Billables AI vs. PointOne:
Why Methodology Matters
PointOne and Billables AI both promise automated timekeeping. But the architecture underneath how activity is captured, where data goes, and how entries are generated determines what attorneys trust, what survives a billing dispute, and what actually gets used. Here's how they compare.
Comparison Table
How Activity Is Captured
The most important difference no one talks about loudly enough
PointOne:
Full Screen Monitoring Required
PointOne captures activity by monitoring entire screens -- periodic or continuous screenshots of what attorneys are doing. That means there's no filter for what gets captured -- privileged communications, personal info, sensitive client data, and anything else on screen at that moment all pass through their system indiscriminately.
Billables AI
Integration-led, Permission-based
Billables AI takes a fundamentally different approach: API integrations with the tools attorneys already use. Email, calendar, documents, meetings -- activity signals are captured through secure, supported connections. Screenshots are optional and there is no invasive monitoring of your entire screen.
Why an integration-led approach matters
Minimizes risk of attorney-client privilege and client confidentiality
Accurate data gathered directly from the source (Microsoft, Google, Zoom, etc.)
Opt-in at the application level - firms control what's connected
Non-invasive by design, which is why adoption is higher
Works across all devices and environments
For firms that need coverage beyond what APIs currently support, Billables AI offers an optional application-monitoring supplement, fully opt-in, limited to apps you explicitly select, and supplemental to the API foundation, never a replacement for it.
Practice Management Integrations
Where time entries actually have to land
PointOne
PointOne's native practice management integrations are limited. That means more manual steps between a captured activity and a submitted time entry -- exactly the friction automated timekeeping is supposed to eliminate.
Billables AI
Billables AI has more official integrations with practice management platforms than any other passive timekeeping solution on the market -- Centerbase, Clio, SurePoint, Litify, MyCase, LeanLaw, and Orion, with more in development.
Why it matters:
The AI Behind It
Not all AI is created equal
Billables AI is built by a team with genuine AI depth -- Stanford-trained researchers, large-scale AI infrastructure experience, and advisors at the forefront of legal AI and applied research.
That foundation shows in the product. This isn't a general-purpose model with a legal billing prompt on top. The AI is purpose-built for the specific vocabulary, structure, billing judgment calls, and compliance requirements of legal timekeeping.
That depth of AI expertise earned Billables AI recognition as Legal Tech Company of the Year -- independent validation that the technology delivers, not just promises.
Built for Every Timekeeper
Adoption fails when tools are built for one type of user
Most passive timekeeping tools are designed with partners and senior associates in mind. Billables AI is built for the full range of people who bill time at a firm: partners, associates, paralegals, and legal ops staff, each of whom has different workflows, billing habits, and pressure points.
Why it matters:
A paralegal tracking task-level time has different needs than a partner billing 200 hours a month
Firm-wide rollout only works if every role finds value in the product
Practice group variation, seniority differences, and hybrid work patterns are all accounted for
All biller types including contemporaneous billers are supported with features
Designed for Daily Use
The best timekeeping tool is the one attorneys actually use
Most legal software is built to satisfy IT requirements. Billables AI is built for the person actually using it.
The interface is consumer-grade by design -- the kind of experience attorneys expect from the apps they use outside of work. Onboarding is lightweight, and most attorneys are up and running quickly without heavy lift from IT or firm management.
The downstream effect is real: when a tool doesn't feel like a burden, people actually adopt it -- and more adoption means more time captured.
Why it matters:
Low-friction onboarding from first login to first entry
Reduces the change management burden on firm administrators
Higher adoption means more time captured, which is the whole point
Try It Before You Buy
We'd rather show you than tell you.
Many legal tech evaluation processes are gated behind sales conversations and polished demos. Billables AI offers real pilots -- real data, real workflows, real entry quality -- before you sign anything.
This isn't a marketing tactic. It's a reflection of how the product performs in the real world versus a controlled demo environment. Firms that pilot Billables AI see actual time capture rates, actual OCG compliance, and actual attorney adoption before making a decision.
