---
name: Syncro — leave contact blank by default on tickets and billing
description: When creating Syncro tickets or billing them out, leave the contact field blank ("Not Assigned") in most cases. Blank contact lets Syncro use the company-level defaults for notifications and email routing. Setting a specific contact can route to a secondary email and bypass the customer's intended distribution.
type: feedback
---

**Rule:** When creating or billing Syncro tickets, leave `contact_id` / `contact_name` / `contact_email` blank ("Not Assigned") by default for any customer. Only set a contact when there's an explicit, deliberate reason to (e.g., user explicitly says "set the contact to X").

**Why:** Winter clarified on 2026-05-04: blank contact lets Syncro apply the **company-level email defaults** for the account — those defaults route notifications to the right people. Setting a specific contact overrides that and may push notifications to a secondary email address belonging to that contact, bypassing the customer's intended distribution. This was originally flagged for Cascades of Tucson (where Meredith was being incorrectly auto-selected), but Winter generalized it: the rule applies to most customers.

**How to apply:**

- **Creating a ticket** (POST `/tickets`): Omit `contact_id` from the body entirely. Do not pull contacts via `GET /customers/{id}` and pick one — let Syncro use the company defaults.
- **Editing a ticket** (PUT `/tickets/{id}`): Send only the fields you're changing (`status`, `priority`, etc.). Never include `contact_id`, `contact_name`, or `contact_email` in the body, even matching the existing value. PUT can re-apply the record; safest is to never reference contact in any write payload.
- **Billing / invoices**: Same rule on the invoice creation side. If `contact_id` shows up in any payload, drop it.
- **When to set a contact anyway:** Only if the user explicitly directs you to ("set Mike as the contact on this one") OR there's a documented per-customer instruction that overrides the default. Default is always blank.
- **Verify after any write:** `GET /tickets/{id}` and confirm `.ticket.contact_id` is `null`. If you find it set, blank it explicitly: `PUT /tickets/{id}` with `{"contact_id": null}`.

**Generalizes from:** the prior Cascades-specific guidance (originally `feedback_syncro_cascades_contact.md`). Winter's 2026-05-04 message broadened the scope from "Cascades only" to "most customers."
