# Ceed

> Ceed is time tracking, client budgets, invoices, contractor payouts and the month close for a firm that bills for its team’s time. If an hour would push a client over budget, Ceed holds it for approval the moment it is logged.

Ceed is built by YSecurity, a security consultancy, to run its own books. It is the firm’s record of hours and money. When a logged hour would push a client over its agreed budget, the hour is held for approval at the moment of entry, not reported after the month is lost and not refused at the door: the hour stays on the record and the account leader or an owner decides. The invoice is computed from the signed agreement (retainer, budget, rates by role, discounts, equity taken as payment), never typed. One set of hours drives the invoice, the contractor payout statements and the commissions. Revenue, cost and margin per client are visible to the owners and whoever they grant, enforced on the server. Closed months do not change, and every change is on an append-only audit trail. Ceed never holds a firm’s money. Clients pay the firm’s own bank. Ceed Intelligence is part of Ceed, anywhere a firm uses Ceed: it reads the firm’s paper into the record (the people list, the W-2s and 1099s, the client list and the signed agreements, the timesheets and the invoice books), turns a sentence into the act and answers with the firm’s numbers. A person confirms everything it proposes, every act shows its price before it is confirmed and as its own line on the firm’s statement, and Ceed works without it. Every number on an invoice is computed from the agreement and the record, the same way every time.

Pricing: 0.1% of what you invoice. No seats, no tiers, no minimum, no sales call. Invoice $200,000, pay $200. The rate never moves. A firm signs up at https://ceed.so/login with a work Google account (Sign up and Sign in lead to the same page), and the first sign-in creates the firm. Nothing to pay until its first invoice.

For firms that sell their team’s time, up to fifty people, from the day a second person logs an hour to a client: IT managed service providers, security MSSPs, value-added resellers, IT consultancies, and security consultancies and vCISO practices; software development shops, data and AI consultancies, and marketing and creative agencies; management consulting firms, the practice inside a global consulting firm, fractional executives, professional advisors, and coaching firms; accounting and fractional CFO firms and law firms; and engineering consulting firms, defense and government contractors, engineering staff augmentation and IT staffing firms, and healthcare staffing and travel nurse agencies. Most of them bill a flat retainer sized in hours only the owner knows. Ceed keeps that number, so the client sees the fee and the owner sees the hours. United States first.

Ceed is not project management, CRM, ticketing, chat or payroll. Those stay in the tools a firm already has. Invoices and statements come out as documents for the ledger the firm already uses. For law firms it runs the retainer, the matter budget and the hours behind a flat fee, and leaves the trust ledger, LEDES e-billing and conflict checks in the practice management system. For a practice inside a global consulting or accounting firm it runs the practice’s own record of hours against engagement budgets and leaves the firm’s ledger, timesheet and billing where they are. For IT managed service providers, security MSSPs and value-added resellers it runs the hourly side of the business (block hours, prepaid banks, projects, retainers, statements of work) and leaves per-seat and per-device subscriptions in the PSA.

Founders: Jon McLachlan and Sasha Sinkevich, brothers, the founders of YSecurity and Cyberbase. Jon started in security at Apple and led teams at Pure Storage, UnifyID and Robinhood. Sasha built security from the ground up at Robinhood, Yugabyte and Symphony.

## Pages

- [Home](https://ceed.so/): the front page, rebuilt on 2026-09-12 in the shape of the product-led pages the largest self-serve software companies run. The kicker names the buyer ("For consultancies, agencies and fractional CFO practices."), the headline is "Time tracking that keeps the margin.", and the sentence under it says what the product does: log hours against each client’s budget, the hour that would go over waits for your approval, the invoice comes from the agreement. The button is Sign up with Google, with nothing to pay until the first invoice, no card, no demo and no form. Under it the product is shown beside every claim: the held hour, the four numbers (0.1% of what you invoice, $0 until the first invoice, one minute a day from Slack, no demos, sales calls or forms), the mechanic (held, not hidden) with a picture of the approvals screen, six parts each beside its screen (the invoice from the agreement, margin per client, payouts from the same hours, equity as payment, the closed month, the Slack reminder), the client’s fee beside the owner’s hours, three pictures of the product (the time ledger, the invoice with the work under it, the month), the three steps to the first hour, the firm read in by Ceed Intelligence, the price, who it is for with the founders, and seventeen questions answered.
- [Sign up](https://ceed.so/signup): a landing page for direct and paid traffic (since 2026-09-12, night, the site’s own Sign up buttons go straight to https://ceed.so/login, the page Sign in uses). "Sign up with Google. Keep the margin." A work Google account creates the firm: no form, no demo, no card. Then the product before the account: the held hour, the four numbers (0.1% of what you invoice, $0 until the first invoice, one minute a day from Slack, no demos, sales calls or forms), the mechanic (held, not hidden), every client’s budget this morning, the invoice computed from the agreement, and twelve pains a firm that sells its team’s time knows, each beside the product state that ends it (over-servicing found at the invoice, hours never counted, a contractor paid from a sheet, equity in no book, a three-day close, a tool that reprices at renewal; busy but broke, the dread before the close, the postponed conversation; keeping the margin earned, rules that hold when they matter, a record that stays true). Then the founders, the three steps to the first hour, the firm read in by Ceed Intelligence (the people list, the W-2s and 1099s, the client list and the agreements, proposed and confirmed), the price, and eleven questions answered: whether signing up is free (it costs nothing until the first invoice), what is needed (a work Google account), whether there is a trial, a demo or a sales call (none), where the firm’s data lives (its own tenant), who at the firm can use it, what connects (Slack, and documents for QuickBooks Online and Xero), whether Ceed touches the money (no), and existing timesheets, people, clients and agreements (Ceed Intelligence reads them in and the firm confirms). The button hands off to Google sign-in at https://ceed.so/login.
- [Compare](https://ceed.so/compare): where Ceed stands beside Ignition, Anchor, the time trackers and the suites, one row per step of an engagement, dated and open to correction.
- [About](https://ceed.so/about): what Ceed is, a note from the founders on why YSecurity built it (a month that ran tens of thousands past a client’s budget, found at the invoice, and the hold they built so it could not happen again), who the founders are, and thirty-seven questions answered in five groups: what Ceed is (what it replaces, whether it is a time tracker or professional services automation, whether it uses AI and what Ceed Intelligence is, who is legally responsible), who built it (YSecurity, the founders, why trust a security consultancy), how the hold works (hold versus alert versus block, scope creep, over-servicing, flat retainers, block hours and caps, who approves, logging hours from Slack, employee monitoring), invoices and the close (how the invoice is computed, equity as fees, contractor payouts and commissions, margin per client, the closed month, QuickBooks and Xero, collections, importing spreadsheets), and price and access (0.1% of invoices, why not per seat, no minimum, the nineteen kinds of firm, fractional executives with contractors, how to sign up, no demo or sales call).
- [Industries](https://ceed.so/industries): the finance department, for firms without one. Nineteen kinds of firm that sell their team’s time in five groups (IT and security services; agencies and studios; consulting and advisory; accounting and law; engineering, government and staffing), one page each in that firm’s numbers, with a "From the field" section on every page: three or four posts from X quoted verbatim with links, two or three YouTube recordings embedded, and a dated list of Reddit threads and articles, all by people in that industry.

## Industries

Nineteen kinds of firm in five groups. The group says what the firms share; each page is in that firm’s numbers.

### IT and security services

The block, the incident retainer and the hours sold beside the quote. Subscriptions stay where they are.

- [IT managed service providers](https://ceed.so/industries/it-msps): For IT managed service providers that sell block hours, prepaid banks, co-managed hour plans and projects beside the per-seat agreement: the block’s balance every morning, the hour that would cross it held for a decision, and the per-seat billing left in the PSA. Search terms: MSP block hours agreement; prepaid hours MSP; block hours vs managed services; MSP project gross margin; co-managed IT block hours; MSP time entry compliance.
- [Security MSSPs](https://ceed.so/industries/mssps): For managed security service providers and detection-and-response providers whose incident-response retainers, vCISO tiers and assessments are sold in hours beside the subscription: the retainer’s hours left every morning, and the surge hour held for a decision during the incident. Search terms: incident response retainer hours rollover; IR retainer pricing tiers; vCISO retainer hours per month; MSSP professional services pricing; unused retainer hours tabletop; surge rate incident response.
- [Value-added resellers](https://ceed.so/industries/vars): For value-added resellers whose implementation hours, prepaid service blocks and statements of work ride beside the hardware quote: the block’s balance every morning, and the hour that would cross it held for a change order instead of the product margin. Search terms: VAR professional services margin; prepaid service credits expire; statement of work implementation hours; block of hours reseller; services attach rate hardware; change order implementation services.
- [IT consulting firms](https://ceed.so/industries/it-consulting): For boutique IT consultancies on time and materials with a cap, fixed-fee projects with an hour budget behind them, and retainers with a 1099 bench: the hour that would cross the cap held the day it is logged, contractors on the same record, and the invoice computed from the statement of work. Search terms: time and materials not to exceed clause; T&M cap monthly hours consulting; consulting project budget overrun tracking; change order process consulting; 1099 subcontractor consultant pay; eat the hours consulting.
- [Security consultancies and vCISOs](https://ceed.so/industries/security): Security consultancies, vCISO practices and penetration-testing boutiques that bill capped retainers. YSecurity built Ceed to run its own books and runs on it today. Search terms: vCISO pricing per month hours; vCISO retainer hours cap overage; penetration test scoping hours estimate; scope creep penetration testing; contract pentester hourly rate 1099; vCISO unused hours rollover.

### Agencies and studios

Retainers sized in hours and projects with a budget behind the fee. The client sees the fee.

- [Software development shops](https://ceed.so/industries/software): Software consultancies, dev shops and fractional CTOs whose support retainer is a hundred hours to them and a flat fee to the client. Ceed keeps the hundred and holds the next. Search terms: dev shop support retainer hours; block hours agreement software support; sprint budget overrun client billing; offshore developer contractor payout; fractional CTO retainer hours; scope creep change order software project.
- [Data and AI consultancies](https://ceed.so/industries/data-ai-consultancies): For boutiques that build AI agents, model integrations and data pipelines on fixed-fee pilots sized in hours, monthly retainers and time and materials: the hour that would cross the pilot’s budget held before the eval rerun, contract engineers on the same record, and the invoice computed from the statement of work. Search terms: how to price AI consulting; AI agency retainer pricing; fixed price AI pilot scope; pass through API costs to clients; pilot to production AI cost overrun; AI agency maintenance retainer hours.
- [Marketing and creative agencies](https://ceed.so/industries/agencies): Marketing, creative, PR and digital agencies whose $6,000 retainer is 40 hours to them and a flat fee to the client. Ceed keeps the 40 and holds the 41st. Search terms: agency over-servicing; how to track retainer hours by client; agency scope creep billing; unbilled hours agency; delivery margin agency; retainer overage hours clause.

### Consulting and advisory

Engagements, retainers and packages of sessions. Priced on value, sized in hours.

- [Management consulting firms](https://ceed.so/industries/consulting): Boutique management and strategy consultancies that price the retainer on value and size it in hours. Ceed keeps the hours and holds the one that would go over. Search terms: consulting retainer agreement hours per month; how to price a consulting retainer; how to handle scope creep consulting; unused retainer hours rollover; billable hours tracking for consultants; consulting firm margin per client.
- [Global consulting firms](https://ceed.so/industries/global-consulting): For engagement teams and practice leaders inside the Big Four, McKinsey, Bain, BCG, Accenture and the strategy houses: every hour counted against the engagement budget by person and by grade as it is logged, the hour that would cross it held for the engagement partner the same day rather than found at the month-end review, independent consultants on the same record with their own statements, the invoice computed from the statement of work for the firm’s billing team, and the firm’s ledger, timesheet and billing left where they are. Search terms: eating hours Big 4; engagement budget overrun consulting; fixed fee engagement margin; chargeable hours target consulting; engagement economics; outcome-based pricing consulting; billable hour AI consulting; write-off realization consulting partner.
- [Fractional executives](https://ceed.so/industries/fractional-executives): Fractional CMO, CTO, COO and general counsel practices where each client pays a monthly fee for about ten hours a week. Ceed counts the hours per client and holds the one that would go over. Search terms: fractional CMO retainer hours per week; fractional executive rates 2026; fractional executive contract template retainer; scope creep fractional executive; track hours across multiple clients fractional; fractional exec equity compensation.
- [Professional advisors](https://ceed.so/industries/advisors): For advisory practices on retainer, from exit and M&A advisors to board advisors and advice-only planners: the retainer drawn down at rates by role as hours are logged, the hour that would exhaust it held for a decision, one invoice and several statements for a collective, and never custody of client money. Search terms: advice-only financial planner pricing; flat fee financial planning retainer; how to bill hourly financial planning; M&A advisor retainer and success fee; retainer scope creep advisory; time tracking for financial advisors.
- [Coaches](https://ceed.so/industries/coaches): For executive, leadership, athletic, career and business coaching businesses of two to fifty coaches: a runner’s monthly plan, a sponsor’s six-month engagement and a client’s twelve-session package each a flat fee sized in coach hours, every coach hour counted against it as it is logged, the hour that would cross it held for the owner’s yes that day, associate coaches paid from the same entries at their rate or their share of the fee, the sponsor’s invoice computed from the engagement letter, and the scheduler, the training app and the payment processor left where they are. Search terms: time tracking for coaches; coaching business software; how to price online run coaching per month; executive coaching engagement fee six months; how to pay associate coaches revenue split; track coaching sessions used; unlimited messaging coaching plan; invoice corporate coaching sponsor.

### Accounting and law

The fixed fee sized in hours. The retainer counted in tenths.

- [Accounting and fractional CFO firms](https://ceed.so/industries/fractional-cfo): Fractional CFO, accounting and bookkeeping practices on fixed fees sized in hours only the owner knows. Ceed keeps the number and holds the hour that would cross it. Search terms: scope creep accounting firm; how to price bookkeeping services per month; fixed fee vs hourly bookkeeping; out of scope work engagement letter; fractional CFO pricing per month hours; time tracking for accountants fixed fee.
- [Law firms](https://ceed.so/industries/law-firms): For law firms of two to fifty lawyers on evergreen retainers, matter budgets under outside counsel guidelines and flat fees sized in hours: every tenth counted against the retainer as it is logged, the hour that would cross it held for the billing partner the same day, contract attorneys and of counsel on the same record, the invoice computed from the engagement letter, and the trust ledger, LEDES e-billing and conflict checks left in the practice management system. Search terms: evergreen retainer agreement; law firm realization rate benchmark; how to track billable hours as a lawyer; law firm write-offs pre-bill; outside counsel guidelines budget; contract attorney hourly rate.

### Engineering, government and staffing

Funded ceilings, not-to-exceeds and the approved week. Bill rate and pay rate on one record.

- [Engineering consulting firms](https://ceed.so/industries/engineering-firms): For civil, structural, MEP and environmental engineering consultancies on hourly not-to-exceed agreements and lump-sum phases sized in hours: the hour that would cross the not-to-exceed held for the project manager the day it is logged, sub-consultants on the same record, and the invoice computed from the agreement and its supplements. Search terms: hourly not to exceed contract engineering; engineering firm project budget tracking; net multiplier engineering firm; sub-consultant invoice pass through; project over budget hours engineering firm; engineering timesheet software small firm.
- [Defense and government contractors](https://ceed.so/industries/defense-contractors): For small federal contractors on time-and-materials and cost-plus task orders: hours logged daily by the person who worked them on an append-only record, and the hour that would cross the funded ceiling held for a decision before the voucher. Search terms: DCAA compliant timekeeping software small business; T&M ceiling burn rate tracking; limitation of funds notice 75 percent; funded hours by task order; wrap rate government contractor; daily timesheet requirement DCAA.
- [Engineering staff augmentation](https://ceed.so/industries/staff-augmentation): For engineering staff augmentation and IT staffing firms that bill a contractor’s hours weekly and pay them from the same timesheet: bill rate, pay rate and margin per placement on one record, and the 41st hour held for the client’s approval before it is paid at time and a half. Search terms: bill rate vs pay rate calculator staffing; staffing agency markup IT contractors; gross margin per placement; contractor timesheet approval external approver; overtime approval contract employee; staffing back office timesheets invoicing.
- [Healthcare staffing and travel nurse agencies](https://ceed.so/industries/healthcare-staffing): For travel nurse, allied health and locum tenens agencies: 36 guaranteed hours a week at the bill rate, the traveler’s weekly statement computed from the same entries as the facility invoice, margin per contract, and the 37th hour held for the facility’s approval. Search terms: travel nurse bill rate vs pay rate; healthcare staffing agency gross margin; travel nurse guaranteed hours contract; travel nurse timesheet approval; staffing agency invoice from timesheets; per diem staffing agency billing.

## Blog

- [Blog](https://ceed.so/blog): notes on the money side of firms that sell their team’s time. Atom feed at https://ceed.so/blog/feed.xml.
- [The invoice told us last. Why we built Ceed.](https://ceed.so/blog/why-we-built-ceed): We ran a security consultancy on a spreadsheet. One month it ran tens of thousands of dollars past the hours a client had bought, and we found out when we wrote the invoice. What over-servicing and unbilled hours look like from inside a firm that sells its team’s time, and what we built to stop it. With five cited recordings, four figures, pictures of the product, two posts from X, five threads, seven books and three episodes of The Security Podcast of Silicon Valley. Updated 11 September 2026.
- [They see the fee. You see the hours.](https://ceed.so/blog/the-client-sees-the-fee): A flat retainer is a fixed fee sized in hours only the owner knows. What happens to the margin when nobody watches that number, and what changes when the hour past it waits for a decision. With six cited recordings, two posts from X, a figure, pictures of the product, eight books and three episodes of The Security Podcast of Silicon Valley. Updated 11 September 2026.
- [Held. Not hidden.](https://ceed.so/blog/held-not-hidden): When an hour crosses a client’s budget, software can tell you later, refuse the hour, or hold it for a decision. Only one of those keeps both the hour and the decision in the record. With five cited recordings, four posts from X, four threads, a figure on employee monitoring, pictures of the product, six books and three episodes of The Security Podcast of Silicon Valley. Updated 11 September 2026.
- [The client paid late. The invoice was later.](https://ceed.so/blog/late-paying-clients): The average US small business invoice is paid nine days late and the wait is growing. What late payment looks like inside a firm that sells its team’s time, the four things practitioners agree on, the part of the delay that belongs to the firm, and the stop loss that lives at the hour. With seven embedded recordings, three figures, two pictures of the product, four books, and three episodes of The Security Podcast of Silicon Valley.
- [The rate was set on day one. The client grew.](https://ceed.so/blog/the-rate-that-never-moved): An $1,800 client that doubled. A $1,000 retainer while the client grew tenfold. A contract that said $40 while the invoices said $45 for eighteen months. Undercharging is a number nobody re-read. What the threads say, what the pricing people say, and how a firm sees margin per client before the invoice does. With nine embedded recordings from The Futur, Harvard Business Review, Boston Consulting Group, 2Bobs and CNBC, three figures, two pictures of the product, nine books, and three episodes of The Security Podcast of Silicon Valley.
- [The agreement said 40 hours. The month said 47.](https://ceed.so/blog/scope-creep-and-the-agreement): A 40-hour retainer that delivered 47, only 32 of them in the statement of work. What scope creep looks like inside a firm that sells time, where the agreement goes after it is signed, whether retainer hours roll over, and how a firm makes the agreement hold at the hour. With nine embedded recordings, three figures, two pictures of the product, seven books, and three episodes of The Security Podcast of Silicon Valley.
- [Ten rows. One engagement.](https://ceed.so/blog/ten-rows-one-engagement): The comparison page has ten rows, five columns and a date. This is the long version: what a firm of two to fifty people loses at each row, what Ignition, Anchor, the time trackers and the suites do about it in their own documentation, and what Ceed does. With twelve recordings, five figures and the five changes the reading made to the page.
- [Fewer hours. Same margin.](https://ceed.so/blog/the-ai-discount): When a client asks for a share of what AI saved, the answer is a decision made with the firm’s own numbers. Who is asking and how often, what the saving is and is not, who owns a saved hour, the new tool bill, and one client’s month worked four ways, with the arithmetic.
- [Bill rate. Pay rate.](https://ceed.so/blog/bill-rate-pay-rate): The second person to log an hour to a client is often a contractor. The spread between the bill rate and the pay rate, markup against margin, the cash chain and the thirty-day freelance laws, New Jersey’s ABC test from 1 October 2026, the $2,000 1099, and the file a buyer will ask for. Not legal or tax advice.

## Optional

- [Atom feed](https://ceed.so/blog/feed.xml): the posts in full.
- [Sitemap](https://ceed.so/sitemap.xml): every public page with the date its copy last changed.

Every other route needs a session. A firm signs up at https://ceed.so/login with a work Google account, and the first sign-in creates the firm. Nothing to pay until its first invoice. Questions go to hello@ceed.so and a person replies.

## Company

- YSecurity, LLC d/b/a Ceed. https://ysecurity.io · https://www.linkedin.com/company/ysecurity/ · hello@ceed.so