Bonsai is the business kit for a person selling their own time. Proposals, contracts, invoices, time and accounting live in one place, and the client portal shows that commercial relationship. It is a sensible system while one or two people can still see the whole week without a plan.
That stops being true when the same week contains retainers, a pitch and a launch, and the people who can deliver them are already booked. Kavaro is the plan for that agency: who is on the work, what is only tentative, which seats are still empty, and whether delivery is actually moving. It does not send the invoice. It makes the staffing decision that the invoice later depends on.
Kavaro vs Bonsai at a glance
| Capability | Kavaro | Bonsai |
|---|---|---|
| Primary job | Plan a team and run client delivery | Run the commercial admin of a freelance practice |
| Built for | Agencies and professional services teams | Freelancers, consultants and very small practices |
| People plan | One schedule, in hours or a percentage, including leave and open roles | No team capacity plan |
| Pipeline | Pitches and tentative bookings beside confirmed work | Proposals in the path from sale to invoice |
| Client visibility | A delivery view that keeps the internal plan private | A portal for contracts, invoices, project details and files |
| Approvals and checkpoints | Yes — who has viewed or approved, and the decisions that unblock the work | Not the core workflow |
| Utilisation | Planned bookings and logged time, with permission-controlled cost and charge views | Time tracked so it can be billed |
| Contracts and invoicing | Not Kavaro’s job | Proposals, contracts, invoices and accounting |
Why agencies outgrow the freelancer stack
The first hire does not break Bonsai. The third concurrent client does, because the problem has moved from “did we send the invoice?” to “who is free, and have we already promised them twice?”
1. A team is not a freelancer with extra logins
Bonsai’s centre of gravity is one practice: scope it, contract it, track the time, bill it. Adding seats does not create a people × calendar view of retainers, projects and pitches. Kavaro starts there. Bookings are hours or a percentage, tentative work stays tentative, and an open role holds the demand until a person or freelancer is named. The person running the week can see the clash before the client does.
2. Getting paid and getting the work delivered are different risks
Bonsai is strong where agencies are often already covered: proposals, contracts, invoices, accounting. The expensive failure in a ten-person agency is usually earlier. A senior is on a pitch and a fixed-fee job in the same week, the approval sits unseen, and the margin is gone before finance opens the invoice. Kavaro tracks that delivery loop — phases, checkpoints, who has approved — and reports utilisation from the plan and the time logged against it.
3. The pipeline has to sit on the same people
In Bonsai, a proposal is a step toward a signed agreement and a bill. In an agency, a pitch is also a claim on the people who owe client work this week. Kavaro keeps pitches and tentative bookings on the schedule with confirmed delivery, so saying yes is a capacity decision rather than a commercial one made in isolation. The agent can propose who would take it. A person confirms or rejects that proposal.
4. Use both if they do different jobs
There is no virtue in forcing contracts and invoices into the delivery tool, or in pretending a billing portal is a resource plan. Some agencies keep Bonsai, or another finance tool, for the commercial record and use Kavaro for the week: who is booked, what is slipping, and what the staffing choice does to margin. The trial question is whether Friday’s reconciliation gets shorter, not whether Kavaro can replace the accountant.
Other comparisons
- Kavaro vs Float — If you already have billing covered and need a visual capacity schedule.
- Kavaro vs Resource Guru — If the schedule also includes rooms, kit and other resources.
- Kavaro vs Runn — If the decision is which mix of future projects the team can carry.
- Kavaro vs Productive — If budgets, expenses and invoicing should live with the resource plan.
Frequently asked questions
Is Bonsai a good fit for an agency?
Bonsai fits a freelancer or a very small practice whose hard problem is proposals, contracts, time and getting paid. It is a weak fit once several people are delivering several clients at once. Kavaro is built for that point: one people plan, tentative work kept separate from confirmed work, and delivery that a team can actually run.
Does Bonsai have a client portal?
Yes. Bonsai’s client portal is for the commercial relationship: project details, contracts, invoices and files. Kavaro’s client view is for delivery progress, while the internal plan, staffing and commercial detail stay private.
Can an agency use Bonsai and Kavaro together?
Yes. Bonsai can remain the place for contracts, invoices and accounting. Kavaro can be the place for who is booked, what is still tentative, and whether the work is moving. They are solving different problems.
Does Kavaro send invoices?
No. Kavaro does not replace a billing or accounting tool. It shows utilisation from live bookings and logged time, and cost and charge views for the people granted permission, so the staffing decision can be defended before the invoice is raised somewhere else.
See how Kavaro handles this work
Try Kavaro free for 30 days. Bring a live plan, ask who can take the next piece of work, and approve the staffing before it goes live.