Renewals are one of the easiest sources of revenue to overlook—and one of the most important to get right. If you manage ongoing client relationships like retainers, service agreements, or subscription contracts, having a reliable system in place is crucial for ensuring nothing slips through the cracks.
In this post, we’ll walk you through how to build a renewal process in HubSpot that’s both strategic and scalable. Whether you're using HubSpot Free, Starter, Pro, or Enterprise, these tactics can help you improve retention and forecast revenue more reliably.
Step 1: Start With the Right Data Structure
Every solid CRM process begins with clean data. Before you worry about pipelines or automation, define the properties you’ll need to track for each managed services engagement. At a minimum, that might include:
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Contract Start Date
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Renewal Date
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Contract Term
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Monthly Revenue
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Account Manager
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Services Included
Talk to your sales, account management, and customer success teams to surface additional data points they’re already tracking in spreadsheets or other systems. The goal is to centralize this information in HubSpot for better visibility and reporting.
Step 2: Create a Submission Process for Closed-Won Deals
Sales reps need a clear, standardized process for submitting managed services deals. Use deal pipeline settings and conditional logic to ensure the right information is collected before a deal is moved to “Closed-Won.”
Some businesses use a single pipeline for all deals and differentiate between deal types with a custom property. Others use separate pipelines for project work and recurring services. Either approach works—as long as you can isolate and automate what happens next.
Step 3: Automate the Transition to a Renewal Pipeline
Once a deal is closed, trigger a workflow that:
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Sets the company’s lifecycle stage to “Client”
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Copies deal properties (like start date, term, and revenue) to the company record
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Notifies internal stakeholders (via email or Slack)
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Creates a corresponding deal in a dedicated renewal pipeline
This new pipeline can be a deal or ticket pipeline, depending on your team's workflow preferences. The important part is that this is where ongoing account management and renewal tracking takes place.
Step 4: Build Timed Renewal Workflows
Use the captured renewal date to trigger workflows that move the renewal deal into “Renew in 90 Days,” “Renew in 60 Days,” or “Renew in 30 Days” stages—whatever fits your sales cadence.
These workflows can also:
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Send internal email reminders
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Assign tasks to account managers
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Trigger Slack alerts
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Schedule outreach emails or renewal calls
This ensures your team has plenty of runway to engage clients, build renewal proposals, and retain accounts proactively.
Pro Tip: Customize your workflows based on contract term length. A one-year retainer might need a 90-day runway, while quarterly contracts may only need 30.
Step 5: Track Renewals and Cancellations
The final piece of the puzzle is capturing the outcome. When the renewal is complete, move the deal to a “Renewed” or “Canceled” stage.
If a client cancels, capture:
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Cancellation Date
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Cancellation Reason
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Win-back Possibility
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Notes
This allows you to run reports on churn trends, cancellation reasons, and potential recovery strategies. A cancellation should still be a data-rich event.
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Use Case: HR & Payroll Firms with Annual Service Contracts
For example, if you're an HR/payroll company managing annual contracts with HR consulting, tax filing, or benefits support, you can build this renewal system to:
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Track inclusions per contract
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Alert your CSM team ahead of renewals
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Monitor retention by service type
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Centralize performance data across accounts
Whether you manage 10 or 1,000 contracts, HubSpot’s automation ensures your team stays on top of renewals without digging through spreadsheets or missing key dates.
Ready to Score Smarter in HubSpot?
If you’d like help setting this up for your own business, reach out to The Gist. We’re a certified HubSpot Solutions Partner and build systems like this every day for growing service companies.
