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Setup guide
Everything from installing the app to uninstalling it, including the permissions it asks for and exactly what it watches.
Updated 25 September 2026
PortalWatch keeps a history of configuration changes in your HubSpot account. It regularly compares your deal and ticket pipelines, your deal, ticket, contact and company property definitions, and your workflows with how they looked at the previous check, then lists every change on the app's settings page, with who made it where HubSpot records that.
Before you start
PortalWatch only reads. It never creates, edits or deletes anything in your HubSpot account, and it does not read your contact, company, deal or ticket records.
Install the app
- Open the app's HubSpot Marketplace listing and click Install app.
- Choose the HubSpot account you want to connect.
- Review the requested permissions and click Connect app.
- You'll see a Connected confirmation page. The app is now installed and runs its first check within a few seconds.
Screenshot needed — HubSpot account picker
Screenshot needed — permission approval screen
PortalWatch requests eight read-only permissions:
| Permission | Why the app needs it |
|---|---|
| Read deals | Read your deal pipelines and their stages. |
| Read tickets | Read your ticket pipelines, their stages, and ticket property definitions. |
| Read deal schemas | Read deal property definitions. |
| Read contact schemas | Read contact property definitions. |
| Read company schemas | Read company property definitions. |
| Automation | Read your workflows. PortalWatch never edits or runs them. |
| Read owners | Show the name of the user who made a pipeline change, instead of only a user ID. |
| OAuth | Standard authorization. |
Although some permission names mention records, PortalWatch only reads pipeline, property and workflow definitions. HubSpot requires the record permissions to read deal and ticket pipelines.
Open the settings page
In HubSpot, go to Marketplace ▸ Connected apps, click PortalWatch, then open the Settings tab. Everything PortalWatch does is on this one page: what it watches, which changes it shows, and the change history.
Screenshot needed — PortalWatch settings page
The first check
The first check after you install records a starting point: a copy of how your pipelines, properties and workflows look right now. It lists no changes, and the settings page says "Recorded the starting point. Changes from now on will be listed."
Every check after that compares your account with the previous check and lists what changed. Changes made before you installed PortalWatch are not shown.
Choose what to watch
Under What to watch, turn each area on or off. All of them are on by default.
| Area | What PortalWatch notices |
|---|---|
| Deal pipelines & stages | Pipelines and stages added, removed, renamed or reordered; win probability; closed won / closed lost. |
| Ticket pipelines & stages | Pipelines and stages added, removed, renamed or reordered; ticket state (open or closed). |
| Deal, ticket, contact and company properties | Properties created, archived or renamed; data type changes; dropdown options added or removed; calculation formulas changed. |
| Workflows | Workflows turned on or off, created, deleted or renamed; actions, enrollment criteria and schedule changed. |
Workflows can only be watched if your HubSpot subscription includes workflows.
Turning an area off hides its changes from the history. PortalWatch keeps checking it in the background, so when you turn it back on it compares against up-to-date information.
Choose which changes to show
Every change is given a severity. Under Show changes that are, pick how much you want to see:
| Setting | What you see |
|---|---|
| Critical only | Changes that silently alter reports, forecasts or automation. |
| Notice and above (recommended) | Critical changes plus other changes an admin should know about, such as renames. |
| Everything | All of the above, plus housekeeping such as reordering stages or editing a property's description. |
Some examples of each severity:
| Severity | Examples |
|---|---|
| Critical | A stage's win probability or closed status changed; a pipeline, stage or property deleted; a property's data type or calculation formula changed; a dropdown option removed; a workflow turned on, turned off or deleted. |
| Notice | A pipeline, stage, property or workflow renamed; a dropdown option added; a workflow's actions, enrollment criteria or schedule changed. |
| Info | Stages reordered; a property's description, group or show-in-forms setting changed. |
Click Save settings to keep your choices. They apply straight away, including to changes already in the history.
Read the change history
Recent changes lists each change with when PortalWatch detected it, what changed (for example, the old and new win probability), its severity, and who made it.
The Changed by column shows one of these:
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| A user's name and email | HubSpot recorded which user made this pipeline change. |
| HubSpot or an integration | HubSpot recorded the change, but not a user. It was usually made by HubSpot itself or by another connected app. |
| Not recorded | HubSpot has no record of who made this change. |
| Not available from HubSpot | HubSpot does not record who changes properties or workflows, so PortalWatch cannot show it for these. |
Screenshot needed — Recent changes list with a Changed by name
Check for changes now
PortalWatch checks your account automatically about every 15 minutes. To check straight away — for example, right after making a change to test the app — click Check for changes now on the settings page.
What PortalWatch can't see
- Changes undone before the next check. PortalWatch compares your account between checks. If something is changed and then changed back before the next check, the two versions match and nothing is listed.
- Who changed a property or workflow. HubSpot only records this for pipelines. See Read the change history.
- Changes to records. PortalWatch watches how your account is set up, not the contacts, companies, deals or tickets in it.
- Other settings. Only the areas listed under Choose what to watch are monitored.
Data handling
PortalWatch reads the definitions of your pipelines, properties and workflows, and keeps a copy of them so the next check has something to compare with. It also stores the change history shown on the settings page, including the name and email of the HubSpot user who made each pipeline change, and the email of the user who installed the app.
Your HubSpot access tokens are stored encrypted. PortalWatch does not read or store your contact, company, deal or ticket records.
For full details, see the privacy policy.
Uninstall the app
Uninstalling revokes PortalWatch's access to your HubSpot account and stops all checks. Nothing in your HubSpot account changes, because PortalWatch never changed anything there.
To uninstall, follow HubSpot's instructions for uninstalling an app. To have your stored change history deleted as well, email dev@nidish.com with your HubSpot Account ID.
Support
Questions or problems? Read the support page first — it covers the questions we hear most often — or email dev@nidish.com.