Struggling to figure out how to handle a team member who’s leaving your HubSpot account? I know the feeling. it can be a bit confusing with all the options. The quickest way to get a user out of your HubSpot account and ensure they no longer have access is to deactivate them first, then remove them. Deactivating a user immediately revokes their login access, but their profile and associated data like who owned a specific contact stick around for reporting. If you truly want to wipe them from your account and unassign their records, you’ll need to take that extra step to remove them after deactivation. This approach is usually the safest bet for maintaining data integrity and security, which is super important for any business.

Effectively managing user access in HubSpot isn’t just about security. it’s also about keeping your CRM clean, your data accurate, and your team’s workflow smooth. Think about it: every user in your HubSpot portal has a role, and with that role comes specific permissions to view, edit, or even delete important company data. If someone leaves, you definitely don’t want them to still have access. Plus, having “ghost” users floating around can mess with your reporting and even create unnecessary clutter. Regularly auditing and adjusting user permissions helps prevent accidental data mishaps, reduces the risk of security breaches, and ensures that everyone on your team has exactly what they need—and nothing more—to do their job efficiently. So, let’s get into the nitty-gritty of how to handle user departures in HubSpot, making sure you do it the right way.

Table of Contents

Why User Management Matters in HubSpot

Let’s be real, your HubSpot account is like the central nervous system for your customer relationships and business operations. It’s where all the magic happens – from marketing campaigns and sales deals to customer service tickets. Because it holds so much crucial information, how you manage who has access to it is a big deal.

First off, there’s security. In a world where data breaches are constantly in the news, you can’t afford to be lax with who can log into your systems. Granting the right access to the right people, and promptly revoking it when they leave, is fundamental. It minimizes the risk of unauthorized access to sensitive company and customer data, which is a common security concern for businesses. A 2023 report by IBM and Ponemon Institute found that the average cost of a data breach in 2023 was $4.45 million USD, a 15% increase over three years . This highlights just how critical robust security measures, including user management, really are.

Then there’s data integrity and clarity. Imagine a sales rep leaves, but all their contacts, deals, and tasks are still assigned to them in HubSpot. This creates “zombie users” and “ghost data” that can skew your reports, make it tough to reassign work, and generally just make your portal feel messy. Keeping your user list current ensures that your reporting is accurate and that there’s always a clear owner for every customer interaction and piece of content.

Finally, it’s about operational efficiency. When your team members have clear roles and appropriate permissions, they can work more effectively. They’re not bogged down with access to tools they don’t need, and they can easily find the information relevant to their tasks. A streamlined user management process contributes directly to a more organized and productive team environment. In fact, organizations with well-defined user access management strategies often see a reduction in operational overhead and improved compliance.

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Understanding HubSpot User Roles and Permissions

Before we even talk about removing someone, it’s super helpful to understand how HubSpot thinks about user access. It’s not a one-size-fits-all deal. HubSpot uses roles and permissions to dictate what each user can see and do within your account.

At the top of the pyramid is the Super Admin. These folks are the kings and queens of your HubSpot portal. They have access to pretty much everything, including critical settings like billing, security, and user management itself. You need a Super Admin to add or remove other users, and they’re the only ones who can grant Super Admin status to someone else. Most security best practices recommend limiting the number of Super Admins to only those who absolutely need that level of control, typically senior operations leaders or system administrators who are formally trained on HubSpot’s architecture. Giving too many people Super Admin access is a common security oversight.

Below Super Admins, you have various other roles and customizable permission sets. HubSpot offers standard roles like Admin, Editor, Author, and Team Member, each with a predefined set of permissions. For example, a marketing manager might have full access to marketing tools but limited view-only access to sales data, while a sales rep would have robust permissions for deals and tasks but no access to website settings.

You can also create custom roles and permission sets. This is fantastic because it lets you tailor access precisely to your team’s structure and individual responsibilities. For instance, you could create a “Content Creator” role that can draft blog posts and landing pages but can’t publish them without a “Marketing Manager” approval. This granular control is essential for protecting sensitive data, minimizing accidental errors, and ensuring that workflows are smooth and secure.

Regularly reviewing user permissions is also a best practice. As teams evolve and responsibilities change, so should their access levels. This proactive approach helps maintain data security and ensures your HubSpot portal remains efficient and compliant. Unlock Your Business Growth: A Real-World HubSpot CRM Example Guide

The Big Difference: Deactivate vs. Remove vs. Delete

This is often where things get a little fuzzy for people, so let’s clear it up once and for all. HubSpot gives you three main ways to handle a user’s departure, and they each have distinct consequences. Understanding these differences is key to making the right choice for your business.

Deactivating a User

Think of deactivating as putting a user’s access on pause. When you deactivate a user:

They can no longer log into your HubSpot account. This is the immediate security benefit. Their login credentials become invalid for your portal.
Their user profile and associated data remain in the account. This is the crucial part. All the contacts, companies, deals, tickets, tasks, emails, and content they owned or created still exist and are still linked to their user profile.
They will no longer be assigned new records or included in rotation workflows. So, new leads won’t go to them.
Their personal emails will be disconnected, and they won’t be able to log new emails. However, any team emails connected to the conversations inbox will stay connected.
You can reactivate them later. If someone comes back or you need to grant them temporary access again, reactivating them is straightforward, and all their previous assignments and historical data will be there.
Their profile will still appear in dropdown lists for assigning tasks, contacts, etc. This is a common point of confusion and frustration, but it’s by design so you can see historical ownership.

When to use it: Deactivating is generally the recommended first step when an employee leaves or no longer needs active access. It’s perfect for preserving historical data, maintaining accurate reporting, and keeping the option open for reactivation. Many businesses choose to leave users deactivated indefinitely to maintain a full historical record of who did what.

Removing a User from an Account

This is a more permanent step than deactivation. You can only remove a user from an account after they have been deactivated. Landing Your Dream Job at HubSpot Dublin: A Complete Guide

Their user profile is completely removed from your HubSpot account. It’s like they were never there.
They will be unassigned from any records. This means contacts, companies, deals, and tickets that were owned by the removed user will have their owner field updated to “Deactivated User removed user’s email address”.
They will be removed from reports. All historical activity linked to that user will still exist, but it won’t be attributed to a named user anymore. This means if that user created a ton of templates, wrote blog posts, or closed deals, that content still lives in HubSpot, but it won’t be explicitly linked back to them in reporting.
This action is generally irreversible for your specific HubSpot account. Once they’re removed, bringing them back means inviting them as a brand new user, and you’ll lose that historical assignment link.

When to use it: You’d typically remove a user if you absolutely never want to see their name in your HubSpot portal again, if you need to free up a paid user seat immediately, or if the user was a temporary collaborator whose historical data isn’t crucial for your ongoing operations. Many experts advise against removing users lightly, precisely because of the loss of attribution.

Deleting Your Own HubSpot User Account

This is a completely different beast. This action is something an individual user does to remove their entire user profile from HubSpot’s systems globally, not just from one specific company’s account.

You must not have access to any HubSpot accounts before you can delete your user account. This means if you’re part of multiple HubSpot portals, you need to be removed from all of them first by a Super Admin or remove yourself if you have the permission.
It permanently deletes your user profile from HubSpot’s systems. This is a global deletion, not just from a specific portal.
Any HubSpot Academy certifications tied to that email address will be deleted. This is a big one! If you have valuable certifications, HubSpot recommends transferring them to a new email address before deleting your user account.

When to use it: This is for individuals who no longer want any association with HubSpot, perhaps if they’ve left the ecosystem entirely and want to ensure their personal data is removed from HubSpot’s backend.

Step-by-Step Guide: How to Deactivate a User in HubSpot

let’s walk through the process of deactivating a user in your HubSpot account. Remember, this is the first and often most important step in handling a user’s departure. The Real Cost of HubSpot Sales Hub in 2025: Your Complete Guide

Prerequisites

Super Admin Permissions: You need to have Super Admin access in your HubSpot account to deactivate other users. If you don’t, you’ll need to ask someone who does.
Review Assigned Paid Seats: If the user currently occupies a paid seat for Sales Hub, Service Hub, etc., it’s a good idea to consider reassigning or unassigning that seat before deactivating. While deactivation removes their access, the seat might still be technically “used” until you free it up in your billing settings.

Detailed Steps

Log into your HubSpot account. Make sure you’re logged in with your Super Admin credentials.
Navigate to Settings. In the top right corner of your HubSpot dashboard, look for the settings icon it usually looks like a gear. Click on it.
Go to Users & Teams. In the left sidebar menu, find and click on “Users & Teams”.
Find the User. You’ll see a list of all users in your HubSpot account. Scroll or use the search bar to locate the name of the user you want to deactivate.
Access Actions Menu. Hover your mouse over the name of the user. An “Actions” dropdown menu will appear. Click on it.
Select “Deactivate user.” From the “Actions” dropdown, choose “Deactivate user”.
Review the Advisory and Confirm. A dialog box will pop up, explaining what happens when you deactivate a user e.g., they lose access, but their records remain assigned. Read this carefully to ensure you understand the implications. Then, click “Deactivate user” again to confirm.

That’s it! The user will instantly lose access to your HubSpot account. They’ll also typically receive an email notifying them that their profile has been deactivated. While they’re deactivated, their profile remains in your account, making it easy to see their past contributions and reassign their assets if needed.

Step-by-Step Guide: How to Permanently Remove a User from Your HubSpot Account

If you’ve decided that simply deactivating a user isn’t enough and you want to completely clear them from your HubSpot account, you’ll need to take this extra step. Remember, a user must be deactivated first before you can remove them.

User is Already Deactivated: Make sure the user you want to remove has already been deactivated using the steps above. You can’t directly remove an active user.
Super Admin Permissions: Just like deactivation, you need Super Admin access for this.
Reassign Records Highly Recommended: Before completely removing a user, it’s a really good idea to reassign any contacts, companies, deals, tickets, or tasks that were owned by that user. Why? Because once they’re removed, those records will show “Deactivated User removed user’s email address” as the owner, and you lose the specific attribution to that individual. While you can reassign records after removal, it’s often cleaner and easier to do it proactively. Many businesses use automation workflows for round-robin reassignment or bulk edits to transfer ownership.
Remove from Account & Billing Point of Contact: If the user was listed as a point of contact in your HubSpot Account & Billing settings, you’ll need to remove them from that role first. To do this:
1. Click your account name in the top right corner.
2. Select “Account & Billing.”
3. Go to the “Company Info” tab.
4. In the “Points of Contact” section, click “Remove from role” next to the user’s name for any roles they were assigned.

Log into your HubSpot account. Ensure you’re logged in as a Super Admin.
Navigate to Settings. Click on the settings icon gear in the top right corner.
Go to Users & Teams. In the left sidebar menu, click on “Users & Teams”.
Find the Deactivated User. Locate the user you previously deactivated. Their status should clearly show as “Deactivated”.
Click on the User’s Name. Instead of hovering for the “Actions” menu, actually click on the user’s name to open their individual user profile settings.
Access Actions Menu Again. In the top right corner of the user’s profile page, you’ll see another “Actions” dropdown menu. Click on it.
Select “Remove from account.” From this dropdown, choose “Remove from account”.
Review and Confirm. A dialog box will appear, often reminding you about unassigned records. If you haven’t reassigned them, it might give you an option to navigate to the object dashboard to do so. Once you’re ready, click “Remove from account” to confirm the permanent deletion of their profile from your HubSpot account.

Once removed, the user’s profile and all direct associations will be gone from your HubSpot portal. This action is more final, so make sure you’ve considered all the implications, especially regarding historical data attribution.

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Handling Assets After User Removal/Deactivation

One of the biggest concerns when a team member leaves is what happens to all the work they’ve done and the records they owned in HubSpot. It’s a valid question, and how HubSpot handles it differs based on whether you deactivate or remove a user.

When a User is Deactivated

When you simply deactivate a user, it’s like putting their account on ice.

Owned Records Remain Assigned: Contacts, companies, deals, and tickets that the deactivated user owned will still show that user as the owner. This is super helpful for maintaining historical context. If you look at a contact they managed, you’ll still see their name as the contact owner.
Tasks and Engagements: Any tasks assigned to them will remain assigned. Past emails, calls, and meetings they logged will still be associated with their profile and the relevant records.
Content and Assets: Blog posts they wrote, landing pages they created, email templates they drafted, or workflows they built will all remain in your HubSpot account. Their name will still be associated with that content as the creator/author.
Workflows and Automation: If the user was part of a “rotate record owner” workflow, they will be skipped, and new assignments won’t go to them. However, if their name is used in personalization tokens in emails or templates e.g., {{ contact.owner.firstname }}, their name will still appear if that content is used.
Reporting: Historical data tied to their ownership will still be visible in reports, allowing you to analyze past performance attributed to that individual.

The key takeaway here is that deactivation preserves historical data and attribution. This is why many HubSpot experts recommend deactivating rather than outright removing users, especially for sales and service reps whose historical interactions are valuable.

When a User is Removed

When you go the extra step and remove a deactivated user, the impact is more significant:

Owned Records are Unassigned: Any contacts, companies, deals, or tickets previously owned by the removed user will have their owner property changed. Instead of the user’s name, it will display as “Deactivated User removed user’s email address”. This means you lose the direct link to the individual, though you still know someone was the owner.
Tasks and Engagements: Tasks assigned to the removed user might become unassigned or, depending on the setup, might still show the “Deactivated User” label. Logged activities emails, calls will still be on the record but not directly attributed to an active user profile.
Content and Assets: Content created by the user blog posts, templates, etc. will remain in your portal. However, the author attribution in reporting might become generic or show “Removed User” depending on the specific tool. For sales templates or documents, if they weren’t shared before removal, other users might not be able to access them.
Reporting: While the raw data of activities and content will still exist, the ability to filter or report specifically by that user’s name will be lost, as their profile is gone from the system.

Best Practice: Reassigning Ownership

Given these impacts, a critical best practice for user offboarding in HubSpot is to reassign ownership of all relevant records before you remove a user. Cms hubspot starter

Proactive Reassignment: Go to the Contacts, Companies, Deals, and Tickets dashboards. Filter by the user you’re about to remove and bulk reassign their owned records to another active team member or a generic “Sales Team” owner. This maintains clean data attribution.
Leverage Workflows: For larger teams or frequent turnover, consider setting up an automation workflow. When an employee’s “status” property changes to “leaving,” the workflow could trigger and reassign all their open tasks, deals, and contacts to another team member, perhaps using a round-robin assignment. This automates a potentially tedious manual process and prevents crucial records from falling through the cracks.
Documented Process: Have a clear, documented offboarding checklist that includes steps for reassigning assets. This ensures consistency and prevents oversight.

By carefully managing asset transfer, you can ensure that even after a user leaves, your HubSpot data remains organized, attributable, and ready for your team to continue their work seamlessly.

Best Practices for User Offboarding in HubSpot

Offboarding an employee from your HubSpot account isn’t just about clicking a button. it’s a strategic process that touches on security, data integrity, and operational efficiency. Here are some best practices to ensure a smooth transition and keep your HubSpot portal in top shape:

Prioritize Reassignment of Assets Before Deactivation: This is perhaps the most crucial step. Before you even think about deactivating or removing a user, make a plan to transfer ownership of all their active contacts, companies, deals, tickets, and tasks.
- Identify Critical Assets: Focus on open deals, active support tickets, and important contacts or companies.
- Bulk Reassignment: HubSpot allows you to filter records by owner and then perform bulk actions to reassign them.
- Automate if Possible: For larger organizations, setting up a workflow that automatically reassigns records e.g., using a round-robin system when a user’s internal status changes can save a huge amount of time and prevent oversight.
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- Default to Deactivate: In most cases, deactivating a user is the preferred option. It revokes access but preserves the user’s profile and historical data, which is invaluable for reporting and auditing. Many companies keep deactivated user profiles indefinitely.
- Remove Only When Necessary: Reserve the “remove from account” option for situations where you absolutely need to free up a paid seat and are comfortable losing the specific user attribution on historical records which will then show as “Deactivated User”.
Review and Revoke All Permissions: While deactivating removes login access, it’s good practice to audit all the places a user might have had specific permissions or integrations.
- Integrations: Check if the user had connected any third-party tools or apps to HubSpot that might still be active under their credentials. Revoke these connections.
- Account & Billing: Ensure they are removed as a point of contact from any roles in your “Account & Billing” settings.
- Teams: Remove them from any teams they were a part of.
Conduct Regular User Audits: Don’t just wait for someone to leave. Regularly e.g., quarterly review your HubSpot user list.
- Identify Inactive Users: Look for users who haven’t logged in for a long time or whose roles have changed significantly.
- Adjust Permissions: Ensure everyone still has the “least privilege” – meaning they only have the access they need to perform their current job functions, and no more.
- Spot Potential Security Risks: Audits can help you identify unauthorized access or unusual activity.
Document Your Offboarding Process: Create a clear, step-by-step checklist for offboarding HubSpot users. This ensures consistency, reduces errors, and makes the process more efficient, especially in larger organizations or when different people handle offboarding. An offboarding checklist for HubSpot should be part of your broader employee offboarding process.
Communicate Internally: Inform relevant team members e.g., sales managers, service leads when a user is being offboarded, especially if records are being reassigned. This helps manage expectations and ensures continuity in customer relationships.

By adopting these best practices, you can make sure that user transitions are handled securely, your data remains intact, and your HubSpot portal stays a powerful, organized tool for your business. Mastering Your Content Strategy with HubSpot Content Hub Professional

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Even with the best intentions, you might run into a few head-scratchers when managing users in HubSpot. Here are some common issues and how to tackle them:

“Why do deactivated users still show up in dropdown lists?”

This is probably the most common question. When you deactivate a user, they’ll often still appear in dropdown menus for things like “Contact Owner,” “Deal Owner,” or when assigning tasks.

The Reason: HubSpot intentionally keeps deactivated users visible in these lists to maintain historical accuracy. If you look at an old contact, you still want to know who was the owner at that time, even if that person is no longer active in the system. It helps preserve reporting data and context.
The Solution: If you genuinely want to remove a user from all assignment options and make them disappear from these dropdowns, you need to remove them entirely from the account after deactivating them, of course. However, remember the trade-offs: removing them also means you lose the specific user attribution on historical records, which then defaults to “Deactivated User.” For many, the historical context is more valuable than removing them from dropdowns, so they stick with deactivation.

“I can’t deactivate/remove a user – the option is greyed out or missing.”

Permissions Check: The most likely culprit here is your user permissions. Only Super Admins can deactivate or remove other users. If you’re not a Super Admin, you won’t see these options.
Active User Status: For removing a user, remember they must be deactivated first. You can’t directly jump to removal. Make sure their status is “Deactivated” before attempting to remove them from the account.
Point of Contact in Account & Billing: If the user is designated as a point of contact in your “Account & Billing” settings, you’ll need to remove them from that role before you can remove them as a user. Navigate to “Account & Billing” > “Company Info” and remove them from any listed roles there.

“What happens if a removed user had connected integrations e.g., email sync?”

Personal Connections: If a user had personally connected their email inbox or calendar to HubSpot, those connections will likely cease to function or become disconnected upon deactivation or removal. This is a good thing for security.
Team Connections: Team inboxes like a shared [email protected] inbox that the user was a part of will typically remain connected and functional, as these are usually set up at an account level, not tied to a single user’s personal login.
Other Integrations: For other third-party integrations, it’s a good practice to check those platforms directly. For example, if they connected a specific project management tool, you might need to manually revoke their access or reconfigure the integration within that tool. This emphasizes the need for a comprehensive offboarding checklist.

“A user accidentally deleted their own HubSpot user account, and now their certifications are gone!”

HubSpot Academy Certifications: This is a crucial warning. When an individual user deletes their own HubSpot user account globally, any associated HubSpot Academy certifications are also deleted.
Prevention is Key: HubSpot advises users to transfer their certifications to a new email address before permanently deleting their user account if they want to keep them. Unfortunately, once the user account is deleted, recovering those certifications can be extremely difficult, if not impossible.
Admin Responsibility: While a user deletes their own account, as an admin, it’s wise to ensure your team is aware of this consequence if they ever decide to delete their personal HubSpot user profile.

By being aware of these common scenarios, you can navigate user management in HubSpot more confidently and efficiently.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Can I directly delete a user without deactivating them first in HubSpot?

No, you can’t directly delete a user from your HubSpot account without deactivating them first. HubSpot’s process requires you to first deactivate a user, which revokes their access but keeps their profile and associated data. Only after they are in a “Deactivated” state can you then proceed to permanently “Remove from account” if that’s what you choose to do. This two-step process helps ensure data integrity and provides a safety net before a permanent removal.

What happens to a user’s emails and scheduled sequences after deactivation?

When a user is deactivated, their personal emails that were connected to HubSpot will be disconnected, meaning they won’t be able to log new emails to the CRM. Any scheduled sequence emails that were set up by that specific user will also stop sending, as their access is revoked. However, any team emails connected to the conversations inbox will generally remain connected and functional, as these are typically tied to the account, not an individual user’s personal connection.

Who can deactivate or remove users in HubSpot?

Only users with Super Admin permissions can deactivate or remove other users in a HubSpot account. This level of access is crucial because it affects account security, data integrity, and user licensing. If you don’t have Super Admin permissions, you’ll need to reach out to someone on your team who does to assist with user management.

Can a removed user be reactivated?

Once a user is “removed from account” in HubSpot, their profile is permanently deleted from that specific HubSpot portal. This means they cannot be simply “reactivated” with their old data and assignments intact. If you need to bring them back, you would have to invite them as a brand new user to the account, and any historical data previously attributed to their old, removed profile would no longer be linked to them. This is why deactivation is often recommended over removal, as deactivated users can be reactivated easily. Crm hubspot certification

Will deleting my HubSpot user account delete my Academy certifications?

Yes, if you, as an individual user, choose to permanently delete your own HubSpot user account which requires you to first be removed from all HubSpot portals you have access to, it will delete any HubSpot Academy certifications associated with that email address. HubSpot strongly advises users to transfer their certifications to a new email address before deleting their user account if they wish to retain them.

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Mastering HubSpot User Management: Deactivating, Removing, and Deleting Accounts