Buildertrend runs the client and project side of a home build — scheduling, daily logs, budgets, selections, bids, warranty, and change orders — for one flat company fee with unlimited users. Its built-in Time Clock adds GPS and geofenced clock-in tied to cost codes, with a supervisor approval step for location exceptions. Keito is the reviewed layer for the hours themselves: AI-drafted entries a crew member or PM confirms, a reviewer signs off on billable status before a draw or change order goes out, and evidence that holds up when a client asks what the extra hours covered.
Illustrative review queue
Illustrative billing period
Hours evidenced
Entries confirmed
64
Change-order hours
$2,180
Jobs billed
9
Labour hours tied to the job and cost code
Project, phase, and billable status confirmed on entry
Reviewed before it reaches a draw request
A reviewer signs off on billing accuracy, not just GPS location
Evidence behind the draw or change order
Approved records back the bill, whichever system raises it
Buildertrend publishes scheduling, a client portal, daily logs, budgets, selections, bids, warranty, and change orders for residential builders and remodelers, all under one flat company licence with unlimited users. Its Time Clock adds mobile GPS and geofenced clock-in tied to cost codes, for both field crew and office-based internal users. Keito answers a narrower question — once the geofence check passes, whose job is it to confirm those hours are billed correctly.
Set up projects, cost codes, rates, and reviewers in Keito in days — Buildertrend keeps running scheduling, the client portal, budgets, and change orders exactly as it does today.
Keito drafts time entries from the work that actually happened on a job, so a crew member or PM confirms and corrects billable hours instead of reconstructing added scope from memory at draw time.
A reviewer settles billable status and write-down decisions before the period closes, then passes approved hours to whichever system turns the job into a draw request or invoice — Buildertrend’s workflow or otherwise.
A flat-fee project platform vs a reviewed hours layer
Buildertrend is published as an all-in-one platform for custom home builders, remodelers, and specialty contractors: scheduling, a client-facing portal, daily logs, budgets and estimates, selections, bids and proposals, warranty, and change orders, sold as flat, all-inclusive company licences with unlimited users rather than metered per seat. Its Time Clock module is a real, published feature — mobile GPS and geofenced clock-in and clock-out tied to job cost codes, available to field crew and office-based internal users alike, with a supervisor permission to review and approve shifts. That review step matters, but by Buildertrend’s own documentation it is scoped to location: supervisors with the relevant permission clear an "Out of Bounds" geofence flag on a time entry, not sign off on whether the hours were billable, correctly rated, or ready to support a client draw. That gap shows up most on cost-plus and change-order work, where a builder needs to show a client exactly which hours a piece of extra scope consumed before it goes on a draw request. Keito’s argument is not that a builder needs a new project platform — it is that the labour hours behind a draw deserve a billing review, not just a location check. Keito drafts time entries from the work that actually happened, the crew member or PM confirms them, and a reviewer approves billable status and any write-down before the entry becomes evidence for the draw or change order. The boundary is deliberate: Keito has no scheduling, client portal, daily logs, selections, bids, warranty tracking, or change-order workflow, and it claims no native Buildertrend integration, automatic import, or synchronisation. Buildertrend keeps running the build; Keito makes sure the labour hours behind the bill are reviewed for billing, not only for location.
Choose Buildertrend when the business needs scheduling, a client portal, budgets, selections, bids, warranty, and change orders running from one platform
Choose Keito when the problem is proving the labour hours behind a cost-plus draw or change order were reviewed for billing, not just GPS location
Prove it in one billing cycle: Keito runs alongside Buildertrend, reviewing the hours without touching scheduling or the client portal
Workflow fit
Keito keeps Buildertrend alternative connected to client, project, billable status, approval, and invoice context before the work reaches finance.
Choose Buildertrend when the business needs scheduling, a client portal, budgets, selections, bids, warranty, and change orders running from one platform
Choose Keito when the problem is proving the labour hours behind a cost-plus draw or change order were reviewed for billing, not just GPS location
Prove it in one billing cycle: Keito runs alongside Buildertrend, reviewing the hours without touching scheduling or the client portal
Keito drafts entries from the work that happened on a job; crew members and project managers confirm and correct rather than reconstructing added scope from memory at draw time.
Buildertrend’s Time Clock approval clears location exceptions on a shift; Keito adds the sign-off that settles billable status and rate before hours reach a draw or change order.
Reviewers approve hours and hand the evidence to whichever system turns the job into a bill — Buildertrend’s change-order workflow or otherwise — through exports or handoffs 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 billable hours, write-down decisions, and invoice evidence.
Buildertrend publishes a full residential construction platform — scheduling, client portal, daily logs, budgets, selections, bids, warranty, and change orders.
How hours are captured
AI drafts entries from the work that happened; the crew member or PM confirms them, and a reviewer approves before anything backs a draw.
Buildertrend publishes a mobile GPS and geofenced Time Clock tied to job cost codes, available to field crew and office-based internal users.
Review before billing
A reviewer settles billable status and write-down decisions before the period closes.
Buildertrend’s published Time Clock approval lets a supervisor clear geofence "Out of Bounds" exceptions on a shift — a location check, not a billing-accuracy review.
Billing model fit
Built for the labour hours behind cost-plus draws and change orders that need client-facing evidence.
Built around the scheduled project and client workflow, with time tracking as a supporting feature for payroll and job costing.
Pricing and adoption
Published flat team pricing and a setup measured in days, run alongside Buildertrend.
Buildertrend publishes flat, all-inclusive company licences (commonly named Essential, Advanced, and Complete) with unlimited users rather than per-seat pricing.
Data movement
Team-designed, tested exports and API handoffs moved in deliberate stages.
No native Keito-Buildertrend import or automatic synchronisation is assumed in either direction; Buildertrend’s own scheduling and change-order tools belong to its platform.
It is software a construction business adopts instead of — or alongside — Buildertrend, which runs scheduling, a client portal, daily logs, budgets, selections, bids, warranty, and change orders for residential builders and remodelers. Because Buildertrend spans that much of the business, an alternative rarely replaces all of it at once. Keito is the alternative for the labour hours behind a draw or change order specifically: AI-drafted entries confirmed by the person who did the work, reviewed for billing before they back a client-facing bill.
Buildertrend does track time. Its published Time Clock adds mobile GPS and geofenced clock-in and clock-out tied to job cost codes, available to field crew and office-based internal users alike, with a supervisor permission to review and approve shifts. What that approval step covers, by Buildertrend’s own documentation, is a geofence "Out of Bounds" exception on the shift — a location check rather than a review of whether the hours were billable or correctly rated for the draw.
The gap is what the review step checks. Buildertrend’s Time Clock approval clears location exceptions on a logged shift for payroll and job-cost accuracy. Keito adds a separate step: AI drafts a time entry from the work that happened, the crew member or PM confirms it, and a reviewer approves billable status and any write-down before the entry becomes evidence for a change order or draw line. Buildertrend still owns scheduling, the client portal, budgets, and change-order workflow; Keito owns the reviewed record for the labour hours behind the bill.
Choose Buildertrend when the business needs to run the whole project and client relationship from one platform: scheduling, a client-facing portal, daily logs, selections, bids, warranty, and change-order approvals. Keito does not reproduce any of that — no scheduling, no client portal, no selections, no change-order workflow. It is the wrong choice if the immediate need is a construction project and client management platform rather than a reviewed record of billable hours.
Each reviewed record keeps the project, cost code, contributor, duration, description, billable status, rate context, reviewer, approval state, write-down decision, and billing period. That package backs the draw request or change-order line Buildertrend — or any other system — turns into a bill, and gives a builder a reviewed answer when a client questions the labour hours behind a cost-plus job.
No. Keito claims no native Buildertrend integration, automatic import, or two-way synchronisation — Buildertrend’s own scheduling, client portal, and change-order tools 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 invoice evidence. A builder can keep Buildertrend for scheduling and client communication and run Keito alongside it as the reviewed hours layer, with any transfer between them designed and tested by the team.
Solo includes 1 licensed user, unlimited AI agents, Mac desktop 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.
Team collaboration
For teams that need shared workspaces, approvals, and team-level project visibility.
Advanced operations
For organizations that need integrations, planning, advanced reporting, and stronger controls.
AI 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.