Wave is accounting and invoicing software for small businesses in the US and Canada: unlimited estimates, invoices, bills, and bookkeeping records on its free Starter plan, plus bank-transaction import, receipt capture, and automated late-payment reminders on Pro. Public pricing (verified 2026-10-05) lists Starter at $0 and Pro at $19 USD/month billed monthly or $190 USD/year billed annually ($25 CAD/month or $250 CAD/year in Canada), with US payroll from a $40 USD/month base fee plus $6 per active employee and $6 per contractor paid. What Wave does not publish is a timer or timesheet that captures billable hours against a client and project: its payroll timesheets are completed by the business, its help center says employees cannot fill out their own timesheet, and its Perks page lists time tracking among third-party partner offers. Keito is the layer for the hours: AI-drafted time entries each person confirms, approved by a reviewer, then turned into invoices and client-ready reports.
Illustrative billing review
Illustrative billing period
Hours approved
Entries confirmed
64
Clients billed
9
Projects covered
14
Hours tied to client work
Client, project, task, and billable status on every entry
Reviewed before invoicing
A reviewer approves hours before the invoice goes out
Invoice built from approved time
Approved hours become invoice lines and a client report
Wave users create estimates and invoices, accept card and bank payments, import bank transactions, scan receipts, and run payroll in the US or Canada. What Wave’s public materials do not describe is capturing billable time as work happens — against a client, a project, and a task — with each person confirming their own hours and a reviewer approving them before they become invoice lines. Keito answers that question: which hours were worked for which client, who confirmed them, who approved them, and what the client is being billed for.
Add clients, projects, rates, and reviewers in Keito in days. Wave keeps running bookkeeping, bank imports, receipts, payments, and payroll exactly as it does today.
Keito drafts a time entry from the work a person did, so they confirm hours against the right client and project instead of reconstructing a month of billable time from memory, calendars, and notes.
A reviewer approves billable status before the period closes. Approved hours become Keito invoices and client-ready reports, or approved totals the team transfers into a Wave invoice itself.
An invoice is only as good as the hours behind it
Wave publishes small-business accounting and money tools: unlimited estimates, invoices, bills, and bookkeeping records on the free Starter plan; online card and bank payments; a mobile app for invoices, expenses, and receipts; and on the Pro plan, auto-imported and auto-categorised bank transactions, unlimited receipt capture, and automated late-payment reminders. Public pricing on Wave’s pricing page (verified 2026-10-05) lists Starter at $0 and Pro at $19 USD/month billed monthly or $190 USD/year billed annually, or $25 CAD/month and $250 CAD/year in Canada. Wave Payroll is priced separately: in the US a $40 USD/month base fee plus $6 per active employee and $6 per independent contractor paid, and in Canada a $25 CAD/month base fee plus the same per-person fees; Wave Advisors bookkeeping services start at $149 USD/month in the US. Wave’s help center describes payroll timesheets that the business completes for each hourly employee — standard hours, overtime, double time, vacation, and sick time by day — and states that employees cannot fill out their own timesheet. Wave’s Perks page lists time tracking among offers from third-party partners. Reviewed public Wave materials do not describe a timer, billable-hours capture against a client and project, or a reviewer who approves hours before they become invoice lines. Keito’s argument is not that a small business needs to replace its accounting software — Keito has no general ledger, bank feeds, receipt scanning, tax filing, or payroll product, and it claims no native Wave integration, automatic import, or synchronisation. It is that the time behind an hourly invoice deserves AI-drafted entries the person who did the work confirms, a reviewer approves, and an invoice or client report built from those approved hours. Wave keeps the books; Keito is where billable time gets captured, reviewed, and invoiced.
Choose Wave when the business needs free bookkeeping, bank imports, receipts, payments, and US or Canadian payroll in one place
Choose Keito when the problem is billable hours: capturing time by client and project, reviewing it, and invoicing from approved hours
Prove it in one billing period: run Keito alongside Wave and compare invoices built from approved time with totals typed in at month end
Workflow fit
Keito keeps Wave Accounting alternative connected to client, project, billable status, approval, and invoice context before the work reaches finance.
Choose Wave when the business needs free bookkeeping, bank imports, receipts, payments, and US or Canadian payroll in one place
Choose Keito when the problem is billable hours: capturing time by client and project, reviewing it, and invoicing from approved hours
Prove it in one billing period: run Keito alongside Wave and compare invoices built from approved time with totals typed in at month end
Keito drafts a time entry from the work done; the consultant, freelancer, or team member confirms and corrects it instead of reconstructing billable hours from calendars and notes before invoicing.
Wave’s payroll timesheets are completed by the business and its payroll is approved as a whole; Keito’s reviewer approves billable status entry by entry before hours reach an invoice or client report.
Approved hours become Keito estimates, invoices, recurring invoices, and client-ready reports with Stripe invoice payments, or totals the team carries into Wave itself through an export it designs and tests.
The difference is not just recording time. It is whether the record can support billing, project decisions, and client conversations.
Product shape
A workspace for time and expense tracking, reviewed billable hours, estimates, invoices, and client reporting.
Wave publishes small-business bookkeeping, estimates, invoicing, payments, receipts, and US and Canadian payroll on Starter and Pro plans, with optional Wave Advisors bookkeeping services.
How time is captured
AI drafts an entry from the work done; the person confirms it against a client, project, and task, and a reviewer approves it.
Wave’s help center describes payroll timesheets the business completes for hourly employees; employees cannot fill out their own timesheet. Reviewed public materials do not document a timer or client-and-project billable time capture, and Wave lists time tracking among third-party partner perks.
Review before billing
A reviewer distinct from the person who worked settles billable status per entry before the invoice is built.
Wave reviews and approves a payroll run as a whole; reviewed public materials do not describe an entry-level approval step for billable hours before invoicing.
Invoicing from hours
Invoices, recurring invoices, and client reports are built from approved hours by client and project, with Stripe invoice payments.
Wave invoices are created from the items and amounts the business enters, with online card and bank payments and late-payment reminders on Pro.
Pricing and adoption
Published flat pricing (Solo $19 USD/month for one licensed user; Pro $49 USD/month per workspace with no per-user fees) and a setup measured in days, run alongside Wave.
Wave lists Starter at $0 and Pro at $19 USD/month or $190 USD/year ($25 CAD/month or $250 CAD/year in Canada) on 2026-10-05; US payroll adds a $40 USD/month base fee plus $6 per active employee and per contractor paid.
Data movement
CSV and Excel exports and API handoffs the team designs and tests, moved in deliberate stages.
Wave’s bank connections, payments, payroll journal entries, and partner perks belong to its platform; moving reviewed hours between Wave and Keito is not an assumed automatic sync.
It is software a small business uses instead of, or alongside, Wave, which runs bookkeeping, estimates, invoicing, payments, receipts, and US and Canadian payroll. Some businesses replace Wave with another accounting package; firms that bill by the hour often keep Wave for the books and add a tool for billable time. Keito is that alternative: AI-drafted time each person confirms, approved by a reviewer, then turned into invoices and client reports.
Not as billable time. Wave’s help center describes payroll timesheets the business completes for hourly employees — standard hours, overtime, double time, vacation, and sick time — and says employees cannot fill out their own timesheet. Reviewed public Wave materials do not document a timer or time captured against a client and project for invoicing, and Wave’s Perks page lists time tracking among third-party partner offers.
Wave is built around the books: invoices start from the items and amounts you enter. Keito starts from the work. It drafts time entries the person who did the work confirms against a client and project, a reviewer approves billable status, and invoices and client reports are built from those approved hours. Wave keeps bookkeeping, bank imports, receipts, and payroll; Keito owns the reviewed billable-hours record behind each invoice.
Keep Wave when the main need is free or low-cost bookkeeping, bank-transaction import, receipt capture, payments, or US and Canadian payroll. Keito has no general ledger, bank feeds, tax filing, or payroll product, so it is the wrong choice for replacing accounting software. It fits when the gap is billable time: capturing hours by client and project, reviewing them, and invoicing from approved time.
Each approved entry in Keito carries the client, project, task, person, duration, description, billable status, reviewer, and approval state. Keito builds estimates, invoices, and recurring invoices from those approved hours, accepts Stripe invoice payments, and produces client-ready reports by project and task, so a billing question can be answered with the reviewed record instead of a month-end estimate.
Keito claims no native Wave integration, automatic import, or two-way synchronisation. Most teams start by adding their clients, projects, and rates in Keito and tracking one billing period alongside Wave. From there they either invoice billable work from Keito or carry approved totals into Wave invoices themselves, using CSV or Excel exports they design and test, while bookkeeping and payroll stay in Wave.
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.
