If you want to know what changed in your HubSpot portal and who made the change, the audit log is where you look. It records account-level actions taken by users and automated processes, including API activity from connected integrations. Your team gets a complete activity record covering edits and configuration updates.
In your HubSpot portal, click the settings gear icon in the top navigation bar.
From the left menu, go to Account Defaults. Under the Security section, select Audit Log. This option is available on Professional and Enterprise plans.
Use the filter controls to narrow your view by the user who took the action or the date range you are investigating. Activity type (property edit, workflow change) can also be used as a filter.
Download the filtered log as a CSV for compliance review or internal documentation purposes.
What Does the HubSpot Audit Log Track?
The audit log captures account-level activity across your portal. Commonly reviewed entries include:
- User security events: successful logins, failed login attempts, and two-factor authentication changes
- Property changes: contact, company, or deal properties that are created, edited, or deleted
- User management: team members added, removed, or permission roles updated
- Workflow modifications: any edit, activation, or deactivation of automated workflows
- Integration activity: changes made by connected apps or via the HubSpot API
- Subscription events: plan upgrades, payment method changes, and seat additions
Not every action in HubSpot appears in the audit log. It focuses on security-relevant and admin-level changes. For granular contact-level activity, the contact timeline is the right place to look rather than the audit log.
Who Can Access the Audit Log?
Access depends on your plan and role:
- Plan requirement: Professional and Enterprise plans include audit log access. Starter and Free do not.
- Super admins have full access by default.
- Standard admins may have access depending on how their permissions are configured. Check this under Users and Teams in your settings.
If your portal is used across a distributed team in Southeast Asia, limiting audit log access to your designated account owner is a practical security step that reduces noise in the log.
How Can You Use the Audit Log for Account Security?
The audit log serves two primary purposes: investigating unexpected changes and maintaining compliance documentation.
Investigating unexpected changes. When something breaks in the portal, the audit log helps trace the root cause. Search by the affected user or the date range when the problem started, then look for admin-level actions from around that time.
Compliance documentation. Some organisations need to demonstrate that personal data access was controlled and recorded. The audit log CSV export provides a formatted record showing who accessed what and when. Compliance requirements vary by jurisdiction and data type; consult your legal team for specific obligations applicable to your organisation.
What Doesn’t the Audit Log Track?
Several things fall outside the audit log’s scope:
- Individual contact-level edits made by sales reps during bulk updates (these appear in the contact activity timeline)
- Email content viewed by recipients
- Internal CRM notes and call logs, which are stored on the contact record itself
If you need the complete history for a specific contact record, open that contact and check the Activity tab. The audit log is an account-level tool rather than a per-record one.
How Should Teams in Southeast Asia Approach the Audit Log?
HubSpot portals shared across multiple countries often have a mix of local and regional admins. A few practices help keep audit log data useful:
- Set a single designated super admin per portal rather than granting super admin access broadly. Fewer super admins means a cleaner, more readable log when you need to investigate an issue.
- Review the audit log after major configuration changes, such as when a new workflow is built or a CRM migration completes. It gives you a baseline of what changed and who made the change.
- Export and archive the log quarterly if your organisation runs a security review cycle. HubSpot retains audit log history on its servers, but a local export gives you an offline backup for your records.
For more on managing your team’s access, see the guide to HubSpot user permissions and the guide to HubSpot permission sets. If you are configuring a new portal from scratch, the HubSpot CRM setup guide walks through the full configuration sequence in order.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the HubSpot audit log available on all plans?
No. The audit log is a Professional and Enterprise feature. Free and Starter plans do not include it.
How far back does the audit log go?
HubSpot retains audit log data according to your plan’s data retention policy. For exact retention limits, check the HubSpot Knowledge Base for your specific plan.
Can I see what a specific user changed?
Yes. Filter the audit log by user to see all account-level actions that person has taken. This is useful when reviewing changes after a team member’s role changes or when they leave the organisation.
Does the audit log show workflow run history?
The audit log shows when a workflow was activated or deactivated, including whether it was recently edited. It does not show individual enrollment events per contact. For enrollment history per contact, open the workflow and check the History tab.
This is an independent informational resource produced by a HubSpot Platinum Partner. HubSpot is a trademark of HubSpot, Inc.
Planning a HubSpot setup or integration in the region?
Contact us