The money side of a consulting firm.
Hours, client budgets, invoices, payouts, and the month close. If an hour would push a client over budget, it is held for approval the moment it is logged. Below is what happens here and nowhere else.
The field · 2026-09-12
Ignition sells proposals, engagement letters and automatic collection to professional services firms: 8,500 or more firms, 91% of payments collected automatically, on the company's own figures. Anchor sells agreement-based autopay to accounting firms at $5 a payment and, since June 2025, hourly billing checked against a client's pre-approved cap when the invoice is written. The time trackers, Harvest, Toggl and Clockify among them, alert after a budget is crossed, within the hour or the morning after, and Hubstaff and Everhour refuse the entry. The suites, Accelo, Scoro, Kantata and Productive among them, report over-servicing after the month is gone, Productive can refuse the entry on a paid tier, and all of them are priced per seat, with minimums and implementation fees the 87% of agencies under fifty people were never the buyer for.
An alert the morning after is a report. A refused hour disappears from the record. A cap checked at the invoice protects the client after the firm has already over-delivered. Ceed holds the hour the moment it is logged, computes the invoice from the agreement, and closes the month as a record.
Where Ceed stands.
| The engagement, in order | Ceed | Ignition | Anchor | Time trackers | Suites |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Staff log hours in under a minute a day, from Slack | Built | No | No, reads trackers synced to QuickBooks Online | Yes, with timers and slash commands | Yes |
| An hour that would push a client over budget is held for approval the moment it is logged | Built | No | No, checks the cap when the invoice is written | No, alerts within the hour or the morning after, or refuses the entry | No, reports after the month, or refuses the entry |
| The invoice is computed from the agreement: the budget, the approved extra, the equity taken as payment | Built | No, bills the plan | Partial, clamps at a pre-approved cap | No | No |
| Shares taken as fees, on the invoice and in the books | Built | No | No | No | No |
| Margin per client, with the cost side, this morning | Built | No, revenue only | No, revenue only | Partial, on paid tiers | After the fact |
| Bookings against budgets and availability | Built | No | No | No | Yes |
| Payout statements for contractors from the same hours | Built | No | No | Hubstaff only | No |
| Commissions by the firm's own policy, gated on the client's rating | Built | No | No | No | No |
| The month closes as a record nobody can rewrite, on an append-only audit chain | Built | No | No | No, locks an administrator can lift | No, locks an administrator can lift |
| Price | 0.1% of what you invoice, nothing else | $39 to $399 a month billed annually, $49 to $499 monthly, plus payment fees | $5 a payment | $4 to $25 a seat, minimums at some, plus usage meters at Harvest | Per seat, with minimums and implementation fees, and Accelo and Kantata publish no price |
Correct as far as we know on 2026-09-12. The long version, row by row, is on the blog. If a row is wrong, write to us and we will fix it and say so.
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