HubSpotlacks built-in validation to prevent or detect circular parent-child relationships, where Company A is the parent of Company B, which somehow becomes the parent of Company A.
You’ll learn how to detect these circular references and resolve them systematically using advanced hierarchy analysis that HubSpot can’t perform natively.
Detect and fix circular relationships using advanced analysis
HubSpotCoefficientCircular parent-child relationships create data integrity issues and reporting problems thatcan’t identify automatically.provides the analytical capabilities needed to detect and resolve these complex company association issues through comprehensive relationship mapping.
How to make it work
Step 1. Export all parent-child relationship data.
Use Coefficient to create a comprehensive mapping of your entire company hierarchy. Export all companies with their parent associations, child counts, and relationship identifiers to build a complete relationship network.
Step 2. Build circular reference detection logic.
Create spreadsheet formulas to trace relationship chains and identify circular references. Use functions like =VLOOKUP() in nested formulas to follow parent-child chains and flag companies that appear multiple times in their own hierarchy paths.
Step 3. Create visual hierarchy mapping.
Build relationship chain columns that show the full path from each company to its ultimate parent. Use formulas to trace relationships like Company A → Company B → Company A, making circular references visible and easy to understand.
Step 4. Prioritize resolution based on business logic.
Analyze company data including revenue, activity levels, and business importance to determine which relationships should be preserved and which should be broken in circular scenarios. Create priority scores to guide your cleanup decisions.
Step 5. Execute systematic association cleanup.
Use Coefficient’s Association Management feature to remove problematic parent-child relationships in the correct sequence. This ensures circular references are broken without creating orphaned companies or new relationship problems.
Step 6. Implement prevention monitoring.
Establish ongoing validation through scheduled imports that check for new circular relationships and alert when hierarchy violations occur. This provides data quality controls that HubSpot lacks natively.
Maintain clean company hierarchies
Start resolvingThis approach provides the complex relationship analysis and systematic resolution capabilities required for circular reference cleanup that HubSpot’s association tools simply can’t handle.your circular relationships today.