A Tabs3 alternative that fixes the hours without moving the firm’s books or trust ledger.

It is software a law firm adopts instead of — or alongside — the Tabs3 suite. Because Tabs3 spans billing, practice management, firm accounting, and the client trust ledger, an alternative rarely replaces all of it at once: the books and the trust ledger carry compliance weight and deserve their own decision. Keito is the alternative for the time side specifically — AI-drafted hours confirmed by the fee earners who did the work, approved AI tool costs on the same matter, and reviewed invoice evidence handed to whichever system raises the firm’s bills and keeps its books.

Scope is the difference. Tabs3 publishes an integrated suite around its time capture: timers and fee entry in Billing, appointment, email, call, research, and document conversion into fees in PracticeMaster, customisable statements and split billing, LEDES electronic billing through Taskbill, integrated payments through Tabs3Pay, and Tabs3 Financials with trust accounting, accounts payable, and general ledger — delivered as hosted Tabs3 Cloud or installed OnSite subscriptions. Keito is only the reviewed time layer: entries are drafted by AI from real work signals — typed, timed, API, CLI, and agent-sourced — confirmed by the person who did the work, and approved with AI tool and model costs before anything becomes invoice evidence.

Keep Tabs3 when the firm wants billing, practice management, and firm accounting administered together — it publishes customisable statements, hourly, contingency, flat-fee, retainer, progress, and task-based billing arrangements, split billing, LEDES electronic billing, integrated payments, accounts payable, general ledger, and trust accounting with three-way reconciliation. Keito does not reproduce any of that engine: no bill formats, electronic billing, integrated payments, general ledger, accounts payable, or trust ledger. It is the wrong choice if the firm’s immediate goal is replacing bill production, firm accounting, or the trust ledger itself.

In stages, and usually only for the time side. Stand up clients, matters, rates, reviewers, and billing periods in Keito and run one billing cycle in parallel to prove the drafted-and-reviewed record. Because Tabs3 can hold the firm’s billing history, its books, and its client trust ledger, those systems are their own decision — Keito does not replace an accounting system, so the firm keeps producing bills and reconciling trust where it does today, or migrates that separately on its own timeline. Any transfer of reference data happens through exports the team designs and tests itself; there is no automatic import.

Each reviewed time entry keeps the client, matter, fee earner, duration, narrative description, billable status, rate context, reviewer, approval state, and write-down decision for its billing period, with approved AI research and drafting costs attributed to the same matter as the hours. When a client questions a line on a bill the firm produced in Tabs3 or its accounting system, partners and practice managers have a reviewed answer for the hours behind it — who did the work, who approved it, and what was written down before it was billed.

Neither. Keito is not an accounting system — it has no client trust ledger, three-way reconciliation, general ledger, accounts payable, bill formats, or electronic billing — and it claims no native Tabs3 integration, automatic import, activity ingestion, or two-way synchronisation. Keito captures and reviews billable time and AI work costs, then hands approved invoice evidence to the firm’s billing and accounting process through exports or API handoffs the team designs and tests itself. A firm can keep Tabs3 for billing, books, and trust and run Keito alongside as the reviewed time layer.