Quarterly Database Cleanup

A structured quarterly audit that catches data drift before it becomes a crisis. Run this at the start of each quarter (or monthly if the database is large or fast-growing).

Prerequisites

• A HubSpot service key (HUBSPOT_ACCESS_TOKEN in .env; an existing legacy private app token also works)
• Python 3.10+ with uv
• Previous quarter's report (for trend comparison) — optional on first run

Audit Checklist

1. List Health

• Count total active lists, static lists, and unused lists (zero members)
• Identify lists not referenced by any workflow or email
• Flag duplicate or overlapping lists

2. Bounce Monitoring

• Count contacts with 1, 2, and 3+ bounces
• Hard bounce rate vs. previous quarter
• Review contacts flagged by bounce monitoring workflow

3. Data Quality

• Missing email, company, industry, country, lifecycle stage
• Compare percentages to previous quarter
• Flag any property completeness that dropped more than 5%

4. Scoring Calibration

• Review lead score distribution (histogram)
• Check MQL conversion rate — are high-scoring leads actually converting?
• Adjust scoring model if conversion rate is below 10% or above 50%

5. Engagement Metrics

• Active contacts (engagement in last 90 days) as % of total
• Zombie contacts (no engagement in 6+ months) as % of total
• Email open rate and click rate trends

6. Property Cleanup

• Custom properties with zero populated records
• Properties not used in any list, workflow, or form
• Test/temp properties that should be archived

Step-by-Step Instructions

Stage 1: Before — Gather Baselines

1. Locate the previous quarter's report (if it exists) in reports/.
2. Run /hubspot-audit to get fresh numbers across all dimensions (or /hubspot-marketing-audit / /hubspot-sales-audit if each team reviews its own side).

Stage 2: Execute — Deep Review

For each checklist item above:

1. Pull current metrics via the HubSpot API (reuse audit script patterns).
2. Compare to the previous quarter's numbers.
3. Flag any metric that worsened by more than 5 percentage points.
4. Document specific contacts, lists, or properties that need action.

Stage 3: After — Generate Report

Save a report to reports/quarterly-cleanup-{YYYY-Q#}.md with this structure:

# Quarterly Database Health Report — YYYY Q#

## Summary

| Metric | Last Quarter | This Quarter | Change |
|--------|-------------|-------------|--------|
| Total contacts | XX,XXX | XX,XXX | +X% |
| Data completeness | XX% | XX% | +X% |
| Bounce rate | X.X% | X.X% | -X% |
| Zombie contacts | XX% | XX% | -X% |
| Unused lists | XX | XX | -XX |

## Action Items

1. [item with owner and deadline]
2. ...

## Detailed Findings

[One section per checklist item with metrics and recommendations]

Stage 4: Rollback

This is a read-only audit — no rollback needed. Action items from the report are executed separately through their respective skills.

Scheduling

• Set a recurring calendar reminder for the first Monday of each quarter.
• Assign an owner for each action item in the report.
• Review the previous quarter's action items for completion before starting the new audit.