A national commercial kitchen cleaning company was losing prospects in the gaps: phone leads with no names, callbacks that depended on memory, and proposals nobody knew had been opened. We built one system that makes sure every lead gets followed up, and it replaced HubSpot, PandaDoc, Utilize Core and a custom n8n automation along the way.
Every lead is logged with a name and a callback reminder on its own schedule. Fewer prospects go quiet, so fewer jobs slip away.
HubSpot, Utilize Core and PandaDoc, gone. That is $26,000+ a year.
An ~$14,000 build, paid back by subscription savings alone, before counting a single extra job won.
From a 25-click work order to one button on an accepted proposal.
The company cleans commercial kitchens for multi-location brands, with the work done by a network of subcontractors ranging from small local shops to national franchise operators. Their software made every step harder than it needed to be.
Inbound calls and voicemails landed as jumbled phone numbers with no names attached. Whether a prospect got a callback depended on someone remembering, and the ones who didn't hear back hired someone else.
The sales lead built the proposal in Utilize Core, downloaded it, uploaded it to PandaDoc, added signature boxes by hand, then sent it. Long scopes spilled across three pages, and nobody could tell whether the client had even opened it.
Turning a signed job into a work order in Utilize Core took about 25 clicks. The ops lead who scheduled the jobs did that over and over, every week.
They had already paid for a custom n8n automation build to tie it all together. It never worked the way the team needed, and they were still paying $1,450 a month for HubSpot on top of it.
HubSpot ($1,450/mo), Utilize Core ($600+/mo), PandaDoc (~$120/mo) and a $20,000+ n8n automation build.
About $14,000. Live in production, with the team now asking for new features rather than workarounds.
Every prospect gets followed up, so fewer jobs slip away, on a software bill that no longer grows with every hire.
| BeforeHubSpot · PandaDoc · Utilize Core · n8n | AfterBuilt by Black Atlas | |
|---|---|---|
| Follow-ups | Phone numbers with no names, callbacks from memory | Every lead logged and assigned, with automatic callback reminders |
| Software cost | $2,170+ a month in subscriptions, plus a $20,000+ automation build | No per-seat subscriptions for the tools it replaced |
| Sending a proposal | Build in one tool, download, upload to another, add signature boxes, send | Build, send and track from one page |
| Proposal visibility | No way to know if the client opened it | Every open recorded; accept, decline or discount requests come straight back |
| Starting a work order | About 25 clicks | One button on the accepted proposal |
| Subcontractors | Emails, texts and attachments | One no-login link with the scope and photo upload |
| Recurring work | A whiteboard calendar in the office | Next due dates computed, with reminders to schedule ahead |
Client name withheld at their request. Figures are the subscription costs the client was paying before launch.
A luxury builder in North Idaho swapped spreadsheets, PowerPoint selection books and Teams threads for one operations app, and got 20+ hours of admin back every week.
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Read the case studyWalk us through your tools and workflows. We will show you where the money and hours are leaking, and what a custom system would replace.