HubSpot Marketing Hub and Salesforce CRM are best-in-class GTM tools that can enable tremendous growth for your company.
The only problem is for companies using both, HubSpot and Salesforce don’t always play nice together.
It can often be difficult to integrate the tools in a seamless way.
To help make things easier, here are 8 most common sync errors between HubSpot and Salesforce and how to avoid them.
Import errors
Problem: When importing new records, errors can often occur. In some cases, you may be able to cleanup errors after an import, but it’s much easier to prevent these from happening in the first place.
Solution: Make sure any new imports into Salesforce OR HubSpot are carefully reviewed, and confirm that each column has a corresponding field and property in Salesforce and HubSpot. Make sure to also check for invalid domains and emails, this will save you a lot of cleanup time after any imports.
Association errors
Problem: The relationship between objects in Salesforce and HubSpot isn’t always simple. If either tool isn’t able to recognize and understand the relationship between records, you’ll see a sync error. Additionally records with multiple associations can also trigger errors in either tool.
Solution: Confirm that the relationships between objects in Salesforce and HubSpot both match. Then make sure individual records are correctly related to other records in each tool. This can become even more complex when syncing Custom Objects. Make sure you’ve got a solid understanding of the Data Models inside of both tools.
Custom Code errors
Problem: Custom code errors are caused by Apex, Flows, Processes, Workflow Rules, or Validation Rule inside of Salesforce. If an error occurs in one of these, your records will fail to sync.
Solution: Should you run into this error, make sure you’re able to identify the corresponding automation or rule causing the issue. You should then be able to identify anything that has gone wrong. You may also need to remove any conflicting installed packages in Salesforce, update the impacted records, or change the Salesforce settings.
Duplicate errors
Problem: New records can't be created when a duplicate record or value already exists.
Solution: These errors can be triggered by Duplicate Rules inside of Salesforce. Either remove any duplicate records from HubSpot or Salesforce, or modify your Duplicate Rules to be less sensitive. There are also many 3rd party tools that help manage duplicates inside of both HubSpot and Salesforce.
Permissions errors
Problem: Salesforce permissions can get complicated. If either tool tries to sync a record that falls outside of the integration user’s permissions, it will cause an error.
Solution: Make sure the email you use as the “Integration User” has all the necessary permission settings inside of Salesforce. If you can spare a license, we strongly encourage you to create a new Salesforce user called hubspot@yourcompanydomain.com. You’ll be able to control record visibility, Profile & Role, and have an audit trail anytime the HubSpot integration syncs records.
Property mappings
Problem: HubSpot's properties won't sync to Salesforce fields when they're mapped incorrectly. By default, HubSpot will attempt to automatically map all fields on the objects you choose to sync. While this seems helpful, it can actually mean that many unnecessary, unused, or wrong fields end up mapped to HubSpot. Dependent picklists in Salesforce can also cause you trouble.
Solution: Review each field mapping and sync rule. Check if the property and field type is compatible, if it has been deleted, or if a different field or property needs to be created to sync correctly. For a deep dive on Mappings and Sync Rules, please check out this article here. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/salesforce-hubspot-integration-use-mappings-sync-rules-reduce-/
Property Values
Problem: If someone inputs an invalid value into certain properties, it’ll cause an error. For example, putting a phone number in an email field. Any bad formatting will not allow records to sync.
Solution: Review affected records and ensure all data is entered correctly. Be aware that there are also some differences in how Salesforce and HubSpot handle letters and special characters used in Non-English languages.
API calls
Problem: To prevent any API overages on your Salesforce account, you will need to setup an API call limit for HubSpot. While this prevents overages on the Salesforce side, if your limit is ever reached inside of HubSpot, records will stop syncing.
Solution: You can either adjust your API call limit, or try to identify automation in either tool that may be causing unnecessary syncs. Occasionally mass updates can cause you to bump up to your limit, in those cases try updating records in batches or waiting. Just remember that other integrated applications share your Salesforce API calls and may pause if HubSpot uses all of them. Limiting sync through inclusion lists and selective sync can also reduce the number of required API calls.
Overall
To avoid any degradation in data quality or Go-To-Market processes, make sure to regularly review the “Sync health tab inside HubSpot” where you can resolve and hopefully prevent many of these issues from occurring in the first place!
