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How to add a backup admin to every account that matters

Steps verified against the official documentation below · last checked 2026-07-18

If you do exactly one thing this blog recommends, do this one: put a second administrator on every account your business can't operate without. A single admin is a single point of failure — one departure, one lost phone, one accident away from lockout — and every recovery guide we've written exists because somebody skipped this step.

Here's the whole job on one page: the exact path on each major platform, each verified against the provider's documentation (the linked deep-dives cover the details and edge cases). Budget an hour for all of them.

Identity & email

  1. 1
    Google Workspace
    Admin console → Directory → Users → select the second person → Admin roles and privileges → assign Super Admin. Add recovery info to both admin accounts while you're there.
  2. 2
    Microsoft 365
    Admin center → Users → Active users → select user → Manage roles → Global Administrator. Microsoft's guidance: more than one, fewer than five, MFA on all.

Social & marketing

  1. 1
    Meta Business portfolio
    Business Suite → Settings → People → add a second person with full control. Then check the Facebook Page and Instagram account access lists individually.
  2. 2
    LinkedIn Company Page
    Super admin view → Settings → Manage admins → add a second super admin. LinkedIn requires at least one; you want at least two.
  3. 3
    Email platform (Mailchimp/Klaviyo)
    Settings → Users → add a company login as Admin. The Owner role stays singular — make sure it sits on a shared-mailbox login, with an Admin as the human backup.

Money

  1. 1
    Stripe
    Dashboard → Settings → Team → invite a second person as Super Administrator. The account owner stays singular — anchor it to a company login.
  2. 2
    PayPal
    Account Settings → Add user → grant a scoped secondary user. PayPal's primary holder can't be duplicated, so the backup here is scoped access plus company-controlled contact details.

Infrastructure

  1. 1
    Registrar
    Most registrars support additional contacts or delegate access; at minimum, move the account onto a shared mailbox two people read, and record the login in the vault. Turn on the transfer lock while you're in there.
  2. 2
    Cloudflare / DNS host
    Manage Account → Members → add a second member with Super Administrator. Cloudflare's own recommendation is more than one.
  3. 3
    Shopify
    Settings → Users → add a staff account with full permissions. The store owner role is singular — put it on a shared mailbox, with staff as the working backup.
Platforms with a singular owner role (Shopify, Stripe, Klaviyo, PayPal, QuickBooks) can't have two owners — there the pattern is: owner on a company-controlled shared login, plus a fully-permissioned second human. The deep-dive guide for each platform covers its transfer procedure for when the owner must change.

Close the loop

  • Record every backup admin in the register's people column — this list is now your offboarding trigger map.
  • The backup must be a current employee on a company identity, with working 2FA of their own (see the 2FA guide — don't create a second admin whose 2FA is the same phone as the first's).
  • Test one random backup admin's access each quarter. Ten minutes, and it converts this from paperwork into an actual capability.
SOURCES & OFFICIAL DOCUMENTATION
Google Workspace — Make a user an adminMicrosoft Learn — Best practices for Microsoft Entra rolesCloudflare Docs — Account roles
This is one asset. How many others does your business not control?

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