Latest / Sidekick's What Just Shipped / HubSpot Breeze: ask for MRR, answered from your contracts | Shipped Sep 2026
Transcript
- Rob (AI host): What's your MRR right now? Rob (AI host): If the honest answer is a report, an export, and a message to finance, keep listening. Dana (AI host): HubSpot's revenue reporting help now lists a beta where Breeze Assistant answers revenue questions from your contracts. Rob (AI host): Stick around for the two things that must be true first, and the quick check before you trust the number. Narrator (AI voice): This is Sidekick's What Just Shipped, presented by Sidekick Strategies. Narrator (AI voice): Your hosts, Rob and Dana, are AI. Narrator (AI voice): The voices are synthetic, the research is real, and humans check every claim before it reaches you. Rob (AI host): Welcome in. Rob (AI host): Quick honesty first: Dana and I are AI hosts, working from HubSpot's revenue reporting help article, last updated in mid-September, plus its contracts articles. Dana (AI host): And today I'm playing a hypothetical finance lead at a subscription software company, the person who gets the MRR question right before every board call. Rob (AI host): Then this is your feature. Rob (AI host): HubSpot's article has a section called Analyze revenue data using Breeze Assistant, and it's marked beta. Dana (AI host): So what does it actually do? Rob (AI host): You ask Breeze Assistant about revenue, and it works from your contract data. Rob (AI host): HubSpot's examples: show how much TCV was booked for a particular month, report on current MRR, and show how MRR is changing over time. Dana (AI host): Quick translation for anyone newer to this. What are TCV and MRR? Rob (AI host): TCV is total contract value. MRR is monthly recurring revenue. Rob (AI host): HubSpot says a contract record shows both, plus annual contract value and annual recurring revenue. Dana (AI host): Oh, so the contract is the source. Rob (AI host): Exactly. HubSpot calls contracts the centralized source of truth for committed revenue. Dana (AI host): But deals already have amounts. Why isn't that enough? Rob (AI host): HubSpot draws that line itself. Rob (AI host): Deal reports measure value based on the sales process, like deal amounts and forecasted sales. Rob (AI host): Contract and invoice reports measure revenue from contractual and billing events, like when revenue is booked, committed, billed, or collected. Dana (AI host): Okay, that's a real distinction. Rob (AI host): Why it matters: a closed deal shows what was sold, but a board asks what's committed and recurring. Rob (AI host): Get that wrong and the plan is wrong. Dana (AI host): Now the two things that must be true. Go. Rob (AI host): First, the beta. Rob (AI host): HubSpot says that if you're a Super Admin, you can opt your account into the Revenue Context for Contracts in Breeze beta. Dana (AI host): So a Super Admin opts the whole account in. Rob (AI host): Right. Second, you need contracts. Rob (AI host): HubSpot says a Revenue Hub subscription is required to use contracts, unless your account is enrolled in the Direct Create, Edit, and Renew HubSpot Contracts beta. Dana (AI host): Wow, that beta name is a mouthful. Rob (AI host): It is. Rob (AI host): And that second beta is what lets accounts without Revenue Hub create and manage contracts. Dana (AI host): What if the contracts were signed outside HubSpot? Rob (AI host): HubSpot's September updates added Contract Imports. Rob (AI host): You can import contracts in bulk with line items and contact and deal associations. Rob (AI host): Imports support management and reporting only, and they don't move billing to HubSpot. Dana (AI host): And who gets imports? Rob (AI host): Revenue Hub Pro and up, or accounts in the contracts direct create and edit beta. Dana (AI host): What about privacy? Can an admin control what Breeze sees? Rob (AI host): HubSpot's note says you can manage AI feature access in your AI settings and configure what data is shared. Dana (AI host): Here's a made-up scenario. Dana (AI host): A subscription company has contracts in place, and a Super Admin opts the account into the beta. Dana (AI host): Before the board call, the finance lead asks Breeze for current MRR, and how it's changing over time. Rob (AI host): And then compares that answer with the MRR waterfall report before sharing it. Dana (AI host): The what report? Rob (AI host): MRR waterfall by month. Rob (AI host): It's one of HubSpot's pre-built contract revenue reports, showing the monthly movement of recurring revenue: existing business, new business, expansion, contraction, and churn. Dana (AI host): Nice, a built-in second opinion. Rob (AI host): So which teams should try this first? Dana (AI host): Our research names RevOps leaders at subscription businesses, founders who need revenue numbers before a board call, and account teams who own renewals and expansions. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Hey, it's George B. Thomas from Sidekick Strategies. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Full honesty, this is my AI voice clone, made with my permission. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Breeze can read your contracts, but when the CEO asks for one revenue report and three departments bring three different numbers, that's a people problem first. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Sidekick's RevOps and Integration work connects marketing, sales, and service into a single revenue engine inside HubSpot, starting with the humans, not the tools. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): We align lifecycle stages and handoffs, then build cross-hub reporting every team trusts. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): Find it under services at Sidekick Strategies dot com. Dana (AI host): Okay, Rob, skeptic question. Our write-up says this is available on all hubs and tiers. Dana (AI host): Is that the whole story? Rob (AI host): Not quite. Rob (AI host): HubSpot's help marks it beta, and it needs contracts, which need Revenue Hub or the direct create beta. Rob (AI host): So check your account's betas before you promise anyone a demo. Dana (AI host): And what couldn't we confirm? Rob (AI host): Two things. HubSpot's article doesn't say when the beta ends, and it doesn't describe follow-up questions. Rob (AI host): Our write-up suggests asking Breeze to break an answer down by contract owner. Rob (AI host): Treat that as an experiment, not a promise. Dana (AI host): Hm, fair enough. What about evergreen contracts? Rob (AI host): Good catch. Rob (AI host): HubSpot says evergreen contracts renew automatically until canceled and have no end date, so TCV and annual contract value aren't calculated. Rob (AI host): MRR and annual recurring revenue still are. Dana (AI host): So if most of your contracts are evergreen, ask about MRR, not TCV. Rob (AI host): That's the safer question. Dana (AI host): Could timing make two MRR numbers look different? Rob (AI host): It can. Rob (AI host): HubSpot says the MRR waterfall reports revenue when it becomes effective, while Booked MRR by month reports it when the contract is booked, even if it starts later. Dana (AI host): So compare like with like. Dana (AI host): Plan time. What does a finance lead do this week? Rob (AI host): Step one: confirm your account has contracts, through Revenue Hub or the direct create beta. Dana (AI host): Step two: if your contracts live somewhere else, look at Contract Imports, and remember that imports don't move billing. Rob (AI host): Step three: ask a Super Admin to opt the account into the Breeze revenue beta, and review your AI settings while they're in there. Dana (AI host): Step four: ask Breeze for current MRR, then check it against the MRR waterfall report. Rob (AI host): Step five: if the two numbers look off, fix the contract records first, because the answers can only be as good as that data. Dana (AI host): Board-call verdict: turn it on once your contracts are clean and complete, and skip it until they are. Rob (AI host): This week, ask a Super Admin which betas your account has turned on. Dana (AI host): HubSpot's help articles, its September updates, and our write-up are in the show notes, with more at Sidekick Strategies dot com. Rob (AI host): Thanks for listening, and may your recurring revenue keep recurring. Dana (AI host): Clean contracts first, then ask Breeze. Narrator (AI voice): Sidekick's What Just Shipped is presented by Sidekick Strategies, with AI hosts Rob and Dana and AI-generated music. Narrator (AI voice): We're independent, and not affiliated with HubSpot. Find our research at Sidekick Strategies dot com.