HubSpot Reporting Tutorial: Build Sales Dashboards Teams Actually Use

HubSpot's reporting tools break down the moment teams treat them as set-and-forget dashboards. Default reports go ignored, custom reports collapse when someone edits a property field, and attribution models show every touchpoint without clarifying which ones actually matter. The gap isn't technical capability - it's knowing which business questions to answer first, how to structure reports that survive CRM changes, and when multi-touch attribution helps versus when it obscures results. This HubSpot reporting tutorial walks through building role-specific dashboards that sales managers open Monday mornings, setting up attribution that informs budget decisions, and designing reports around pipeline questions instead of platform features.

The custom report builder: what it is and when to use it

Data can be put into HubSpot in two ways: through the Default Reports or through the Custom Reports.

The custom builder is far more powerful and will enable teams to create reports to answer even more questions than the default reports allow. For Professional and Enterprise customers, the custom builder can be used to create reports that query all CRM objects including deals, contacts, companies and tickets.

Cross-object reports are where the real value is. Reporting on deals, and their associated contacts, and companies that those contacts are associated with, and open tickets for those companies, is what a reporting tool is for. That's the kind of complex questions that can be answered such as: "what's the average time from MQL to SQL by original lead source" or "which deals moved backward in stage this quarter and who owns them."

Cross-object reports are powerful only if the CRM objects have been properly set up with the correct associations between them. For example, a report of deals (primary object) plus their associated contacts would return no data if the association between deals and contacts has not been set up correctly in the CRM. Surprisingly, many companies underestimate the importance of setting up object associations until they try to create a cross-object report and find that the report returns no results.

The setup time is worth it, though.

Building your first custom report: pipeline velocity by stage

This is a tutorial on building out a pipeline velocity report that reveals where sales teams are getting stuck in the pipeline. A true pipeline velocity report shows how long on average that deals are staying in every single stage of the sales process and pinpoints the exact point where deals get stuck. This will give a very clear focus for one on one coaching with sales reps.

Pipeline velocity reports surface issues in the sales process that summary reports will never expose. For example, by tracking average time in each pipeline stage, managers can quickly identify that deals are consistently getting stuck in the organization's "Negotiation" stage.

Here's how to build this report:

Step 1 - Start with Reports > Reports > Create custom report

Set Report Type to 'Deal-based'.

Choose your primary data source

Even after adding all of the report components, the primary data source for this report would still be the Deals information. This report is used to analyze various aspects of how deals move through the pipeline.

Add your filters

Filter by the deal status of "Closed won" to get an accurate read on the velocity of deals that have closed successfully. To get a read on where things are going wrong, deals that were "Lost" can also be included.

Here, the report is filtered to include only deals from the last 90 days. This will provide the most current data and the data will be comparable.

The date range is important to note here, because if a report of pipeline velocity spanned back 2-3 years, the comparison would include deals from years ago to deals that closed last week. As the process, team, product, etc. has likely changed a lot since then, old data not only makes averages skewed, but also misleads analysis.

Configure your visualization

Chart type: Bar chart works best here.

X-axis: deal stage / Y-axis: average time in deal stage (days).

There is a built-in property in the system for "time in deal stage" that the system calculates based off when a deal enters and exits a stage. This property is used to calculate the average time in a deal stage for all deals in the report filtered set.

Add breakdowns (optional but useful)

If the deal owner is also added to the report as a breakdown, the report can also show for each sales rep how fast he or she is closing deals in his or her pipeline. In the same way, the lead source can also be added as a breakdown, to see for example if all inbound leads are converted into deals a lot faster than prospects that have been contacted by the outbound sales team.

Save and add to dashboard

Save the report with a name and add to a dashboard. Naming the report something descriptive such as "Pipeline Velocity by Stage - Q1 2026" as opposed to something generic such as "Report 47" is recommended.

This methodology can be applied to any report in the CRM. First, select the primary data source for the report. Next, add filters to the report to limit the scope of the information that will be included in the report. After the filters have been added, create a chart that best displays the information in the report. Finally, save the report.

Essential dashboards for sales teams

Rather than having many open dashboards that answer one question each, a sales team needs focused 'views' or dashboards that clearly enable a rep to answer specific key questions on a daily basis. Below are dashboards that support a sales organization: (1) Daily rep view - 'What do I need to close today?' (2) Pipeline health view - 'What's blocking in terms of Pipeline health for me & my peers?' (3) A Forecast dashboard that clearly surfaces a weighted pipeline value view & a view of all deals that have 'slipped' past their original close date. (4) A lead conversion view that clearly surfaces all contact-to-deal conversion rates by original lead source.

Daily rep dashboard

A daily rep view showing them what they need to close today.

Open Deals by Owner: This report should be a default report in the system. Only include deals that the rep owns. Tasks Due Today: This is a default report as well. Only include tasks that are assigned to the rep and are due today. Deals Closing This Week: A custom report that includes all the deals that are scheduled to close in the next 7 days. The report should be grouped by owner. Win Rate This Month: A custom report that includes the closed won deals versus the closed lost deals for the current month.

This view will fit on one screen with no scrolling required.

Pipeline health dashboard

Pipeline Health: This needs to be viewed by the Sales Manager on a regular basis to determine what is currently moving through the pipe and what is clogging it up. Reports to include here would be deals created versus closed by week, average deal size over time, stage conversion rates (i.e. % of Discovery converted to Proposal, % of Proposal converted to Negotiation, etc.) and deals that have been stuck more than 30 days in stages in the pipe.

Deals Created vs. Closed by week (a custom report that will show the create date trends vs. the close date trends for all opportunities) Average deal size over time (a custom report that will calculate the average deal amount per month) Stage conversion rates (a custom report that will show the % of deals that move from Discovery to Proposal, from Proposal to Negotiation, from Negotiation to Closed Won, etc.) Deals that have been stuck in a single stage for more than 30 days (a report that will show all open opportunities stuck in a single stage for more than a specified time period - the default reports will not show this report)

Stuck deals are where pipelines go to die but most teams don't build reports to surface them.

Forecast and lead conversion dashboards

The first custom report to add to the pipeline dashboard is a forecast report that looks at the weighted value of the pipeline based on open opportunities. This report would calculate the deal amount * probability for each open opportunity and then sum up the total amount of all open opportunities. The second custom report to add is a report of deals that have slipped past their original close date. This report can be filtered by the following formula: close date is in the past and deal stage is not closed won.

The final report will be used to understand lead conversion by showing the following metrics: Contact-to-deal conversion rates by original lead source (report of Contacts created and Deals created grouped by original source), Time from the creation of the first Contact by a rep to the creation of a Deal by that rep, and Deal win rates by original lead source.

Most teams can track leads through to the first point of qualification (e.g. website visits, SQLs/MQLs and then they drop off). Others can track activity through to Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) but then never track through to closed revenue. As a result they have no idea if their best converting lead source is one that generates loads of form fills or something else.

Common reporting mistakes and how to fix them

Most reporting errors occur because a user configured something incorrectly. By accepting defaults instead of verifying, they cause problems for themselves in the reporting.

Date range defaults to "all time"

By default reports are set up to use all time for the date range. This means that the reports will pull in all deals ever created, which makes it difficult to see trends and understand the current state of the pipeline. Reports should be set up to match the length of the sales cycle. Every time a report is created the date property should be set and then the range for that property should be set every time as well.

This is not automated in any way. This is not even saved as a report preference.

Confusing create date with close date

When building pipeline reports ensure that the filter is set to the deals' expected close date or actual close date. Those deals that were created years ago but never progressed past Qualification should not be included in a forecast report.

For forecasting, only deals that are expected to close this quarter should be included. For historical analysis, all deals that actually closed during a specific time period should be included. Therefore, the field for the deal create date (e.g. "Deal create date") is very often mixed up with the close date field (e.g. "Close date" or "Expected close date").

Forgetting to exclude test deals

Data stored for test purposes such as during a demo of a workflow, for imports of fake test data, for the sync test for a user, all of that test data is stored and should be removed from reports.

Create a custom deal property called 'is_test' (a checkbox) and mark all test records. Then in all reports add filter 'is_test is not true'.

Using default reports for custom pipelines

Pre-built reports are built around standard sales pipeline stages. Since businesses have customized their pipeline with additional deal stages (e.g. 'Technical Validation' or 'Contract Review'), the conversion metrics (e.g. won deals, lost deals, etc.) might not include these or group them under a parent stage which does not reflect the team's actual way of selling. This is typically hidden from the user.

When to upgrade to Operations Hub for reporting

Typical Sales Teams Do Not Need Operations Hub for Reporting. Professional tier of Reports is usually sufficient for typical Sales Teams conducting typical Sales processes. If teams need to sync external data sources for reporting, create complex calculations on top of other metrics, or simply create complex queries joining together multiple objects within report builder… then Operations Hub may be needed.

For most sales teams, Professional reports will be sufficient for their reporting needs. However, for teams that require more advanced reporting, there are three key features of Operations Hub that start to become important: data sync, programmable automation and datasets.

Data sync: Bring in records from external systems that sales people can act on. Invoices from an ERP system, billing information from NetSuite, support tickets from Zendesk, etc. Create reports that tie together deals with the actual revenue from billing systems. Professional Reporting Tier doesn't natively support data from outside of HubSpot.

Programmable automation: Workflows in Operations Hub allow for the calculation of new metrics not covered by standard HubSpot properties. For example, a property that calculates the number of days since the last meaningful activity by the sales person for a deal, or a custom health score that for example weights email opens by the number of meetings with the corresponding contact.

Datasets: These are essentially SQL-like queries that can be written on objects within the platform. They allow joining together many different objects within the platform with very complex filters that are not supported by the report builder. The vast majority of users will never have a use case for datasets. A common example of when datasets would be used is when a business has created multiple custom objects for the pipeline and wants to build a report for the board that shows the pipeline velocity for all of those objects.

For the vast majority of sales teams who follow standard sales processes, Professional reporting will be more than sufficient. It is when teams need to pull in data from various external systems, and compute layers of complex metrics on top of each other, across multiple Objects that Operations Hub can usually play a role.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I create a custom report?

To create a custom report go to Reports → Reports → Create custom report. Choose a main data source (e.g. deals, contacts, companies, tickets) then add properties (e.g. fields) to use as report columns. Filters can be added and the system can be configured for how report data should be grouped.

What's the difference between Default Reports and Custom Reports?

The reports in HubSpot that are already set up (such as "Deals Created This Month" or "Contact Lifecycle Stage Breakdown") are Default reports. Custom reports can be built by any user with the Report Builder feature. These reports can contain any number of properties (or columns), any number of filters, and any number of groupings to provide the exact report data required.

Can I build reports that combine deals and contacts?

Yes, though it is not possible to add all properties of an object and its connected objects to one table in a report. For example it is not possible to add all properties of a contact and a deal to one table in a report on deals.

What sales metrics should I track in dashboards?

Primary metrics or KPIs to track in a sales dashboard are: 1) pipeline velocity, or how long on average it takes for deals to move through the different stages of the sales process; 2) win rate by rep, which will give insight into the performance of individual sales reps; and 3) average deal size, which will tell the value the organization is bringing in on average for deals closed. Add deal forecast accuracy after that: what reps think will close this month versus what actually does.

Do I need Operations Hub for custom reporting?

No, basic custom reports are included with Professional tier and up. Operations Hub adds the ability to create calculated properties (e.g. "# days since last activity" or scoring formulas) and data quality automation (e.g. formatting phone numbers or removing duplicates).

Can I automate report delivery to my team?

Reports can be automatically distributed to individuals on a frequency basis such as on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. For example a report could be automatically distributed to each individual sales rep every Monday morning with up to date reports.

Gable Innovation is a technology consultancy that helps growing businesses evaluate, implement, and optimize CRM platforms. If businesses are wrestling with reporting limitations or need help building a custom dashboard to report business data, consultants can review reporting needs in a 30 minute no-obligation discovery call. Learn more about Gable Innovation at gableinnovation.com.