To maintain an organized CRM, it's important to have accurate and consistent data. In your HubSpot account, users with super admin permissions can view possible formatting issues for your contact property values (e.g., a First name value in all capital letters) and correct them. Addressing format issues can help your team more easily search the CRM, as well as ensure personalization tokens used in emails or content are formatted consistently.
If your account has an Operations Hub Professional or Enterprise subscription, you can also view an overview of your data in the data quality command center.
View and manage formatting issues
To view and manually accept or reject recommendations for formatting issues:
- In your HubSpot account, navigate to Contacts > Contacts.
- In the upper right, click Actions.
- In the dropdown menu, select Fix formatting issues.
- In the left sidebar menu, view properties for which contacts have a possible format issue, and the number of records with issues for that property. Click the property name that you want to manage format issues for.
- In the table, view possible issues and accept or dismiss proposed resolutions:
- Contact: the contact whose property value has a possible formatting issue.
- Issue: why the value was detected to have a formatting issue (e.g., Fewer characters than expected).
- Current: the current property value that has a formatting issue.
- Proposed fix: the proposed solution or new value to resolve the formatting issue.
- Actions: select whether to Accept or Dismiss the proposed resolution. If the issue can be solved by an automation rule, click Automate to manage your automation settings.
- To accept or dismiss in bulk, select the checkboxes next to each format issue, then click Accept or Dismiss at the top of the table. To select all, click the checkbox in the top left of the table.
- Once you've chosen to accept or dismiss the resolution, the format issue will be removed from the list. If you choose to accept, the contact's property value will be updated to the value shown in the Proposed column.
Set rules to automatically fix formatting issues (Professional and Enterprise only)
If your account has an Operations Hub Professional or Enterprise subscription, you can turn on settings to automatically fix certain formatting issues. The rules you set will automatically accept suggestions for records currently listed in the table and for new records moving forward.
- In your HubSpot account, navigate to Contacts > Contacts.
- In the upper right, click Actions.
- In the dropdown menu, select Fix formatting issues.
- In the top right, click Automation.
- In the right panel, on the Rules tab:
- Click a section to expand its rule options.
- Select the checkbox to turn on automation for a formatting rule (e.g., Capitalize First Name). If a rule is turned on, values with that formatting issue will be automatically fixed (e.g., a contact with the first name jOhN will be updated to John).
- Clear the checkbox to turn off the automation for a specific rule.
- Click the Changes to records tab to view all records whose values have been updated by the automated rules. Click the dropdown menus to filter records based on the issue or when it was updated.
- Once you're done, click Save.
The following issues can be automatically detected and fixed for the Email, First Name, and Last Name contact properties: - Capitalization: the value has missing or unexpected capitalization (e.g., JOHN would be updated to John, EXAMPLE@HUBSPOT.com would be updated to example@hubspot.com).
- Combined fields: the values for first and last name are combined (e.g., JohnSmith would be updated to John Smith).
- Spacing and punctuation: the value contains unexpected spacing or punctuation (e.g., St.James would be updated to St. James).
Formatting issues detected by HubSpot
To identify records and provide recommendations, certain contact properties are automatically evaluated for possible formatting issues. A record will be included in the list if any of the following issues are identified for the Email, First Name, and Last Name contact properties:
Please note: HubSpot uses artificial intelligence (AI) to identify potential issues, so you may disagree with a detected issue or suggested fix. In this case, you can dismiss the suggestion.
- The value has missing or unexpected capitalization.
- The value contains text that isn’t commonly recognized as an email address or name.
- The value contains at least one unexpected number.
- The value contains a URL or domain that isn’t commonly included in the property.
- The value contains an unexpected salutation (e.g., Mr., Mrs., etc.).
- The value contains incorrect first and last name formatting. Possible issues include:
- The values for first and last name may be combined.
- The values for first and last name are the same.
- The values for first and last name may be swapped.
- A different format may be preferred for this property.
- The value is empty.
- The value for email address is likely temporary and invalid.
- The value is not a valid email address.
- The format is unexpected or invalid for the property.
- The value contains unexpected characters or text that isn’t commonly included in the property.
- The format is unexpected or invalid for a name.
- The value contains unexpected or possible inappropriate text.
- The value includes common placeholder text (e.g., n/a, Unknown).
- The value contains unexpected spacing or punctuation.
- The value contains an unexpected number of characters (i.e. the value is either too long or too short).