Owner, Backup owner and Reporter: who looks after a contact
Every contact can have two people from your team. The Owner looks after the contact. The Backup owner covers when the owner is away. A third field, the Reporter, says who created the contact: a person, an AI agent or an integration. Every change shows in the contact's Activity.
Find it: Sidebar → Contacts → the Owner column, or Filters → Owner. For one contact: click it → Details → Contact Info
Assignee is now Owner
Earlier versions called the Owner "Assignee". It's the same field.
Why give contacts an owner?
Priya Sharma calls Brightway three times about her repair. Each time a different person picks up and asks the same questions. With an owner, Priya reaches the same person first, her follow-ups land with them, and everyone can see whose customer she is.
| Without an owner | With an owner and a backup |
|---|---|
| Handed-over calls go to whoever is next in line. | The owner rings first, then the backup (when they're available to take calls), then the rest of the team. |
| A "call back" job goes to whoever is next. | It goes to the owner, else the backup. |
| Team Inbox requests about the contact go to anyone. | They go to the owner, else the backup, when they're on that team and free. |
| Nobody knows whose customer this is. | Filters → Owner → Me shows each person their own list. |
Should you set a Backup owner?
Set one when the owner is often busy, on shifts, or on leave. A good backup works the same hours or covers the same workspace. Voxido also fills it in for you: when someone else answers a handed-over call for a contact that has an owner but no backup, they become the backup.
Who can be an owner
The owner is one person from Settings → People, or Unassigned. They don't need a Voxido login. A person shows in the list when they are active and work in the contact's workspace (or in all workspaces).
The list groups people by team. A dot and a word show who's around: Available, Away, On a call, On leave, Off shift, Not available today, Doesn't take calls or Offline. You can still pick someone who is away. See People and teams.
Who can do what
| Task | Owner | Admin | Manager | Member |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Take a contact that has no owner, with Assign to me | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Give a contact to someone else, change or remove its owner | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Set or change the Backup owner | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Change the Reporter | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Assign to me needs a person in People linked to your login, who works in the contact's workspace. If someone without permission tries to reassign a contact, they see "Only managers, admins and owners can change a contact's owner."
Giving a contact an owner never hides it. Everyone still sees the contacts in the workspaces they can open.
Set the owner
From the Contacts list
- Click the Owner cell on the contact's row. (The row doesn't open.) You'll see: the people list, with Search people, Assign to me and Unassigned at the top.
- Pick a person. You'll see: "Priya Nair is now the owner", and the name in the cell.
A Member sees Assign to me in the cell only while the contact has no owner.
From the contact panel
- Click the contact, then open Details.
- Under Contact Info, click the Owner (or Backup owner) value and pick a person from the list. For the backup, None clears it. You'll see: "Arjun Menon is now the backup owner", for example.
Pin Owner to the Summary tab to see it the moment you open a contact, with an Assign to me link under it. See Customize Summary.
For many contacts at once
Tick the rows, then click Set owner or Set backup owner in the bar and pick a person.
When Voxido sets the owner for you
| What happened | Result |
|---|---|
| Someone answered a handed-over call | The contact becomes theirs if it has no owner. If it has an owner but no backup, they become the backup. |
| Someone on the team took a Team Inbox request about the contact | The same: owner if there's none, else backup if there's none. |
| A Team Inbox request was assigned to someone | The contact becomes theirs if it has no owner. |
An owner you set by hand is never replaced.
Find a person's contacts
- Click Filters → Owner. You'll see: Me · your name, Unassigned, then people by team (No team last), each with a count.
- Tick one or more. Type in Find a person to search. You'll see: a chip such as "Owner: Me" under the toolbar.
Picks add up: Me and Unassigned together show both. The chip works with every other filter and with Download filtered records. It clears when you reload the page.
To sort by owner, click the Owner column heading. Contacts with no owner come last.
In Advanced filters and segments, Owner has is any of, is none of, is empty and is not empty. A segment can't use Me, because a segment means the same people to everyone. See Segments and filters.
The Reporter
The Reporter is filled in when the contact is created, and never changes on its own.
| The contact was created by | The Reporter shows |
|---|---|
| A person: Add contact, a file import, or a call or message they started | That person |
| An AI agent, because a caller or sender reached it first | The agent's name, with an AI agent tag |
| A call or message with no agent or person involved | The channel: Phone call, WhatsApp, Email, SMS or Chat |
| Your API, an integration or a PMS sync | The integration, such as API or PMS sync |
| Older contacts, and sample contacts | Not recorded, when Voxido can't tell |
You see it in the Reporter column (off to start with: click + between two column headers and tick it), in Details → Contact Info, and on Summary if you pin it. A pinned Reporter has a line underneath such as "Created from a call, 12 Sep".
To change it (Managers and above): click Reporter, search in Search AI agents and people, and pick one. You see "Reporter changed". You can pick an AI agent or anyone with a login, not an integration.
What Activity shows
| What happened | What Activity says |
|---|---|
| Someone set the owner | "Meera Joseph made Arjun Menon the owner" |
| A person took a contact | "Arjun Menon took this contact" |
| Someone removed the owner | "Meera Joseph removed Arjun Menon as owner" |
| A handed-over call was answered | "Arjun Menon became the owner after a handed-over call" |
| A Team Inbox request was taken | "Arjun Menon became the owner after taking a Team Inbox request" |
| The backup changed | "Meera Joseph made Priya Nair the backup owner" |
| The Reporter changed | "Meera Joseph changed the reporter from Dhruv to Priya Nair" |
Common problems
I can't find a person in the list. They must be active in People and work in the contact's workspace. Check their row in Settings → People.
Assign to me is missing. Your login isn't linked to a person in People, or that person doesn't work in this workspace. Ask an Admin to link your login.
What happens to someone's contacts when I remove them from People? Their contacts don't move to anyone else on their own. Before you remove them, filter by their name and use Set owner to hand the contacts over.