Astrid Legal vs PointOne: AI timekeeping compared
Summary: Astrid and PointOne both draft time entries automatically and hold each one until the timekeeper confirms it. They differ in how they capture work and what they do after. PointOne captures the whole working day in the background, then checks every entry and every pre-bill against firm and client billing rules, including outside counsel guidelines, and syncs to billing systems such as Aderant, Elite 3E and Clio. Astrid builds entries from a set list of sources: calls and meetings measured from the recording, sent email, calendar events and document editing from Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, and the desktop apps and research sites a firm allows. Approved time files to Clio, Smokeball, Lawcus or 8am MyCase. If client guidelines and pre-bill review are your problem, look hard at PointOne. If unlogged calls and a small-firm case management system are, look at Astrid.
We make Astrid, so weigh our side accordingly. What we say about PointOne comes from its own Time, Rules, Review and Security pages, read on October 30, 2026. Where we rely on how LegalMate or Billables AI describe PointOne in their comparison pages, we say so. Confirm anything that matters with PointOne directly before you buy.
At a glance
| Astrid | PointOne | |
|---|---|---|
| How work is captured | A set list of sources, each turned on by the timekeeper | The whole day in the background, plus AI timers and retroactive capture |
| Screen images | None | Processed and not stored, per its security page |
| Calls | Length measured from the recording; description written from the transcript | Context from calls; no transcript described |
| Email and documents | Subject, people and times of sent email; document editing sessions; never message bodies or file contents | Context from documents, email and the web |
| Billing rules and outside counsel guidelines | No | Yes, on every entry and every pre-bill |
| Pre-bill review | No | Yes, with comments and reviewer routing |
| Where approved time goes | Clio, Smokeball, Lawcus, 8am MyCase, or a CSV export | Aderant, Clio, Filevine, QuickBooks, Actionstep, Elite 3E, SurePoint, MyCase, LeanLaw and others |
| Certifications | None yet | SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001 |
| Price | Published: call time in the $40 seat, other sources $59 per timekeeper per month | Not published; demo required |
How each one captures time
PointOne's Time page says it captures your whole day in the background and offers three ways to work: fully automatic capture, retroactive capture over any date range for people who write entries at the end of the week or month, and AI timers that write the narrative for you. It says it gets context from documents, emails, calls and the web. Its security page says screen images are never stored and administrators cannot view them, which indicates that capture reads what is on screen and then discards the image. Billables AI's comparison describes PointOne as monitoring the full screen, and LegalMate's says it runs as a desktop app and browser extension for each timekeeper.
Astrid takes no screen images. It drafts time from these sources:
- Calls and meetings Astrid records, from Zoom Phone, Dialpad, a dial-in number for any cell phone or landline, a notetaker in Zoom, Google Meet and Teams, the Windows desktop app and the iPhone app. The length comes from the recording.
- Outlook and Gmail. Emails you send, read from the subject line, the people and the times. Message bodies are not read or stored.
- Outlook and Google Calendar, at the scheduled length, and Google Meet calls you attended.
- SharePoint, OneDrive and Google Drive. Editing sessions on the documents you work on, from the file's edit history and name, never what the file says.
- Dialpad call logs for calls Astrid did not record.
- Astrid Desktop for time in Word, Excel, Acrobat and other apps on your firm's allowlist.
- A Chrome and Edge extension for time on research and court sites on your firm's allowlist.
Each person turns each source on for themselves, and the firm can turn any source off. A new source runs in preview for a few days, showing what it would draft before anything lands in the queue. Astrid has no timer: work nothing captured, such as a hallway conversation, goes in as a manual entry.
How the length and description are set
Astrid separates measured time from estimated time and labels each entry. Calls and meetings carry the length of the recording or the call log. Email and document time is an estimate, and the entry shows the emails or editing sessions it came from and the arithmetic behind the number. Estimates are set low on purpose, and reading an email creates no time, because a high estimate bills a client for time not spent. A burst of emails on one thread, or one session on one document, becomes one entry, and a meeting Astrid recorded, its calendar event and its call log become one entry rather than three.
The description is written for the client's invoice. For a call it is drafted from the transcript, never from the firm's internal note on the call, so privileged analysis does not end up on a bill. Astrid sends the unrounded time and leaves your billing increment to your case management system, and it can set the case management system's own activity category in Clio, Smokeball and Lawcus. It does not assign UTBMS task codes.
Astrid only drafts time for matters billed by the hour. A firm with both a contingency practice and an hourly one gets entries for the hourly matters only, and any matter can be marked hourly.
PointOne's site says its narratives follow firm and client billing rules, such as a required level of detail or a ban on block billing. LegalMate's comparison says its entries carry task and activity codes.
Reviewing and approving time
PointOne's security page says each time entry is a draft the timekeeper confirms. Astrid works the same way: nothing files until the timekeeper approves it.
Astrid's review happens on its Time page. It shows one, two or four weeks of entries grouped by day, with a total for each day. A timekeeper can edit an entry, approve one at a time or a batch, split an entry across two matters, merge two into one, mark a day complete, and add a manual entry. The page works in a phone's browser. Drafts and the activity behind them are visible only to the timekeeper. A firm administrator can reassign an entry to the right person but cannot approve it for them, and the firm's report shows counts of drafted and approved time, not anyone's email or browsing.
When a timekeeper opens an entry, Astrid checks Clio for time another tool or a person already entered on the same matter, for the same person, on the same day, and warns if it looks like the same work. That matters at a firm already using Clio's own time tracking or another timekeeper.
PointOne goes a step further, to the bill. Its Review product has AI mark up pre-bills, flag problems and suggest fixes, with comments, tagging and reviewer routing set by the firm, such as legal assistant, then responsible partner, then billing administrator. Astrid has no pre-bill review.
Billing rules and outside counsel guidelines
This is PointOne's clearest advantage. Its Rules product takes a client's outside counsel guidelines as PDF, DOCX, TXT or EML, turns them into structured billing rules, and checks every time entry and pre-bill against them before the bill goes out. Astrid has no billing rules or outside counsel guidelines feature. A firm whose clients, such as insurance carriers or corporate legal departments, reject invoices against guidelines should weigh this heavily.
Where approved time goes
PointOne's site lists Aderant, Clio, Filevine, QuickBooks, Actionstep, Elite 3E, SurePoint, MyCase and LeanLaw. LegalMate's comparison adds Orion, Centerbase and Litify. Smokeball's marketplace also lists PointOne, as our Smokeball guide notes.
Astrid files approved time to Clio Manage, Smokeball, Lawcus and 8am MyCase, matched to the matter. For any other billing system, a timekeeper can export their approved entries as a CSV file. Astrid does not connect to Aderant, Elite 3E, Filevine, Litify or Centerbase.
Privacy and security
PointOne's security page says it is SOC 2 Type 2 audited and ISO 27001 certified, GDPR compliant and HIPAA ready. It says firm data is never used to train models, its AI providers keep no data, firms can choose to store data in the U.S., the EU, Canada or Australia, enterprise firms can have a single-tenant deployment, and a firm can set activity data to zero retention.
Astrid has no SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certification and no independent penetration test yet; our security page says what is and is not in place. If your clients or insurer require those certifications, or you need data kept outside the U.S., that favors PointOne today. What Astrid offers instead is a narrower capture: it never sees the screen, the body of an email or the contents of a document, and customer data is never used to train models.
Pricing and how to try each one
Time entries from calls and meetings, the Time page and filing to your case management system are included in Astrid's notetaker seat, at $40 per person per month billed monthly or $400 per year billed annually. Time from email, calendar, documents, call logs, the desktop app and the browser extension is the billable hours add-on, at $59 per timekeeper per month or $590 per year. The 14-day free trial includes the add-on, with no setup fee.
PointOne does not publish a price. Its site asks you to book a demo, and Billables AI's comparison describes it as demo-only with no free trial.
Which one fits
PointOne fits mid-size and large firms that bill clients under outside counsel guidelines, run Aderant, Elite 3E, SurePoint or another enterprise billing system, review pre-bills through several people, and need SOC 2, ISO 27001 or a choice of data region.
Astrid fits small and mid-size hourly firms, such as family law, civil litigation, business and estate planning practices, on Clio, Smokeball, Lawcus or 8am MyCase, where client calls are a large share of the time that goes unbilled. It also fits firms that want a published price and a free trial, and that would rather a timekeeper read metadata than the screen. See how Astrid drafts billable time.
Both together is possible: PointOne for desktop work and billing rules, Astrid for calls. Decide which tool owns call time so one call does not become two entries. We have not tested this combination.
Questions to bring to a PointOne demo
- What does it cost per timekeeper, and is there a trial?
- What exactly is read from the screen, and can a timekeeper exclude an app or a site?
- For a phone call, is the entry's length measured, and is the description written from what was said or only from the call's details?
- Which of the listed billing systems are live for a firm of your size, and does the Rules product work with Clio or MyCase?
Sources
- PointOne: Time, Rules, Review and Security pages, read October 30, 2026
- Billables AI's and LegalMate's comparison pages for PointOne
Frequently asked questions
Does PointOne take screenshots?
PointOne's security page says screen images are never stored and administrators cannot view them, and Billables AI's comparison says PointOne monitors the full screen. Astrid does not capture screen images.
Does Astrid enforce billing rules or outside counsel guidelines?
No. Astrid has no billing rules, outside counsel guidelines or pre-bill review feature. PointOne offers all three.
Does Astrid read my email to draft time?
It reads the subject line, the people and the times of emails you send in Outlook or Gmail. Message bodies are not read or stored.
Are time entries from calls extra with Astrid?
No. Time entries from calls and meetings, the Time page and filing are included in the $40 notetaker seat. The $59 add-on covers email, calendar, documents, call logs, the desktop app and the browser extension.
Is PointOne's price published?
No. PointOne's site asks you to book a demo, and neither Billables AI's nor LegalMate's comparison gives a price.
Does Astrid integrate with Aderant, Elite 3E, Litify or Centerbase?
No. Astrid files time to Clio Manage, Smokeball, Lawcus and 8am MyCase, and exports approved entries as a CSV file for other systems.