How to evaluate a HubSpot account you inherited
A step-by-step guide to auditing your new portal
Whether you are a new RevOps leader, an external consultant, or a stakeholder navigating a corporate merger, taking over an existing HubSpot account is a high-pressure milestone.
You aren't just inheriting a software tool; you are inheriting (potential) years of previous logic, abandoned experiments, and potentially messy data.
To turn this "data swamp" into a high-performance engine, you need a systematic approach that moves from high-level strategy down to the granular automation.
Understand the company's growth goals
Before you touch a single setting, you must understand the business logic the portal is supposed to support.
An account set up for high-volume PLG (Product-Led Growth) looks very different from one designed for high-touch enterprise sales.
- Define the metrics! Review the targets your team is accountable for (whether that is $X in revenue or Y new leads.)
- The gap test: Navigate to Reporting > Goals. If this is empty, it’s a clear sign that the previous administration wasn't mapping activity to outcomes. Make a note to align your Salesforce-HubSpot sync with these specific targets once you’ve confirmed them.
Audit the technical foundation
Small errors in account settings cause massive "ghost" discrepancies in your reporting later.
Do this:
- Standardize the environment
- Verify the time zone and currency settings.
- If these are incorrect, your time-series reports will never align with your accounting software or actual sales cycles.
- Connected apps
- Check App Marketplace > Connected Apps.
- Look specifically for sync errors in your CRM integration.
- If you see "Critical Errors," prioritize these immediately; they represent data that is currently trapped and not being shared between teams.
- Legal and compliance
- Ensure GDPR functionality is toggled correctly based on your company’s legal requirements.
- Inherited accounts often have outdated "cookie" settings that don’t meet current privacy standards.
Clean the data
A CRM is only as good as the data flowing through it.
Instead of manual scrolling, use a systematic audit of your properties and records.
Identify property bloat
- It is common to find 15 different properties for "Company Size."
- Identify the "Source of Truth" and plan to merge the others to prevent sales reps from getting frustrated by empty fields.
Tooling for scale
- Use the Data Quality Command Center (in Operations Hub) or a tool like Insycle to find duplicates and formatting errors.
- If your database is unmanaged, cleaning your HubSpot data is the first step toward reliable lead scoring.
Analyze the "ghost in the machine" (Workflows)
Inherited workflows are dangerous!
They can send automated emails to customers or change lead owners without you realizing it.
To prevent this:
Try the export trick!
- Navigate to Automation > Workflows and use the Table Actions > Export View.
- This gives you a spreadsheet of every active automation and its performance data.
Or, clean the sprawl!
- Look for "unused" workflows with zero enrollments in the last 90 days.
- If it isn't running and doesn't have a clear description, turn it off.
- This prevents "Frankenstein" automation from breaking your new campaigns.
Evaluate reporting & dashboard clutter
HubSpot portals tend to accumulate "dashboard debt," where old reports are never deleted.
Try:
The "last viewed" test
- Filter your reports by the "Last Viewed" column.
- If a dashboard hasn't been looked at in six months, archive it.
And achieve executive alignment.
- See if your leadership team has a dedicated dashboard.
- If they don't, creating a high-level "Source of Truth" view is the fastest way to prove your value in your first 30 days.
Interview the legacy team
Move with caution before deleting anything!
You don't always know what has been tried and failed.
Interviewing the legacy team can save you a lot of time and effort.
Method 1: Gather internal intel
Meet with team members who have used the portal long-term.
Ask them, "What is one HubSpot notification you find annoying?" or "Which report do you actually trust to make decisions?"
Method 2: Executive vision
If leadership’s vision for HubSpot is far from the platform’s intended use, you will need to prepare educational resources to manage expectations and steer the strategy back toward best practices.
Ready to optimize your inherited portal?
Auditing an account is the best way to uncover hidden opportunities for growth.
If you’ve uncovered more technical debt than you can handle alone, our team can help you streamline your setup.
Book a call with Tate today to start your professional audit and get your portal back on track.
