Teamwork runs the agency. Willie runs the engagement.
Teamwork.com is built for client work, and it says so: time tracking, billable rates, retainers, invoicing, capacity planning, profitability forecasts, and an AI that sets projects up and schedules people. It is a professional-services operating system for firms that sell hours. Groundskeeper is built for firms that sell judgment: fixed-scope engagements where the risk is drift, not utilization. Willie reads your SOW and transcripts, keeps the plan true, watches scope and decisions, and answers your clients.
If your firm lives on billable utilization, Teamwork is honestly the better fit. If your firm lives on getting the engagement right, keep reading.
Optimizing hours vs. keeping the engagement true.
Teamwork organizes a firm around time. Every task can carry an estimate, a timer, a rate, and a budget, so the firm can see utilization, margin, and what to invoice. Its AI helps with that job: turn a client request into a project, assign people by capacity, summarize a thread, forecast profit. It is very good at the business of delivery, and it assumes someone keeps the tasks and timesheets current.
Groundskeeper organizes a firm around the engagement. Willie starts from the proposal and the SOW, builds the plan, reads each meeting transcript, updates what changed, flags scope creep and unclosed decisions, and briefs you before the next call. Your client asks Willie in the portal instead of asking you. There are no timers, because fixed-scope advisory work isn't billed that way.
It comes down to who does the work.
Not "who has more features." Both tools can hold your project. The question is who keeps it current, who notices what changed, and who your client talks to. Here's how that splits.
TeamworkWhen Teamwork is the better call.
Teamwork is a serious, mature product for client work, and for a lot of firms it's exactly right. Here's when, split into what we chose to do differently and what we honestly don't do.
These are things Teamwork does that we chose not to. Not gaps — different opinions about how the work should happen.
- Hours as the unit of work. Teamwork's whole model runs on tracked time: estimates, timers, rates, utilization. We chose not to. Fixed-scope advisory work is judged on outcomes and decisions, not hours logged.
- Task-level maintenance by the team. Teamwork's AI sets projects up and summarizes, but the plan stays current because people update tasks and log time. Willie keeps it current from what actually happened.
- AI as a scheduling and forecasting assistant. One-click resourcing and profit forecasts are real and useful. They're a different job from reading a transcript and noticing that the scope just moved.
If any of these is a real requirement for you right now, Teamwork (or a tool like it) is the honest answer — not us. We'd rather tell you than oversell.
- You bill by the hour or on retainer. Timesheets, billable rates, invoicing, and QuickBooks or Xero sync are the core of your operation. Teamwork does this and we don't.
- You need utilization and profitability dashboards. Capacity planning, billable targets, margin by project and client. That's PSA territory, and it's exactly what we said we wouldn't build.
- You run proofs and creative sign-off. Client review, revision rounds, and approval on deliverables are built into Teamwork. Our portal answers questions; it doesn't run proofing.