Goals including Deactivated Users

[JMillard4]

Hi all, 

I am trying to set and report on a Revenue Goal to show attainment towards total Closed Won Deal revenue for 2025. When I set up this goal, it makes me select contributors and these contributors have to be active users. However, some of these contributors are now ex-employees that are deactivated and therefore no longer have a paid seat. This means that I'm unable to show total revenue for 2025 vs goal, only revenue from active users.

How do I set a company wide revenue goal for reporting that includes Closed Won deals from all users, both active and inactive? 

[Brenner · Accepted solution]

Hello @JMillard4! How are you?

@SealaB  was perfect in her reply!

You’ll need to create a custom report based on deals to get your revenue insights.

You can use the vertical bar chart, add your data, and go to “Chart Settings” to set a monthly goal:

set your monthly goal here

Hope this helps!

[RubenBurdin · Accepted solution]

Hi @JMillard4 , you’ve hit a real limitation of the Goals tool, and your understanding is correct.

HubSpot Goals are tied to active users with paid seats, by design. Once a user is deactivated, they can no longer be selected as a contributor, which means Goals can’t represent true historical performance when headcount changes. There isn’t a hidden setting or permission that allows including ex-employees directly inside the Goals tool.

For company-wide revenue attainment, the workaround is to step outside Goals entirely and rely on deal-based reporting. A custom report on Deals filtered to Closed Won and Close date in 2025 will include revenue from all deal owners, active or inactive, because reports don’t care about seat status. From there, you can add a goal line at the chart level (monthly or yearly) to visualize attainment against your company target. This is the approach Brenner and Seala outlined, and it’s the only reliable way today.

One nuance to be aware of: this report-based goal line is purely visual. It won’t feed into the Goals or Forecast tools, and it won’t power rep-level attainment widgets. It’s meant for leadership visibility, not comp tracking.

Also worth checking, as Seala mentioned, is the Forecast tool if you’re on Sales Hub Pro or Enterprise. In 2025, Forecasting has improved support for historical data tied to deactivated users, but it still won’t let you assign new goals to them. It can sometimes give you a cleaner “actuals vs target” view at the team level, depending on how your forecasts are structured.

If you want a single, defensible “2025 company revenue vs goal” number that never breaks when users leave, deal-based reporting is the safest pattern.

Hope that helps clarify the why and the best path forward.

[Brenner · Accepted solution]

Hello @JMillard4! How are you?

@SealaB  was perfect in her reply!

You’ll need to create a custom report based on deals to get your revenue insights.

You can use the vertical bar chart, add your data, and go to “Chart Settings” to set a monthly goal:

set your monthly goal here

Hope this helps!

[SealaB]

Thanks for your input and thoughtful responses, @RubenBurdin and @Brenner!
@JMillard4 let us know if you have any further questions on the solutions offered.

[SealaB]

Hi @JMillard4, welcome to the HubSpot Community!
 

This is a great question. Since this involves some nuances with how the Goals tool interacts with user seats and reporting, I am tagging a couple of our Community Champions, @BukunmiOdetayo, @RomyFuchs, and @danmoyle, to see if they have additional workarounds for including deactivated users specifically within the Goals tool interface.

Based on how the Goals tool currently functions (requiring an active, paid seat to be assigned a goal), you are correct that you cannot assign a goal to a deactivated user. 

Instead of relying on the Goals reports (which filter by "Users with Goals"), you can build a deal-based report that pulls all Closed Won revenue for the year, regardless of the deal owner's status.

If you have Sales Hub Professional or Enterprise, the Forecast tool has recently been updated to better handle historical data from deactivated users. Check the "Forecast" tab to see if that view gives you the attainment visibility you need without building a custom report.

Create custom reports (Knowledge Base)

Create sales goals (Knowledge Base)
 

I hope this enables you to get the full revenue picture for 2025!