# How often do you clean your contacts database? **URL:** \ **Category:** Study Group: HubSpot Marketing\ **Created:** [July 11, 2021, 11:39am UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/how-often-do-you-clean-your-contacts-database/40479 "2021-07-11T11:39:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JorieMunroe](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/joriemunroe/32/73148_2.png) [@JorieMunroe](https://community.hubspot.com/u/JorieMunroe)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2021, 11:39am UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/how-often-do-you-clean-your-contacts-database/40479/1 "2021-07-11T11:39:26Z")
We’re in a data-driven era, where datasets are shared between marketing, sales, and customer service teams to increase organizational effectiveness and facilitate alignment. When you have high levels of inconsistent data, it’s not just one team taking the hit. It’s everyone. The entire company. The fallout from that bad data extends to every corner of your business that the data touches. With that in mind, how often do you currently audit and clean your contacts database? Once a month? Every quarter? Once a year? What does the process look like? Share your thoughts and current schedule. ---
**Author:** ![MarcoPericci](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/marcopericci/32/25528_2.png) [@MarcoPericci](https://community.hubspot.com/u/MarcoPericci)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2021, 11:58am UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/how-often-do-you-clean-your-contacts-database/40479/2 "2021-07-11T11:58:41Z")
Hi @JorieMunroe! We clean our contacts database every six months. It’s a tough process and I think it is very different from business to business. The toughest part of dataset clean is linked to **the number of automation you have implemented in Hubspot**. The more workflows you create, the greater the risks of " **false positives/negatives"** when cleaning databases IMHO 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Khubaib\_riz](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/khubaib_riz/32/38114_2.png) [@Khubaib\_riz](https://community.hubspot.com/u/Khubaib_riz)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2021, 5:43pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/how-often-do-you-clean-your-contacts-database/40479/3 "2021-07-11T17:43:27Z")
Hey! I believe cleaning contacts from the databases is an essential and tough process. It varies depending on the businesses and their goals. we clean our contacts every four months. ---
**Author:** ![JeannePawla](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/jeannepawla/32/82448_2.png) [@JeannePawla](https://community.hubspot.com/u/JeannePawla)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2021, 7:26pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/how-often-do-you-clean-your-contacts-database/40479/4 "2021-07-11T19:26:11Z")
I think quartely should be ideal ---
**Author:** ![JLeuzinger](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/jleuzinger/32/31184_2.png) [@JLeuzinger](https://community.hubspot.com/u/JLeuzinger)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2021, 5:35am UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/how-often-do-you-clean-your-contacts-database/40479/5 "2021-07-12T05:35:49Z")
Hi, I am actually not quite sure how often we clean our database, but I think it is twice a year. However, I think it is an essential topic for every business. ---
**Author:** ![DFoo](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/dfoo/32/87988_2.png) [@DFoo](https://community.hubspot.com/u/DFoo)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2021, 9:00am UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/how-often-do-you-clean-your-contacts-database/40479/6 "2021-07-12T09:00:42Z")
Its a tough decision to decide every business capture data differently some are based more on a seasonal approach where users look for certain product based on certain months of the year. Hence maybe looking at the data over a 12 month period can help make the decision better. ---
**Author:** ![MHolmes](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/mholmes/32/27089_2.png) [@MHolmes](https://community.hubspot.com/u/MHolmes)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2021, 10:18am UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/how-often-do-you-clean-your-contacts-database/40479/7 "2021-07-12T10:18:53Z")
We have just cleaned our database for the first time since going live with HubSpot and onboarding the data. Going forwards, we will cleanse it every 6 months to remove duplications and ensure the data is of the highest quality. ---
**Author:** ![PRaj1](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/praj1/32/26012_2.png) [@PRaj1](https://community.hubspot.com/u/PRaj1)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2021, 10:49am UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/how-often-do-you-clean-your-contacts-database/40479/8 "2021-07-12T10:49:03Z")
based on the contact based in the hubspot CRM tool. also how quality the contacts is. depends on the we can manage the contact list. ---
**Author:** ![wabu-hello](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/wabu-hello/32/1529_2.png) [@wabu-hello](https://community.hubspot.com/u/wabu-hello)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2021, 11:36am UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/how-often-do-you-clean-your-contacts-database/40479/9 "2021-07-12T11:36:25Z")
Hey! I think by good analytic tools and to clean data in quarterly basis will be more efficient to the workflow. ---
**Author:** ![StineHolmgaard](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/stineholmgaard/32/43872_2.png) [@StineHolmgaard](https://community.hubspot.com/u/StineHolmgaard)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2021, 11:43am UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/how-often-do-you-clean-your-contacts-database/40479/10 "2021-07-12T11:43:39Z")
We have multiple markets that we tend to - and we do database cleansing in all markets at least once every six months ---
**Author:** ![ParthaSaha](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/parthasaha/32/43872_2.png) [@ParthaSaha](https://community.hubspot.com/u/ParthaSaha)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2021, 1:02pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/how-often-do-you-clean-your-contacts-database/40479/11 "2021-07-12T13:02:59Z")
Data cleaning is a continuous process. Setting up correct business rules like duplicate email address check is the most important part in data cleaning. This helps business to tackle data redundancy and inconsistency issues proactively. However one time data cleaning must be done when business moves from one application to another. ---
**Author:** ![MAdviento](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/madviento/32/81360_2.png) [@MAdviento](https://community.hubspot.com/u/MAdviento)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2021, 2:58am UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/how-often-do-you-clean-your-contacts-database/40479/12 "2021-07-20T02:58:16Z")
Good insight ---
**Author:** ![EMawer](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/emawer/32/18373_2.png) [@EMawer](https://community.hubspot.com/u/EMawer)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2021, 1:19pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/how-often-do-you-clean-your-contacts-database/40479/13 "2021-07-12T13:19:58Z")
Every three to six months. Smaller businesses are recommended to clean their database at least once a year. ---
**Author:** ![mamorin](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/mamorin/32/75413_2.png) [@mamorin](https://community.hubspot.com/u/mamorin)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2021, 1:38pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/how-often-do-you-clean-your-contacts-database/40479/14 "2021-07-12T13:38:34Z")
Every month ---
**Author:** ![XvanderMijn](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/xvandermijn/32/38459_2.png) [@XvanderMijn](https://community.hubspot.com/u/XvanderMijn)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2021, 1:58pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/how-often-do-you-clean-your-contacts-database/40479/15 "2021-07-12T13:58:56Z")
every month ---
**Author:** ![BJacobo](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/bjacobo/32/84335_2.png) [@BJacobo](https://community.hubspot.com/u/BJacobo)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2021, 2:09pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/how-often-do-you-clean-your-contacts-database/40479/16 "2021-07-12T14:09:16Z")
Hello! We clean our database every 30 days. ---
**Author:** ![BMullen](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/bmullen/32/77566_2.png) [@BMullen](https://community.hubspot.com/u/BMullen)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2021, 2:56pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/how-often-do-you-clean-your-contacts-database/40479/17 "2021-07-12T14:56:33Z")
I think twice yearly is sufficient, but any shorter time spans would be fantastic if you have the resource to do so! ---
**Author:** ![COcasio](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/cocasio/32/18373_2.png) [@COcasio](https://community.hubspot.com/u/COcasio)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2021, 9:31pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/how-often-do-you-clean-your-contacts-database/40479/18 "2021-07-12T21:31:00Z")
Yes, I agree, one to two times works, and more is ideal depending on the upload volume, but it does require time. ---
**Author:** ![KWatson](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/kwatson/32/104913_2.png) [@KWatson](https://community.hubspot.com/u/KWatson)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2021, 4:04pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/how-often-do-you-clean-your-contacts-database/40479/19 "2021-07-12T16:04:28Z")
Time allowing, for my industry, 3 to 6 months is ideal ---
**Author:** ![RHirani80](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/rhirani80/32/87988_2.png) [@RHirani80](https://community.hubspot.com/u/RHirani80)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2021, 6:00pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/how-often-do-you-clean-your-contacts-database/40479/20 "2021-07-12T18:00:10Z")
Twice a year is ideal, I agree! [Next page](https://community.hubspot.com/t/how-often-do-you-clean-your-contacts-database/40479.md?page=2)