How to Reopen a Closed Google Cloud Billing account

Google Cloud Platform is a suite of services that includes everything from tools and APIs to infrastructure like Compute engine. These services are infrastructures that Google built around the globe across many regions and zones. To access these resources, the user requires an Cloud Billing account. 

A cloud billing account is an organization-level resource managed in the console. It keeps track of all the costs incurred by your Google Cloud usage. The cost of each project will be determined by the number of resources and services used by the organization. A billing account can be closed to protect from over-expenditure or simply as it’s not required anymore.

For instance, let’s say that you’ve closed your Billing account and now you want to reopen or recover it. How would you do that? What all permissions do you need? How can it affect your project? Will you be able to access free services? Can you delete your Billing account? Read on to find out the answers! 

How to close Cloud Billing account?

Closing the active billing account will stop all the services in any project that is linked to that account. You can close an account or disable it from any project. For this, you need to be a Billing Account Administrator to perform any action. The following permission is required to close an account:

• billing.accounts.close on the Cloud Billing account

Here’s how to close a Google Cloud Billing account: 

1. Sign in to Google Accounts 
2. Choose the billing account you want to close.
3. In the Billing navigation menu, click Account Management.
4. Click the cancel button at the top of the page. 

Once your Google Cloud Billing account is closed, you will be charged for the resources you used. It will be your last bill until you reactivate your account.

How to Reopen a closed Cloud Billing account? 

You can reopen or recover your Google Cloud Billing account but you need to be a Billing Account Administrator. 

Here’s how to Reopen a closed Google Cloud Billing account: 

1. Log in to the Google Cloud console and visit the Manage billing accounts page.
2. Remove the Status: Active filter from the Filter row.
3. You can reopen your Cloud Billing account by clicking its name.
4. Navigate to the Billing menu and select Account Management.
5. On the billing account page, click Reopen account.

In this way, you will be able to reopen your Cloud Billing account. However, sometimes you may not be able to access the Reopen Billing account button. It could be due to the following reasons: 

1. There may be some payment-related issues. First, clear out all your due payments. 
2. The permissions you need to reopen this Cloud Billing account might not be available to you. Get in touch with the admin of your Cloud Billing account. 
3. Your Cloud Billing account might be configured as an invoiced account. Get in touch with a support system.

Does Google Cloud Billing support deletion?

No, Google Cloud doesn’t delete a Cloud Billing account. You can close your Cloud Billing account and will still be able to access Cloud Billing account data. Using Cloud Billing, you can close accounts or disable projects with billing to prevent them from accruing charges. Manage your payment methods in the Google payments center if you need to change your Cloud Billing payment method. Additionally, you can remove the credit card associated with your billing account.

Conclusion

This article expands upon the issue of getting back a closed Cloud Billing account. Google Cloud provides security and data warehouses to store and maintain your data. To do this, you need to have a Cloud Billing account. You can create, manage and close the account. However, if you want to reopen your Billing account, you need to have some permissions. The above steps will guide you to get back your account. You cannot delete the Billing account, but you can close it or disable it.