The real problem: you want integration results, but you do not know what “done” looks like
You are not trying to integrate HubSpot and Encompass for fun. You want answers and outcomes.
You want to know
- Which campaigns and channels actually create funded loans.
- Which loan officers and branches perform best with different types of leads.
- Where loans get stuck and how to unclog the pipeline.
- How to keep borrowers updated automatically without turning your team into copywriters.
Yet when you talk to potential integration consultants, the conversation jumps straight to APIs, middleware, data sync tools, and field mapping. You end up buying a connection, not a solution.
The truth is simple. If you cannot describe your scenarios and mapping at a business level, no consultant can magically guess them for you. Doing this pre work is what separates a strategic integration from another expensive project.
Direct answer: what should be documented before you hire an integration consultant
Before you sign a contract, you should have clear documentation for four areas
- Business scenarios
Real world use cases that describe how leads, loans, and borrowers should move between HubSpot and Encompass. - Data mapping at a conceptual level
Which pieces of information must live in both systems, and how they should relate to contacts, deals, and loans. - Process ownership and exception handling
Who owns each part of the borrower journey and what should happen when data does not match or processes break. - Reporting requirements and success criteria
The dashboards and metrics you expect to see once integration is “done.”
You do not need technical schemas or code. You need clear, written descriptions that a consultant can translate into a robust design.
Step 1: define your core business scenarios
Scenarios are short narratives that describe how things should work from a user’s perspective. They are the backbone of your integration.
You should have at least five types of scenarios documented.
Scenario type 1: new lead to application
Describe how a brand new lead moves from first touch in HubSpot to an application in Encompass.
Clarify
- Where the lead originates
Paid search, referral partner, email, event, website, call center. - How it enters HubSpot
Form, chat, manual entry, import, integration. - What qualifies it to be created in Encompass
Example
Once a contact books an appointment or completes a short application, it becomes an Encompass loan file. - What data must pass with it
Contact details, source, campaign, partner, notes. - What tasks or notifications should fire
Assign to a loan officer, send a confirmation email, notify a branch manager.
Write this scenario in natural language so anyone on your team can read it and say, yes, that is how it should work.
Scenario type 2: application to underwriting and conditions
Describe how status changes in Encompass should appear in HubSpot.
Clarify
- How you define key loan stages
For example application taken, submitted, processing, underwriting, conditional approval, clear to close. - Which of those stages matter for HubSpot
You may not need every micro step, but you do need decision points. - What HubSpot should do when each stage changes
- Update lifecycle stages or deal stages.
- Trigger borrower email or SMS updates.
- Create internal tasks for loan teams.
- How to handle conditions
When conditions are requested or satisfied, decide whether HubSpot should remind borrowers, notify agents, or highlight stuck files.
Scenario type 3: denied, withdrawn, or cancelled loans
These outcomes are often ignored, which is a mistake.
Document
- How these statuses are defined inside Encompass.
- What HubSpot should do when they occur.
- Stop certain nurture sequences.
- Trigger re nurture or credit repair journeys where appropriate.
- Notify referral partners that the loan did not move forward.
- How they should appear in your reporting.
For example, include denied applications in funnel charts and conversion analyses.
Scenario type 4: clear to close and closed loans
Your best marketing asset is a happy closed borrower.
Clarify
- When a loan is considered “closed” for reporting.
- How HubSpot should record the event.
Deal stage update, close date, amount, loan type. - What post close campaigns should trigger.
Reviews, referrals, cross sell, refinance nurture, bank product offers. - How partners should be notified.
Automatic email to agents or relationship managers, internal celebration notes.
Scenario type 5: partner and branch workflows
If you work with agents, builders, credit unions, or branches, document how you want their experience to look.
Clarify
- When they should be notified about borrower status.
- How you want to attribute funded loans to specific partners or branches.
- What data should flow back to them, and through which channels.
When these scenarios are written, your consultant has a map of what behavior the integration must support.
Step 2: map high level data between HubSpot and Encompass
Data mapping is not about raw field names at this stage. It is about agreeing on which concepts live where.
You should cover at least five mapping categories.
Mapping category 1: people
Define how you represent human beings in each system.
Clarify
- When a HubSpot contact should correspond to a borrower in Encompass.
- How you will handle co borrowers and spouses.
- Which fields are your primary identifiers.
Email, phone, external ID, or a combination. - What happens when there is a mismatch.
For example, same email but different name.
Document which fields are authoritative in each system. In many cases
- HubSpot is authoritative for marketing and partner context.
- Encompass is authoritative for verified borrower details.
Mapping category 2: loans and deals
Define how you will connect a loan in Encompass to an object in HubSpot.
Decide whether
- Each loan will map to a single deal in HubSpot.
- A contact can have multiple deals over time.
- You need any custom objects to represent special loan structures or related items.
List the essential loan fields that must exist in HubSpot, such as
- Loan type
- Loan amount
- Rate type or basic structure
- Stage or status
- Important dates
This mapping determines how you build your reporting and automation around deals.
Mapping category 3: properties
Clarify how property information will appear in HubSpot.
Decide
- Whether property data sits on deals, on separate property objects, or on companies.
- Which property fields matter for segmentation and reporting.
Property type, occupancy, location, price range.
Property data is often key for geo based marketing and future cross sell, so plan it intentionally.
Mapping category 4: sources and attribution
A big reason to integrate is to see which leads become loans.
Document
- How you define original source and campaigns in HubSpot.
- How those should be preserved when a loan is created in Encompass.
- Which attribution fields Encompass should never overwrite.
Decide what you consider the “source of truth” for source and campaign data and make that explicit.
Mapping category 5: outcomes
Finally, document outcome fields.
Clarify
- How funded loans will be represented in HubSpot
Deal stage, closed amount, date. - What outcome codes matter
Funding, denial reasons, withdrawals. - How those codes roll up in dashboards
For example, group reasons into categories for analysis.
This is what allows your future reporting to match what your executives expect to see.
Step 3: document ownership, exceptions, and guardrails
Integrations do not fail because of happy path scenarios. They fail when something unexpected happens and no one knows who is responsible.
You should define three things.
Ownership
List the role or team that owns
- HubSpot configuration and data hygiene.
- Encompass configuration and data hygiene.
- Integration performance and monitoring.
- Reporting and dashboard governance.
This prevents finger pointing when fields do not line up or numbers look wrong.
Exceptions
Describe what should happen when
- A record cannot be matched between systems.
- Required data is missing or invalid.
- A workflow fires that should not have, or does not fire when it should.
Decide whether exceptions should
- Create tickets.
- Send email alerts.
- Be logged and reviewed weekly.
Even a simple one page exception plan will save you hours later.
Guardrails
Define non negotiables, such as
- Data that must never be overwritten by the integration.
- Stages that can only be changed inside Encompass, not in HubSpot.
- Fields that should remain read only in the CRM.
These guardrails protect compliance and reduce the risk of well intentioned users “fixing” data in the wrong system.
Step 4: define reporting requirements in plain language
If you cannot describe the reports you want without technical jargon, they are not defined well enough yet.
Write out the reports you absolutely expect to see when the integration is complete.
Examples
- “We want a dashboard that shows funded loans by original source, campaign, and loan officer for any date range.”
- “We want to see where loans are stalling by stage, branch, and product, so we can fix bottlenecks.”
- “We want to compare close rates and cycle times for different referral partners and marketing channels.”
- “We want to know how many contacts from a specific nurture sequence went on to create an application and fund a loan.”
For each report, document
- The core question.
- The time frames you care about.
- The dimensions you want to slice by such as branch, loan officer, product, source.
These descriptions become the blueprint your consultant will use to design objects, fields, and relationships.
Step 5: capture lender specific and bank specific scenarios
Mortgage lenders and banks have extra complexity that generic integration templates ignore.
Document the scenarios that are unique to you, such as
- Portfolio versus secondary market loans and how you want to report on them separately.
- Bank products that should be offered post close such as HELOCs, deposit accounts, or credit cards.
- Regulatory constraints on what can move between systems and how audit trails must be maintained.
- Different workflows for consumer direct, retail, and partner driven channels.
The more clearly you describe these realities, the more likely your consultant can design a system that fits them.
Real world example: how good pre work changes a HubSpot and Encompass project
Consider two lenders starting similar projects.
Lender A does not document scenarios or mapping in advance
- The consultant spends the first half of the engagement interviewing stakeholders and guessing at requirements.
- Technical work starts before there is a shared understanding of stages, ownership, or reporting.
- When the integration goes live, reports do not match expectations, and automation misfires.
- The project is labeled “too complex” and quietly downgraded.
Lender B documents scenarios and mapping before hiring
- Business scenarios, high level mappings, and core reports are clearly written.
- The consultant can propose a design and timeline quickly, with fewer discovery hours.
- Field mapping, workflow rules, and dashboards are tied directly to documented needs.
- When the integration goes live, there are fewer surprises and fixes are easier to prioritize.
The difference in outcome is not just about technical skill. It is about preparation.
How Proven ROI uses your scenarios and mapping once they exist
When you come to a partner like Proven ROI with this pre work done, you get more value out of every hour.
We can
- Translate your scenarios into a formal integration design document.
- Propose specific object models, property sets, and workflow frameworks in HubSpot.
- Align Encompass configuration with your reporting and automation goals.
- Build dashboards and alerts that directly answer the questions you wrote down.
Instead of spending weeks trying to discover what you want, we spend our time making what you want real and reliable.
Conclusion: document first, hire second
Hiring a HubSpot and Encompass integration consultant without documented scenarios and mapping is like hiring an architect without a clear idea of how many rooms you need.
If you take the time to
- Describe your key business scenarios from lead to funded loan.
- Map people, loans, properties, sources, and outcomes at a conceptual level.
- Define ownership, exceptions, and guardrails.
- Write down the reports you expect to see when the project is “done.”
You will turn a risky integration project into a focused business initiative with clear success criteria.
That preparation makes any consultant more effective. It also sets you up to get what you actually want from a HubSpot and Encompass integration: clean data, reliable reporting, and automation that helps you close more loans with less chaos.
