A contact's Organization Details tab shows their current organization and any organizations they worked with before. Rhythm records most of this history when you change the contact's organization, and you can add, correct, or remove entries when needed.
Where to Find It
Open the contact record and select the Organization Details tab. You’ll see the contact’s current Organization:, Title:, and Role(s):, followed by a History table of past organizations.
The Title: value comes from the contact's standard Job Title field. A custom field with another name, such as "Professional Role," does not update this value. If Job Title is not on your contact form, you cannot change the value from the contact record until an administrator adds that field to the form.
When Organization: appears as a hyperlink, the contact is linked to that organization's record. Select the link to open the organization's page. When the organization appears as plain bold text, Rhythm is showing an organization name saved as text, not a link to an organization record.
Rhythm does not include a built-in query, report, or account-wide view that lists a contact's previous organization next to their current one, or shows every contact whose organization changed recently. You can review one contact's history at a time on this tab. If you need to report on past organizations across many contacts, add a custom field, such as Past Organization, and record the previous value there so you can query it with the current organization.
What Happens Automatically When You Change a Contact's Organization
When you change the organization on a contact record through Create or Edit a Contact, Rhythm makes these updates for you:
- The organization's name is copied onto the contact so it appears quickly in lists and search results without looking up the organization each time. Editing the contact does not rename the organization itself; the organization name changes only when someone edits the organization record directly.
- A history row is added for the organization being left. Rhythm adds the old organization, title, and roles to the History table, with today’s date as the end date. If the contact moves back to the organization already at the top of their history, Rhythm does not add another row, so that earlier stint is not recorded as ended.
- Automatic roles are assigned for the new organization. Rhythm adds any currently active contact role marked for automatic assignment when the contact joins an organization with that role. If no other contact is linked to the organization yet, Rhythm also adds roles marked for the organization’s first contact. Moving to a new organization does not remove roles from the previous organization, even when you make the change by hand on the contact's record, so remove those roles yourself if the contact should no longer have them.
- If the contact has no organization at all, every role is removed when you save the contact, because a contact without an organization cannot hold organization-linked roles.
Warning
Staff have occasionally seen a new contact saved with no organization selected still end up with the organization value from_org_info instead of a blank field. This has not been confirmed as fixed. If you see that value on a contact, treat it as a display or save defect rather than a real organization name, and check the contact's audit history to see what was actually written when the record was created.
If you remove a contact's organization and it leaves a stale organization name behind, Rhythm clears that leftover name the next time you save the contact, as long as the old name still matches exactly. If the organization’s name changed after the contact was last saved, the names will not match and the old name can remain.
If your form shows both an "Organization" field and a separate "Organization Name" field, use "Organization" to link or create the organization record. "Organization Name" stores only text. Typing there does not link to or create an organization. Some accounts use a text organization field this way on purpose, because text can keep showing a previously associated organization's name even after the contact's actual link changes. The History table is still the fuller record of where a contact has worked.
If your form shows both an "Organization" field and a separate "Organization Name" field, use "Organization" to link or create the organization record. "Organization Name" stores only text. Typing into it does not link to or create an organization. Some accounts set up a text organization field this way on purpose, because text can keep showing a previously associated organization's name even after the contact's actual link changes. The History table is still the fuller record of where a contact has worked.
An Organization field added on its own to a field group can behave differently from the Organization field inside Contact Work Info. Staff have reported that a standalone Organization field let inactive organizations appear in its search and selection list, while the same contact's Organization field inside Contact Work Info did not offer inactive organizations. This has been reported fixed, but if you still see inactive organizations offered from a standalone Organization field, treat it as a defect and report it rather than assuming it is expected.
Typing an organization name that doesn't already exist can create a new organization record, depending on how your form is set up. See Get Help Entering a Contact's Details. Rhythm does not check for an organization with the same name entered slightly differently, so typing the same new name for two different contacts creates two separate organizations. A newly created organization also starts with no address, even if you were completing the contact's own work address at the same time. If your account relies on the organization's address for a contact's work information, plan to open the new organization afterward and add its address, as described in Edit an Organization's Details.
If a contact is missing the organization link you expect, there are two likely causes: the organization does not exist yet as its own record, or the contact is linked to a different organization record than the one you meant, such as a separate record created during a data import. Search for the organization directly before you create a new one, so you can confirm which situation you have.
Typing an organization name that doesn't already exist can create a new organization record, depending on how your form is set up. See Get Help Entering a Contact's Details. Rhythm does not check for an organization with the same name entered slightly differently, so typing the same new name for two different contacts creates two separate organizations. A newly created organization may not appear right away in the contact-edit form. If it does not appear immediately, save and reopen the contact record.
Changing a contact's organization can fail to stick when the current organization came from imported data instead of an actual organization record. If a contact's organization keeps reverting to its old value after you save, create an organization record for that company first, or confirm one already exists, and then set the contact's organization to that record. Reported cases have also cleared up once a real organization record was in place for the company.
A contact's organization is truly linked only when it points to an actual organization record, which gives the contact an organization ID. If a contact shows an organization name but has no organization ID, the name is saved as plain text instead of a real link. This often happens after an import that did not connect the contact to the matching organization record. Set the contact's organization field to the actual organization to establish the link.
Tip
Rhythm does not check roles against the organization’s type when you save the record. The roles picker on your form limits only the choices shown while you type. If a role is added another way, such as automatically or by an integration, Rhythm does not block it just because the organization’s type does not normally offer it.
One Organization, or More?
A contact has one Organization at a time on their own record, and that is the field this article describes. Rhythm does not support marking more than one organization as primary. If someone is genuinely active with more than one organization, represent the other connections with relationships instead of trying to give the contact two primary organizations at once. See Relate Two Records.
Choose the connection based on what you need it to do. Setting a contact's Organization changes their organization-linked roles and membership flowdown, and copies the organization's address and phone onto the contact, as described in this article. A relationship, or naming a contact in an organization's key-contact or assigned-contact fields, only shows the connection and does not make those updates. Being an organization's assigned contact does not by itself change that person's membership. To affect membership through that connection, remove the assigned-contact relationship itself.
Assigning a Role Requires an Organization First
If you add a role and it does not save, check whether the contact has an organization. Roles sent for a contact without an organization are discarded when you save, without a specific error explaining why. Set the organization first, then add the roles.
You also need the Role(s) field on your contact form to add or change a contact's roles, including changing who serves as an organization's primary contact. If that field is not on the form, ask your administrator to add it. Without it, roles stay blank and cannot be edited from the contact record.
Removing a Contact's Organization
To remove a contact’s link to an organization, open the contact for editing and find the organization field in the work information section of the form. Use the field’s own clear control to clear the organization, then save. Deleting the organization name text may not be enough if the field is a picker instead of free text.
This should be straightforward. If it repeatedly does not work, or the organization comes back after you save, treat that as a product issue worth reporting rather than something you are doing wrong.
If clearing the field does not stick, two workarounds have helped. You can change the contact to a different organization first and save, then clear the organization and save again. For many contacts at once, you can run a mass update from a query with both the organization name and organization ID fields left blank.
If a contact stays linked to an organization but does not appear correctly in that organization's contact list, remove the organization from the contact and save. Then add it back and save again. This has restored the connection; afterward, the organization's name on the contact appears as a link again, confirming the link is intact.
If a contact's organization looks wrong and you are not sure whether it was set correctly, the contact record's audit log can confirm whether that value was actually written during a save rather than just displayed in the form.
Reviewing and Correcting History by Hand
Prerequisites
You need permission to edit contacts to add a new history entry. Editing or deleting an existing row does not require a separate permission beyond being able to open the contact.
- On the Organization Details tab, select Add a Past Organization to add a new entry, or select a history row's edit icon to correct one.
- In the dialog, choose the Organization (required).
- Optionally set Start Date:, End Date:, Job Title:, Role(s):, and Notes:.
- Save.
Result
The entry appears in the contact's History table.
Warning
Rhythm does not check whether an end date falls after its start date, or whether history rows overlap. You can save a row with dates in the wrong order, and Rhythm will keep it as entered.
A history row you enter by hand also affects the next automatic entry when the contact’s organization changes. If the row you added has the most recent start date in the contact’s history, Rhythm uses that row's end date as the starting point for the next automatic entry.
Warning
A contact's history can include an organization that no longer exists as its own record, such as one removed after an import. That stale reference can cause problems saving the contact, or contribute to an incorrect organization association elsewhere. If a contact record will not save, check whether one of its history rows points to a missing organization.
Correcting Contact-Organization Links from an Import or in Bulk
A data import or file-based mass update links a contact to an organization using the organization's record ID, not its name. If a row gives only an organization's name, Rhythm stores that name as text on the contact but does not create the link described in this article. When several organizations share the same name, an ID is the only reliable way to link a contact to the organization you mean. If your source data has only organization names, get an authoritative name-to-ID mapping before you import or correct records, rather than guessing from the name alone. The same requirement applies when you link an imported contact to an organization's address. Without a specific organization ID, Rhythm cannot reliably tell which organization record to use when several share a similar name, so the contact's work address will not reliably match the organization's.
Warning
An extra blank column in an upload file can stop the whole file from processing. Remove blank columns before you upload.
If only a few contacts are linked to the wrong organization, edit each contact and assign the correct organization. Search for it by name, domain, or number, as described in Find, View, and Pick an Organization, to confirm you have the right record before you save.
For many contacts at once, prepare a file with each contact's record ID and the correct organization's record ID, and run a file-based mass update. See Update Records in Bulk and Map File Columns to Rhythm Fields for how that works. The organization must already exist as its own record before you can link a contact to it this way. The field that links a contact to an organization has not always been available in the Contacts Mass Update field list, even though the organization shows as a column on the contact record. Mapping a file column directly to the organization ID, as described above, works even when the field is not available in that list. To add or remove one contact role for many contacts without changing their other roles, use the same kind of mass update with the list syntax on the contact role field. Write role IDs, not role names; see Mass Update Field Value Rules.
For many contacts at once, prepare a file with each contact's record ID and the correct organization's record ID, and run a file-based mass update. See Update Records in Bulk and Map File Columns to Rhythm Fields for how that works. The organization must already exist as its own record before you can link a contact to it this way. The field that links a contact to an organization has not always been available in the Contacts Mass Update field list, even though the organization shows as a column on the contact record. Mapping a file column directly to the organization ID, as described above, works even when the field is not available in that list. To add or remove one contact role for many contacts without changing their other roles, use the same kind of mass update with the list syntax, but target the Contact Roles ID field rather than the Contact Roles field. A mass update aimed at the Contact Roles field's text value can complete without actually changing anyone's roles; using the ID field and separating multiple role IDs with commas is the method that reliably works. See Mass Update Field Value Rules.
When you need to remove many contacts from an organization they were linked to in error, query for the affected contacts and keep an export for reference before you change anything. Handle memberships tied to those contacts separately, because removing the organization link does not do that for you. Remove the contacts from the organization in bulk instead of deleting the contact records.
Complete results from a query or report about an organization's contacts depend on importing the organization records, their related contacts, and their relationships. Importing organizations without their contacts, or contacts without their organizations, is a common reason a report looks incomplete afterward.
If It Fails
- You just changed a contact's organization, and the change doesn't seem to have taken. Check the contact again in a moment. A successful save can take a little time to show the new organization on the record in the Console or the Portal, even though the change already worked.
- A contact was added to an organization, but the connection isn't showing up yet. This can be a short delay rather than a failed save. Give it a moment and check again before you assume the update failed.
- Membership or other automated emails meant for an organization are going to someone who no longer works there. Check the organization's ownership or primary contact assignment for a blank or outdated entry. A departed contact can stay linked there until you remove that entry and assign a current primary contact.
Related Reading
Automatic role assignment and updates from an organization’s address or phone number to linked contacts’ work details are covered in their own articles.