Kineo vs BaseBuilders
BaseBuilders and Kineo both run projects, time, and phase billing for small engineering and architecture firms, and both connect to QuickBooks. BaseBuilders is built around billing, with batch invoicing across projects, subconsultant payouts tied to phases, and pricing by permission role. Kineo drafts each phase invoice from the contract with retainage and reviews drawings against your checklists. Each project has its own email address, and its assistant, your automations, and Claude or ChatGPT work on the same records.
Free for 14 days, with every feature included.
- Compared
- Kineo and BaseBuilders
- Published by
- Kineo
- BaseBuilders details
- Checked October 2026
Which one fits your firm
Choose BaseBuilders if you want
- Invoices for many projects created in one batch with Rocket Billing, and batch actions that update many projects at once
- Subconsultant fees, pay requests, payouts, and accrued liability tied to project phases
- Labor cost, utilization, and effective-rate reports
- A construction administration logbook for RFIs, submittals, and shop drawings
- Pricing by permission role, paid monthly with no contract
- Accounting in QuickBooks or Xero
Choose Kineo if you want
- Phase invoices from the contract, with retainage, change orders, and a G703-style continuation sheet
- Drawing reviews against your firm's checklists, with each markup filed under the item it answers and outside reviewers by link
- An email address for each project, client, and contact, with imported mail feeding suggestions and automations
- Automations you describe in plain language, like drafting a change order when a client asks for extra work
- An assistant that drafts and edits project records, in Kineo or from Claude, ChatGPT, and Claude Code
- Published per-seat pricing with every feature on every plan, and a free trial you can start today
Kineo and BaseBuilders side by side
Each product described in its own terms, from its website and documentation.
| Job | Kineo | BaseBuilders |
|---|---|---|
| Billing | ||
| Fees and phases | When a client accepts a proposal, its fee lines become the contract, phase by phase. | Proposals set each project's fees and phases. |
| Drafting invoices | Each invoice drafts by phase from percent complete and approved time and expenses. Ready to Invoice lists each contract and the amount it can bill now. | Rocket Billing creates invoices across many projects in one batch. |
| Subconsultants | Subconsultant costs go on as approved expenses with their markup, shown on the invoice at cost, as a disclosed markup, or inside your multiplier. | Subconsultant phases link to project phases, and pass-throughs are billed at cost or with markup. |
| Payments | Record payments by ACH, card, check, wire, or cash against each invoice. | Income records for payments and retainers. |
| Accounting | QuickBooks Online stays the ledger. Customers, invoices, credit memos, and payments sync, and payments recorded in QuickBooks update Kineo. | Pushes financial transactions into QuickBooks. |
| Projects and time | ||
| Time and expenses | Weekly timesheets and expenses with approval, billed at effective-dated rates. The assistant can enter a week of time from a description. | Timesheets and expenses for every user. |
| Project documents | Drawing sets and documents on each project, with tasks, checklist reviews, files, and history, and a board by document stage. | Project documents and a logbook for RFIs, submittals, and shop drawings. |
| Tasks | Tasks on a project or a document, by assignee and due date, with a board, saved views, and a daily digest. | To-dos for every user role. |
| Buying | ||
| Price | $29, $49, or $79 per seat per month, with every feature on every plan. | $20, $35, or $48 per user per month, depending on each person's permission role. |
| Getting started | A 14-day free trial you start yourself, or a demo with the founder. | Book a call or get started from its website, with personalized onboarding for a one-time $497. |
Billing
Fees and phases
- Kineo
- When a client accepts a proposal, its fee lines become the contract, phase by phase.
- BaseBuilders
- Proposals set each project's fees and phases.
Drafting invoices
- Kineo
- Each invoice drafts by phase from percent complete and approved time and expenses. Ready to Invoice lists each contract and the amount it can bill now.
- BaseBuilders
- Rocket Billing creates invoices across many projects in one batch.
Subconsultants
- Kineo
- Subconsultant costs go on as approved expenses with their markup, shown on the invoice at cost, as a disclosed markup, or inside your multiplier.
- BaseBuilders
- Subconsultant phases link to project phases, and pass-throughs are billed at cost or with markup.
Payments
- Kineo
- Record payments by ACH, card, check, wire, or cash against each invoice.
- BaseBuilders
- Income records for payments and retainers.
Accounting
- Kineo
- QuickBooks Online stays the ledger. Customers, invoices, credit memos, and payments sync, and payments recorded in QuickBooks update Kineo.
- BaseBuilders
- Pushes financial transactions into QuickBooks.
Projects and time
Time and expenses
- Kineo
- Weekly timesheets and expenses with approval, billed at effective-dated rates. The assistant can enter a week of time from a description.
- BaseBuilders
- Timesheets and expenses for every user.
Project documents
- Kineo
- Drawing sets and documents on each project, with tasks, checklist reviews, files, and history, and a board by document stage.
- BaseBuilders
- Project documents and a logbook for RFIs, submittals, and shop drawings.
Tasks
- Kineo
- Tasks on a project or a document, by assignee and due date, with a board, saved views, and a daily digest.
- BaseBuilders
- To-dos for every user role.
Buying
Price
- Kineo
- $29, $49, or $79 per seat per month, with every feature on every plan.
- BaseBuilders
- $20, $35, or $48 per user per month, depending on each person's permission role.
Getting started
- Kineo
- A 14-day free trial you start yourself, or a demo with the founder.
- BaseBuilders
- Book a call or get started from its website, with personalized onboarding for a one-time $497.
Bill each phase from the contract, with retainage and QuickBooks Online
When a client accepts a proposal, its fee lines become the contract. Kineo drafts each invoice by phase from percent complete and approved time and expenses, withholds retainage where the contract calls for it, and adds a G703-style continuation sheet to the PDF. Customers, invoices, credit memos, and payments sync with QuickBooks Online, which stays your ledger.
When extra work is agreed, an approved change order adjusts the contract's fee lines or phase budgets from its effective date, and the next invoice drafts from the updated contract.
Kineo records subconsultant fees, permit fees, and reimbursables as project expenses with their cost and markup, approved like time, and shows each one on the invoice at cost, as a disclosed markup, or inside your multiplier.
The Ready to Invoice view lists each contract and the amount it can bill now. Someone on your team checks each draft, sends it through approval, and issues it.
Give every project, client, and contact its own email address
Forward or copy mail to a project's, client's, or contact's own address from any email account, so each message comes in addressed to the work it's about.
When someone on your team imports a message, Kineo reads it and its attachments, files it under the project, and, where suggestions are turned on, suggests the tasks and comments it asks for. Automations watching the inbox can draft the change order or proposal a client asks for and create a task for the project manager to check it. Every imported message also lands in one inbox for the whole firm.
Describe an automation in plain language and see each step before it runs
Pick what to watch, such as a project's inbox, an invoice, or a phase, then write when to act and what to do. Kineo lays out the steps as you type. Automations start when an email is imported, when something happens in Kineo, on an hourly check during the workday, or when you run them by hand.
They draft proposals, contracts, change orders, invoices, and credit notes, create tasks, and email the people on your team you choose. Drafts wait for someone with permission to review them, and if a step fails, the steps that succeeded are kept so you can retry the rest.
Ask Kineo's assistant to work on your project records
Open Kineo's assistant beside any screen and ask in plain language. It reads projects, contracts, time, and email. It can set up phases and tasks, enter a week of time, record a payment, or draft the proposal, change order, or invoice that follows from what it read, with the permissions of the person asking.
Work on Kineo from Claude, ChatGPT, or Claude Code
Kineo runs an MCP server. MCP is the open standard assistants use to connect to other software. Each person signs in with their Kineo account, and the assistant gets the same tools as Kineo's own, within that person's permissions. It can read a project's email, check the phases and fee lines on its contract, draft a change order or the month's invoice, record a payment, and enter a week of time.
In Claude Code, run claude mcp add --transport http kineo https://app.gokineo.com/mcp, then sign in from /mcp.
Review drawings against your firm's checklists, with outside reviewers by link
Kineo's drawing reviews run against your firm's own checklists. Each markup is filed under the checklist item it answers, and each item gets a decision. Review workflows route each set to its reviewers, with reminders, and a markup can become a task for the person revising the sheet. Clients, agencies, and consultants review through an emailed link with the same drawings, markup tools, and checklist as your team, without an account or a seat.
What each costs
Kineo
- Team: $29 per seat per month, or $290 per seat per year
- Team Plus: $49 per seat per month, or $490 per seat per year
- Team Pro: $79 per seat per month, or $790 per seat per year
- Every feature on every plan, with more assistant usage and storage on Team Plus and Team Pro
- Outside reviewers and client portal contacts free, without a seat
- A 14-day free trial, then monthly or annual billing
BaseBuilders
- Limited: $20 per user per month, for timesheets, expenses, to-dos, resources, and the address book
- Production: $35 per user per month, adding projects without financials, phases, construction budgets, documents, the logbook, and non-financial reports
- Financial: $48 per user per month, adding proposals, fees and financial statements, Rocket Billing, payments and retainers, subconsultants, time reports, QuickBooks and Xero, and admin
- Every account needs at least one Financial user
- Paid monthly with no contract, and you can cancel any time
- Personalized onboarding: $497, one time
BaseBuilders' figures come from its pricing page and FAQ, checked October 2026. Its pricing page doesn't state a currency. Kineo's prices are in US dollars.
Try Kineo on one project while you keep BaseBuilders
Run one current project in Kineo for a billing cycle, with BaseBuilders still running the rest of the firm, and compare the results with the people who'll use it.
- 1
Set up one project
Add a current project with its client, contract, and phases, and invite the people working on it.
- 2
Send it real email
Turn on the project's email address and forward it the next client request.
- 3
Write one automation
Describe one routine job, such as drafting a change order when a client asks for extra work.
- 4
Review the next drawing set
Route it through your checklist, with an outside reviewer if the project has one.
- 5
Bill the month
Draft the invoice and have your billing lead compare it with the one BaseBuilders produces.
Questions about Kineo and BaseBuilders
Sources
BaseBuilders's details come from its own website and documentation, checked October 2026. Products change, so confirm anything that matters to your decision with BaseBuilders.
More comparisons
Try Kineo on a project you're working on now
Set up a project with its contract and phases, invite your team, and give the assistant some of the routine work. Your first 14 days are free, with every feature included.