When you change an organization's main address or main phone number, Rhythm can copy that change to linked contacts' work address or work phone. This is called flowdown. This article explains when flowdown runs, what it copies, and how to turn it off for one organization.
What Flowdown Copies
Flowdown runs only when a contact's work address or work phone is linked to their organization. You manage that setting on the contact record, next to the work address and work phone fields. If the contact has not linked that field, Rhythm never changes it from the organization record.
For a linked contact:
- A change to the organization's main address copies to that contact's work address.
- A change to the organization's main phone number copies to that contact's work phone.
Only those fields flow down. The organization's fax number and alternate phone number never copy to contacts, and no other address or phone field changes.
If you delete an organization's address or main phone number instead of replacing it with another value, Rhythm does not copy the deletion. Linked contacts keep the work address or work phone they already had.
Flowdown only moves from the organization to its contacts. An address you enter on a contact record, including one you enter while creating a contact and a new organization together, never copies back to the organization. That new organization can still have no address of its own, even after you enter a work address for the person who created it.
You can manage the work-address link only when your form includes the controls for it. Add the Contact Work Info component, which includes Work Address, or add both the Work Address and Link Work Address to Organization fields to an existing Field Group component.
Tip
If a contact's work address or work phone changed right after you edited an organization, check whether that field is linked to the organization. To unlink it, select the blue hyperlink shown under the linked work address value, then save the contact. This clears the field and removes the linked address from the contact record. After that, organization changes no longer update that field.
A required work-address check does not treat a flowed-down address as a completed field. If your form requires a work address, but no work address has ever been saved directly on the contact, Rhythm treats the field as blank. This can block the save, even when the contact currently shows an address inherited from the organization. If this stops you, save a work address directly on the contact or lower the requirement.
When you link a contact's work address to the organization's main address, the Console and the Portal can still show a validation error that says the work address is invalid. If you are importing contacts and want to create this link, map your file's Work Address column to the Link Work Address to Organization value instead of to a literal address.
To link work addresses in bulk for existing contacts, build a query using Organization Contacts by Role, run it, and mass-update the results using the Link Work Address to Organization action.
It Runs in the Background
Flowdown runs after you save the organization, not during the same save. Linked contact records update shortly after you save the organization, rather than the moment you click save. Rhythm saves only the contacts whose work address or work phone changes. If a contact's values stay the same, the contact is left alone. For a very large organization, flowdown may take longer to reach every linked contact.
Turning Flowdown Off for One Organization
To stop one organization's address and phone changes from flowing down to its contacts, add the exact skip phrase your administrator uses to that organization's notes. Open the organization, go to CRM › Organizations › Search › (organization name) › Organization Options › Change Status, and enter the phrase in the Notes/Comments: box.
Warning
The Notes/Comments box in the Change Status dialog is the organization's notes field, which is the same notes field shown and edited elsewhere on the organization. It is not a separate note for the status change. If you later write any other comment in that box, flowdown turns back on for the organization because the skip phrase is no longer there. There is no separate switch for this; the notes field does both jobs.
After the skip phrase is in place, it applies to every future address and phone change for that organization until the notes are changed again.
Related
For where a contact's own address feeds into automatic region placement, see How Automatic Region Assignment Works.