HubSpot
10 Sep 2026

How Traction Ag Cleaned Up a Bloated HubSpot Portal and Made Its CRM Data Trustworthy Again

626

Contact properties audited :
Every Contact property was reviewed and classified for cleanup, along with a full review of the Company, Deal, and Lead objects.

Zero

Records deleted without approval :
Nothing was permanently removed without written client sign-off, so the cleanup stayed safe and dependency-checked from start to finish.

Project Overview

Project Name

HubSpot CRM Audit, Cleanup, and Governance for Traction Ag across Marketing, Sales, Service, and Content Hubs

Project Scope

Full CRM audit, property reduction, contact source mapping, workflow cleanup, report and dashboard rationalization, tag standardization, lead lifecycle design, naming conventions, and governance setup

Industry

Information Technology and Services (SaaS / AgTech)

Work Duration

10 weeks

Resource Used

1 HubSpot Solutions Architect
1 CRM Cleanup Specialist
1 RevOps Consultant
1 QA Analyst

Technologies

Country

United States

Our Capabilities

CRM Audit and Classification

Full CRM inventory of properties, workflows, reports, dashboards, forms, integrations, tags, and lists
Property audit across Contacts, Companies, Deals, and Leads
Contact source mapping
Dependency checks before any change

Cleanup and Standardization

Property reduction (keep, rename, merge, remove)
Workflow audit and safe deactivation
Report and dashboard rationalization
Deal and Lead tag consolidation

Lifecycle and Governance

Lead lifecycle design
Naming convention guide
Governance playbook
Documentation and a regular CRM review cadence

Client Overview

Traction Ag Inc. is a US-based SaaS company in Auburn, Indiana. It offers cloud farm accounting and farm business management software built for production row crop farms. Instead of generic bookkeeping tools, Traction Ag aligns financials to the crop year rather than the calendar year, so the numbers match how farms actually operate.

The platform gives farms real-time breakevens per acre and per bushel, input cost and inventory tracking, crop-year financials, payroll, one-click Schedule F and 1099 generation, and multi-entity and multi-season management. It serves farm operators, bookkeepers, CPAs and trusted advisors, and corporate farms.

Traction Ag connects with tools its customers already use, including John Deere Operations Center, Climate FieldView, FS Billing, Keystone Cooperative, Paylocity, Plaid, and Zenwork Tax 1099. On the growth side, the company runs free trials, demo requests, a partner and ag retailer channel, webinars and events, blog and case study content, a newsletter, and competitor migration campaigns.

Leads and customer data enter from many directions at once: forms, trials, webinars, partners, imports, and integrations. Over time, that steady inflow left the HubSpot CRM large and inconsistent, which is where TRooInbound came in.

Their Challenges

Traction Ag’s HubSpot portal had grown for years without active management. That growth had eroded trust in the CRM data.

Too many properties, no clarity

The portal held 626 Contact properties, plus a similar buildup across Company, Deal, and Lead objects. Many were duplicate, legacy, or empty, and no one knew which field teams were actually supposed to use.

Undocumented sources creating records

Multiple sources were creating and updating contacts with no documentation, which led to incomplete and duplicate records.

Workflows with unclear status and ownership

Automations were running with unknown status and unclear ownership, including stale workflows with no recent enrollment.

Duplicate and outdated reporting

Reports and dashboards had piled up, some duplicated and some built on obsolete properties, so the reporting could not be trusted.

Inconsistent tags

Deal and Lead tag values overlapped in meaning, which made segmentation and reporting messy.

No defined lead lifecycle

There was no rule for when a lead goes stale, moves to nurture, or returns to sales.

No governance model

Without naming conventions or governance, the same clutter kept getting recreated.

On top of all this, Traction Ag set one strict condition: nothing could be permanently deleted without written approval.

Our Strategies

TRooInbound ran the cleanup through a controlled sequence: audit, classify, check dependencies, recommend, get approval, clean safely, then document governance. This kept the data safe at every step.

1. Full CRM inventory

We documented everything in the portal, including properties, workflows, reports, dashboards, forms, integrations, tags, and lists, so we had a complete picture before making any change.

2. Property Audit Workbook

We built a workbook with separate tabs for Contacts, Companies, Deals, and Leads. Every property was classified as Keep, Rename or Merge, or Remove or Archive, with its usage, owner, dependencies, and recommended action.

3. Contact Source Map

We documented every form, integration, import, manual entry, and API source that created or updated records, along with its volume, owner, status, and recommendation. This showed exactly where duplicates were coming from.

4. Workflow Audit Spreadsheet

We logged each workflow with its status, enrollment history, purpose, connected properties and lists, risk level, and recommended action. Inactive workflows were flagged and deactivated only after approval.

5. Report and Dashboard Audit

We identified which reports were useful, duplicate, outdated, or in need of a rebuild, then recommended a clean final reporting structure teams could trust.

6. Deal and Lead Tag Review

We consolidated duplicate and inconsistent tag values into a single standard set.

7. Safe, approval-gated cleanup

We checked dependencies before every change and cleaned only after written client approval. Nothing was permanently deleted without sign-off.

Our Planned Solutions

Beyond the cleanup, TRooInbound gave Traction Ag the rules and documentation to keep the portal clean:

Lead Lifecycle Playbook: We defined Active Lead, Stale Lead, Move to Nurture, and Re-engage from Nurture, each with triggers, status changes, task handling, and owner notifications. This ensures leads are not lost, and sales does not chase cold records.
Naming Convention Guide: We set naming standards for properties, workflows, reports, dashboards, lists, segments, folders, and tags, with practical examples the team can follow.
Governance Playbook: We documented who can create properties and workflows, the approval rules, ownership, folder structure, integration documentation, and a regular CRM review cadence.

Together, these stop the same clutter from building up again.

The Result

Traction Ag now has a cleaner, dependency-safe HubSpot portal, plus the documentation and rules to keep it that way.

626 Contact properties audited and classified, along with a full review of the Company, Deal, and Lead objects.
4 CRM objects fully audited (Contacts, Companies, Deals, and Leads).
0 records or fields deleted without written client approval, keeping the cleanup safe throughout.
Clear ownership and trust: Teams now know which fields to use, which reports to trust, and which workflows are live.
A defined lead lifecycle: Leads are no longer lost, and sales spends less time on cold records.

Rules that hold: With naming conventions and a governance model in place, the portal is set up to stay clean going forward.

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