The shape of the market
Back-office systems hold timesheets and self-billing and stop there: none of the eighteen we checked generates a Key Information Document, keeps an umbrella register or produces the intermediaries return. Compliance platforms hold KIDs, umbrella due diligence and an audit trail and stop there: no timesheets, no invoicing, so the rate that goes on the KID is retyped from the system that already holds it. Templio is the nearest single product to BookKept, a strong back office with an IR35 engine and an AWR clock, and it does not hold the umbrella chain, the KID or the intermediaries return. The spreadsheet does whatever the person who built it remembered to add.
What none of them holds is the join: the placement, its weeks, its invoices, its KID, its status determination and its umbrella check as one record with one audit trail, which is the thing an inspection asks for and the thing BookKept exists to keep.
Row by row
| What is held | BookKept | Timesheet system (e.g. Timesheet Portal) |
Compliance platform (SafeRec, PaySentry, DiligenceHub) |
Templio | Spreadsheet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The back office | |||||
| Timesheets with client approval | Yes, magic-link approval, worker-entered weeks | Yes | Not their scope | Yes, magic-link approval | By email and memory |
| Self-billing invoices (HMRC 700/62 wording, agreement gate) | Yes, refused without a live agreement | Yes | Not their scope | Yes, dual self-billing | A template somebody edits |
| Client invoices raised from the same approved week | Yes, with credit notes | Typically | Not their scope | Yes | Retyped |
| Accounting export (Xero) | CSV batches, what is new per series | Typically | Not their scope | Xero | Manual |
| The compliance record | |||||
| Key Information Documents generated from the placement (reg 13A) | Yes, from the record, audited on issue | No (0 of 18 checked) | Yes, from typed-in facts | Not stated | A Word template |
| Right-to-work register with method and recheck date | Yes, with the 1 October 2026 change as a dated rule | Not stated | Not stated | Document vault with expiry dates | A column |
| Umbrella register with evidence and joint-liability position | Yes, per umbrella, red when a live placement has no current file | No | Yes, their core | No | A folder |
| AWR qualifying clock (12 weeks, breaks, pauses) | Yes, from approved weeks, calendar as the warning | Not stated | Not their scope | Yes, AWR parity | A formula |
| IR35: client size and the status determination statement, held against the placement | Yes, with the 45-day disagreement window; refuses gross self-billing without it | Not stated | Not their scope | IR35 engine | A PDF somewhere |
| Employment intermediaries quarterly return | Yes, from the record; never infers gender | No | Not stated | No | Hand-built each quarter |
| One evidence pack per placement, the whole chain | Yes, print or JSON; see one | No | Their half | Not stated | No |
| Audit trail | Hash-chained, append-only at the database, verifiable by anyone with the rows | Not stated | Yes | 7-year immutable audit trail | File history, if lucky |
| The terms | |||||
| Published prices | Yes, five tiers by contractor count | Mostly quote-only (6 of 8 incumbents) | Yes | £129 / £299 / £499 by contractor band | Free, plus the person |
| At fifteen contractors | £199 a month, one system | About £98 a month | £99 to £299 a month | £129 a month | A day a month of somebody's time |
| Free tier | Up to three contractors, the whole system | Trials | Yes, every compliance entrant has one | Not stated | Yes |
| Setup fee | None; optional paid migration for a messy book | Common, £600 to £2,500 where charged | Varies | Not stated | None |
| Support | Free, a person, replies from him | One incumbent bills £45 to £80 per phone call | Varies | Not stated | You |
| Your data back | Your whole book from Settings, any time; verified offboarding bundle | Varies | Varies | Not stated | It is a file |
Read from the vendors' own published pages between 12 and 15 August 2026. "Not stated" means we could not find it on their site, not that they lack it. Prices are the published monthly rates at or around fifteen active contractors, before VAT.
What the two-vendor stack costs
An agency covering this ground today is usually paying a timesheet system and a compliance platform that do not talk to each other: roughly £98 to £129 a month for the first and £99 to £299 for the second, £197 to £428 in all, and the join between them is a person retyping rates. Core is £199 and holds the join. That is the whole argument, and it only stands because the KID, the umbrella register, the status determination record and the intermediaries return are in the product now.
What BookKept does not do, so you can compare fairly
It never moves money: no payroll, no payments, no factoring. It does not decide IR35 status; it records the client's determination and refuses to pay a company gross without one. It does not run right-to-work checks; it records the check made and when the next is due. If your funder gives you a back office with the money, this sits beside it holding the proof, not in front of it. The full list is in the terms, section 5.
Compare against the real thing, not the table
The demo agency is live in every feature with a fictional book you are free to change. Open a placement, print its evidence pack, and decide whether the join is worth £199.