Associate App Troubleshooting

Bulk associations require that you have a field that you can use to match the two records. For instance, you might select "Company" for contact records, and "Company Name" for company records. You then use these two fields to associate the two records.

But what do you do if you have no obvious matching field between the two record types that you would like to associate?

This is a fairly common scenario. For example, you might want to associate contacts not only with the company they work for but also with the parent company. In this scenario, you likely won't capture the parent company on the Contact record, which means you may have no field to use to match the association. As a result, you'll need to create a custom field for contacts and companies, such as "Custom Parent Company." Ideally, if child companies are already associated with parent companies, you'll be able to pull this data from your company records and populate both custom fields using your CRM's automation features.

Then, you can use the Custom Parent Company field for both contacts and companies to make the match.

The key is finding a data point that lets you match the associations, even if it is only available for one record type. Then you can create custom matching fields that let you make the associations.

If an Associate template is running slowly, the cause is usually one of two things: the fields you're matching on contain very long values, or the template is processing more records than it needs to. Here's how to address each.

If You're Matching on Long Field Values

It can take a while for Insycle to find and match records if the fields used to identify the relationship contain very long values. The longer the values, the longer Insycle takes to process the data and generate results. This commonly comes up with long ID numbers, LinkedIn bios, or URLs with long strings (for example, a LinkedIn profile URL with a lengthy unique identifier).

If the end of the values are unique enough to identify a match, you can speed this up using the Match Parts parameter under 2. Define Matching, to limit the comparison to the last several characters.

The image above shows the Match Parts parameter under 2. Define Matching in the Associate app, configured to compare only the last several characters of the LinkedIn URL field.

Alternatively, use the Ignored > Text (Substrings) parameter and click the Terms button, then add the common portion of the URL or text string on the Ignored Text tab.

The image above shows the Ignored > Text (Substrings) parameter with the Terms button highlighted.

The image above shows the Ignored Text tab of the 2. Define Matching Terms popup, where the common portion of the URL is added so it's excluded from the match comparison.

If You're Processing a Large Number of Records

If an Associate operation is set up to run on a very large number of records, it can create unnecessary work for the system and slow your automated processes. Use the filter under 1. Filter Records to focus only on a relevant group of records.

Why filters matter: say you have an automated template set to associate contacts to companies. If the template doesn't specify to ignore contacts that are already associated, it will look at all contacts and redundantly try to re-associate them. A filter such as "Primary Associated Company ID" "doesn't exist" ensures Insycle only associates records that don't already have an association. Without it, Insycle scans your entire database, including contacts that already have associations, which slows your processes down significantly.

The image above shows the filter under 1. Filter Records configured with "Primary Associated Company ID" "doesn't exist" and "Email" "exists."

Another approach is to add a filter to associate only records updated since the last time the template ran. If you have an automated template that runs once a week, you could look only at records modified in the last six days.

The image above shows the filter under 1. Filter Records configured to include only records with a company domain value that have been modified in the last six days.

When working with HubSpot records in the Associate app, if you click the Review button under 4. Review and see an "Association Validation Error" message, you likely forgot to set the Label for one or more of your association rules.

Under 2. Define Matching, each part of the association rule must have one or more Label options selected. If you don't want to apply any labels, use the Unlabeled option.

Remember, Association Labels categorize the relationship, Related From Labels filter the related record, and Related To Labels filter the relationships copied to the source record. 

For more detail, see Step 2 in the Using Existing HubSpot Associations to Fill in Missing Relationships article.

A couple of nuances to watch for when using the Existing tab under 2. Define Matching to remove associations from HubSpot.

Nothing happened, but it says it worked

You have the Action set to Remove, with the Action Label “Unlabeled.” When you run the operation in update mode, the Results modal and CSV say the label was removed, but the label is still there in HubSpot.

The label was removed, but I wanted the association removed

In this case, you have the “3rd association” label selected for both the Filter Label and Action Labels. When you run the operation, it removes the “3rd association” label from associations.

Correct setup

To remove an association, you must ensure it isn't labeled, so remove all labels. To remove all labels at once, select the "Unlabeled" option along with any other label currently applied to the association.

For instance, if you want to remove all associations that have the "3rd association" label, you need to select both the "3rd association" and "Unlabeled" options under Action Labels. If an association has the "3rd association" label along with other labels, only the "3rd association" label will be removed.

In HubSpot, you can see that associations with only the "3rd association" label were removed from this record, while associations with "3rd association" and additional labels had only the label removed.

If you're experiencing missing fields or fields that don't work as expected in your HubSpot or Salesforce association operations, it may be due to field inclusion settings.

Common symptoms:

• Fields you want to use for filtering don't appear in the field dropdown or show no values
• Matching fields for associations are missing from the dropdown menus
• Copy operations aren't finding the source or target fields you need
• Records that should match for association aren't being found when using certain fields

Solution:

Verify that the fields you need are included in your Insycle dataset:

1. Navigate to Settings > Fields
2. Select your database and object type from the top menu
3. Use the search to find the field
4. Verify that the Included toggle is enabled (yellow/right = on, grey/left = off), or the Automation box is checked
5. If not, toggle the Included control to the 'On' (right) position
6. Repeat this process for all object types involved in your association (e.g., both contacts and companies if associating contacts to companies)

You must have an Admin or Owner user role to manage field inclusion.

Learn more about managing the HubSpot or Salesforce fields included in Insycle.

When Insycle detects multiple potential matches for a single record during association, it marks those records as 'Failed' in the CSV report to prevent incorrect links. You will also see a Message similar to "Multiple target matches (x)..." or "Multiple source matches..." 

For example, if you were associating contacts with companies, and Insycle found ten company records named "Microsoft," it wouldn't know which Microsoft to establish the relationship with, so this would fail.

There are a few options for resolving this issue:

Merge duplicates: If there shouldn't be multiples of these records, you should first go through the process of merging duplicates before trying to create the relationships.

Add parameters to be more specific: If multiple similar but distinct records are expected, you can use several features in 2. Define Matching of the Associate app that you can use to refine the criteria:

1. Add a second field. A record must match both field values to be considered appropriate for making the relationship.
2. Use the filter. This will narrow the set of records to be associated.
   For example, in the filter popup, you can add the "Company name" field and set the parameters to "contains" and "HQ." This tells Insycle to only consider companies for association if the Company Name value includes the term "HQ."
   
3. Add Selection rules. In cases where there are multiple target records that could match, you can add Selection rules to choose the appropriate record.
   When you add multiple selection rules, the system evaluates the criteria sequentially, one at a time. If a record meets the first criterion, the remaining rules do not affect the selection. The first matching record is the appropriate match, and the system does not check further criteria. For example, you can create rules in the selection pop-up to choose the record where the Lifecycle Stage is 'Customer'; if no single match exists, select the record with the most associated deals, and so on.
   
4. Add a Condition field. Add a Condition to your second matching rule to create more specific criteria. For example, to remove contact-to-company associations where the contact's country doesn't match the company's country, add a condition that Country/Region must not match.

In the Associate app, you can choose the option under 2. Define Matching to Count unmatched records as Failed. When checked, any record with no match to create the association will be counted as “Failed.” 

This will be reflected by a "Failed" Result with the Message "No matching record found (use 'Grid Edit' to troubleshoot)" in the CSV report.

You can review the unmatched records and troubleshoot using the Grid Edit module. Look at different fields and values to identify why your associate setup didn’t work for the record. Then decide which match options could work, or whether some cleanup is needed.

Learn more about reviewing your data using the Grid Edit module.

When using existing relationships to make associations in your HubSpot records, a "Failed" Result with the Message, "Not related to [object type] through [object type] association" indicates the record associated with your selected source object type does not have the association you are looking for.

The example below shows the Related tab under 2. Define Matching is set up to associate child companies with parent companies that have an "HQ" label, based on contact records.

If a contact doesn’t have an associated company with the "HQ" label, there is nothing to copy to the child company.

In another example, the Related tab associates deals with companies by looking at contact records.

When a contact doesn’t have a company associated with it, there is nothing to copy to the deals.

A "Failed" Result with the Message "Import succeeded but association failed (multiple records [x] match value)" occurs when multiple records meet your matching specifications. For example, if you were linking contacts to companies, and Insycle found two company records with the name "Ace," it wouldn't know which Ace to establish the relationship with.

If there shouldn't be multiples of these records you should first go through the process of merging duplicates before trying to import and create these relationships. Learn more about merging duplicates using Insycle.

Or, you can import the records, and then go back and create the relationships using the Associate app. This will let you add multiple matching fields and other criteria to make the selection more specific. Learn more about creating relationships with Insycle's Associate app.

An "Unmodified" Result with the Message "Unmodified, no matching record found (use 'Grid Edit' to troubleshoot)" occurs when there aren’t any records that meet your matching specifications.

You can review the unmatched records and troubleshoot using the Grid Edit module. Look at different fields and values to identify why your associate setup didn’t work for the record. Then decide which match options could work, or whether some cleanup is needed.

Learn more about reviewing your data using the Grid Edit module.