings > Support > Support.
2. In the Account Owners/Contract Owners tab, click on Add account owner/Add contract owner or the plus symbol .
3. Fill in the following details in the new window:

   Field	Information
   Name	Select an employee from a dropdown list of all active employees in Personio
   Gender	Taken from the employee profile
   Email	Taken from the employee profile
   Salutation	Select if the employee should be addressed formally or informally
   Phone Number 1	To be entered manually, e.g. the regular office number
   Phone Number 2	To be entered manually, e.g. the company cell phone
   Phone Number 3	To be entered manually, e.g. another extension

   Contact is only possible via a telephone number entered here. Also consider in this context whether the entered number corresponds to the number transmitted during a call (e.g. for outbound telephone service without specifying the subsidiary).
4. Tick the checkbox to agree to our Data Privacy Statement.
5. Click Create to finish the process.
   
   
6. To change the contact details of an Account Owner or Contract Owner, click Edit next to the employee's name.

Note The Account Owner or Contract Owner must be a natural person, as shared accounts are prohibited under our General Terms and Conditions.

Remove Account Owners and Contract Owners

Follow these steps to remove an Account Owner or Contract Owner in Personio:

1. Go to Settings > Support > Support.
2. In the Account Owners/Contract Owners tab, select the employee who you no longer want to designate as an Account Owner or Contract Owner.
3. Click the bin icon in the top-right corner.
   
   
4. A pop-up window will appear asking you to confirm the removal. Click Yes, remove to remove the Account Owner or Contract Owner.

Note You can't remove an Account Owner or Contract Owner if they are the only employee with this role in your company. In this case, first assign a new employee to the role and then remove the previous Account Owner or Contract Owner.