Laurel, formerly Time by Ping, is an AI timekeeping platform for law, accounting, and consulting firms. It captures activity across email, calendars, documents, and calls, drafts narratives, and sends time to the firm’s billing or practice management system, with pricing arranged through a demo. Keito takes a different route for smaller firms and consultancies: time from timers, reviewed calendar imports, and AI assistants, approved by a reviewer at each person’s billing rate, then turned into invoices and client reports at a published flat workspace price.
Choose Laurel if you are a larger firm that wants passive, automatic capture of work across Outlook, Word, Zoom, and documents, with AI narratives, outside-counsel-guideline checks, and time pushed into a billing system such as Aderant, Elite, Clio, or CCH. Choose Keito if you want one workspace that captures time, gets it approved, and bills it: timers on web, desktop, mobile, and Chrome, Google and Outlook Calendar imports you review before saving, AI assistants that can log entries through Keito’s MCP connector, approvals at each person’s rate, then invoices and Stripe payments, from $19 USD/month.
Illustrative billing review
Illustrative billing period
Hours approved
Entries reviewed
186
Client matters
12
Timekeepers
8
Calendar events reviewed
Google or Outlook events mapped to a project and task, edited, then saved
Approved at the member’s rate
A reviewer approves submitted timesheets priced at per-member billing rates
Invoice from approved time
Approved hours become invoice lines, a client report, and a Stripe payment link
Firms usually look at Laurel because timekeepers forget small tasks and reconstruct the week from memory. Laurel answers that with passive capture and AI-written narratives, then hands time to a separate billing system. Keito answers the same leak with lighter capture tools and keeps the rest of the billing chain in one product: the reviewed entry, the approval, the billing rate, the invoice, and the client report.
Run a timer in the web app, the Mac, Windows, or iOS app, or the Chrome extension. Pull meetings from Google or Outlook Calendar, map each event to a project and task, edit the notes, and save only what you worked. AI assistants such as Claude Desktop or ChatGPT can also log entries through Keito’s hosted MCP connector.
Require notes on every entry, round time to 6-minute or other increments in workspace settings, and set billable defaults by project and task. Saved calendar mapping rules reuse the same project and task the next time a matching event appears.
On Pro and Business, timekeepers submit timesheets and a manager approves them at each person’s billing rate. By default, Keito invoices include only approved billable time and expenses, and invoices can be paid through Stripe.
Passive capture or reviewed billing
Laurel’s website (checked 2026-10-18) describes automated timekeeping that tracks Outlook emails, Zoom calls, calendar events, and time in Word, Excel, PDFs, and whitelisted web tools; AI suggestions that match activity to clients and matters; narrative generation; and compliance checks at the point of entry. It lists integrations with billing and practice management systems including Aderant, Clio, Elite, ProLaw, Tabs3, Juris, CCH Axcess, and Practice CS, offers white-glove onboarding with a dedicated account manager, and labels its billing agents as coming soon. Laurel does not publish pricing; firms book a demo. Keito does not record document, email, or desktop activity, so it is not a like-for-like replacement for passive capture. Its case is that a smaller firm can get most of the benefit from timers, reviewed calendar imports, and AI-assistant entries, and then approve and invoice the same time without a second system.
Choose Laurel when the firm needs passive capture across email, documents, and calls, plus integration with an existing enterprise billing or practice management system
Choose Keito when the firm wants capture, approval, billing rates, invoicing, and payments in one workspace at a published price
Prove it in one billing period: import calendar time, approve a timesheet, and compare the invoice with the one you built last month
Workflow fit
Keito keeps Laurel AI alternative connected to client, project, billable status, approval, and invoice context before the work reaches finance.
Choose Laurel when the firm needs passive capture across email, documents, and calls, plus integration with an existing enterprise billing or practice management system
Choose Keito when the firm wants capture, approval, billing rates, invoicing, and payments in one workspace at a published price
Prove it in one billing period: import calendar time, approve a timesheet, and compare the invoice with the one you built last month
Keito reads Google and Outlook Calendar but never changes events, and nothing is saved until you review it: project, task, notes, hours, and billability. Up to 50 events can be reviewed at once, and saved mapping rules fill in the project and task for meetings whose titles match.
Keito Pro, at $49 USD/month per workspace with no per-user fees, includes timesheet and expense approvals, project-scoped approval workflows, and per-member billing rates, so adding a partner, reviewer, or contractor does not add a seat.
Laurel sends time to the firm’s billing system. Keito is the billing system for firms that do not run one: estimates, invoices, recurring invoices and retainers, Stripe invoice payments, client reports, and invoices copied to QuickBooks Online or Xero on Business.
The difference is not just recording time. It is whether the record can support billing, project decisions, and client conversations.
Product shape
Time and expense tracking, approvals, estimates, invoicing, payments, and client reporting in one workspace.
Laurel describes an AI timekeeping and work intelligence platform for legal, accounting, and consulting firms.
How time is captured
Timers, reviewed Google or Outlook Calendar imports, and entries from AI assistants, the API, or the CLI. No passive desktop activity tracking.
Passive capture of email, calendar, Zoom, documents, and whitelisted web tools, with AI-suggested entries and narratives.
Review and compliance
Required notes, time rounding, and timesheet approvals by a manager on Pro and Business.
Narrative checks against client billing guidelines at the point of entry, with configurable enforcement levels.
Billing and invoicing
Invoices, estimates, recurring invoices, and Stripe payments built in; QuickBooks Online and Xero on Business.
Sends time to billing and practice management systems such as Aderant, Clio, Elite, and CCH Axcess; billing agents listed as coming soon.
Pricing
Published flat pricing: Solo $19 USD/month for one licensed user; Pro $49 USD/month and Business $199 USD/month per workspace, with no per-user fees.
No public pricing; firms book a demo, with white-glove onboarding and a dedicated account manager (checked 2026-10-18).
Best fit
Independent professionals and small to mid-sized firms that want to capture, approve, and invoice time without a separate billing system.
Larger firms that already run an enterprise billing system and want automatic capture feeding it.
Laurel is an AI timekeeping platform for law, accounting, and consulting firms. It was called Time by Ping until it rebranded in February 2023. Laurel captures work from email, calendars, Zoom, documents, and web tools, suggests time entries and narratives, checks them against client billing guidelines, and sends time to the firm’s billing or practice management system.
If you want passive desktop capture, look at other automatic trackers such as Timely or Memtime. If the real need is getting billable time approved and invoiced without an enterprise rollout, Keito is the alternative: timers, reviewed calendar imports, and AI-assistant entries feed timesheets that a manager approves at each person’s rate, and approved hours become invoices with Stripe payments, from $19 USD/month.
Laurel does not publish pricing on its website; firms book a demo with its team (checked 2026-10-18). Keito publishes flat workspace pricing: Solo at $19 USD/month for one licensed user, Pro at $49 USD/month with unlimited users, approvals, and billing rates, and Business at $199 USD/month with QuickBooks Online and Xero, with no per-user fees.
Not in the same way. Keito does not track document, email, or desktop activity. It captures time through timers on web, Mac, Windows, iOS, and Chrome, Google and Outlook Calendar imports you review before saving, and entries logged by AI assistants such as Claude Desktop or ChatGPT through Keito’s MCP connector. Every imported entry is reviewed, and timesheets are approved before they are invoiced.
Keito has no Laurel integration or import. Most firms set up clients, projects, tasks, and billing rates once and start the next billing period in Keito. Keito can import invoice and estimate CSV files, and teams moving from Harvest can import their Harvest data. Run one period in parallel to compare invoices before switching.
Each approved entry carries the client, project, task, person, duration, notes, billable status, and billing rate. By default, Keito invoices include only approved billable time and expenses. Keito builds invoices, estimates, and recurring invoices from them, accepts Stripe payments, and produces time and budget reports by client and project; on Business, invoices can be copied to QuickBooks Online or Xero.
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.
