How Dynamic Is The Relationship Between Deals and Products?
SOLVE
If we understand this correctly, once you have associated a product to a deal, it will not be affected if you later change that product in the product library. Is that correct and intentional behavior?
So if, say, I want to change the name of a product from “Test 1” to “Test 2” within the product library, any deals that already contain an association to “Test 1” will keep the “Test 1” product name and original details.
This flexibility is certainly beneficial for deal creation and management so that you can change details quickly without gettting bogged down the the potential for duplication in the library.
This flexibility is also detrimental to reporting because one product (with a single Product ID) can show up in reports multiple times depending on how many times the various iterations have been added to deals. In the example below, I created a product and updated it three times, adding to a deal after each update. The resulting custom report showed the same product (with the single Product ID) in all its variations. (Perhaps the Line_item property is the unique identifier in those situations?)
@brndnstwrt I did some testing on a demo account and I see the same things, if I add a product to a deal, then update that product name, the deal maintains the old naming convention.
For reporting, I can see this being an issue moving forward but unfortunately, I'm not sure of a workaround within HubSpot other than going to those deals with that product and updating them to the new product. Which can cause issues if you're using the quotes feature (I imagine).
You are also correct that the only way to fix this (removing the products from the deals, then re-adding) is not feasible for us because we would have so much rework to do (hundreds of deals) and it would likely negatively affect the quotes.
I guess the takeaway here is that you should NOT approach the product library as something that continuously evolves and changes (beyond merely adding products). Rather, the product library needs to be updated in set, predictable intervals so that we can mirror that logic to shape the related deal/product reporting.
@brndnstwrt I did some testing on a demo account and I see the same things, if I add a product to a deal, then update that product name, the deal maintains the old naming convention.
For reporting, I can see this being an issue moving forward but unfortunately, I'm not sure of a workaround within HubSpot other than going to those deals with that product and updating them to the new product. Which can cause issues if you're using the quotes feature (I imagine).
You are also correct that the only way to fix this (removing the products from the deals, then re-adding) is not feasible for us because we would have so much rework to do (hundreds of deals) and it would likely negatively affect the quotes.
I guess the takeaway here is that you should NOT approach the product library as something that continuously evolves and changes (beyond merely adding products). Rather, the product library needs to be updated in set, predictable intervals so that we can mirror that logic to shape the related deal/product reporting.