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Create and customize lifecycle stages

Last updated: January 29, 2024

Available with any of the following subscriptions, except where noted:

All products and plans
Lifecycle stages categorize your contacts and companies while providing context about where they are in your sales and marketing processes. If your business processes involve categories beyond the default lifecycle stages, users with super admin permissions can create custom lifecycle stages. If you previously created a custom property to keep track of your unique lifecycle stages, learn how to migrate from using the custom property to the lifecycle stage property.

Customize lifecycle stages

To create and edit lifecycle stages for contacts and companies:
  • In your HubSpot account, click the settings settings icon in the main navigation bar.
  • In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Objects, then select Contacts.  
  • Click the Lifecycle Stage tab.
  • To create a new lifecycle stage, click add Add stage. In the right panel, enter a name for the stage, then click Create lifecycle stage to confirm.

edit-lifecycle-stages-updated

  • To rearrange the stages, click the dragHandle handle and drag a stage to a new location.
  • To edit a lifecycle stage or view its internal value, hover over the stage and click Edit. In the right panel:
    • Edit the Stage name, then click Edit lifecycle stage to confirm.
    • Click the code codcode icon to view the stage's internal ID, which is used by lifecycle stage calculated properties, integrations, and APIs.
  • To delete a stage, hover over the stage and click Delete. If the stage you’re trying to delete contains records or is used in other HubSpot tools, you'll need to move the records to a new stage and/or remove the stage as a reference in the HubSpot tools. You cannot delete a stage if it's used as a default for connected apps.
  • To view where a specific lifecycle stage is being used, in the Used in column, click the number. In the right panel, click View all [object/tool] to navigate to the records or tools (e.g., lists, reports, saved view) where the stage is used.

lifecyle-stage-details

  • Once you’re done, click Save in the bottom left. Your custom stages will now appear as options when editing a contact’s or company's Lifecycle stage property.

Please note: the Became a [stage] date contact properties will not be updated based on custom stages. Learn more about other lifecycle stage calculated properties.

Use lifecycle stages

Once you've set up lifecycle stages to fit your business' needs, you can:

Learn more about using lifecycle stages.

Move from a custom property to the lifecycle stage property

If you've been using a custom property to track lifecycle stages, it is recommended to migrate back to using the default Lifecycle stage property. To move back to using the default property:

  1. Set up custom lifecycle stages for the default Lifecycle stage property.
  2. Set values for your records' Lifecycle stage property using the custom stages. You can set the property in bulk in any of the following ways: edit from the contact or company index page, export then re-import the records with a column for the Lifecycle stage property, or use the Set a property action in a workflow (Professional and Enterprise only).
  3. Clear values from the custom property you were previously using to track stages. You can clear the property values in bulk in any of the following ways: edit from the contact or company index page, export then re-import the records with a blank column for your custom property, or use the Clear a property action in a workflow (Professional and Enterprise only).
  4. Delete the custom property that you were previously using.

Once you've migrated to using the default Lifecycle stage property, you can customize automation for setting lifecycle stages and use the property in other HubSpot tools.

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