The Karbon alternative that runs the whole firm, not just the inbox
Karbon is excellent at turning email into shared work. Firms leave when billing, staff leave and AML/KYC still live in other tools, or when the features they need sit on the $89 Business tier. ZenWorkflow includes all of it from €39 per user per month.
When firms start looking for a Karbon alternative
The inbox is not the problem. What sits outside it is.
The Business-tier upgrade
Automatic client reminders and the fuller automation set arrive at $89 per user per month, a 50% jump for a firm that only needed one of them.
A second tool for compliance
Karbon has no PEP or sanctions screening and no risk assessment. Regulated firms keep a separate AML/KYC system and a separate login.
Nowhere to put staff leave
Leave requests, balances and capacity are not in the product, so planning around who is free still happens in spreadsheets or HR software.
One firm per account
Groups running several entities juggle Karbon accounts. There is no isolated multi-entity view from one login.
What you keep, what you gain
Most of what your team does in Karbon carries straight across. The rest is what they have been doing in other tools.
You keep: work items as workflows
Work items and their templates become workflow templates with checklist sections, owners, budgets and due dates.
You keep: time and budgets
Timesheets, budgets per job and approvals carry over, and the hours flow onto invoices in one click.
You gain: AML/KYC on the client record
Screen clients, directors and beneficial owners, record the risk assessment and track KYC document expiry.
You gain: leave, capacity and multi-entity
Leave and balances next to the work, and several firms or entities from one login, fully isolated.
What you give up when you leave Karbon
What you give up is Karbon's signature feature: the shared, triaged inbox with comments and @mentions on every email. ZenWorkflow does not replace your email client. If your firm lives in the inbox, read the side-by-side comparison before deciding.
What to export from Karbon before you switch
Karbon exports contacts, organisations and work to CSV from the relevant list views. Take these before you downgrade or close the account.
- Contacts and organisations to CSV, including custom fields
- Work items with status, assignee and due date, so open engagements are not lost
- Work templates, exported or documented, to rebuild as workflow templates
- Time entries and budgets for the current year
- Documents attached to work and clients, downloaded per client
- Invoices from Karbon Billing & Payments, if you use it
Switching from Karbon in four steps
Guided onboarding imports your data and validates it with you before go-live.
Export from Karbon
Download contacts, organisations, work items and templates to CSV. Leave your email where it is.
Import and verify
Import clients, contacts and open work. Directors, shareholders and custom fields come across in the same run, and we check the mapping with you.
Rebuild templates
Recreate your work templates as ZenWorkflow templates, or let the AI draft them, and launch the next recurring cycle from ZenWorkflow.
Run one cycle side by side
Keep Karbon for the current month while the team works in ZenWorkflow, then cancel.
Switching from Karbon: questions firms ask
Straight answers on data, timing and what changes for the team.
For firms that want billing, timesheets, staff leave and AML/KYC in the same system as their workflows, ZenWorkflow. For firms that chose Karbon for its inbox and want to keep that, there is no like-for-like alternative: ZenWorkflow runs the practice and leaves email to your email client.
Yes. Contacts, organisations, custom fields and work items import from Karbon's CSV exports. Guided onboarding maps the fields with you and validates the import before go-live.
No. ZenWorkflow sends invoices, statements and documents by email and records every send, but it does not triage or share your incoming mail. That is the main thing a Karbon firm gives up.
Karbon is $59 to $89 per user per month billed yearly. ZenWorkflow is €39 per user per month, or €58 with AML/KYC, billed monthly or yearly with every feature at every tier.
A firm with a few hundred clients is usually live within two to three weeks: a week to export and import, a week to rebuild templates and check the first cycle, and a few days of running the two systems side by side. Larger firms with invoicing history to bring across take longer, and we plan that with you.
Most teams are working in ZenWorkflow after one onboarding session. Workflows, timesheets and invoices follow the way firms already work, and the knowledge center covers every screen. Partners usually need the reporting walkthrough only.
Yes. ZenWorkflow is built in the EU and is used by accounting, audit, tax, legal and corporate-services firms across Europe and beyond. It bills in EUR or USD, supports multiple entities from one login and includes the AML/KYC due-diligence that EU and UK regulated firms need, without a US-tax or Companies-House-only focus.
Yes. Start a free trial with no credit card, import a handful of clients and run one real engagement end to end. Book a demo if you would rather see your own workflows set up first.
Leaving Karbon? Bring one engagement across and see
Start a free trial, or book a demo and we will import a handful of your clients and run one real job end to end.
No credit card required. Free 14-day trial.