Over the past year, HubSpot has made substantial updates to their workflows. The latest update extends to their contact workflows, creating a consistent, powerful workflows tool throughout your portal. You can learn more about it here.

But this announcement, while exciting, requires some homework on your end. That’s because workflows (contact workflows; others have already been slowly moved over) built on the old system will be disabled on January 8th, 2021. HubSpot plans to automatically migrate your old workflows to their new system but can’t guarantee that all your specific workflows will make it over.

Here is specific advice from HubSpot on reviewing and cloning your workflows for the new engine:

Cloning Contact Workflows

“If you have an old contact workflow that is already turned off, you will no longer be able to turn it back on. Clone the workflow to continue using that automation.

If you have an old contact workflow that is on, but does not have any enrolled contacts, turn it off and clone the workflow to continue using that automation.

If your old contact workflow has contacts actively enrolled, we recommend you follow these instructions to safely clone your workflow:

• Clone the old workflow and save it with a new name.
• Revise the old workflow to trigger manually so your current contacts can continue without interruption.
• Enable your new cloned workflow; do not enroll existing contacts.
• Delete the old workflow when there are no longer any active contacts enrolled.”

-HubSpot team

Auditing Current Workflows

With this announcement, it may be a smart idea to review your other workflows to make sure they’re actively being used. Here are some suggestions on reviewing your workflows:

Export Them to a Google or Excel Spreadsheet

You have to see all your workflows in one place. Doing it in Excel or Google lets you make notes, highlight, or mark off the ones you’ve reviewed so you don’t get overwhelmed (which can happen if you have a lot!)

Make a “Clean Up” Column in Your Spreadsheet

With these columns, you can mark what workflows need to be looked at. You can also make filters or labels such as Active, Unused, and Unnecessary.

Get Buy-in From Your Team

Before you deem anything unnecessary or unused, get with your team to try and figure out who made it, why it was made, whether or not it needs to go or if you can make adjustments to make it successful once again.

Delete the Unnecessary Ones

It’s scary, but if you haven’t used a workflow for more than six months and no one in your organization needs it, then it’s safe to delete it. Your portal will be easier to go through if you only have what you need! If you do think you’ll use any workflow again, mark them as inactive.

Organize Your Remaining Workflows

When going through your workflows, pay special attention to your naming convention. Is it standard or out of control? If it’s the second, gather your team to create a naming convention that works for everyone. Try to include a persona, a topic, and a goal. Whatever you land on, it needs to make sense throughout your company, so everyone’s on the same page!

Rejoice – You Have a Clean Portal with Workflows on a New Engine!

HubSpot workflows are a critical component of your sales and marketing, which is why it’s essential to audit them regularly. Not to mention, you may need to consider HubSpot is deleting old contact workflows come January 8th! If you need help with anything, or want advice on your workflows, drop us a line.