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Getting started

1. Install in HubSpot

A HubSpot admin adds taskCNX with the Add to HubSpot button and approves the requested access. This connects your portal, and you only do it once for the whole team. (A HubSpot Marketplace listing is on its way; until then the button is the way in.)

2. Share the connect link

After installing, you’ll get a link. Send it to anyone on your team who wants their tasks synced.

3. Connect Microsoft

Each person opens the link and signs in with their Microsoft account. taskCNX creates a taskCNX list in their To Do and backfills their recent open HubSpot tasks. That’s it.

How the sync works

• HubSpot is the source of truth. Tasks are created in HubSpot; To Do is where you work them.
• Two-way for what matters. Completing a task or changing its due date in To Do updates HubSpot, and vice-versa.
• Reminders. Every due date becomes a To Do reminder so follow-ups actually ping you. If you've set your own reminder on the HubSpot task, that's used instead — see below for what happens when you set more than one.
• Reassignment. If a task is reassigned in HubSpot, it moves to the new owner’s list automatically.
• Deletions. Deleting a synced task in To Do won’t delete it in HubSpot; it’ll come back on the next sync. Delete it in HubSpot to remove it everywhere.

Creating tasks without leaving Outlook

taskCNX brings HubSpot tasks into Microsoft To Do. When you think of a follow-up while you're in Outlook, create it in HubSpot from the HubSpot Sales Outlook add-in, and it'll sync down into your taskCNX list automatically, already linked to the right contact.

1. In Outlook, open or compose an email, and open the HubSpot Sales add-in from the ribbon.
2. In the HubSpot pane, go to the contact profile and click View contact.
3. Expand the Tasks section and click Add.
4. Enter the task name, pick a due date, and Save.

The task is created in HubSpot associated with that contact, and taskCNX picks it up on the next sync, with a reminder on its due date. This is the reliable way to capture a follow-up from your Microsoft workflow, because the task gets a real CRM association that a task typed straight into To Do can't have. HubSpot's own guide: create or log activities with the Office 365 add-in.

FAQ

Can I create a task in Microsoft To Do and have it sync to HubSpot?

Not as a new HubSpot task. taskCNX syncs completions and due-date changes from To Do back to HubSpot, but a task you type directly into To Do has no CRM record to attach to, so it stays in To Do. To capture a follow-up without leaving your Microsoft workflow, create it in HubSpot from the Outlook add-in (see above), and it'll appear in your taskCNX list on the next sync, properly linked to the contact.

Can HubSpot sync tasks to Microsoft To Do on its own?

No. HubSpot's native Outlook integration syncs tasks to your Outlook calendar as agenda items, and it doesn't create real tasks in Microsoft To Do, so they never appear in My Day or your task list. That gap is what taskCNX fills. See all the options compared.

Can Zapier sync HubSpot tasks to Microsoft To Do instead?

Partly. Zapier can create a Microsoft To Do task when something happens in HubSpot, but it's one-way, and updating existing tasks isn't directly supported. Completing a task in To Do won't complete it in HubSpot, and a due-date change in HubSpot won't update the task already in your list, so the two drift apart. taskCNX syncs both directions.

Which tasks sync?

Open tasks assigned to a connected user. Completed tasks stay visible for a few days, then leave the list.

On first connection the backfill covers open tasks due within the last 90 days, plus anything due in future or carrying no due date. That keeps a new list from being seeded with years of stale work. Once you are connected, everything syncs regardless of age: the cutoff applies only to that initial backfill, and a task already in your list is never removed as it gets older.

Can I control when reminders arrive?

Yes, from your own status page. HubSpot tasks created with just a date all land on the same time of day, so their reminders tend to arrive together. There are four settings and the default changes nothing:

• Use HubSpot's times. Whatever the task says. This is the default.
• Spread out reminders that land together. Only reminders arriving at the same moment are separated, fifteen minutes apart, highest priority first. The spread stops at the end of the working day rather than running into your evening.
• Fit reminders into part of my day. Everything due that day is queued into hours you pick — mornings only, say — highest priority first. This one can remind you before a task is due, which is the point of it.
• Schedule my tasks into my day. The only setting that changes anything in HubSpot. See below.

With the third or fourth setting you can also tick “Skip times I'm already booked”. taskCNX then asks Microsoft for read-only free/busy and puts your times in the gaps between meetings instead of during them. If your 9 to 12 has a call at ten, reminders land at 9:00, 9:15, 9:30, 9:45 and then 11:00 onward — the booked hour is skipped entirely.

That permission is asked for only when you tick the box, never when you first connect, and it is the least-privileged calendar permission Microsoft offers. taskCNX reads whether a slot is busy and nothing else — not meeting names, locations, attendees or contents — and never writes to your calendar. If your organisation requires an administrator to approve it, you will be sent through that request once. If the calendar cannot be read for any reason, reminders fall back to your plain chosen hours rather than guessing.

Tasks already overdue stay where they are rather than being queued into a working morning — give one a new date in HubSpot and it joins that day.

With the first three settings your HubSpot data is never changed at all; only the moment you are told. Move a reminder yourself in To Do and we leave it where you put it, and a time you entered in HubSpot's own Reminder field is never moved. The setting is yours alone — nobody else, including your account owner, can turn it on for you.

I set reminders on my HubSpot tasks. Which one do I get?

Your own reminder wins. If a HubSpot task has a reminder set, that's the time To Do alerts you, rather than the due time — and none of the reminder settings above will move it, because it's a time you chose rather than one we picked.

If you've set several reminders on one task, you get the soonest one that hasn't passed yet. A HubSpot task can carry more than one reminder; a Microsoft To Do task holds exactly one, so we use the next alert you're expecting. The others still show in HubSpot, they just don't each raise their own alarm in To Do.

Reminders that have already gone by are never sent. That matters most on your first connection, when your whole backlog arrives at once: without it, a rep with two hundred overdue tasks would get two hundred notifications in a few seconds. The due dates still sync — only the alarm for a moment that's already passed is held back.

Can taskCNX lay my tasks out across the day?

Yes, with the fourth setting: Schedule my tasks into my day. It is the only one that changes something in HubSpot, so it is worth knowing exactly what it does.

Pick your working hours and taskCNX gives each task due that day its own time inside them, highest priority first, fifteen minutes apart — and, if you tick the calendar box, only in the gaps between your meetings. Tasks that don't fit go to the end of your day rather than being crammed in or pushed into your evening.

The difference from the other settings is where the time lands. The others move the alert inside Microsoft To Do; this one writes the time onto the HubSpot task itself. That matters because HubSpot can put your tasks on your Outlook or Google calendar — turn on Tasks Calendar Sync in your HubSpot profile settings — and once it does, a scheduled day shows up as blocks you can actually look at.

One thing to know before you turn that on. HubSpot's task calendar adds events and moves them, but it never takes one away. Finish a task and its block stays on your calendar; delete the task and the block still stays. Nothing is wrong with your setup — that is simply how the feature works, and it is HubSpot's side rather than ours, but it means a calendar of task blocks fills up and never empties. Clear it by disconnecting and reconnecting the task calendar under Profile & Preferences → Tasks, which starts you a fresh one. taskCNX cannot tidy it for you: our calendar permission reads whether you are busy and nothing else, and it cannot write or delete. If that trade is not worth it to you, the scheduling still works perfectly well with the calendar sync switched off — you just read your day in Microsoft To Do instead of on a calendar.

Your due dates are still never changed. A task due Friday is given a time on Friday. Only the time of day moves, and HubSpot fills that in with a default anyway when you create a task.

Want a task at a particular time? Set it in HubSpot. The moment you give a task a time yourself, taskCNX stops managing that one and leaves it exactly where you put it, permanently. That is how you keep a 2:30 call at 2:30.

Completing tasks does not shuffle the rest of your day: what is placed stays placed, and a freed slot is filled by one task from the end of the day rather than by re-timing everything. If your admin has not enabled task scheduling for your portal, the option does not appear.

I'm getting alerts at odd times, like midnight. Is that taskCNX?

Almost certainly not, and it's worth knowing how to tell, because the two look similar on a desktop.

taskCNX never sets a reminder at midnight. A HubSpot task created with only a date is stored at midnight, and we deliberately move its To Do reminder to 9 AM your time, because nobody wants to be told about tomorrow's work at midnight.

The usual culprit is HubSpot's own Tasks Calendar Sync, which is a separate HubSpot feature from taskCNX. When it's on, every HubSpot task also becomes a fifteen minute event on your Outlook or Google calendar, and those events carry their own alerts. A task that was due at midnight produces a calendar alert at midnight.

Finished and deleted tasks leave their calendar events behind. HubSpot's own documentation is explicit that deleting a task does not remove the event it created, and we have measured the same for completing one: the event stays on your calendar, keeps its alert, and keeps firing. Nothing HubSpot's task sync creates is ever removed by it. Over a year of ordinary work that is one dead event per task you finish, which is why a calendar can end up looking far busier than your week actually is.

To tell them apart: a taskCNX reminder comes from a task in your taskCNX list in Microsoft To Do. A stray alert for something that isn't in that list, or for a task you deleted, is a calendar event from HubSpot's task sync.

To clear them, disconnect and reconnect the task calendar under Profile & Preferences → Tasks in HubSpot, which gives you a fresh one. taskCNX can't remove them for you: our calendar permission is read-only, and it only reads whether you're free or busy.

Does it change my other To Do lists?

No. taskCNX only touches its own taskCNX list. Your My Day, other lists, and categories are never modified.

Can I rename the taskCNX list?

Yes. Rename the list to whatever you like in Microsoft To Do and the sync keeps working, because taskCNX follows the list by its ID, not its name.

What if I delete the whole taskCNX list?

taskCNX notices on the next sync, creates the list again, and rebuilds your open tasks into it. Nothing in HubSpot is affected, and you do not need to reconnect. Expect it back within a couple of minutes rather than instantly.

I deleted a task in To Do and it came back. Why?

HubSpot is the system of record, so a task that is still open there is put back on the next sync. That is deliberate: it stops a task quietly vanishing from your CRM because someone tidied their To Do list.

To make one go away for good, deal with it in HubSpot: complete it, or delete it there. Completing it in To Do works too, because that marks it complete in HubSpot, and completed tasks drop off the list a few days later.

Who can pay, and how do I set a billing admin?

Billing is handled by one account owner, by default whoever installed taskCNX in HubSpot. If someone else should pay, such as a manager or finance admin, the owner opens Manage billing from their portal and sends a billing invite to that person’s email. They get a secure link to take over billing and add a payment method, without connecting Microsoft or using a seat. Ownership only changes once they open the link, so a mistyped address can’t lock anyone out.

My company requires admin approval for Microsoft apps. What then?

Many organizations require an IT admin to approve new Microsoft apps. If yours does, you’ll see a “needs admin approval” message when you try to connect. taskCNX gives you a one-time approval link to send your Microsoft 365 / Entra admin. Once they approve, everyone on your team can connect with no further prompts. taskCNX only requests permission to read your profile and manage your to-do tasks (Tasks.ReadWrite, User.Read), plus offline access to keep syncing.

How do I stop syncing?

Uninstall taskCNX in HubSpot. The connection is disabled immediately and no further tasks sync.

Do I need Microsoft To Do, or does this work with Outlook?

taskCNX creates a list called “taskCNX” in Microsoft To Do, and To Do is the task system behind Outlook, so there is nothing extra to install or learn. The list appears in the To Do apps for Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android, in the Tasks pane in Outlook on the web, and in the new Outlook. In classic Outlook for Windows it arrives as its own task folder, as long as Outlook is signed into the same Microsoft 365 or Exchange Online account. Tasks kept in an on-premises mailbox or a local PST file do not sync.

Need a hand?

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