diff --git a/app/config.py b/app/config.py
index e83de698b..6e660f8f7 100644
--- a/app/config.py
+++ b/app/config.py
@@ -567,3 +567,5 @@ def getRateLimitFromConfig(
 UPCLOUD_USERNAME = os.environ.get("UPCLOUD_USERNAME", None)
 UPCLOUD_PASSWORD = os.environ.get("UPCLOUD_PASSWORD", None)
 UPCLOUD_DB_ID = os.environ.get("UPCLOUD_DB_ID", None)
+
+STORE_TRANSACTIONAL_EMAILS = "STORE_TRANSACTIONAL_EMAILS" in os.environ
diff --git a/app/email_utils.py b/app/email_utils.py
index c7da8436f..cb42bb8b9 100644
--- a/app/email_utils.py
+++ b/app/email_utils.py
@@ -1403,7 +1403,7 @@ def generate_verp_email(
     # Time is in minutes granularity and start counting on 2022-01-01 to reduce bytes to represent time
     data = [
         verp_type.value,
-        object_id,
+        object_id or 0,
         int((time.time() - VERP_TIME_START) / 60),
     ]
     json_payload = json.dumps(data).encode("utf-8")
diff --git a/app/models.py b/app/models.py
index 213f40948..06f585dfa 100644
--- a/app/models.py
+++ b/app/models.py
@@ -3178,6 +3178,20 @@ class TransactionalEmail(Base, ModelMixin):
 
     __table_args__ = (sa.Index("ix_transactional_email_created_at", "created_at"),)
 
+    @classmethod
+    def create(cls, **kw):
+        # whether to call Session.commit
+        commit = kw.pop("commit", False)
+
+        r = cls(**kw)
+        if not config.STORE_TRANSACTIONAL_EMAILS:
+            return r
+
+        Session.add(r)
+        if commit:
+            Session.commit()
+        return r
+
 
 class Payout(Base, ModelMixin):
     """Referral payouts"""