How SL Communications cut quoting time and saved 8 hours/week with Hubstaff

Key outcomes

• Reduced quote creation to 30–60 minutes, using historical Hubstaff data
• Eliminated manual time tracking that previously took up to 8 hours per week
• Improved project budgeting by tracking time against budgets
• Increased visibility into how time is spent across tasks, projects, and reporting work

Background

SL Communications is a communication consultancy offering PR and digital marketing, focused on helping multinational companies connect with audiences in Central America and the Caribbean.

Many of their clients are based outside the region, including the U.S., Mexico, Europe, and Colombia, and rely on SL Communications to localize messaging and communication strategies for the cultural and audience differences across Central America.

SL Communications has been a long-term Hubstaff customer since 2016, so we sat down with Stephanie Lombardo, Managing Director, to learn more about how the agency tracks time, plans projects, and stays on budget across client work.

Before Hubstaff, SL Communications tracked time manually using spreadsheets and memory-based estimates. That made it difficult to track hours accurately, plan projects, and understand real profitability.

“Before, I had to ask the employees to track the data in an Excel sheet.”

Manual timesheets were especially painful when clients requested detailed hour breakdowns. As a service-based agency, time is their most valuable asset so accurate tracking wasn’t optional. It was the foundation for quoting, budgeting, and billing with confidence. 

“Time is our main resource.”

Before Hubstaff, SL Communications estimates they were spending around eight hours per week rebuilding time records for client work. That process meant reviewing emails, meetings, calendars, and past communication just to piece together accurate hours.

Now, that time is spent on billable work instead of admin.

With Hubstaff, time tracking is captured automatically, giving the team accurate records without the need to reconstruct work after the fact.

Hubstaff helps SL Communications create faster, more accurate quotes

For SL Communications, quoting is a business-critical process. Project pricing needs to reflect real effort across different roles, especially because team members have different seniority levels.

Before Hubstaff, quotes were often built on assumptions and memory. With Hubstaff, quote creation is dramatically faster, because they can pull real project data instead of guessing.

“Now, creating quotes only takes 30 minutes or less just to take the data from Hubstaff.”

That speed is one of the main reasons they’ve stayed with Hubstaff long-term.

Hubstaff improves project control with budget tracking and billing

SL Communications uses Hubstaff to track time by client and project, then compare it against budgets. This gives them early warning signals before a project becomes unprofitable. That visibility helps them plan more efficiently and take action sooner.

“We can see issues early and take action before a project goes over budget.”

Plus, Hubstaff plays a major role by providing clean, reliable data for billing.

“Hubstaff provides reliable data for billing. We spend less time checking hours and correcting errors.”

This makes invoicing faster and more accurate, with less time spent reviewing hours or fixing mistakes.

Hubstaff helps SL Communications make smarter staffing decisions with capacity planning 

Beyond time tracking, SL Communications uses Hubstaff Tasks to understand where effort is going, including work that may not be high-value. 

Capacity planning in Hubstaff helps them turn task and time data into clear visibility around workload, so they can spot where resources are being stretched and when they may need additional support.

“If our employees are spending so much time on one task, we can make decisions from the data.”

This helps leadership make informed decisions before workload issues turn into burnout or missed deadlines.

ROI and impact: “It pays for itself.”

When asked about ROI, SL Communications emphasized that Hubstaff saves enough time and manual work that it justifies its cost easily.

“It pays for itself because it saves us a bunch of hours.”

Stephanie also described the operational confidence Hubstaff provides as a key value.

“Hubstaff gives us peace of mind.”

SL Communications explained that without Hubstaff, they’d likely need additional operational support to replace what Hubstaff automates.

“Without Hubstaff, we would need extra support to manage time tracking and reporting manually.”

Final takeaway: Improved control, planning, and productivity

For SL Communications, Hubstaff isn’t just a time tracker, it’s a core operational tool that supports quoting, budgeting, and project planning.

By tracking hours by project, comparing time against budgets, and using reporting to identify issues early, SL Communications has improved how they manage client work across the region.

SL Communications is continuing to grow as a regional partner for international brands and agencies that want to expand into Panama, Central America, and the Caribbean.

“We are always open to partnering with other agencies.”

As they grow, Hubstaff will continue to support how they plan projects, track budgets, and deliver work with confidence.