Import Child Companies with same Domain as Parent from CSV

[JStein1970]

I am trying to import Child companies with the same domain name and company name as the parent. The problem I am running into when mapping in the import is I cannot change the Company Domain Name as the reference. There seems to be no way around adding companies with the same domain name as the parent. I tried adding a billto and shipto for my companies to try to join them on that, but the Company Domain Name must be a key. Has anyone found a way around this? It makes no sense as to why this function would not exist.

[RubenBurdin · Accepted solution]

Hi @JStein1970 

You’ve hit one of those long-standing HubSpot import constraints the Company Domain Name field is treated as a unique identifier, so HubSpot prevents multiple records with the same domain from being created or imported.

It’s great for deduplication but painful for parent/child hierarchies. The workaround is to import using the “Record ID” as the unique identifier instead of domain, or if you’re creating from scratch, temporarily use a custom field (for example, “Company Domain (Import)”) during import, then merge or associate those records later using the Parent Company property (https://knowledge.hubspot.com/records/add-a-parent-or-child-company )

If you need to maintain shared domains across HubSpot and another system (like NetSuite or Salesforce) while keeping hierarchies consistent, a real-time two-way sync layer like Stacksync can mirror parent/child relationships and domains automatically, removing the need for CSV workarounds.

[KFarn]

@RubenBurdin @JStein1970 

I ran into the same problem for a huge import. Many companies are franchise locations and hospitals that all share the same root domain. Not uncommon at all.

HS support and PMs say the same thing - unique company is based on the root domain so no way to have seperate companies with same root domain. Reason - that's how guarding against duplicates is managed. The alternative work arounds of exporting, reimporting, using API's etc are too complex for many users and quite frankly a waste of time because you STILL have to manually do updates after.

Problem is this is not how the real world works. So many examples. Simple solution would be to add logic to the dupicate check like company name too. Or allow sub-domain for unique ID or even company name. AI has been around for years to fix this in a snap.

You know there's logic already built in because if you manually create a company with same root domain as existing, a user can override this, still add the company with the same root domain.

Feels like lazy programming or poor design. Many other CRMs don't have this problem. How a problem exists for years and no improvements is surprising. 

[STierney]

Hey @JStein1970 - thanks for posting in the Community!

I'd like to tag in some Community experts to see what insight they may have on this inquiry! @karstenkoehler, @danmoyle, and @Bryantworks - any thoughts on a workaround here?

Shane, Senior Community Moderator