CASE STUDY
HubSpot Commercial Model for an AutomateNow Client
Challenge
An electronics reseller and provider of complementary services needed a more controlled commercial model in HubSpot for product-led deals. Commercial activity, pricing support and commission interpretation were spread across HubSpot and surrounding processes, which made it harder to treat HubSpot as a reliable source of truth for line-item-led deal values, margin visibility and finance review.
Solution
Working with AutomateNow, MPED defined a Phase 1 HubSpot-native commercial model built around a governed product catalogue, line-item-driven deal values, simplified commission visibility and finance-facing reporting. The delivery combined solution architecture, HubSpot configuration design, sandbox validation support and a targeted Azure Function path for margin-based line-item commission calculation and write-back.
System functionality
- Manually maintained HubSpot product catalogue for approved sellable items
- Product-based line items added to deals
- Deal amount driven from line items rather than rough estimates
- Margin-capable commercial structure using sell price, cost, quantity and category context
- Commission model v1 with controlled, simplified logic
- Finance-facing commission review report in HubSpot
- Azure HTTP endpoint that reads HubSpot deals and line items, calculates per-line commission, aggregates totals and writes results back to HubSpot
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
- HubSpot target model: Product Library to Line Item to Deal to Commission Calculation to Commission Report
- Product structure included native price and cost-of-goods fields plus custom classification fields
- HubSpot-native Phase 1 design supported revenue-based or margin-based deal-level commission in sandbox modelling
- Azure Function v1 implemented the narrowed margin-only line-item calculation path using sell price, quantity, cost snapshot and commission-rate snapshot
- Function outputs covered line-level commission, aggregated commission totals and calculation results
- Commission status remained business-owned in HubSpot and was not overwritten by Azure
- Function authentication stayed at Function level, with secrets held in app settings
- DEV deployment path included IaC, pipeline preparation and authenticated endpoint verification
Technologies
- HubSpot properties, products, line items, workflows and reports
- Azure Functions Flex Consumption
- .NET 8 isolated worker
- Bicep
- Azure CLI
- Azure DevOps YAML pipelines
- xUnit test projects
APPLICATIONS
- Product-based sales opportunities in HubSpot
- Deals combining hardware, software and related services
- Margin-aware commission visibility for finance review
- Controlled sandbox validation before broader rollout
- Future-ready path toward more automated commission handling without introducing a full rules engine in Phase 1
Results
- Defined a practical Phase 1 commercial model in HubSpot built around products, line items, commission visibility and governance
- Produced implementation-ready HubSpot administrator guidance and sandbox validation assets
- Created sample product-library and deal-validation structures for controlled testing
- Delivered a working Azure commission-calculation package with tests, IaC and a DEV deployment path
- Completed DEV deployment of the Azure Function and verified authenticated endpoint behaviour
- Identified the remaining sandbox blocker before full connected smoke testing: required line-item snapshot fields were not yet populated on the dedicated test deal
Summary
For a client of AutomateNow, MPED helped move fragmented product-led selling toward a more structured HubSpot-native commercial model. By combining product catalogue governance, line-item-led deal structure, finance-facing commission visibility and a DEV-ready Azure calculator path, the project created a practical foundation for cleaner commercial control without overstating Phase 1 scope.
Integration options
Need to connect a different platform?
HubSpot is only one part of the integration landscape. MPED can apply the same delivery approach to CRM, ERP, accounting, finance and operational platforms such as NetSuite, Xero, QuickBooks, Sage, Microsoft Dynamics 365, custom APIs and internal business systems.