How can I clean up my account and free up space?
Your database is one of the most valuable resources within your company. However, over time, some information is bound to become outdated, and failing to maintain its health and quality can cost your company money and clients.
Regular database maintenance increases efficiency and lets you achieve higher conversion rates, so here are some tips to help free up space and keep your account running smoothly.
Where to find Data cleanup
Data cleanup shows where your account may need attention, such as items assigned to deactivated users, items without recent updates and duplicate data. Use it as your starting point for cleaning up your account.
Open your account menu, then go to Company settings > Usage and open the Data cleanup tab.
Each group on the page shows either a green check or a Review needed badge. A green check means there’s nothing to review in that group. A Review needed badge means some rows in the group have items to look at, and the number shows how many rows.
Understand what frees up space
The leads and deals limit counts leads and deals that aren’t archived or deleted, not contacts.
These actions free up space in your account:
- Deleting leads and deals
- Archiving leads and deals
These actions don’t free up space in your account:
- Marking deals as won or lost: won and lost deals count until you archive them
- Updating owners, activities or deal details
- Deleting or merging contacts
Cleanup groups and actions
Expand a group, then select a link in a row to open the matching filtered list in a new tab. Rows under Duplicate data open the Merge duplicates page instead. The numbers update when you reload the page.
The table below lists what each group contains and what you can do about it. Not every action frees up space. See What frees up space for the ones that do.
Group | Items to review | Actions |
| Items assigned to deactivated users | Leads, open deals, undone activities, people and organizations. | Reassign relevant items to active users. Delete items you no longer need, or archive obsolete leads and deals. |
| Items without updates in the last 12 months | Leads, open deals, deals in a pipeline’s first stage, people and organizations. | Review and update relevant items, or re-engage the customers. Delete items you no longer need, or archive leads and deals you want to keep for your records. |
| Items without linked activities | Open deals, leads older than a month and activities not linked to leads, deals, contacts or projects. | Add follow-up activities to relevant leads and deals. Review unlinked activities and delete those you no longer need. |
| Overdue or pending activities | Undone overdue activities linked to items or not linked to anything, and undone activities linked to won or lost deals. | Review and update activities that still need follow-up. Delete unnecessary activities rather than removing all overdue or pending activities. |
| Pipeline and stage issues | Open deals without stage changes in three months and open deals with past expected close dates. | Review deals and update their stage or expected close date as appropriate. Mark completed deals as won or lost. |
| Duplicate data | Duplicate person contacts and organizations. | Review and merge duplicate contacts and organizations using the instructions in Merge duplicates. |
| Inactive or unengaged contacts | People and organizations added at least 12 months ago without deals, and people with no email communication in the last 12 months. | Review and re-engage relevant contacts. Delete contacts only if you no longer need them, not solely because they’re inactive. |
Delete items
The most effective way to free up space in your account is to delete leads and deals that you don’t need anymore. You can also delete other items, such as contacts, products and activities, to keep your data tidy. You can delete individual items in their detail views or in bulk using the list view.
In the detail view
To delete a single item in Pipedrive (lead, deal, contact, product, project), go to the detail view and click “...” > Delete.
In the list view
If you want to delete items in bulk, go to the dedicated item list view, select the items you want to delete (you can select the first, hold Shift and click the last to select the entire range), and then click the trash can icon.
If you want to specify which items to delete rather than selecting them individually, you can create and apply filters in the list view.
Restore deleted deals
If you’ve deleted deals and want to add them back into your account, start by applying the filter for all deleted deals.
Then select the desired deal and, in the detail view, click “Restore”.
Archive deals and leads
Archiving allows you to remove inactive leads and deals from your active view without losing historical data, helping you stay focused, improve system performance and stay under the leads and deals limit.
You can archive any deal or lead that is no longer actively managed. Here are common scenarios:
- Inactive for a long time
- Won, lost or stale
- Low-priority or low-value
- For record-keeping
Archived leads and deals don’t count toward your leads and deals limit. They count toward a separate archived items limit instead.
To archive a single deal, go to its detail view and click “...” > Archive. To archive in bulk, select the leads or deals in the list view and click Archive. You can archive your own items at any time. To archive items owned by other users, you need the “Edit deals owned by others” permission.
Merge duplicates
Another great way to streamline your data is to remove or merge duplicates.
In the detail view
Deals and contacts can be merged in the detail view by clicking “...” > Merge.
Type the name of the deal or contact you want to merge with, or the first few letters to see the autofill options.
After you select an item to merge with, choose which item will continue to exist in your account by using the keep this data bubble, then click “Preview”.
You’ll see a preview of your new item, including the data that’s been merged into it.
For example, this deal didn’t have any linked activities before, but now it has one from the other deal.
Click “Merge” to confirm the changes.
Merge duplicates tool
You can also merge contacts by opening the account menu at the top right corner and going to Tools and apps > Merge duplicates.
After you click “Preview”, you’ll be taken to the same preview window as the detail view merge tool.
Delete custom fields and reports
Usage limits impact both custom fields and reports, so knowing how to delete them is important for storage management.
Custom fields
Open the account menu at the top right corner, go to Personal preferences > Data fields, find the desired field and click “...” > Delete.
Reports
Go to your Insights, select the desired report and click “...” > Delete.
Use notes instead of custom fields
You can use notes in place of custom fields to save space as well.
For example, rather than creating a text custom field for client description, you can add that information as a note.
Keep deals up to date
There are some actions available for deals related to data management that other items don’t have. This can be important, especially since the number of leads and deals you can have is impacted by usage limits.
Converting deals to leads
If you have deals in your account that aren’t active but still show potential, you can convert them into leads and keep them in your Leads Inbox. Leads count toward your leads and deals limit, so converting deals doesn’t free up space.
You can do this in two ways:
- From the deal detail view:
- From the deal list view:
Deal status
Keeping won and lost deals open affects your reports and statistics. Marking them as won or lost doesn’t free up space, because they count toward your leads and deals limit until you archive them.
If your deals were already won or lost, we recommend marking them accordingly. You can do this in two different ways:
- Detail view
- List view
What do “open deals” and “leads and deals” mean?
An open deal refers to a deal that hasn’t been won, lost, or deleted. The open deals limit is being replaced by the leads and deals limit.
Leads and deals refer to the total number of combined leads and deals that haven’t been archived or deleted.
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