How to Manage Your CRM Database in Hupspot

Managing data correctly in Hubspot is essential for a clean, reliable CRM database that supports accurate reporting, automation, and sales productivity. This guide walks you through the key concepts and practical steps to set up, organize, and maintain your CRM data based on HubSpot’s recommended best practices.

Understanding CRM Records in Hubspot

The foundation of your CRM in Hubspot is the record. Each record represents a business object, such as a person or company, and stores the key details your team needs.

Main CRM record types in Hubspot

• Contacts – individual people, such as leads, customers, or partners.
• Companies – organizations associated with one or more contacts.
• Deals – potential or closed revenue opportunities that move through your sales pipeline.
• Tickets – customer service issues or requests tracked by your support team.
• Custom objects (if enabled) – additional record types tailored to your business model.

Each record in Hubspot can be associated with other records. For example, a contact may be linked to a company, several deals, and multiple tickets. This interconnected structure provides a full history of relationships and activities.

How Properties Work in Hubspot

Every record in Hubspot is built from properties. A property is a specific data field, such as first name, lifecycle stage, or deal amount.

Property types you will use

• Default properties – created by the system to store common CRM data such as email, phone number, create date, and owner.
• Custom properties – created by your team to capture company-specific information such as product interest, contract ID, or region.

Properties in Hubspot can have different field types, including single-line text, dropdown select, multi-checkbox, number, date, and more. Choosing the right field type is critical for accurate reporting and automation.

Plan Your Hubspot CRM Data Structure

Before importing or creating large volumes of data in Hubspot, take time to design your data model.

Key planning steps

1. Define your core objects

   Decide which records your teams will rely on most: contacts, companies, deals, tickets, or custom objects. Clarify what each object represents in the context of your business processes.

2. Map associations

   Document how objects in Hubspot should associate with one another. For example, how many companies can one contact be associated with, and what is your rule for primary company association?

3. List required properties

   Identify which properties must be captured for each object, and group them into categories such as identification, qualification, product usage, and billing.

4. Define data ownership

   Assign responsibility for property creation, data quality, and ongoing maintenance so that your Hubspot account stays consistent as your team grows.

Manage Properties in Hubspot

Once you have a plan, configure properties in your Hubspot settings so they are ready for form fields, imports, and record views.

Steps to create or edit properties

1. Navigate to Settings > Properties in your account.
2. Select the object you want to manage, such as contacts, companies, deals, or tickets.
3. Review existing default and custom properties to avoid duplicates.
4. Click Create property to add a new field, selecting the appropriate field type and group.
5. Set clear labels, internal names, and descriptions so your team understands how the property is used.
6. Update forms, workflows, and record layouts to incorporate your new Hubspot properties.

Regularly auditing properties in Hubspot helps reduce clutter and ensures forms and automation rely only on relevant, accurate data fields.

Import and Update Data in Hubspot

Import tools make it easier to add or update records at scale without manual entry.

Best practices for importing records

• Prepare a clean CSV file for each object type, such as contacts or companies.
• Include unique identifiers like email for contacts or domain for companies to prevent duplicates.
• Map each column to the correct Hubspot property during the import process.
• Use separate imports for records and their associations if you are connecting contacts with companies or deals.
• Test with a small sample file before running a large import.

To update existing records in Hubspot, include the unique identifier in your file. The import tool will match and update those records rather than creating new ones.

Keep Your Hubspot CRM Database Clean

Ongoing maintenance ensures your CRM data remains trustworthy for sales, marketing, and service teams.

Regular data quality checks

• Review duplicate records – use the duplicate management tools to find and merge conflicting data.
• Validate required properties – confirm that critical fields are filled in for active contacts and companies.
• Standardize values – rely on dropdowns and radio selects for key fields in Hubspot instead of free text.
• Archive outdated records – clean out bounced contacts, inactive companies, or obsolete deals where appropriate.

Establish a monthly or quarterly audit schedule for your Hubspot CRM to prevent issues from accumulating over time.

Use Hubspot Views and Filters for Better Organization

Views and filters help you navigate large volumes of records quickly and focus on the data that matters most to your role.

Creating helpful views in Hubspot

1. Open the object index page, such as Contacts or Companies.
2. Click to add filters based on properties like lifecycle stage, owner, or create date.
3. Save the filter set as a view and choose whether it is private, team-only, or shared with all users.
4. Pin your most important views to the top of the table for quick access.

Well-designed views ensure each team member can work efficiently with the CRM database in Hubspot, without needing to understand every property or object.

Leverage Hubspot Data for Reporting and Automation

Once your records and properties are consistent, you can unlock advanced reporting and automation capabilities.

Examples of what you can do

• Build dashboards that segment deals by pipeline stage, owner, or region.
• Create workflows that enroll records based on property values and trigger emails, task creation, or field updates.
• Segment contact lists using lifecycle stage, engagement, and product interest for targeted campaigns.
• Monitor customer service metrics using ticket properties, such as time to close and ticket category.

The better organized your data is inside Hubspot, the more reliable and actionable your reports and automation will be.

Where to Learn More About Hubspot CRM Management

You can explore the original documentation and additional examples in the official knowledge base article: Manage your CRM database.

For strategic consulting on CRM architecture, data quality, and marketing operations, you can also visit Consultevo to learn more about professional Hubspot implementation and optimization services.

By defining clear objects and properties, maintaining clean records, and using views, reporting, and automation effectively, your team can rely on Hubspot as a single source of truth for customer data across marketing, sales, and service.

Need Help With Hubspot?

If you want expert help building, automating, or scaling your Hubspot , work with ConsultEvo, a team who has a decade of Hubspot experience.

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