How to Use Calculated Properties in HubSpot (With Examples)

In the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing and sales, the ability to dynamically assess and adapt to customer interactions and data is paramount. HubSpot’s calculated properties feature stands at the forefront of this capability, offering businesses a powerful tool to automate complex calculations and enhance data-driven decision-making. For those diving into the intricacies of HubSpot or looking to leverage more of its robust CRM capabilities, understanding how calculated properties work is crucial. This article explores calculated properties in HubSpot, providing examples to illustrate their utility and impact.

What Are Calculated Properties?

Calculated properties in HubSpot allow users to create new values based on existing data points in their CRM records. These properties perform real-time calculations using data from other properties within a contact, company, deal, or ticket record. From simple arithmetic operations to more complex formulas incorporating conditional logic, calculated properties can transform raw data into actionable insights, tailoring information to better fit your business processes and reporting needs.

Setting Up Calculated Properties in HubSpot

Creating a calculated property involves defining the formula that dictates how the value is calculated. HubSpot’s intuitive interface simplifies this process, guiding users through selecting the appropriate fields and defining the calculation parameters.

Step 1: Navigate to Property Settings

1. From your HubSpot dashboard, go to "Settings."
2. Under "Properties," choose the type of record you want to create a calculated property for (e.g., Contacts, Companies).

Step 2: Create a New Property

1. Click on “Create property.”
2. Select “Calculated” as the field type.

Step 3: Define Your Formula

1. Use the formula builder to select the properties and operations that will form your calculation. HubSpot supports basic mathematical operations (add, subtract, multiply, divide) and more complex functions.
2. Configure your formula by adding the fields and specifying the operations.

Step 4: Save and Implement

1. Once your formula is set, save the new property.
2. This calculated property will now automatically update based on changes to the data points it references.

Examples of Calculated Properties in Action

To illustrate the versatility and power of calculated properties, let’s explore a few practical examples:

Example 1: Lead Scoring Enhancement

Imagine a business wants to refine its lead scoring model by considering both website engagement and email interactions. A calculated property can automatically update each lead’s score based on the number of page views and email opens.

Formula: (Page Views * 0.5) + (Email Opens * 1)

This calculation assigns different weights to page views and email opens, reflecting their perceived value in qualifying a lead.

Example 2: Deal Close Probability

A company might want to estimate the probability of closing a deal based on the deal stage and the number of interactions with the client.

Formula: IF(Deal Stage = "Proposal Sent", 50, IF(Deal Stage = "Negotiation", 75)) + (Interactions * 2)

This uses conditional logic to assign a base probability based on the deal stage, then increases the probability based on the number of interactions.

Example 3: Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV)

Calculating the lifetime value of a customer is crucial for understanding the long-term profitability of customer relationships.

Formula: (Average Purchase Value * Purchase Frequency) / Churn Rate

This formula multiplies the average purchase value by the purchase frequency to get a gross customer value, then divides by the churn rate to estimate CLTV.

Leveraging Calculated Properties Across HubSpot Objects

Calculated properties in HubSpot are a powerful tool for automating data-driven insights directly within your CRM. These properties perform calculations based on other data fields within your HubSpot objects, such as Contacts, Companies, Deals, Tickets, and Custom Objects. Here’s a guide on how to use calculated properties effectively for each of these objects, helping you derive valuable metrics and streamline processes.

Contacts: Scoring Engagement Levels

Purpose: Automatically score each contact’s engagement level based on their interaction metrics like email opens, click rates, and website visits.

Setup:

1. Create a Calculated Property: Navigate to your Contacts settings and create a new calculated property.
2. Define the Formula: Use a formula that adds points for each interaction type. For example, 10 * (number of email opens) + 5 * (number of website visits).
3. Utilization: Use this score to segment contacts, prioritize follow-up, or trigger marketing automation workflows based on engagement levels.

Companies: Average Deal Size

Purpose: Calculate the average size of deals associated with each company to gauge the company's typical investment size and potential for upselling.

Setup:

1. Create a Calculated Property: Go to the Companies settings and add a new calculated property.
2. Define the Formula: Use an average function over all deals related to that company. For instance, AVERAGE(relatedDeals.dealAmount).
3. Utilization: This average can help sales teams tailor their pitches and offers, focusing on the products or services that fit the company's usual spending behavior.

Deals: Profit Margin Calculation

Purpose: Determine the profit margin of each deal by comparing the deal amount to the associated costs.

Setup:

1. Create a Calculated Property: In the Deals settings, set up a new calculated property.
2. Define the Formula: Calculate the margin using the formula (dealAmount - cost) / dealAmount * 100.
3. Utilization: Track profitability across deals to identify high-margin opportunities and adjust strategies accordingly.

Tickets: Time to Resolution

Purpose: Measure the average time taken to resolve customer issues, which is critical for assessing the efficiency of your support team.

Setup:

1. Create a Calculated Property: Add a new calculated property within the Tickets settings.
2. Define the Formula: Subtract the ticket creation date from the resolution date. For example, DATEDIF(creationDate, resolutionDate, "days").
3. Utilization: Monitor resolution times to set performance benchmarks and identify areas for process improvement in customer service.

Custom Objects: Custom Metrics

Purpose: Create specific metrics that are unique to your business processes or industry needs, such as usage metrics for a software service or compliance checks.

Setup:

1. Create a Calculated Property: In your Custom Objects settings, create a property tailored to your needs.
2. Define the Formula: Depending on what you need to track, this could involve complex calculations pulling from various data points within the object.
3. Utilization: These custom metrics can help in specialized analyses, such as operational efficiency, compliance rate, or customer usage patterns.

Calculated properties in HubSpot offer a versatile and powerful way to automate complex calculations and bring actionable insights directly into your CRM workflows. By setting up these properties across different objects, you can enhance data visibility, improve decision-making, and ultimately drive more informed business strategies. Whether you’re scoring contact engagements or calculating deal profitability, these properties enable a more dynamic and responsive approach to managing your business relationships and processes.

Utilizing Different Types of Calculated Properties in HubSpot

Calculated properties in HubSpot allow users to automatically compute values based on existing data within their CRM, facilitating better data management and decision-making. These properties can be used in a variety of ways across different HubSpot objects. Let’s explore each type of calculated property and how they can be applied, with practical examples for clarity.

1. Min, Max, Count, Sum, Average

These functions are used to perform basic arithmetic operations on properties of associated records, which can be extremely useful for summarizing data and providing snapshots of metrics.

Examples:

• Min: Calculate the minimum deal size within a company's associated deals to understand the smallest sales engagement.
• Max: Determine the maximum number of support tickets resolved by an agent in a month, showcasing peak performance.
• Count: Count the number of contacts associated with a specific company, useful for understanding the size of engagement.
• Sum: Sum the total value of all deals closed by a sales rep, providing a quick view of their contribution.
• Average: Calculate the average duration of tickets for customer service to assess response efficiency.

2. Time Between

This type of calculation is used to determine the duration between two date properties on the same object, which can help in tracking time-sensitive metrics.

Examples:

• Project Duration: Calculate the time between the start and end dates of a project (within a custom object) to monitor project timelines.
• Response Time: Measure the time between a customer’s first contact and the first response, an important metric for service level agreements.

3. Round Down Only, Round Up Only, Round to Nearest

These rounding functions are used to standardize numerical values, making them more uniform for reporting and analysis.

Examples:

• Round Down Only: Use to round down the calculated average deal size to avoid overestimating sales performance figures.
• Round Up Only: Apply when calculating required inventory levels based on sales data to ensure sufficient stock.
• Round to Nearest: Useful in financial reporting, such as rounding total revenue to the nearest thousand dollars for cleaner presentation.

4. Custom Equation

Custom equations allow for the creation of more complex and tailored calculations that may not be directly supported by the standard arithmetic functions.

Examples:

• Profitability Index: Calculate a custom metric like profitability index using a formula that considers total revenue, cost of goods sold, and operational expenses.
• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): Implement a formula that integrates average purchase value, purchase frequency, and average customer lifespan.

Utilization Tips

To effectively leverage these calculated properties in HubSpot:

• Align Calculations with Business Objectives: Choose calculations that directly impact your strategic goals.
• Ensure Data Accuracy: Calculations are only as good as the data they are based on, so maintain high data quality.
• Regularly Review and Update: Business needs evolve, and so should your calculations to remain relevant.
• Educate Your Team: Make sure your team understands what these calculations mean and how they can be used in their daily operations.

Calculated properties can significantly enhance the analytical capabilities of your HubSpot CRM, allowing for more informed decision-making and strategic planning across all levels of your organization. By integrating these properties into your CRM processes, you can streamline operations, enhance reporting, and ultimately drive business growth.

Formatting Calculated Property Values in HubSpot

When working with calculated properties in HubSpot, properly formatting the output of these calculations is crucial for ensuring that the data is easy to understand and appropriately contextualized. HubSpot offers several formatting options, allowing you to tailor the presentation of calculated data to best fit your business needs. Here’s a detailed guide on how to choose and apply different formats to your calculated property values.

Step-by-Step Guide to Formatting Calculated Property Values

• Step 1: Access the Property Settings: Navigate to the settings of the specific calculated property you want to format. This can be done by going to Settings > Properties in your HubSpot account, and then selecting the property you wish to modify.
• Step 2: Find the Number Format Setting: While editing your calculated property, locate the Number format dropdown menu. This option is available under the settings specific to the type of calculation you have set up.
• Step 3: Select the Appropriate Format: Choose the format that best suits the data and how you intend to use it. HubSpot offers several formatting options:

• • Formatted Number: This option adds commas to separate thousands, which is helpful for readability, especially with large numbers. Use this for general numeric data where currency or percentages are not applicable.

  • Unformatted Number: Select this for a raw numeric output without any separators or additional formatting. This is useful for data that will be used in further calculations or exported to systems that require specific numeric formats.

  • Currency: If your calculated property deals with monetary values, formatting it as currency is crucial. This not only aligns the numbers with financial reporting standards but also improves clarity for users analyzing sales and revenue data. HubSpot will format the number based on your account’s set currency preferences.

  • Percentage: Use this format for properties that represent ratios or comparisons, such as conversion rates or growth percentages. This format automatically multiplies the decimal number by 100 and adds a percentage sign, making the data intuitive and immediately recognizable as a percentage.

  • Duration: Ideal for time-based calculations, this format expresses the property value in terms of hours, minutes, and seconds. It's particularly useful for properties that measure lengths of time, like average call duration or time to resolution for tickets.

• Step 4: Save and Test: After selecting the desired format, save your changes and review a few records to ensure that the formatting appears as expected. This helps confirm that your calculated values are presented in a way that is both accurate and meaningful to the users.

Examples of When to Use Each Format

• Formatted Number: Displaying total sales figures or inventory counts where large numbers are common and readability is enhanced by formatting.

• Unformatted Number: Used in scientific data or when precise values are necessary for backend processes.

• Currency: Showing total revenue per customer, average deal size, or total budget spent on marketing campaigns.

• Percentage: Illustrating metrics like customer retention rate, email open rates, or profit margin.

• Duration: Measuring average session duration on a website, time spent in a sales call, or average ticket resolution time in customer service.

Choosing the right format for your calculated properties in HubSpot not only ensures clarity and consistency in how data is reported across your organization but also enhances the interpretability of the data. Proper formatting helps stakeholders from different departments understand and make better use of the information, leading to more informed decision-making and effective data-driven strategies.

Setting Up Calculated Properties Based on Properties of Associated Records in HubSpot

HubSpot's calculated properties can dynamically compute values based on properties from associated records. This feature is particularly useful for aggregating data from related records into a single view, which can enhance decision-making and reporting efficiency. Here’s how to set up these calculated properties, followed by some practical examples.

How to Set Up Association-Based Calculated Properties

• Step 1: Identify the Need for Aggregation: Determine where in your CRM strategy it would be beneficial to aggregate data from associated records. For example, summarizing total sales from all deals associated with a single contact or counting the number of tickets associated with a specific deal.
• Step 2: Access the Property Settings: Navigate to the Settings menu in your HubSpot account, and go to Properties. This area allows you to manage and create new properties for different objects like Contacts, Companies, Deals, or Tickets.
• Step 3: Create a New Calculated Property: Select Create property, and choose the object for which you want to create the property (e.g., Contacts or Companies). Then, under the "Field type" dropdown menu, select Calculated Property.
• Step 4: Choose the Type of Calculation: Select the type of calculation you want to perform. Options include:
  • Min: Finds the minimum value from a specified field across all associated records.
  • Max: Finds the maximum value.
  • Count: Counts the number of associated records.
  • Sum: Adds up values from a specified field across all associated records.
  • Average: Calculates the average of values from a specified field.
• Step 5: Specify the Calculation Details: You will need to define which associated records and which specific properties of those records should be included in the calculation. For example, if creating a Sum calculation for a company property, you might sum all deal values associated with that company.
• Step 6: Test and Save: Once your calculated property is configured, save the changes and test the property by viewing it on a few records to ensure it is pulling and calculating data correctly.

Examples of Association-Based Calculated Properties

• Example 1: Total Deal Value per Contact
  • Objective: Sum the total value of all deals associated with each contact.
  • Setup: Create a calculated property on the Contact object. Use the Sum calculation type to add up all the values from the "Amount" property on associated Deals.
• Example 2: Average Ticket Response Time per Company
  • Objective: Calculate the average response time for tickets submitted by each company.
  • Setup: On the Company object, create a calculated property using the Average calculation type. It should average the "Time to First Response" property on all associated Tickets.
• Example 3: Number of Contacts per Company
  • Objective: Count how many contacts are associated with each company.
  • Setup: Create a calculated property on the Company object using the Count calculation type to count all associated Contacts.
• Example 4: Highest Deal Value per Company
  • Objective: Identify the highest deal value that has been closed for each company.
  • Setup: On the Company object, use the Max calculation type to find the maximum value of the "Deal Amount" property across all associated Deals.

By setting up calculated properties based on the properties of associated records, you can unlock deeper insights into your data, streamline reporting processes, and make more informed decisions. These calculations help to visualize the broader impacts of relationships within your CRM, such as overall customer value, sales efficiency, and service effectiveness.

Best Practices for Using Calculated Properties

• Clearly Define Objectives: Before creating a calculated property, have a clear understanding of the question you’re trying to answer or the insight you’re aiming to gain.
• Maintain Data Hygiene: Calculated properties are only as accurate as the data they rely on. Ensure your CRM data is clean and up-to-date.
• Regularly Review Calculations: As your business evolves, so too may the factors influencing your calculations. Periodically review and adjust your calculated properties to ensure they remain relevant and accurate.

Conclusion

Calculated properties in HubSpot are a testament to the platform’s commitment to providing businesses with the tools they need to manage data dynamically and make informed decisions. By automating complex calculations, these properties not only save time but also open up new avenues for analysis and strategy development. Whether enhancing lead scoring, estimating deal closures, or calculating customer lifetime value, calculated properties transform raw data into strategic assets, driving efficiency and insight across your business operations.

Embracing the capabilities of calculated properties in HubSpot can significantly impact how you interact with your data, offering a deeper, more nuanced understanding of your business dynamics and customer relationships. As you explore the potential of these powerful tools, remember that the key to maximizing their value lies in clear objectives, clean data, and continuous refinement.