The one person who could change anything is gone, and nobody left can change a thing. There's a way back in — it just starts with paperwork instead of a checkbox.
Introduction
Master admins can't edit each other. That single rule is why this situation exists: the person who could have promoted you is the person who left, and the checkbox that would fix it isn't available to anyone still logged in. Nothing you can click resolves it.
What resolves it is verification. We can put master admin back on your account, but only after we're confident the request is coming from the company that owns it. How much proof that takes depends entirely on who you can still reach. There are four rungs, and every one of them is faster than the one below it. Work down the list and stop at the first one that works.
None of this touches your data. Your transactions, documents, and history are sitting exactly where they were the whole time you've been locked out of the settings.
When to Use This
- Your master admin left the company and isn't answering your messages.
- Your master admin passed away, and the account is still billing.
- The email address on the account belongs to a mailbox nobody can open anymore.
- You bought the brokerage and the previous owner's profile is the only master admin.
- You need to change the card, add a user, or cancel — and Pipeline won't accept the request from you.
Why This Takes Verification
The instinct is that this should be simple: you work here, you're clearly in charge, so tell support and let them sort it out. We understand it, and we still don't do it that way. Master admin reaches every location, every transaction, every commission figure, and the card on file. If we handed it out on an assertion, then anyone who could write a convincing email could take a brokerage's entire records — and a real estate office's records are the last thing that should be easy to steal.
So the request has to come from somebody we can confirm. That's the whole design, and it's why the fastest path is always through a person the account already knows. Someone with a corporate title but no connection to the account can't authorize this, however senior they are. The company owner can — once we've established that's who they are.
1. Try the Departing Master Admin First
Before anything else, check whether the person who left can still get in. If they can, this is over in a minute — a current master admin grants the role from Manage Users, and you never touch the rest of this article. Even a cool departure usually clears this bar; it costs them one login.
Your master admin is the only person who can hand the role to the next one. Do it while they're still here and the account changes hands cleanly — the keys, the bill, and the name on the door.
See Hand Off Master Admin When the Current One Is Leaving
Can they still read their email but not log in? That works too. Ask them to write to help@paperlesspipeline.com from their own registered address, naming you as the new master admin. Authorization from the address we already have on file is all we need.
2. Write to Us From the Address on the Account
If they're unreachable, the request becomes yours to make. Email help@paperlesspipeline.com, tell us the company name, who should hold master admin going forward, and what happened to the last one.
We'll reply to the contact address the account carries. A reply from that address is itself a verification step — it proves the request reached someone who controls the mailbox the account was built on. In a lot of offices that's enough, and this is where the story ends.
3. Take Our Call If the Mailbox Is Closed
Sometimes the address on file is exactly the address nobody can open — the departed admin's, at a domain that's since been shut off. When email can't confirm anything, we may call the phone number on the master admin's profile instead, or leave a message there.
It's worth knowing this rung exists, because it's the one people don't expect. Keep an eye on the number your account lists; if it rings somewhere nobody answers, tell us that in your first message and we'll move straight on to proof of ownership.
4. Send Proof That You Own the Company
When there's no cooperative admin, no usable mailbox, and no reachable phone, ownership itself becomes the credential. Send us documentation showing the company is yours, and our Verification Team reviews it.
What we accept:
- Articles of Incorporation, or a Certificate of Formation.
- Your broker license.
- A company website that names you as the owner.
Send it from your own email address to help@paperlesspipeline.com, along with the name of the person who should hold master admin. Once the Verification Team confirms ownership, we grant it on your word.
This rung takes days, not minutes, and occasionally more. Larger or unusual ownership structures can need a signed organizational action document on top of the rest, and if the first document doesn't establish ownership clearly we'll come back and ask for another. Start it the day you realize you're stuck rather than the day you need the account.
If the master admin has died, the same route applies with one difference: the authorization needs to come from the estate or someone representing it. Tell us that up front and we'll walk you through what to send.
5. Clear the Old Profile Off the Account
Once you hold master admin, finish the job. Remove master admin from the departed profile first, then deactivate it — that ends the login and stops any maildrop addresses tied to that person, so scanners still pointed at them need repointing.
Turn off a user's access when they leave — without losing any of the work tied to their name.
Don't rename the old profile and hand it to the new person. It's the shortcut everyone reaches for, and it quietly rewrites your history — every doc that profile reviewed and every transaction it touched now reads as though the new person did it. Give the successor their own profile and turn the old one off.
While you're in there, add a second master admin. It costs nothing, and it's the one change that guarantees you never read this article again.