Associate records

In HubSpot, there are standard CRM objects: contacts, companies, deals, tickets, and custom objects. To keep track of the relationships between these objects, you can associate their records together. Associations are always two-way (i.e., if record A is associated to record B, record B is also associated to record A) and can be seen in each record in the right panel.

Please note: as of January 18, 2022, all newly created HubSpot accounts have access to associations improvements. If you have access, learn how to associate multiple companies to a record and label associations. If you're a Super admin in an existing HubSpot account, learn how you can opt-in.

Examples of when you'd associate records include:

• When making a sale, you communicate via email to three individuals at the same company. In HubSpot, you associate the deal to the three contact records and their company record.
• When handling a customer complaint, you communicate via email to two individuals. These individuals are also in the middle of a sale with your company. In HubSpot, you can associate the ticket record to the two contact records and the deal record.

You can also associate the activities in a record's timeline to appear in another record. If the records are already associated together, some activities will automatically be associated to the associated records.

Associate individual records

To associate records on your desktop:

• Navigate to your records:
• Contacts: In your HubSpot account, navigate to Contacts > Contacts.
• Companies: In your HubSpot account, navigate to Contacts > Companies.
• Deals: In your HubSpot account, navigate to Sales > Deals.
• Tickets: In your HubSpot account, navigate to Service > Tickets.
• Custom objects: In your HubSpot account, navigate to Contacts > Contacts, then click the dropdown menu in the top left and select the name of the custom object.

• Click the name of the record you want to associate with others.

• In the right panel, locate the relevant object section and click Add. For example, if you want to associate a deal with the record you're in, look for the Deals section and click Add.

• You can either create a new record to associate to the record, or associate an existing record to the record.
  • To create a new record to associate the record to, in the Create a new [record] tab, enter information in the fields, and click Create.
    
  • To associate an existing record, click the Add existing [record] tab, search for the record you want to associate to the current record, and select the checkbox next to the record in the search results.

• Click Save.

To manually associate records on mobile:

• Open the HubSpot app.
• Navigate to your records:
  
  • Contacts:in the bottom navigation menu, tap on Contacts.
  • Companies: in the bottom navigation menu, tap Contacts, then tap the Companies tab.
  • Deals: in the bottom navigation menu, tap Deals.
  • Tickets: on an Android device, tap More in the bottom navigation menu, then tap Tickets. On an iOS device, tickets can only be accessed through associated records.

• Tap the name of the record.
• Tap the Associations tab.
• Tap Add [records] and select existing records you want to associate to the record.
• Once selected, tap Done in the upper right.

Associate records in bulk

There are multiple ways to associate records in bulk:

• Associate records via an import. The records in your import can be existing records or new records. Learn how HubSpot identifies existing records through its deduplication process.
• If you have developer resources, you can also bulk associate records via API.
• Turn on the setting to automatically associate contact and company records based on the company domain.

View a record's association history

You can view the history of your records' associations, including all associated records and engagements. You can also view when the records were originally associated and the source of the association.

• Navigate to your records:
• Contacts: In your HubSpot account, navigate to Contacts > Contacts.
• Companies: In your HubSpot account, navigate to Contacts > Companies.
• Deals: In your HubSpot account, navigate to Sales > Deals.
• Tickets: In your HubSpot account, navigate to Service > Tickets.
• Custom objects: In your HubSpot account, navigate to Contacts > Contacts, then click the dropdown menu in the top left and select the name of the custom object.
• Click the name of a record.
• In the left panel, click Actions, then select View association history.

• In the Select an object dropdown menu, select an object or engagement to view which records or activities of that type have been associated with the record.
• In the table, you can view the name of each associated record or activity, its Object ID, how it was updated (either Created or Removed), and the date and time of the update. You can also view the source of the update, which will be one of the following: 
  • User: the association was manually updated by a user. The source will include the user's name, or if unknown, the user ID.
  • Object deletion: the association was updated because the record or activity was deleted.
  • Object merge: the association was updated as a result of merged records.
  • Object restore: the association was updated as a result of a restored record.
  • Import: the association was updated via an import.
  • Auto association by domain: for contacts and companies, the association was updated automatically by HubSpot based on the company domain. 
  • API: the association was updated via API.
  • Job: the association was updated via internal automation.
  • Migration: the association was updated via a data migration.
  • Unknown: the source of the association could not be determined.

• To copy a link to a record or engagement in the table, hover over the association, then click the duplicate copy icon.
• To view the entire history of a specific association, hover over the record or engagement, then click View history. In the right panel, view the details of each update to the association with your record, sorted from most recent to oldest.