The Hubspot Cleanup Guide

A Practical Audit for Teams Who Actually Use the Platform

By Noah Stambovsky – HubSpot Onboarding Specialist | Creator of Spotter

Introduction

If HubSpot feels like a pile of good intentions tied together by duct tape and overdue tasks, you're not alone.

This guide is here to help you:

• Pinpoint what's not working

• Fix what you can this week

• Automate the stuff you shouldn't be doing manually

It's structured around five essential areas of your portal that, when working properly, help your marketing, sales, and ops teams actually trust the data and focus on revenue.

Let’s start cleaning.

Contact & Company Hygiene

The Problem:

• Duplicate contacts, incomplete properties, mismatched company records

• Lifecycle stage says "Customer" but they churned last year

• Reporting and segmentation are a mess

Quick Audit:

• Do you have duplicate Contacts and Companies?

• Are your picklist fields consistent and standardized?

• Is data like job title, industry, and lifecycle stage complete?

Fixes:

• Add custom lifecycle stages: "Churned Customer" and "Lost Opportunity"

• Use deduplication tools and bulk update key fields

• Sync company data down to contacts with workflows

Pro Moves:

• Create workflows that:

  • Update lifecycle stages when deals close lost or churn

  • Copy churn/disqualification reasons to company records

  • Set churned/lost contacts to "non-marketing"

Lifecycle Stage Logic

The Problem:

• Lifecycle stages used like sales statuses

• Contacts stuck in outdated stages

• Inconsistent or manual updates ruin reporting

Quick Audit:

• Are lifecycle changes automated?

• Are reps manually overriding lifecycle stages?

• Are leads sitting in "Subscriber" or "Lead" for too long?

Fixes:

• Separate lifecycle from sales motion (use Lead object or status field)

• Automate lifecycle transitions based on:

  • Form fills

  • Meeting bookings

  • Deal creation

Pro Moves:

• Copy key attribution data at MQL conversion (original source, conversion page)

• Use workflows to disqualify leads and log reasons for future re-engagement

Workflow Chaos

The Problem:

• Contacts get 3 emails in one day from different workflows

• Old workflows send alerts to inactive users

• You don’t know what your workflows are doing anymore

Quick Audit:

• Are marketing workflows sending duplicate emails?

• Are internal notifications routing to the right teams?

• Are workflow names clear and organized?

Fixes:

• Add "last marketing email" checks before sends

• Clean up and rename workflows using folder structure

• Use unenrollment criteria to prevent objects from getting stuck

Pro Moves:

• Add Slack alerts for skipped steps and errors

• Build internal-only alert workflows to catch misfires early

Reporting That Doesn’t Lie

The Problem:

• Reports filtered by wrong date fields

• Multi-select properties duplicate rows

• Sales dashboards show dead deals as live

Quick Audit:

• Are reports built on created date instead of close date?

• Are reps filtered by name or role?

• Are you using lifecycle as a funnel stage AND sales status?

Fixes:

• Use rolling date filters (e.g. "last 30 days")

• Replace multi-select fields with workflow-mapped dropdowns

• Standardize reporting filters across teams

Pro Moves:

• Report on average and median time in deal stages

• Use pivot tables in custom reports to correlate source and conversion

• Create lifecycle snapshot fields for historical trend reporting

Automation That Actually Helps

The Problem:

• Leads routed manually

• No follow-up tasks triggered on deal stage changes

• No way to re-engage churned or disqualified leads

Quick Audit:

• Are follow-ups automated?

• Are tasks created when deals advance?

• Are there workflows based on disqualification or churn reason?

Fixes:

• Automate lead assignment, follow-ups, task creation

• Build a nurture path based on disqualification reasons

• Delay redundant internal notifications using checkbox logic

Pro Moves:

• Trigger re-engagement 90 days after disqualification

• Automatically create a Deal when a Lead is Qualified

• Sync events/conversions to ad platforms using Ads > Events tool

Ready to Tidy Up?

You don’t need to fix everything at once. Start with one section.

And if you want help from someone who knows the inside of HubSpot like a mechanic knows an engine:

If you have a specific HubSpot question, feel free to email me.

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