Is there a way to prevent my sales reps from deleting notes and activities?

[DanielK]

Hi Community,

Can anyone tell me if there is there a way to prevent my sales reps from deleting notes and activities?

Thanks!

[MFrankJohnson · Accepted solution]

Q: Is there a way to prevent my sales reps from deleting notes and activities??

Short A: Unfortunately no @DanielK. Currently, there's no built-in (or add-on) HubSpot functionality that will allow this granular level of security.

Longer A:

An alternative solution may be to only allow Sales Reps access to edit contacts, companies that they 'own'. That way, they can only delete notes on contact and company records for which they're responsible.

(see image)

[mcnest]

Agree, any updates? this seems like a small but super important update. Any enterprise-grade platform would require the need to prevent users from deleting a note history

[PaulMB]

Hi @Anonymous, we are in the same boat from a regulatory point of view. We can't allow an employee/user to potentially remove a file/note/email after making a mistake to cover this up and then months down the line we are left holding the can, especially if they leave. From a legal point of view we need to protect our activities within the system. Have you made any progress?

[Anonymous]

Hi @PaulMB thanks so much for sharing your use case. I don't have any new updates to share but I will be sure to keep this post updated with any new information from our end!

[Anonymous]

Hey Daniel, this is Kevin from HubSpot's product team. I have a couple of questions about this if you have a moment:

1. Is there ever a scenario where you would want to allow users to delete their own activities on a record in the CRM?

2. Are there specific activity types (like calls, emails, or notes) that you would want to apply this to or would one catch all permission for activities be adequate?

3. Would an audit log of deleted activities with the option to restore them help fix this issue? If not, where does this fall short?

Thanks!

[shawnlin]

Hi Kevin,

This feature request is very much needed.

To your questions from my perspective, the most important activity is email which should not be deleted at all. If needed, i think a permission for deleting email activity will do. This is priority, to be done in phase 1.

The rest don't seem so critical but they can be important depending on business requirement. If needed, maybe another permission item for deleting other types of activity can be considered in phase 2?

[Anonymous]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts @shawnlin! Is deleting the primary action you are looking to control with permissions or is viewing/editing a concern as well?

[joe-tdc]

Hey Kevin, did this ever get pushed along?

I've realised that users without the ability to delete tickets can actually still delete tickets by going through the conversation window and sending the message/ticket to trash.

I've tested this myself.

The ability to remove the "send to trash" function should be super high on the list as it leaves businesses with their pants down if someone decides to delete / send a paper trail to the trash. 

[ThiagoF]

At this point I really doubt Hubspot care at all about information security.

The list of information exploit that can be done inside the platform is just too extensive.

[joe-tdc]

It seems like such a simple thing though. They have permissions for nearly everything, including deleting most records, surely being able to remove a "send to trash" button is one of the easier fixes 😞

[PMP71724]

Adding in that our company would love the visibility of an "activity log" of users. 

Our concern is we've built workflows to assign salesmen tasks and meetings, etc. and they just view them as automated responses and they can just delete them without oversight.....

We want dedicated sales producers who understand that HubSpot is a TOOL not a "task" they have to deal with..... Granted we aren't in a traditional business, but I would echo we NEED that functionality.... either via reporting or via permissions.... (permissions makes it really easy.... just restrict them from removing notes, tasks, meetings, etc)

[mcnest]

We are in a similar boat. It would be helpful to block deletion of notes. The note history is super helpful and is almost there, the only problem is someone can just delete it. 

[shawnlin]

Deleting is the primary concern, followed by edit, then view.

[MFrankJohnson · Accepted solution]

Q: Is there a way to prevent my sales reps from deleting notes and activities??

Short A: Unfortunately no @DanielK. Currently, there's no built-in (or add-on) HubSpot functionality that will allow this granular level of security.

Longer A:

An alternative solution may be to only allow Sales Reps access to edit contacts, companies that they 'own'. That way, they can only delete notes on contact and company records for which they're responsible.

(see image)

[DanielK]

Thanks Frank,

That confirms that there is no solution to my problem I guess.  This is a problem and hopefully something HubSpot will be looking into asap.

[MFrankJohnson]

I hear you Daniel and I honestly tried to resist asking this question, but seriously wt#?

Why would any sales rep (with good intentions) resort to deleting valuable notes in their own contacts?

Seriously. Do we need to get the 'HubSpot Police' involved! haha (kidding ... no such thing)

Have a great day.

[arj100]

we also need this requirement for regulatory purposes

Our UK financial services regulator, the FCA requires our CRM systems to be robust in the sense that information cannot be deleted in the case of a client complaint or general audit.

Is there another workaround this ?

[APorta]

Hi,

I am in the same situation with the FCA and wonder if you manage to find a solution?

Thanks

[shawnlin]

If required by regulation, it sounds even more like a pressing need. Hope @Anonymous & HubSpot product team would take this important feedback into account ASAP and share with us a timeline.

[DanielK]

You answered your own question.

Good day to you also.

[MFrankJohnson]

Gotcha.

Had a client once who couldn't tell which rep was deleting notes from their CRM, so we added a custom contact property named 'zHubSpot Com' (multi-line text). Their sales manager used it to store notes before he added them to the Notes section in the timeline, but never told the team he was using it (or that it existed at all).

As time went on, the sales manager was able to 'restore' his deleted notes he found missing from the timeline. Guess the culprit thought the system was magically restoring the destroyed notes and eventually gave up their life of CRM crime.

Just a thought.