HubSpot contacts export
A CSV/XLSX of contacts pulled from a list or the contacts index, assumed to be "our whole database." It is scoped to the active list/filter and view columns, and several of its most-used fields are lifecycle or marketing artifacts that are easy to misread as counts of real people.
The shape, how the file is really laid out
One row per contact. Common columns: Email, First/Last Name, Lifecycle Stage,
Create Date, Became a Customer Date, Last Activity Date, Contact owner,
Associated Company (the primary association only), and a "Marketing contact"
status. Email is the single primary email; secondary emails live in a separate
"Additional email addresses" property that is not in the default view. Timestamp
columns render in the account/user timezone. Email-subscription / opt-out status
is its own set of properties, not the same as whether a contact exists.
The traps
"Marketing contact" status is a billing tier, not a headcount, a file filtered to marketable contacts undercounts the actual number of people in the CRM, and one filtered the other way overcounts what you can email.
- Every trap in this export, worked through
- The reconciliation anchor, the total the file asserts about itself
- The refusal cases, when to stop and ask instead of guess
Reference: HubSpot Knowledge Base "Export records" and "Contact lifecycle stage" · HubSpot "Marketing contacts" billing documentation