Acuity Scheduling (by Squarespace) runs the booking side of appointment businesses: branded client self-scheduling, payments through Stripe, Square, or PayPal, packages, subscriptions, gift certificates, intake forms, automated reminders, and staff calendars with individual availability. Public pricing (verified 2026-10-03) lists Starter about $16 USD/month billed annually ($20 monthly) with one bookable calendar, Standard about $27 USD/month billed annually ($34 monthly) with up to six calendars, and Premium about $49 USD/month billed annually ($61 monthly) with up to 36 calendars. Reviewed public Acuity and Squarespace Scheduling marketing, pricing, staff-management, and reports materials do not describe a native employee time clock, timesheets, GPS attendance, or a required second reviewer who must approve hours before they become a paycheck. Appointment and revenue reports can summarise booked appointment durations — they are not documented as a payroll attendance or second-approver timesheet workflow. Keito is the layer teams add for the hours: AI-drafted time entries a staff member confirms, reviewed and approved by someone else, with any change reasoned and recorded, before the hours become a paycheck.
Illustrative review queue
Illustrative pay period
Hours reviewed
Entries confirmed
38
Staff reviewed
9
Locations covered
2
Hours tied to each shift
Staff member, role, and location on every entry
Reviewed before payroll runs
A separate reviewer confirms hours before the batch closes
Evidence behind payroll
Reviewed hours back the payroll run
Acuity users publish booking pages, take deposits and payments, sell packages and gift certificates, collect intake forms, and manage staff availability across calendars. What reviewed public materials do not describe is a native employee time clock or a required second-approver payroll attendance workflow before staff hours become a paycheck. Keito answers the payroll question that leaves open: did each staff member confirm their hours, and did a separate reviewer approve them, before those hours became a paycheck.
Set up staff members, leads, and reviewers in Keito in days — Acuity keeps running booking pages, payments, packages, intake forms, reminders, and staff calendars exactly as it does today.
Keito drafts a time entry from the shift a staff member worked, so they confirm hours instead of reconstructing attendance from calendars, appointment reports, or texts at payroll time.
A separate reviewer approves payroll status before the period closes, then hands the approved hours to payroll as evidence.
Booking calendars are not a second-approver payroll gate
Acuity Scheduling is published as online appointment scheduling software by Squarespace: branded client self-scheduling, calendar sync, automated email and text reminders, intake forms, packages, subscriptions, gift certificates, coupons, and payments through Stripe, Square, or PayPal, with staff calendars for individual availability, permissions, and location booking. Public pricing on Acuity’s pricing page (verified 2026-10-03) lists Starter about $16 USD/month billed annually ($20 monthly) with one bookable calendar, Standard about $27 USD/month billed annually ($34 monthly) with up to six calendars, and Premium about $49 USD/month billed annually ($61 monthly) with up to 36 calendars; plans scale calendars for employees and locations rather than publishing a payroll time clock. Acuity’s reports summarise appointments, revenue, tips, add-ons, and total appointment duration — help material notes those reports can help calculate payroll from booked appointments, and that detailed commission tracking belongs in a separate accounting system. Reviewed public Acuity and Squarespace Scheduling marketing, pricing, staff-management, and reports materials do not document a native employee time clock, timesheets, GPS attendance, or a required second reviewer who must approve hours with a distinct payroll approval status before payday. Keito’s argument is not that appointment businesses need a new booking or payments app — Acuity already publishes that stack, and Keito makes no claim to booking pages, payment processors, packages, or staff calendars. It is that the hours behind a paycheck deserve AI-drafted entries a staff member confirms and a separate reviewer approves, rather than treating booked appointment duration, calendar availability, or texted hours as payroll attendance. The boundary is deliberate: Keito has no booking page, payment processor, package store, or staff calendar product, and it claims no native Acuity integration, automatic import, or synchronisation. Acuity keeps running bookings-to-payments; Keito is where staff hours get an independent review before payroll.
Choose Acuity when the team needs online booking, payments, packages, intake forms, and staff calendars for an appointment business
Choose Keito when the problem is independently reviewed payroll hours that Acuity calendars and appointment-duration reports are not designed to replace as a second-approver gate
Prove it in one pay period: Keito runs alongside Acuity, reviewing hours without touching bookings or payments
Workflow fit
Keito keeps Acuity Scheduling alternative connected to client, project, billable status, approval, and invoice context before the work reaches finance.
Choose Acuity when the team needs online booking, payments, packages, intake forms, and staff calendars for an appointment business
Choose Keito when the problem is independently reviewed payroll hours that Acuity calendars and appointment-duration reports are not designed to replace as a second-approver gate
Prove it in one pay period: Keito runs alongside Acuity, reviewing hours without touching bookings or payments
Keito drafts a time entry from the shift a staff member worked; they confirm and correct it instead of reconstructing attendance from calendars, appointment reports, or texts at payroll time.
Acuity calendars and appointment reports surface booking activity; Keito’s reviewer settles payroll status for every entry before the period closes.
Reviewers approve staff hours and hand the evidence to payroll for labour-cost review, through exports the team designs and tests itself.
The difference is not just recording time. It is whether the record can support billing, project decisions, and client conversations.
Product shape
A standalone workspace for reviewed, payroll-ready hours and labour-cost evidence.
Acuity Scheduling publishes online booking, payments, packages, intake forms, reminders, and staff calendars across Starter, Standard, and Premium plans.
How time is captured
AI drafts a shift-specific entry from the time worked; the staff member confirms it, and a separate reviewer approves before it becomes a paycheck.
Acuity focuses on client booking, staff availability calendars, and appointment/revenue reports; reviewed public materials do not document a native employee time clock or required second-approver payroll attendance workflow. Appointment-duration totals can help calculate payroll from bookings — they are not documented as a payroll timesheet product.
Correction and review
Every reviewed hour carries a reviewer, an approval state, and a reasoned record of any change, tracked from the first draft.
Acuity appointment edits, calendar permissions, and reports help teams manage bookings; they are not documented as a second-approver payroll attendance gate.
Review before payroll
A reviewer distinct from the staff member settles payroll status per entry before the period closes.
Acuity keeps the booking and payments source of truth; payroll-grade attendance review is commonly handled outside the core platform.
Pricing and adoption
Published flat pricing (Solo from $19 USD/month; Team from $49 USD/month) and a setup measured in days, run alongside Acuity.
Acuity presents Starter, Standard, and Premium plans (public list prices about $16, $27, and $49 USD/month billed annually on 2026-10-03, or about $20, $34, and $61 monthly), scaled by bookable calendars.
Data movement
Team-designed, tested exports and API handoffs moved in deliberate stages.
Acuity’s own calendar sync, payment processors, Squarespace embed, and API/CSS on Premium belong to its platform; connecting reviewed-hours data to outside payroll tools is not an assumed automatic sync with Keito.
It is software a salon, spa, wellness, fitness, consulting, or coaching team adopts instead of, or alongside, Acuity Scheduling, which runs online booking, payments, packages, intake forms, and staff calendars. Because Acuity already covers that much of appointment operations, an alternative rarely replaces all of it at once. Keito is the alternative for independently reviewed staff hours: AI-drafted entries a staff member confirms, approved by a separate reviewer before those hours become a paycheck.
Acuity manages online booking, staff calendars and availability, payments, packages, intake forms, and appointment/revenue reports — including total appointment duration summaries that help material notes can support payroll calculations from booked appointments. Reviewed public Acuity and Squarespace Scheduling marketing, pricing, staff-management, and reports materials do not document a native employee time clock, timesheets, GPS attendance, or a required second-approver payroll attendance workflow before hours become a paycheck. Detailed commission tracking is described as belonging in a separate accounting system.
The gap is payroll attendance review, not booking or payments. Acuity already owns scheduling, calendars, and client payments. Keito adds the hours layer: it drafts a time entry from the shift worked, the staff member confirms it, and a separate reviewer settles payroll status before the hours become evidence. Acuity still owns the appointments and the payments; Keito owns the independently reviewed hours record.
Choose Acuity when the business needs online booking, payments, packages, intake forms, reminders, and staff calendars for an appointment-based service. Keito does not reproduce any of it: no booking page, no payment processor, no package store, no staff calendar product. It is the wrong choice if the immediate need is scheduling software rather than an independently reviewed record of staff hours.
Each reviewed record keeps the staff member, role, location, duration, description, payroll status, reviewer, approval state, and pay period, tied to the hours worked rather than a booked appointment block or calendar availability alone. That package backs the payroll run and gives an owner a reviewed answer when a staff member’s hours are questioned.
No. Keito claims no native Acuity integration, automatic import, or two-way synchronisation — Acuity’s own booking, payments, calendar sync, Squarespace embed, and Premium API workflows belong to its platform, not Keito’s. Capture in Keito is its own workflow: AI-drafted, typed, timed, and manually entered records that pass review before becoming payroll evidence. A business can keep Acuity for booking and payments and run Keito alongside it as the independent review layer for staff hours, with any transfer between them designed and tested by the team.
Solo includes 1 licensed user, unlimited AI agents, Mac, Windows, and iOS apps, Stripe payments, and standard CSV and Excel exports. Pro adds your team. Business adds integrations, planning, advanced reporting, and stronger controls.
1 licensed user
For independent consultants, freelancers, and small studios running work with AI agents.
Flat workspace price for 1 licensed user
Team collaboration
For teams that need shared workspaces, approvals, and team-level project visibility.
Flat workspace price with no per-user fees
Advanced operations
For organizations that need integrations, planning, advanced reporting, and stronger controls.
Flat workspace price with no per-user fees
Optional Business add-on: Microsoft Entra SSO.
View add-on and pricingAI agents do not require licenses on any plan.
Solo, Pro, and Business can use API keys for agent workflows.
Solo, Pro, and Business include standard CSV and Excel data export.
Start with Solo, add people on Pro when you need reviewers or collaborators, and see how Keito turns tracked effort into clearer reports.
