Karbon is the workflow leader for accounting firms with best-in-class email triage and task templates; Klientele adds retainer accounting with automatic rollover, honest capacity planning, invoice generation, and a full client portal in the same system.
Pick Klientele if any of these describe your operational needs.
We built Klientele. We still tell you when Karbon is the right call.
Every row is a real feature. Every claim is factual. No hidden asterisks.
| Feature | Klientele | Karbon |
|---|---|---|
| Task and workflow management | Yes — sprints + tickets model | Yes — Kanban of client tasks |
| Email triage / shared inbox | Basic — email → ticket ingestion | Yes — best-in-class |
| Retainer accounting | Yes — automatic rollover + overage billing | No — manual tracking |
| Time tracking | Yes — tagged to client + engagement + ticket | Yes |
| Invoicing | Yes — generated from tracked work automatically | No — integrate with QBO/Xero for invoicing |
| Capacity planning | Yes — 22-productive-hours model, live dashboard | Basic — task assignment view |
| Client portal | Yes — engagements, invoices, payment, feedback | Basic — via Karbon Client Portal add-on |
| Client requests / intake | Yes — form + widget + email | Yes — via Client Tasks |
| Automatic reminders | Yes — deadline + overdue crons | Yes — via Automators |
| Reporting / dashboards | CEO, CFO, CTO executive dashboards | Practice-wide reporting |
| Xero integration | Yes — via API | Native + deep |
| QuickBooks Online | Yes — via API | Native |
| Mobile app | PWA (iOS/Android) | Native + PWA |
| Starting price | ₹3,999/month (Solo) | USD 79/user/month (Team) |
| Free trial | 14 days, no card | 14 days |
Most 10-25 person teams migrate incrementally over 4-6 weeks. Here is the honest playbook.
Karbon supports CSV export for contacts and organizations via Settings → Data Export. Work items and comments can be exported per-client.
Create a Klientele workspace, apply either the Accounting or Consulting template (both work for practice firms; Accounting uses "engagement" terminology).
CSV-import Karbon contacts as Klientele clients. Map Karbon "Work" items to Klientele "Projects" or "Engagements".
New client requests go to Klientele. Active Karbon work items complete in Karbon. After one full monthly billing cycle in Klientele, evaluate whether to migrate remaining work items or close them out in Karbon.
Once your active work is fully in Klientele, retain Karbon read-only for historical reference (6-12 months), then archive and cancel.
Klientele is a post-sales operating system that combines ticket/task management, time tracking, retainer accounting, invoicing, capacity planning, and a client portal in one system. Karbon is optimized for a narrower scope. The right choice depends on whether your operational bottleneck is workflow orchestration (Karbon may fit) or the seams between tracking, billing, and client visibility (Klientele fits).
Klientele's Team tier is ₹11,999/month for 5 seats — comparable to or lower than Karbon's equivalent tier when accounting for the retainer/invoicing/portal features that Karbon typically requires add-ons or separate tools for.
Yes — Klientele supports CSV import for clients, projects, tickets, retainers, and invoices. Most teams migrate incrementally over 4-6 weeks. New work goes into Klientele from day one; in-flight work stays in Karbon until it naturally closes.
14 days. Every feature unlocked. No credit card.