By Technical Operations Team • Source: HubSpot Knowledge Base
Data is the lifeblood of any successful growth strategy. While HubSpot provides a robust set of standard reporting templates, your business unique processes often require a more tailored view. Custom reporting in HubSpot allows you to slice and dice your CRM data—from contact interactions to complex revenue attribution—providing the clarity needed to make informed decisions. Whether you are tracking a specific sales pipeline or measuring the ROI of your latest marketing campaign, mastering the custom report builder is a prerequisite for advanced HubSpot administration.
Before diving into the report builder, ensure your user profile has the necessary permissions. In HubSpot, reporting access is granular. You will need Create/own and Edit permissions under the Reports tab in your user settings. Additionally, keep in mind that the number of custom reports you can create is capped based on your HubSpot tier (Marketing, Sales, Service, or Operations Hub Professional or Enterprise).
💡 Pro Tip: If you are hitting your report limit, consider auditing your existing dashboards. Frequently, "zombie" reports that no one views are taking up valuable slots in your account.
HubSpot categorizes custom reports into several distinct frameworks. Navigating to Reporting > Reports > Create custom report will present you with several options:
Once you select a report type—for instance, the Custom Report Builder—you must choose your primary data source. This acts as the anchor for your report. If you want to see how many tickets are associated with your high-value companies, "Companies" might be your primary object, with "Tickets" as a joined data source.
After choosing sources, you will move to the "Fields" tab. Here, you drag and drop the specific properties you want to measure (like Deal Amount, Create Date, or Contact Owner) into the configuration sidebar.
HubSpot provides various visualization styles: bar charts, line graphs, pie charts, and summary tables. Choose the one that best answers your core question. For example, a line graph is best for "Time Series" data (revenue over time), while a pie chart is better for "Market Share" (deals by owner).
Don’t forget filters! Use the filter sidebar to refine your data. You might want to filter out "Internal" contacts or only look at deals closed in the "Current Fiscal Quarter."
Once you are satisfied with the visualization, click Save in the top right corner. HubSpot will prompt you to name the report and choose where to save it. You can save it to your general reports list, or directly to a new or existing dashboard. Dashboards allow you to group related reports together (e.g., a "Executive Overview" or "Sales Rep Activity" dashboard) for easy regular monitoring.
A single object report focuses on one data type (like just Deals). A multi-object report (created via the Custom Report Builder) allows you to see relationships between different types, like which Marketing Campaigns led to specific Sales Deals.
Yes, you can export custom reports as CSV, Excel, or PDF files. You can even schedule these exports to be sent to your email on a recurring basis.
During the save process, you can set the visibility to "Private," "Everyone," or "Specific users and teams." This ensures sensitive data remains in the right hands.