Create and use association labels

In your HubSpot account, you can associate records to connect them in your database. Super admins in Professional and Enterprise accounts can also label the association to specify the relationship between associated standard CRM objects.

If you'd like to automate associations in your system, learn more about operations-related apps in the HubSpot App Marketplace.

Create, edit, or delete association labels

All HubSpot accounts can use the primary label for companies, but in Professional and Enterprise accounts, admins can create custom association labels to specify the relationship between associated records. Association labels can describe relationships between all standard CRM objects, including contacts, companies, deals, tickets, and custom objects. For example:

• A contact can be Manager at one company, but also Former employee at another company.
• A deal can have multiple associated contacts, one who is the Decision maker and another who is the Billing contact.

You can create up to 10 labels per object pair (e.g., Contact to Deal) and the labels are bi-directional (e.g., if you create an association label for Contact to Company, the label will also be created for Company to Contact).

Create an association label

To create an association label:

• In your HubSpot account, click the settings settings icon in the main navigation bar.
• In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Objects, then select the object you’d like to create an association label for.
• Click the Associations tab.
• Click Create association label.
• In the right panel:
  • Click the Objects you're associating dropdown menu, then select the other object you're creating the association label for.
  • In the Association label field, enter the name of the label.
  • To edit the label's internal name, click the edit pencil icon below the label. This is used for integrations and APIs. Once the label is created, the internal name cannot be edited.

• At the bottom, click Create.
• Once the label has been created, return to your record and refresh the page. The label will now appear for you to select.

Manage existing association labels

You can also edit or delete existing association labels. To manage existing association labels:

• In your HubSpot account, click the settings settings icon in the main navigation bar.
• In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Objects, then select the object you’d like to create an association label for.
• Click the Associations tab.
• Click the Select object associations dropdown menu and select the associations for which you want to view labels. (e.g., Deals-to-Contacts). You can also use the Filter by dropdown menus to filter your labels based on cardinality (1-to-many or 1-1) or which user created the label. 
• To edit or delete an individual label, hover over the label, then:
  • Click Edit. In the right panel, edit the name of the label, then click Save.
  • Click Delete. Select the checkbox to acknowledge that you can't restore a deleted label, then click Delete to confirm. If a label is used within records or other HubSpot tools, you'll first need to remove the labels from those assets before deleting. To view where a label is being used:
    • Hover over Delete, then click View which automations your association label is used in in the pop-up box.
    • In the right panel, click a record or tool name to navigate to the asset that uses the label.

Set or update record association labels

On a record, you can add or remove labels for its associations. You can also set association labels in bulk via import. To add a new association with a label, or update a record's primary company, learn how to add or edit associations on a record.

To update the labels for an individual association:

• Navigate to the record with the association you want to update.
• To add or edit labels for an existing association, hover over the association card, click More, then select Edit association labels.

• In the dialog box:
  • To add a label, click the dropdown menu and select the label.
  • To remove a label, click x next to the label.

Use association labels in HubSpot tools

Once you've created association labels to describe relationships between records, you can add association labels to new or existing associations on a record or in bulk via import. You can then filter by these labels in HubSpot tools such as lists, workflows, and custom reports. Learn more about possible use cases for the new associations.

Please note: association labels are not supported for sync via the HubSpot-Salesforce integration, however, prior to updating associations it's recommended to understand how records sync between HubSpot and Salesforce.

Filter by associations in lists

When creating a contact or company-based list, you can filter your records based on their associations. For contact-based lists, you can filter based on contacts' primary company associations. Users in Professional and Enterprise accounts can also filter records in lists by association labels.

• Create or edit a list.
• Select the [Object] properties filter that corresponds to the associated object. For example, if you're creating a contact list and want to set criteria based on company associations, you would select Company properties.
• Select a property to filter by.
• By default, the list will include records when any associated records of that object fit the criteria. You can also set your criteria based on the primary company association or a custom association label. To do so, click the Any [object] dropdown menu: 

• • Select Any [object] to filter based on all associated records of that object type (e.g., the list would include a contact when any of their associated companies meet the criteria).
  • If you're creating a contact-based list, select Primary [object] to filter based on only the primary associated company (e.g., the list would include a contact only if the primary associated company meets the criteria).
  • In the With label section, select a label to filter based on only associations that use the selected label (e.g., the list would include a contact only if they have an associated company with that label and that company meets the criteria).
• Once you're done setting list criteria, in the top right, click Save list.

Use association labels in workflows

Once you've created association labels, you can use them to trigger enrollment and certain actions within workflows.

Workflow enrollment criteria and if/then branches

You can use association labels in contact, company, deal, ticket, or custom object-based workflows when setting enrollment triggers and triggers for if/then branches.

To set triggers based on association labels:

• Create a workflow. 
• In the workflow editor:
  • To set enrollment triggers, click Set enrollment triggers. 
  • To create an if/then branch, click the + plus icon to add a new action, then in the right panel, select If/then branch.
• In the left panel, select a filter type. Select the associated object that has the property you want to use.
• Select a property, set your criteria, then click Apply filter.
• By default, workflow enrollment will be triggered based on all associated records of that object. To set which specific associations the criteria should apply to, click the Any [object] dropdown menu.

• In the dropdown menu, select an association label. The workflow will only enroll a record if their associated records fit the criteria and have the selected association label.
• Once you're done setting your triggers, at the bottom, click Save.

Workflow actions

You can also use association labels in contact, company, deal, ticket, or custom object-based workflows to trigger the following workflow actions: Send email (Company-based workflows only), Set a property value, Copy a property value, and Clear a property value.

To use association labels in a workflow action:

• Create a workflow. 
• To add a workflow action, click the + plus icon.
  • If you're creating a workflow to edit a property value, select Set a property value, Copy a property value, or Clear a property value.
    • In the left panel, click the Target object dropdown menu, and select the associated object for which you're editing a property. 
    • Click the Association to object dropdown menu and select the labels to filter by. When a record is enrolled in the workflow, this action will only update the property for associated records if the selected label is used to describe the association.

• • • Depending on the action you chose, use the dropdown menus to select your properties.

• • If you're creating a company-based workflow to send an email, select Send email.
    • In the left panel, click the Association label dropdown menu and select the labels to filter by. To send the email to all associated contacts, select All contacts. 
    • Select an email. When a company is enrolled in the workflow, the email will only be sent to their associated contacts if the selected labels are used to describe the contact-company association.

• At the bottom, click Save.

Use association labels in custom reports

In custom reports with multiple data sources, you can use association labels to specify which records to include in the report based on their labels. You can also use association labels as an axis, break down field, or filter in your custom report.

• In your HubSpot account, navigate to Reports > Reports.
• In the upper right, click Create custom report.
• In the left panel, select Custom report builder.
• Select your data sources:
  • Select the primary source by clicking the Primary data source dropdown menu and selecting a primary source. The primary source you select affects which labels are available. For example, a report with a primary data source of Contacts will only include labels you've created within your contact association settings.

• • Select your secondary sources by choosing from the CRM, Marketing, Sales, Service, and Custom objects (Enterprise only) sections. In order to use labels, you'll need to select at least one additional CRM object.
• At the top of the data source editor, click Customize associations.
• In the dropdown menu, select the labels you want to include in the report. You can select the All [objects] checkbox to include all associated records of that object, regardless of their labels. This will be selected by default if there are no defined labels for an object relationship.
• You can click Back to data sources to continue editing your sources, or click Next to continue. You can update your data sources and associations at any time in the report builder by clicking Edit data sources in the left sidebar.

Association labels

• To use association labels as an axis or break down field in your report, search and select Association Label in the left panel of the report builder, then click and drag it to the Configure tab. For example, you manage apartment rentals and have created a custom Rentals object with two association labels for long-term and short-term leases. To split your report data by these labels:
  
  • Click and drag the Rentals association label to the X-axis channel.
  • Click and drag the Count of contacts property to the Y-axis channel.
  • Then, click and drag the Original Source property to the Break down by channel. 
  • The chart will show how many contacts have rented a short term and long term stay and what source they found the rental.

• • Alternatively, you could click and drag the Rentals Association Label field to the Break down by channel to create a single-column report with long-term and short-term leases separated by color.

Add filters

• To add an Association label as a filter, click the Filters tab, then click and drag Association label to the filter field. For example, to only report on contacts with a rentals association label of Short-term:
  • Click the Rentals Association Label filter.
  • Select is any of, and click Short-term.

• Finish creating your custom report.