Work with Policies

Updated at Jun 05, 2026
By Kali Patrick

Table of Contents

Overview Create a New Policy Assign a Policy Edit a Policy Remove a Policy View the Effective Policy Locate Assets by Policy Folder Automate Billing Based on Policy Folder

This topic explains how policies work in Syncro and how to create, assign, edit, and remove them.

A Policy is a collection of checks, monitors, and settings that reflect Standard Operating Procedures. Instead of configuring every device individually, you assign policies to Organizations or folders, and the assets within them inherit these settings automatically. You create and update policies to consistently configure RMM features like patch management, antivirus, and scheduled scripts, ensuring proper security and system maintenance across your fleet.

Overview

Syncro's policy structure leverages Policy Inheritance, which functions like a Group Policy Object (GPO) model. Think of policy inheritance as a waterfall. Settings flow down naturally unless you place an override at a lower level.

Watch this short video to see policy inheritance in action:

For step-by-step instructions, see Create a New Policy, Assign a Policy, and View the Effective Policy.

Key Components

Hierarchy & Propagation

Syncro automatically creates a policy folder named for each Organization and assigns the example Top-Level Policy. You can further organize assets into subfolders (up to five levels deep), assigning one policy per folder. Settings automatically propagate downward from the top level through all nested subfolders to the assets inside.

Direct Assignments & Exceptions

While assets naturally inherit settings based on their folder placement, you can apply a policy directly to an asset to create specific exceptions.

The Effective Policy

The Effective Policy is the final, merged collection of all settings applied to an asset. When settings conflict, the system generally uses the setting closest to the asset (i.e., the most specific level overrides the parent).However, drive monitors, scripts, system tray items, third-party patches, and Windows updates are additive rather than overrides. For example, if a parent policy has script A and the child policy has script B, the effective policy runs both.

Best Practices

Structure your policies to:

Define a Top-Level Policy that applies to all assets (e.g., basic security tools, remote access) at the Organization level. This ensures every current and future asset automatically receives your baseline security and monitoring settings. Adjust the default Top-Level Policy to automate onboarding of future clients in RMM Settings, and assign or bulk assign it to any existing Organizations.
Create policy sub-folders such as "Servers" and "Workstations" that match an endpoint's role rather than applying specialized settings at the top level. For example, a "Server Policy" might have stricter patching schedules or different event log monitors. (See also: Examples of Windows Update Policies.)
Allow assets in role-based folders to inherit the Top-Level Policy plus folder-specific rules, reducing manual configuration and ensuring no asset is left without a policy.
Regularly review the Applied Policy Report to validate that patching and antivirus policies are enforced as intended and to identify devices that may have fallen out of compliance or been manually overridden. (See also: Asset & RMM Reports.)

Example

Here's an example of one Organization's Assets & Policies subtab. You'll notice the folder structure mentioned above. It's not unlike one you'd have in Windows:

Demo Company is the Organization's (top-level) folder.
Demo Site 1 and Demo Site 2 are sub-folders.
Inside the Demo Site 1 sub-folder are three sub-folders: Macs, Servers, and Workstations, and inside each of these sub-folders are assets (e.g. for Servers, the asset is called IP-COA88A91).
Inside Demo Site 2 are five subfolders.

Look at the POLICY column to see what policy is being applied at each level:

The three sub-folders of Demo Site 1 and the 5 sub-folders of Demo Site 2 inherit the policy called Top-Level Policy, because they're assigned to the Organization (top-level folder) named Demo Company and don't have any policies specifically applied to them (noted by the “—” in the POLICY column).
The IP-COA88A91 asset inherits the policy called HDD Monitoring Override from the Servers sub-folder, as well as Top-Level Policy from the Demo Company folder.
The assets in the Workstations folder inherit the Emsisoft policy and Top-Level Policy.

Create a New Policy

Use this procedure to create a new policy in Syncro's Policy Builder.

Context

Create policies before assigning them to Organizations or folders.

Steps

Watch this short video to learn more, or follow the steps:

Navigate to the Policies tab. Any existing policies appear in the table:
Click +New Policy. This opens Syncro's Policy Builder.
At the top, enter a Name for the policy.
In the left panel, click any of the eight (8) policy categories to begin adding things to your policy:
1. Use the dropdown menu on the right side to add sections. (When all available sections are used, this dropdown menu is not shown.) See About Syncro's Policy Builder for more details about each category.
2. Use the fields that appear to customize the settings. A bubble next to each policy category indicates its current number of sections.
3. Several policy categories require you to select a larger group of settings that you set up in a policy module. These include: Monitors (for Event Logs, and Process & Services), System Tray (for Agent Contact Forms), Third-Party Updates/Patch Management, and Windows Updates. See Available Policy Modules for details.
4. To remove a section, click the X in the upper-right corner of that section.
Repeat step 4 to add more checks and monitors to your policy.
Click “Policy Overview” at the top of the left panel to see a read-only view of everything you've configured for this policy. This is called the Effective Policy:
When the Policy Overview looks correct, click Save Policy.
Click Back to Policies.

Result

The new policy appears in the Policies table. You can now assign it to your Assets.

Assign a Policy

Use this procedure to assign a policy to an Organization's assets.

Note: Policies cannot be assigned to manually created assets.

IMPORTANT: When you assign a policy to a folder, the policy propagates down to any subfolders and assets inside that folder. See Overview.

For a Single Organization

Watch this short video to learn more, or follow the steps:

Navigate to the Organizations tab. Any existing Organizations appear in the table.
Start typing the name of an Organization into the search bar and click their name to open that Organization's Details Page.
Select the Assets & Policies subtab.
By default, the Organization has a folder that matches their name:
The Policy column displays the currently assigned policy, and the Asset Quantity shows you how many assets are assigned that policy.
Click on a folder, subfolder, or individual asset to select it, then click Update Assigned Policy.
In the Assign Policy window, select the new policy from the dropdown menu, then click Assign Policy.