Handle title casing company names without breaking acronyms?

[Alexander-tmp]

I’m looking for advice on a CRM automation challenge I’ve run into around company name formatting.

We create company records from multiple sources — integrations, imports, and manual entry — so keeping organisation names consistent is important for reporting and data quality. To help with this, I’ve been using workflow actions like “change to title case.”

In most cases, this works perfectly…

The issue shows up when a company name intentionally includes capitalised acronyms or segments, for example:

AMT Global Solutions

A standard title-casing rule improves consistency, but it also converts names like this into something inaccurate, which isn’t ideal.

I’m curious how others are handling this in HubSpot:

• Are you using any workarounds or conditional logic in workflows?

• Do you rely on exceptions lists, custom properties, or manual review steps?

• Has anyone found a way to preserve intended capitalisation while still enforcing consistency?

[danmoyle · Accepted solution]

Hey @Alexander-tmp - an interesting question for sure. I haven't personally solved this as I don't manage the CRM data like that anymore. However, one thing I was thinking of is something I heard about once. Let's see if I can explain it. You could layer in “original name” and audit trail in a custom property. 

Here's what that looks like:

1. Create Original company name and copy inbound values there once, before any formatting workflows touch them.
2. Only ever manipulate a working “Formatted company name,” then overwrite Company name once you’re happy.
3. Add a small metadata field like “Last formatting workflow run date” so you can isolate records impacted by a bad rule and fix them in bulk later.

​This pattern is especially helpful when integrating multiple sources. It's a bit manual and requires regular auditing, but could help when your workflow fires when it shouldn't. 

Another solution I found while poking around was also pretty manual, but may help with it. If you were to maintain an exceptions or accepted acronyms list, you could add a branch to your workflow. Here's how that could play out. 

Acronym flag property:

• Boolean: “Company name includes protected acronym”.
• Use workflow branches: if flag is true, skip title case; if false, format.​

Acronyms text property:

• Store values like AMT; IBM; NASA.
• Use a workflow that only formats names when Company name does not contain any of those strings (contains none of “ AMT ”, “ IBM ”, etc.); maintain this list over time.​

Manual corrections queue:

• Use a view filtered on “Recently updated by formatting workflow = true” AND “Name contains known acronym fragments,” and have a light-touch review step, rather than proofreading every company.​

It's a bit of work and not totally automatic, but does give you guardrails without deep engineering. Otherwise you might look into how Data Hub (fka Operations Hub) could help you with custom formulas/custom code. 

Curious to see if anyone else has ideas to solve as well!

[BérangèreL]

Hey @Alexander-tmp and thanks so much for your thoughtful question!

I’d love to connect you with some of our Top Experts for their insights! Hi @danmoyle, @jforte and @Josh, do you have any suggestions or best practices you could share with @Alexander-tmp on this topic? Your expertise is always so valuable!

Thanks so much in advance and have a wonderful day!
Bérangère