Two Kinds of Automatic Roles
In Contact Roles setup, an administrator can mark any active contact role for automatic assignment in either of these situations:
- Given to every new contact. Rhythm adds this role to any new contact who has an organization, regardless of who else works there.
- Given to an organization's first contact. Rhythm adds this role only when you save a contact as the first person linked to that organization. If the organization already has another contact, Rhythm does not add this role.
Contact Role setup fully controls whether a role such as Primary Contact goes to that first person. Rhythm does not separately check whether the organization already has a primary contact; it only checks whether the organization has any other contact.
Both options only add roles, and they never remove a role the contact already has. Rhythm does not show a message when it adds a role automatically; the role simply appears on the saved contact record. If a role is flagged both ways, a new contact who is also their organization’s first contact receives both. Rhythm only assigns roles automatically for every new contact or for an organization’s first contact. If you need a role assigned in a narrower situation, add that role manually when you create the contact.
Tip
If a new contact has a role you did not choose, check Contact Roles setup to see whether that role is flagged for automatic assignment. This also applies to a billing contact: if removing or changing one does not seem to stick when you edit the contact directly, check whether that role’s automatic-assignment setting is driving the designation.
When Automatic Roles Are Given
Rhythm checks for automatic roles only at these two moments:
- When a contact is created with an organization already set.
- When an existing contact's organization changes to a different organization.
Rhythm does not check for automatic roles at any other time. Saving a contact without making another change does not trigger this logic. Removing a contact’s organization entirely does not trigger it either, even when the contact is left with no organization and no roles.
Because Rhythm assigns these roles only at those two moments, a role you flag for automatic assignment today is not added to existing contacts. It affects only contacts you create or move after you set the flag.
Moving a Contact to a New Organization
When you change an existing contact’s organization, Rhythm adds the automatic roles that apply to the new organization, the same way it does for a new contact. What happens to the contact’s existing roles depends on where you make the move:
- On the contact record in the Console (CRM › Contacts › Create Contact, or the equivalent edit form), changing the organization clears the Roles field. The roles from the old organization are not submitted again, so unless staff select new ones, the contact is saved with only the roles Rhythm assigns automatically. This behavior comes from the contact form, not from the save itself: each time the organization changes, the form recalculates the roles list and starts it empty.
- Through an integration or the API, a move that submits the contact’s existing roles keeps them. Nothing clears the list first, so the contact ends up with both their old roles and any new automatic ones.
That is why moving a contact to a new organization can look like it clears roles in one place and keeps them in another. The Console does not remove roles differently than the API. Instead, the Console form starts the Roles field over each time the organization changes, and staff must select any roles they want to keep.
Warning
If you change a contact’s organization on the contact form, review the Roles field before saving. Rhythm does not carry the contact’s previous roles forward automatically, and nothing warns you that the field was cleared.
Imported Contacts Are Skipped
Rhythm does not add automatic roles to contacts created by data import. An imported contact has only the roles included in the import file. After the import, ordinary contact saves follow the same automatic-role rules as any other contact. For example, if you later move the contact to another organization, Rhythm adds the automatic roles for the new organization.
Inactive Roles Are Never Assigned Automatically
Rhythm considers only active contact roles for automatic assignment, even when an inactive role is flagged for it. Deactivating a role stops Rhythm from adding it to new contacts or future organization moves. It does not remove that role from contacts who already have it, because deactivation affects future assignment only.
Related
See Contact Role Compliance Status Explained for what happens next: after a contact’s roles are set, Rhythm checks whether their organization still meets its type’s role requirements.