Latest / Sidekick's What Just Shipped / One color theme for your whole HubSpot dashboard | Shipped Sep 2026
Transcript
- Dana (AI host): Your dashboard has a purple chart, an orange chart, and a teal one, and your boss asks if they came from different companies. Rob (AI host): HubSpot's September updates added dashboard color themes, so one palette covers every eligible report on a dashboard. Dana (AI host): Stay for the accessibility setting most people miss, and a refresh setting that's off until you turn it on. 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. Dana (AI host): Quick truth: Rob and I are AI hosts. Dana (AI host): We've never presented to a board, and we're reading HubSpot's September product updates and its help article on the custom report builder, updated October twenty-eighth. Rob (AI host): Here's my hat: today I'm playing the operations director at a regional plumbing supplier, who walks the owners through one dashboard at every monthly meeting. Dana (AI host): Then this one's for your meeting. Dana (AI host): HubSpot's September updates say dashboard color themes let you apply one palette, including Brand Kit colors, to all eligible reports on a dashboard. Rob (AI host): So who can actually use it? Dana (AI host): The September updates list it for all hubs and tiers. So this isn't an Enterprise-only perk. Rob (AI host): Nice, no more rainbow dashboard. Rob (AI host): What counts as an eligible report? Dana (AI host): HubSpot's update doesn't spell that out. Dana (AI host): So after you switch, look at every report on the dashboard, charts and tables alike, and note which ones changed and which ones didn't. Rob (AI host): Before this, I fixed colors one report at a time, every single month. Rob (AI host): Does that still work? Dana (AI host): It does, for a single report. Dana (AI host): In the custom report builder, open the Style tab in the left sidebar. Dana (AI host): Under Color palette, pick from a set of HubSpot color themes, or your own brand colors. Rob (AI host): And the accessibility setting you mentioned? Dana (AI host): It sits in that same Color palette setting. It's called Pattern Fill. Dana (AI host): HubSpot says it creates a unique pattern for each color, for people with color blindness or a vision impairment. Rob (AI host): Oh, stripes for every color. Dana (AI host): Pretty much. Dana (AI host): It's worth turning on for any chart leadership reads, because not everyone in the room sees red and green the same way. Dana (AI host): And it costs you nothing but one checkbox per report. Rob (AI host): Where do my brand colors come from in the first place? Dana (AI host): The Brand Kit. Click More, then Marketing, then Brand. Dana (AI host): On the Brand Kit tab, click Edit Colors. Dana (AI host): You can set a primary color, a secondary color, and accent colors. Dana (AI host): Or you can import them from the web address of a page that already uses them. Rob (AI host): Huh, colors straight off our website. Dana (AI host): One permission note. Dana (AI host): Editing a brand kit takes a Super Admin, or someone with Edit account defaults permission. Rob (AI host): You said the same update had other dashboard fixes. Dana (AI host): Two of them. First, caching. Dana (AI host): You can pick a cache duration from five minutes to seven days, with a Last updated timestamp and a manual refresh. Dana (AI host): It's off by default. Rob (AI host): Why would I want older numbers on purpose? Dana (AI host): HubSpot doesn't give a reason. Dana (AI host): The timestamp is the useful part, though: everyone in the room can see how fresh the numbers are, and anyone can refresh. Rob (AI host): And the second fix? Dana (AI host): Pivot tables. The left-hand column and the Totals column now stay in view as you scroll. Rob (AI host): Ha, no more losing the row labels. Dana (AI host): Here's a made-up scenario. Dana (AI host): A plumbing supplier's ops director sets the brand colors in the Brand Kit, applies the brand palette to the owners' dashboard, turns on Pattern Fill for the chart that compares red and green, and leaves the Last updated timestamp showing. Rob (AI host): So the owners see one look, and nobody asks whether the numbers are from last week. Dana (AI host): Why it matters: when a dashboard looks consistent, people stop questioning the chart and start reading the numbers. Rob (AI host): Or, as our research puts it, stakeholders read inconsistency as a credibility signal. Dana (AI host): So who is this really built for? Rob (AI host): Our research names HubSpot admins and RevOps leads with dashboards for several teams, marketing ops leaders who present to leadership, and agencies building client-facing dashboards. 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): A matching palette helps, but your leadership still has to believe the numbers underneath it. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): HubSpot Super Admin Live is an onsite workshop where I rebuild your portal with your admin team, using the Super Admin Operating System. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): We map your portal architecture, build dashboards leadership will believe, and write a continuity playbook that survives the next hire. George B. Thomas (AI voice clone): It's under workshops at Sidekick Strategies dot com. Rob (AI host): Dana, where is the theme setting, exactly? Dana (AI host): That's the one gap. Dana (AI host): Our September write-up gives a path: open the dashboard, click Actions, choose Dashboard settings, then the Theme control, with presets like Blues and Greens, plus Brand Kit palettes. Dana (AI host): HubSpot's dashboard help article was last updated in July and doesn't describe a theme setting yet, so if your menu looks different, trust your screen. Rob (AI host): Hm, the menu might move. Rob (AI host): Anything else to double-check? Dana (AI host): Two details only the write-up mentions. Dana (AI host): It says only people with dashboard edit permissions can change the theme, and that the same report can show a different theme on each dashboard it lives on. Dana (AI host): Both sound sensible, but try them on a copy first. Rob (AI host): How do I make a copy? Dana (AI host): HubSpot's dashboard article covers that one. Dana (AI host): From the Actions menu, choose Clone dashboard, name the copy, and pick who can see it. Rob (AI host): Perfect, a practice dashboard. Rob (AI host): My supplier also runs a second brand for its contractor business. Which colors win? Dana (AI host): If you have the Brands add-on, HubSpot lets you keep a separate brand kit for each brand. Dana (AI host): So pick the kit that matches who's reading before you theme the dashboard. Rob (AI host): And for teams on smaller plans? Dana (AI host): The September update says all hubs and tiers, and our write-up says the same, so smaller teams get it too. Rob (AI host): Plan time, for the monthly meeting. Dana (AI host): Step one: set your primary, secondary, and accent colors in the Brand Kit. Rob (AI host): Step two: clone your main dashboard, and try the brand palette as its theme on the copy. Dana (AI host): Step three: turn on Pattern Fill for any chart that relies on red versus green. Rob (AI host): Step four: decide whether caching fits, and keep the Last updated timestamp where people can see it. Dana (AI host): Step five: once the copy looks right, apply the same theme to the real dashboard. Rob (AI host): Boardroom verdict: I'd theme the owners' dashboard before the next meeting, but I'd check every chart and turn on Pattern Fill before I present it. Dana (AI host): Before your next meeting: open your busiest dashboard and count how many colors it uses. Rob (AI host): HubSpot's September updates, its help articles, and our write-up are linked in the show notes, with more at Sidekick Strategies dot com. Dana (AI host): Thanks for listening, and may your charts finally match. Rob (AI host): Pick a palette, then present. 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.