HubSpot Ideas

BByler101

File field type should function independently of a form

Hello Friends,

I bring to your attention the fact that the File field type only functions as an actual File upload field IF you use it on a form.  Within the CRM, it functions as single-line text.  This is a significant limitation.

 

Here are some challenges that it presents:

1. Cannot enforce business process - One should be able to require a file to be attached to move along in Deal or Ticket stages.  This way you can ensure that a Deal or Ticket (or custom object) cannot progress to the next stage until the requisite Files are attached.  Consider a BDR > AE handoff mid-funnel.

2. Cannot support an approval workflow - if the above were true, then a document could be uploaded and "submitted" for review within a pipeline, which could serve as an approval workflow.  This request comes up often as other CRMs do this very well.  Consider a Change Order approval process, or an Invoice Approval process being built directly in the CRM!

3. Poor documentation - A completed Deal or Ticket record should have all necessary documentation attached to it in an organized manner that is reportable.  The Attachments association pane allows for attachments on records, but nothing of the above

 

I am really curious as to why this is not (yet) possible, but I believe that it would have a major positive impact on the user experience and allow HubSpot to stand up stronger against other CRMS where this is possible.  I would welcome an opportunity to hop on a quick chat with a member of the product team to talk through this use case and demonstrate the value that this would bring to the CRM.

HubSpot Updates
In Beta
March 25, 2024 07:16 AM

Hi all! I'm Rachel from the HubSpot Product team. We've delivered improvements to custom file properties in the CRM that are in beta as of today. These improvements will allow you to upload files to custom file properties, enabling use cases such as requiring files to be attached when a deal is created (for example). 

You can opt into the beta under Product Updates - "Improved file property experience in the CRM." Here's a quick demo of the functionality. 


Thanks for your feedback thus far! 

11 Replies
WdeGraaf24
Member

Great idea! Would help us as well, especially for approval workflows 🙂 It would also be great to see an integration with a solution like SharePoint. That's for us the main place for document storage.

MrBean
Top Contributor

1000%. 

 

Attachments are critical to our business. Documents work great as templates, but when revised and finalized per account, we would like to store attachments in specific properties because the attachments tool section is a hot mess. (It has 4 years of pulling in every attachment in threads). 

 

However, having a connection between custom attachment fields and the attachment section would be phenomenal. especially if the exisitng attachments pulled in from email were options in the drop down sorted by most recent. 

 

But of course step one is just allowing us to fill that property in by manually uploading the attachment. 

 

fyi... there is also an issue here with using links to external spreadsheets / google drive folders. . . that's about 10 extra clicks for reps to go in and download those

jaybaum
Contributor

Love this idea! We would even use it to upload a price list on a company record for our vendors, tax exemption certificates for customers, and even contracts that were generated in an outside system. 

 

Currently, we're forced to throw a hyperlink to the file in dropbox/one drive or add the file within attatchments, which gets lost far too quickly. 

 

We need the file upload property to function as such! 

NSpry
Member

Following this idea closely. This is something that my clients need, and would make the behavior of the field consistent throughout the platform.

MCarrillo2
Member

Super good idea

BradHarris
Participant | Gold Partner

Please! This one is so vital. 

NSpry
Member

Curious about an update on this. This seems less of a feature request and more of a bug. Managing data consistently is part of what makes HubSpot a better choice for businesses.

rwebb1
HubSpot Product Team

Hi all! I'm Rachel from the HubSpot Product team. We've delivered improvements to custom file properties in the CRM that are in beta as of today. These improvements will allow you to upload files to custom file properties, enabling use cases such as requiring files to be attached when a deal is created (for example). 

You can opt into the beta under Product Updates - "Improved file property experience in the CRM." Here's a quick demo of the functionality. 


Thanks for your feedback thus far! 

MMorsi
Member

@rwebb1 Does the new improvement file property will make it sent properly through slack notifications?

averyb
Participant

Love that this file storage is finally on its way.  Question - will there be any type of 'revision history' for these file fields? 

IE if I upload verision  today and then 3 weeks from now I upload version 2, will I have visibility of the historical file? Or at least be able to see in the histor that a new file has been uploaded (prefereably documenting the old name and new name fo the files in some way)?

LeeBartelme
HubSpot Employee

Any chance we can be able to set the files as public so they can be used in a non-internal context? We have the ability to power CMS pages from object records. It would be great if we could upload images/files to those records so they can be used on web pages. Right now files always upload as private and that cannot be changed.