Building a Custom HubSpot-Dataforma Integration
Overview
Watertight Roofing is a commercial roofing contractor that wanted to leverage HubSpot as a central platform for sales, marketing, and reporting, while continuing to use Dataforma as its operational system for project management and service delivery.
The challenge? No HubSpot-Dataforma integration existed.
As a result, employees were manually entering information into both systems, creating duplicate work, incomplete records, unreliable reporting, and growing frustration among the employees responsible for maintaining data.
Waypost developed a custom integration that connected the two platforms, eliminated redundant data entry, improved data quality, and created a scalable foundation for future reporting and operational improvements.
JUMP TO SECTION:
The Challenge
JUMP TO SECTION:
The Strategy
JUMP TO SECTION:
The Solution
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Quality of Impact
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AI-Usage
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Closing Statement
The Challenge
Watertight Roofing had invested in HubSpot to improve visibility across sales and marketing activities, but key business information continued to live inside Dataforma.
Without a way to connect the two systems, office administrators were forced to manually enter and maintain contacts, companies, projects, and work orders in both platforms. This consumed valuable time, increased the risk of errors, and limited the reliability of HubSpot reporting.
Frustration intensified when Watertight engaged another provider to build an integration, and despite promises to connect the systems, a successful solution was never delivered.
The result was a growing disconnect between HubSpot and Dataforma, limited reporting capabilities, and increasing frustration among employees responsible for keeping information updated.
The Strategy
Before development began, Waypost worked with Watertight to understand how each platform was used and define a realistic path forward.
Because a previous provider had failed to deliver, establishing trust and gaining alignment around a realistic path forward were essential. Waypost set clear expectations around scope and functionality, evaluated Dataforma’s constraints, and avoided making commitments before technical feasibility was confirmed.
The strategy focused on:
- Identifying the source of truth for critical business data
- Determining which records and relationships needed to synchronize
- Evaluating Dataforma’s API capabilities and limitations
- Defining testing, governance, and long-term support requirements
- Designing for future scale from the outset
Throughout development, Waypost provided detailed progress updates and explained technical challenges when they affected the timeline. This transparent, consultative approach kept Watertight informed and ensured that the final solution aligned with the business processes most critical to its team.
Waypost also separated Watertight-specific functionality from reusable middleware functions. This approach supported Watertight’s needs while creating a more maintainable foundation that can be adapted for future Dataforma-HubSpot integrations. The middleware was also designed for quick server migration if the infrastructure needs change.
Successful integration projects don't start with code, they start with strategy.
Our responsibility is to understand our clients' business goals, processes, and challenges before recommending a solution. That means asking the right questions, setting realistic expectations, and ensuring everyone is aligned on what success looks like from the outset.
Doug Fowler, President of Waypost Marketing
The Solution
Building a Custom Integration from the Ground Up
Because no existing HubSpot-Dataforma integration was available, Waypost designed a custom, self-hosted middleware application built with PHP and MySQL.
The project began with a detailed discovery process to determine:
- Which platform would serve as the source of truth
- What data needed to move between systems
- How records should be associated
- Which processes would benefit most from automation
As planning began, the team discovered that Dataforma’s data structure differed significantly from HubSpot’s CRM architecture.
Dataforma stores critical information across contacts, companies, buildings, projects, and work orders. Reconstructing a complete record in HubSpot required multiple API calls and careful relationship mapping.
The middleware Waypost created:
- Connects HubSpot and Dataforma through each product’s available API
- Synchronizes data and maintains record associations
- Supports ongoing monitoring and maintenance
By taking a strategy-first approach and investing in a custom solution, Waypost created a reliable bridge between two platforms that streamlines data management and reduces manual effort.
Customizing HubSpot to Reflect Actual Company Operations
To accurately represent Watertight’s operational data inside HubSpot, Waypost also customized HubSpot’s architecture.
This included:
- Creating a custom Building object
- Mapping 30+ unique association labels and complex record relationships between Dataforma and HubSpot
- Configuring project and work-order pipelines
- Standardizing historical records
- Preserving relationships between contacts, companies, buildings, estimators, foremen, salespeople, projects, and work orders
Rather than forcing Watertight into a general CRM structure, the result created a HubSpot environment that reflected the company’s actual operations.
Testing & Governance
To minimize risk and ensure long-term stability, Waypost incorporated testing directly into the integration framework. The solution included:
- Dry-run testing that simulated synchronization without committing changes to either platform
- Detailed logging and monitoring
- Incremental deployment processes
- Validation controls, synchronization limits, and record-testing safeguards
- Long-term maintenance ownership and support
Quality of Impact
The integration immediately reduced administrative burden while improving the quality and accessibility of data across Watertight’s sales and operational teams.
Operational Improvements
- Eliminated approximately 3–4 hours of manual double-entry work per week
- Improved consistency and accuracy across company, contact, building, project, and work-order records
- Synchronized historical records across systems
- Automated updates for ongoing projects and work orders
- Increased visibility across sales and operational data within HubSpot
Employee Adoption & Experience
By eliminating hours of weekly duplicate data entry, the integration removed a major source of frustration and allowed employees to focus on higher-value work. The improvements also increased confidence in HubSpot across the organization. Sales and estimating teams gained access to more complete and reliable information, resulting in stronger adoption and greater trust in the platform.
Business Impact
Beyond operational efficiency, the integration created a stronger foundation for future growth. With more complete and accurate data inside HubSpot, Watertight can now:
- Improve reporting visibility
- Connect marketing activities to project and revenue data
- Increase confidence in business data
- Support future HubSpot customization initiatives
- Make more informed operational and marketing decisions
The project transformed HubSpot from a partially-utilized CRM into a trusted system that supports both day-to-day operations and long-term strategic planning.
Before Waypost, managing our commercial pipeline across HubSpot and Dataforma was a disjointed process.
Their custom API bridge changed everything, giving us clarity on every deal from lead to close. Eliminating that friction has driven massive growth, helping us nearly double our year-over-year sales.
Emilio Lebolo, Director of Business Development at Watertight Roofing Services
AI Usage
AI-Assisted Development
Waypost leveraged AI-assisted development tools throughout the project to support coding, debugging, and development-stage testing.
Because the integration required custom middleware, extensive API mapping, and thousands of lines of custom code, AI-assisted workflows supported code generation, debugging, and development-stage testing. These tools helped the team work more efficiently while human oversight, validation, and the integration’s built-in testing safeguards ensured the solution met Watertight’s operational requirements
Building a Foundation for Future AI
Before the integration, critical operational data was fragmented between systems, making AI-driven reporting or analysis unreliable. By synchronizing Dataforma and HubSpot, Waypost created a more accessible, structured data foundation within HubSpot.
While Watertight is still exploring future use cases, the integration positions the company to derive more value from emerging HubSpot AI capabilities, including Breeze, Data Agent, Copilot, AI-powered reporting, automation, and decision support. By having a connected and reliable CRM context, future AI initiatives will be more effective.
Closing Statement
When Watertight Roofing needed a solution that another provider could not deliver, Waypost designed and implemented a custom HubSpot-Dataforma integration that eliminated duplicate work, improved employee experience, increased HubSpot adoption, and created a scalable foundation for future reporting and business growth.
“Another agency failed to follow through for them, and we followed through for them.”
With accurate data, streamlined workflows, and stronger HubSpot adoption, Watertight is now positioned to make more-informed business decisions.
"We view every engagement as a partnership built on trust and transparency. By investing the time upfront to develop a strong strategic foundation, we're able to deliver solutions that not only solve today's challenges but also support our clients' growth well into the future."
Waypost is ready to help.
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