Kineo vs Monograph
Kineo and Monograph both run projects, time, and phase billing for engineering and architecture firms, with QuickBooks Online as the ledger. Monograph is strong on staffing and profit reporting, takes payments through Stripe, and builds AI into jobs like reading forwarded bills. Kineo gives each project its own email address and lets its assistant, your automations, and Claude or ChatGPT work on the same project records.
Free for 14 days, with every feature included.
- Compared
- Kineo and Monograph
- Published by
- Kineo
- Monograph details
- Checked October 2026
Which one fits your firm
Choose Monograph if you want
- Phased project plans with fees, consultants, and budgets tracked together in MoneyGantt
- Staffing, capacity, and utilization planning across the firm, with AI staffing recommendations and profit reports
- AI that turns forwarded email into bills, expenses, and notes, and suggests timesheet entries from your calendar
- Clients paying invoices online by card or ACH through Stripe, with an AR Assistant that follows up on late invoices for firms using those payments
- Consultant budgets, bills, and payouts managed by phase alongside your own fees
- QuickBooks Online as the ledger, with invoices, consultant bills, and expenses sent to it and costs brought back
Choose Kineo if you want
- 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
- Drawing reviews against your firm's checklists, with each markup filed under the item it answers and outside reviewers by link
- Phase invoices from the contract, with retainage, change orders, and a G703-style continuation sheet
- Published per-seat pricing with every feature on every plan, and a free trial you can start today
A client asks for extra work by email
A client on a civil site project emails to ask for a second stormwater outfall. Here's how that request becomes approved, billable work in each product.
In Monograph
- 1
The project manager forwards the client's email to the firm's Smart Inbox address from their registered Monograph email.
- 2
Monograph's AI reads the email and its attachments and proposes items for the project, such as a note or a deliverable.
- 3
The project manager reviews each item and adds it to the project.
- 4
The project manager updates the project's fee and phases in its plan, and adjusts staffing if the extra work needs more people.
- 5
The added fee is billed on a later invoice. If the client pays late, Monograph's reminders follow up, and so does its AR Assistant for firms using its Stripe payments.
In Kineo
- 1
The project manager forwards the client's email to the project's own address in Kineo, or the client copies that address.
- 2
Someone on the team checks the sender and imports the message. Kineo reads the email and its attachments and files it under the project.
- 3
An automation watching the project's inbox recognizes a request for work outside the contract. It drafts a change order on the contract and creates a task for the project manager to review it.
- 4
The project manager checks the draft, sets the fee, and approves it. The contract's fee lines update from the change order's effective date.
- 5
The project's next invoice drafts from the updated contract, and someone on the team reviews and issues it.
Kineo and Monograph side by side
Each product described in its own terms, from its website and documentation.
| Job | Kineo | Monograph |
|---|---|---|
| Email and assistants | ||
| Where email goes | An address for each project, client, and contact, from any email provider. Someone on the team checks the sender and imports each message. | One Smart Inbox address for the firm. Team members forward mail from their registered email. |
| What happens to an email | Kineo reads the message and its attachments, links it to a project, and suggests tasks, comments, and documents. Automations watching the inbox can draft change orders and proposals. | AI pulls bills, expenses, deliverables, notes, files, and contacts out of the message and its attachments for someone to review. |
| Assistant | A chat beside any screen that reads and edits projects, tasks, time, contracts, and billing drafts with the permissions of the person asking. | AI built into specific jobs: Smart Inbox, Smart Time, the AI Budget Builder, AI staffing recommendations, AI Budget Risk Ranking, and the AR Assistant. |
| Claude, ChatGPT, and other assistants | An MCP server with sign-in, so Claude, ChatGPT, and Claude Code work on Kineo records with each person's permissions. | Its help center says it doesn't offer an open API. Ask Monograph which outside tools it connects to. |
| Automations | Rules you describe in plain language. They run when email is imported, when something happens in Kineo, on hourly workday checks, or by hand, and they draft documents, create tasks, and email your team. | Invoice reminders that repeat until an invoice is paid. |
| Projects and time | ||
| Starting a project | An accepted proposal creates the client, the project, and its contract from the proposal's fee lines. | Proposals from the Proposal Builder. |
| Time | Weekly timesheets with approval. The assistant can enter a week of time from a description. | Smart Time suggests entries from your calendar and desktop activity, and you can log time in plain language on mobile. |
| Billing | ||
| Fee types | Percent-complete progress and time and materials by phase, from the contract, with expenses, change orders, retainage, and credit notes. | Fixed fee, hourly, consultant, expense, retainer, and percent complete invoices, with batch drafts and reminders until paid. |
| AIA continuation sheet | Invoice PDFs include a G703-style continuation sheet with retainage on each line. | Its billing guide says Monograph doesn't produce native G702 or G703 forms, and that architecture firms usually don't need them for their own invoices. |
| QuickBooks Online | Customers, invoices, credit memos, and payments sync, and payments recorded in QuickBooks update Kineo. | Invoices, consultant bills, and expenses go to QuickBooks Online, and costs come back. Paid status syncs both ways on QuickBooks Plus or Advanced. US firms only. |
| Buying | ||
| Price | $29, $49, or $79 per seat per month, with every feature on every plan. | Its pricing calculator estimates $60 to $75 per seat per month, billed annually. |
| Getting started | A 14-day free trial you start yourself, or a demo with the founder. | Purchase starts with a demo. |
Email and assistants
Where email goes
- Kineo
- An address for each project, client, and contact, from any email provider. Someone on the team checks the sender and imports each message.
- Monograph
- One Smart Inbox address for the firm. Team members forward mail from their registered email.
What happens to an email
- Kineo
- Kineo reads the message and its attachments, links it to a project, and suggests tasks, comments, and documents. Automations watching the inbox can draft change orders and proposals.
- Monograph
- AI pulls bills, expenses, deliverables, notes, files, and contacts out of the message and its attachments for someone to review.
Assistant
- Kineo
- A chat beside any screen that reads and edits projects, tasks, time, contracts, and billing drafts with the permissions of the person asking.
- Monograph
- AI built into specific jobs: Smart Inbox, Smart Time, the AI Budget Builder, AI staffing recommendations, AI Budget Risk Ranking, and the AR Assistant.
Claude, ChatGPT, and other assistants
- Kineo
- An MCP server with sign-in, so Claude, ChatGPT, and Claude Code work on Kineo records with each person's permissions.
- Monograph
- Its help center says it doesn't offer an open API. Ask Monograph which outside tools it connects to.
Automations
- Kineo
- Rules you describe in plain language. They run when email is imported, when something happens in Kineo, on hourly workday checks, or by hand, and they draft documents, create tasks, and email your team.
- Monograph
- Invoice reminders that repeat until an invoice is paid.
Projects and time
Starting a project
- Kineo
- An accepted proposal creates the client, the project, and its contract from the proposal's fee lines.
- Monograph
- Proposals from the Proposal Builder.
Time
- Kineo
- Weekly timesheets with approval. The assistant can enter a week of time from a description.
- Monograph
- Smart Time suggests entries from your calendar and desktop activity, and you can log time in plain language on mobile.
Billing
Fee types
- Kineo
- Percent-complete progress and time and materials by phase, from the contract, with expenses, change orders, retainage, and credit notes.
- Monograph
- Fixed fee, hourly, consultant, expense, retainer, and percent complete invoices, with batch drafts and reminders until paid.
AIA continuation sheet
- Kineo
- Invoice PDFs include a G703-style continuation sheet with retainage on each line.
- Monograph
- Its billing guide says Monograph doesn't produce native G702 or G703 forms, and that architecture firms usually don't need them for their own invoices.
QuickBooks Online
- Kineo
- Customers, invoices, credit memos, and payments sync, and payments recorded in QuickBooks update Kineo.
- Monograph
- Invoices, consultant bills, and expenses go to QuickBooks Online, and costs come back. Paid status syncs both ways on QuickBooks Plus or Advanced. US firms only.
Buying
Price
- Kineo
- $29, $49, or $79 per seat per month, with every feature on every plan.
- Monograph
- Its pricing calculator estimates $60 to $75 per seat per month, billed annually.
Getting started
- Kineo
- A 14-day free trial you start yourself, or a demo with the founder.
- Monograph
- Purchase starts with a demo.
Give every project, client, and contact its own email address
Monograph's Smart Inbox gives the firm one address, and its AI pulls bills, expenses, and notes out of whatever you forward to it.
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.
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.
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.
When a public owner or a prime consultant asks an engineering firm for G703-style detail, Kineo's invoice PDFs include it.
If your firm uses Factor
Factor's October 1, 2026 update says it no longer takes on new firms, that existing customers keep their access and support with no immediate move required, and that new development is focused on Monograph.
If you're reviewing your options, list the records you need to keep, such as open contracts, billing history, and review decisions, and try the products you're considering on one current project before deciding.
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
Monograph
- Grow plan, sold as an annual subscription
- Its pricing calculator estimates $60 to $75 per seat per month, billed annually
- At least five seats at renewal
- Pipeline, for leads, is a separate add-on
- Purchase starts with a demo
- Online payments through Stripe cost 3% for cards and 1% for ACH, capped at $15
Monograph's figures come from its pricing calculator and help center, checked October 2026. Its final price comes from a quote after a demo. Kineo's prices are in US dollars.
Try Kineo on one project while you keep Monograph
Run one current project in Kineo for a billing cycle, with Monograph 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 Monograph produces.
Questions about Kineo and Monograph
Sources
Monograph's details come from its own website and documentation, checked October 2026. Products change, so confirm anything that matters to your decision with Monograph.
- Monograph pricing
- Monograph help: making changes to your plan
- Monograph for engineering firms
- Monograph help: Smart Inbox
- Monograph: Smart Time Tracking
- Monograph help: what to know about your account (API)
- Monograph: invoicing
- Monograph: payments
- Monograph: QuickBooks
- Monograph help: enabling the QuickBooks Online integration
- Monograph: AIA billing guide for architects
- Monograph and Total Synergy announcement
- Factor: questions about Factor and Monograph
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.