An organization type is the category you use for organizations in your Rhythm account, such as “Company,” “Chapter,” or “Government Agency.” It does more than label the record. The type controls which contact roles apply, which roles appear as key contacts, how many contacts each role must or may have, and which forms staff and Portal members use for that kind of organization. Because the type controls this much behavior, change it through the record’s type-change action instead of editing it like a regular field on an organization form.
An organization can also have no billing contact or primary contact. Rhythm does not fill those ownership fields automatically when someone creates the organization, so they stay blank until someone assigns them.
Prerequisites
- You need access to your Rhythm account’s Organizations setup, specifically Types.
- Contact roles should already exist. If you plan to use notifications, active web forms should already exist.
Where to Find It
Go to Rolodex (CRM) › Setup › Organizations › Types to see every organization type in your Rhythm account. Select Create Organization Type, or select a row’s edit or clone icon, to open the type form.
The Settings
| Setting | Options | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name: | Any text | Empty | The type name staff see when they choose an organization type |
| ID: | Letters, digits, underscores, |, and - | Suggested from the name | The permanent identifier, which is locked after you save |
| Status: | Active, Inactive | Active | Controls whether staff can choose this type for new selections |
| Only certain contact roles are applicable to organizations of this type, with Applicable Contact Roles: | On/off; one or more contact roles | Off | Limits which contact roles staff can assign to contacts for this organization type |
| Key Contact Roles (switch), with one row per key role | On/off; a role per row | Off | Highlights selected roles as key contacts on the organization summary |
| Contact Role Compliance (switch), with a Contact Role, Minimum #, Maximum # table | On/off; a number per role | Off | Sets how many contacts an organization of this type must or may have in each role |
| Notify organization contacts of compliance violation (switch), with Which contact roles should be notified? and an email editor | On/off; roles; an email | Off | Sends an email to selected contacts when an organization newly falls out of compliance |
| New Organization (Console):, Edit Existing Organization (Console):, Updating Organization Info (Portal): | Active organization web forms | None | Sets the forms staff and Portal administrators use for organizations of this type. See Organization Forms and the 360 Screen for the account-wide defaults these override |
When you restrict applicable roles for a type, the same restriction affects contact forms. A role you defined will not appear as a selectable Contact Role when someone edits a person unless that role is also added to every applicable organization type the person could belong to.
When someone creates an organization through the Portal, they cannot choose or edit the organization type because that field is not exposed there. An administrator must assign the type afterward in the console. If you are designing a Portal organization form, it is best not to add the Type field because members cannot use it.
Even when your Rhythm account’s New Organization (Console) form allows new organizations, staff have reported an issue with creating a brand-new organization inline from a contact’s edit form. If staff type a name in the Organization field’s Add New path, the organization does not always get created after save. If that happens, create the organization separately first, then associate the contact with it.
Key Contact Roles and Contact Role Compliance
When you switch on Key Contact Roles, you can add one or more roles to highlight wherever the organization’s key contacts appear. Use Add Key Contact Role to add a row, and choose a role in the current row before you add another. To show a role such as billing contact on an organization page, configure it here on the type rather than through the organization 360 screen designer. Set it up separately for each organization type where you want that role to appear.
A key contact role appears in an organization’s 360 header only when the organization has a type assigned, that type has Key Contact Roles turned on for the role, and the organization’s own form includes the Type field so a type can be set. If the organization has no type assigned, no role is highlighted there, even when the role is configured correctly on a type.
Warning
When a type has more than one key-contact row, the trash button beside each row is known to remove the first row in the list instead of the row you clicked. If you need to remove a specific key role from a type with several rows, check the remaining rows after you delete one and reselect any roles that changed.
When you switch on Contact Role Compliance, the table shows one row for every applicable contact role, with minimum and maximum counts for each role. Leave either box empty when you do not want to set that limit. An organization of this type is marked “not in compliance” when it has fewer contacts than the role’s minimum or more contacts than the role’s maximum.
Warning
Changing compliance rules does not recheck organizations that already exist. Their compliance status stays the same until you run the Recalculate Contact Role Compliance maintenance task.
If you also switch on Notify organization contacts of compliance violation, choose which contact roles should receive the email, then write the subject and body. Rhythm sends the email only the first time an organization newly falls out of compliance, not repeatedly for organizations already out of compliance. If you switch notification off and save, Rhythm removes the saved email and notified-roles list. If you turn notification back on later, you need to write the email again.
Dependencies and Precedence
- Restricting applicable roles also narrows the compliance table. After you tick Only certain contact roles are applicable to organizations of this type, the compliance table shows only the roles you allowed. If you already set a compliance rule for a role you now exclude, that rule is dropped the next time you save the type.
- A role that becomes inactive drops out of every list on the type — applicable roles, key roles, and compliance rows — the next time you save the type, with no warning.
- The type’s own forms take precedence over your account’s default organization forms. Leave a form picker empty here to use the account default.
Change Impact and How to Revert
Changing applicable roles, key roles, or compliance rules does not change existing organizations by itself. The new rules apply only when you next save an organization or run the compliance maintenance task. There is no undo after you save changes to a type. To revert, reopen the type and change the setting back.
Why You Cannot Delete a Type, Address Type, Phone Type, or Region
You cannot delete an organization type, address type, phone type, or region while any organization or contact still uses it. Rhythm still shows the delete option, and you see the refusal only after you confirm the delete, as an error message instead of an earlier warning. If you need to retire a type that is still in use, switch it to Inactive instead. An inactive type is no longer offered for new choices, but organizations that already have it keep it.
Permissions
Creating, editing, cloning, and deleting organization types requires access to your Rhythm account’s Organizations setup, specifically Types.
Validation and Errors
| Message contains | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| "You haven't entered a valid value for Name" / "ID" | The name or identifier is empty | Fill in both fields |
| "You haven't entered a valid value for Key Roles" | A key-contact role row has no role chosen | Choose a role for every row, or remove the empty row, keeping the delete-button caveat above in mind |
| Unable to save Organization Type | The save was refused, such as when an applicable-roles or key-roles list was required but empty | Read the message and correct the named section |
| Unable to delete Organization Type | An organization still uses this type | Move those organizations to another type, or deactivate this type instead |