Joist runs day-to-day contractor paperwork from quote to paid: professional estimates, invoices converted in one click, online and Tap to Pay payments, client profiles, expense tracking, sales and business reports, QuickBooks sync, homeowner financing, and AI estimating tools across Basics, Pro, Elite, and Run plans. The Run plan adds job organization and visit scheduling so estimates, invoices, and clients stay linked as workloads grow. Reviewed public Joist marketing, pricing, and plan-comparison materials do not describe a native employee time clock, timesheets, or a required second reviewer who must approve hours before they become a paycheck. Keito is the layer crews add for the hours: AI-drafted time entries a crew 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
42
Crew reviewed
8
Jobs covered
19
Hours tied to each job
Crew member, job, and role 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
Joist contractors create estimates, convert them to invoices, collect payments, manage clients, track expenses, and sync with QuickBooks on one estimating and invoicing platform — with Basics through Elite for document volume and reporting depth, and Run for jobs and visit scheduling. What reviewed public materials do not describe is a native employee time clock or a required second-approver payroll attendance workflow before crew hours become a paycheck; Joist’s own hiring and payroll workshop content points contractors toward separate time-tracking systems or timesheets for payroll accuracy. Keito answers the payroll question that leaves open: did each crew member confirm their hours, and did a separate reviewer approve them, before those hours became a paycheck.
Set up crew members, leads, and reviewers in Keito in days — Joist keeps running estimates, invoices, payments, clients, QuickBooks sync, and Run jobs/scheduling exactly as it does today.
Keito drafts a time entry from the job a crew member worked, so they confirm hours instead of reconstructing attendance from calendars, texts, or invoice line items at payroll time.
A separate reviewer approves payroll status before the period closes, then hands the approved hours to payroll as evidence.
Estimates and invoices are not a second-approver payroll gate
Joist is published as contractor estimating, invoicing, and payment software: professional estimates with templates and line items, one-click estimate-to-invoice conversion, online payments and Tap to Pay, deposit and milestone payments, client management, expense tracking, sales and business reports, QuickBooks sync, homeowner financing, contractor lending, Joist Reviews, social integrations, AI estimate and note tools, and — on the Run plan — job organization, visit scheduling, and links between jobs, estimates, invoices, and clients. Public pricing on Joist’s pricing page (verified 2026-09-30) lists Basics about $10 USD/month (about $8.34 USD/month on annual billing), Pro about $17 USD/month (about $14.17 USD/month annual), Elite about $32 USD/month (about $26.67 USD/month annual), and Run about $100 USD/month standard with an introductory 30% off (about $70 USD/month monthly; annual about $58.33 USD/month), with annual plans billed for ten months (two months free), a 14-day free trial of Run features with no credit card required, and no setup fees; Joist Payments processing fees apply when accepting online payments. Basics limits users to about five documents per month; Pro and above include unlimited documents and clients. Reviewed public Joist product, pricing, and Joist Run vs Jobber Connect comparison 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 — and Joist’s comparison materials attribute time and expense tracking to Jobber Connect rather than to Joist Run. Keito’s argument is not that contractors need a new estimator, invoicer, or payments app — Joist already publishes that stack, and Keito makes no claim to estimates, invoices, payment processing, financing, or Run visit scheduling. It is that the hours behind a paycheck deserve AI-drafted entries a crew member confirms and a separate reviewer approves, rather than treating job calendars, invoice totals, or texted hours as payroll attendance. The boundary is deliberate: Keito has no estimating, contractor invoicing, or payment tools, and it claims no native Joist integration, automatic import, or synchronisation. Joist keeps running quote-to-cash; Keito is where crew hours get an independent review before payroll.
Choose Joist when the contractor needs estimating, invoicing, payments, client management, QuickBooks sync, and optional Run jobs/scheduling purpose-built for trades
Choose Keito when the problem is independently reviewed payroll hours that Joist estimating and invoicing are not designed to replace as a second-approver gate
Prove it in one pay period: Keito runs alongside Joist, reviewing hours without touching estimates, invoices, or payments
Workflow fit
Keito keeps Joist alternative connected to client, project, billable status, approval, and invoice context before the work reaches finance.
Choose Joist when the contractor needs estimating, invoicing, payments, client management, QuickBooks sync, and optional Run jobs/scheduling purpose-built for trades
Choose Keito when the problem is independently reviewed payroll hours that Joist estimating and invoicing are not designed to replace as a second-approver gate
Prove it in one pay period: Keito runs alongside Joist, reviewing hours without touching estimates, invoices, or payments
Keito drafts a time entry from the job a crew member worked; they confirm and correct it instead of reconstructing attendance from calendars, texts, or invoice line items at payroll time.
Joist estimates, invoices, Run schedules, and business reports surface quote-to-cash progress; Keito’s reviewer settles payroll status for every entry before the period closes.
Reviewers approve crew hours and hand the evidence to payroll for labor-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 labor-cost evidence.
Joist publishes contractor estimating, invoicing, and payments — estimates, invoices, online/Tap to Pay, clients, expenses, reports, QuickBooks sync, financing, and Run jobs/scheduling.
How time is captured
AI drafts a job-specific entry from the time worked; the crew member confirms it, and a separate reviewer approves before it becomes a paycheck.
Joist focuses on estimates, invoices, payments, and (on Run) visit scheduling; reviewed public materials do not document a native employee time clock or required second-approver payroll attendance workflow.
Correction and review
Every reviewed hour carries a reviewer, an approval state, and a reasoned record of any change, tracked from the first draft.
Joist reports, client activity, and Run schedules help contractors see quote-to-cash progress; they are not documented as a second-approver payroll attendance gate.
Review before payroll
A reviewer distinct from the crew member settles payroll status per entry before the period closes.
Joist keeps the estimating and invoicing 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 Joist.
Joist presents Basics, Pro, Elite, and Run plans (public list prices from about $10 USD/month Basics to about $100 USD/month Run standard, with introductory Run discount and annual two-months-free billing), with a 14-day free trial and no setup fees.
Data movement
Team-designed, tested exports and API handoffs moved in deliberate stages.
Joist’s own QuickBooks sync, Joist Payments, financing, and related workflows belong to its platform; connecting reviewed-hours data to outside payroll tools is not an assumed automatic sync with Keito.
It is software a trade contractor adopts instead of, or alongside, Joist, which runs estimating, invoicing, payments, client management, QuickBooks sync, and optional Run jobs and visit scheduling. Because Joist already covers that much of quote-to-cash, an alternative rarely replaces all of it at once. Keito is the alternative for independently reviewed crew hours: AI-drafted entries a crew member confirms, approved by a separate reviewer before those hours become a paycheck.
Joist manages estimates, invoices, payments, clients, expenses, reports, and — on Run — jobs and visit scheduling. Reviewed public Joist marketing, pricing, and plan-comparison materials do not document a native employee time clock, timesheets, or a required second-approver payroll attendance workflow before hours become a paycheck. Joist’s own hiring and payroll workshop content points contractors toward separate time-tracking systems or timesheets when they need accurate payroll records.
The gap is payroll attendance review, not estimating or invoicing. Joist already owns estimates, invoices, payments, clients, QuickBooks sync, and optional Run scheduling. Keito adds the hours layer: it drafts a time entry from the job worked, the crew member confirms it, and a separate reviewer settles payroll status before the hours become evidence. Joist still owns the estimate and the invoice; Keito owns the independently reviewed hours record.
Choose Joist when the business needs contractor estimating, invoicing, and payments — professional estimates, invoices, online payments, client management, QuickBooks sync, financing, and optional Run jobs/scheduling — on one platform for trades. Keito does not reproduce any of it: no estimate templates, no contractor invoicing, no payment processing, no visit scheduling. It is the wrong choice if the immediate need is quote-to-cash software rather than an independently reviewed record of crew hours.
Each reviewed record keeps the crew member, role, job, duration, description, payroll status, reviewer, approval state, and pay period, tied to the hours worked rather than an invoice total or schedule block alone. That package backs the payroll run and gives an office manager a reviewed answer when a crew member’s hours are questioned.
No. Keito claims no native Joist integration, automatic import, or two-way synchronisation — Joist’s own estimating, invoicing, payments, QuickBooks, financing, and Run scheduling 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 contractor can keep Joist for estimating and invoicing and run Keito alongside it as the independent review layer for crew 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.
