BQE CORE Suite reviews

Using CORE to invoice our clients has freed up so much of my time I'm afraid I could have streamlined myself out of a job. Billing previews that used to take days are now done in hours. The time to create invoices and submit them for approval takes about 25% of the time before CORE. Easy to learn and a breeze to use.

ORE is a very complex software system to set up, but once we worked out all of the nuances and specifications, this software rocks!

It is very well structured, in a logical manner and has put a lot of attention into details of how projects can be deployed in so administrative ways in the AE industry. It can keep a project very simple o very sophisticated in terms of phases, budgets, reporting, etc.

Moving from Archioffice (the previous software from BQE) to CORE was not flawless at all. I would have liked more support from BQE and that they acknowledge it is not flawless or that things willl appear automatically.

BillQuick is a powerful tool in tracking project time and expenses for professional services. We converted from 7 years of Quick Books data. Although the conversion and integration was not a seemless process, and the learning curve was much longer than originally anticipated, we are now tracking project profitability at a much higher level than we ever have before.
BillQuick Tech Support is fantastic. They are patient and knowledgeable, and we have received a lot of added value by having the Gold Care Tech Support package added onto our services. Additionally, we have invested quite a bit of extra money on having Bill Quick Customization Department write customized reports. Although the standard reports section is extensive, we were unable to find reports that gave us exactly the data we wanted to see. It's nice that this additional service is offered, but it would be nice for them to give us a handful of customized reports as part of the conversion process and then charge extra from there on out.

The software is not as user-friendly as it could be. Some things are overly complicated and require detailed use before you understand the functionality of the software. It could not be more different that QuickBooks, and the transition for us was difficult. Personally, I highly underestimated the learning curve.

In the beginning, we were only using BQ for time and expense logging and we maintained our Quick Books file for all other general accounting, which I would strongly discourage. Although the SYNC feature does work to sync data between programs, it is not a clean sync and much of it needed cleanup on either side of the sync. This was very frustrating. We just recently converted all of our general accounting in QB over to the Accounting portal in BillQuick. This has helped to have all of our financial records in one software system and our data is much more consistent. However, the "Accounting" portal is not perfect and there are a number of features that are lacking where QB has it all dialed in. Examples: 1) in looking at a vendor bill, there is no indication or PAID FLAT to see it has been PAID or not. To see if it is paid, I have to look at the previous checks. 2) In a report that lists all AP checks written for a particular time frame, there is no TOTAL at the end of the report. 3) BQ allows duplicate check numbers. (This is not a complete list, but the top 3 things that drive me insane.) These seem like basic accounting features and for them to not be included in an accounting software is frustrating. DISCLAIMER: we have not yet upgraded to BQ2015 and remain on BQ2014 for a while longer. My understanding is that BQ2015 has updated a number of accounting features, so I look forward to seeing if any of those issues are remedied.

once we loaded all the info and figured out the new system - easy to use.

Just that we had to start learning any new software

The time tracking is the first and most impactful of the features. As the team grew more comfortable, they found it easier to get more specific with the breakdown...not being so vague. After six months most of the team seems very comfortable with the use of the product.

I am HR Admin, and we do not yet have the HR module, so it is likely having the smallest affect on me. The time and expense features that I use the most is not always accurate due to some of the automatic features, but we have/had not stipulated our needs. It is customizable to make this work more in our favor, but we had to know of the effects first. I like least that we had to wait and experience the detriments to see what it would do first, so that we could then make those changes

BQE Core is critical to the overall operation of our business. CORE allows us to charge time and expenses to different projects, in which we utilize CORE's invoicing suite to invoice customers in a timely manner. CORE's suite helps us manage cashflow and WIP better than we ever have before.

CORE has moments where the platform loads very slowly. Invoices can be customized, but that comes at a cost. We would like for CORE to have the ability to allow it's customers to customize their own invoice templates. When a project has many phases, invoicing by master project is not possible.

BQE CORE Suite is an incredibly comprehensive and user-friendly suite of software solutions designed to help businesses manage their operations more efficiently. The software is incredibly intuitive and easy to use, making it a great choice for businesses of any size. The suite offers a variety of features, such as easy quoting and invoicing, time tracking, project management, and more. Plus, it integrates seamlessly with popular accounting software such as Quickbooks and Xero.

One of the downsides of BQE CORE Suite is that the cost can add up quickly. The price for the full suite is quite expensive, and additional features require additional payments. Additionally, the software does not have the best customer service and technical support.

I love all the reports that we can create, track progress of our projects financially, and use it to teach our team about management.

The price to add users is a bit high. The ability to work through custom KPIs is tough.

Time tracking...if it is entered correctly, all hours are tracked within a phase...perfect!

It is not user friendly at all. It can do so much and it can be very overwhelming to a user.

Well organized and easy to keep track of time.

Sometimes it takes a while to load. Takes some time to learn to navigate.

I have to say it has succeeded with flying colors after being bombarded with all kinds of unusual circumstances with hundreds of our architecture projects! Well done!

I'm constantly amazed how well thought-out the original approach was in Core's basic design allowing it to handle all of our client's weird situations, and we're just one of the zillions of other companies using Core who do things so differently than we do.

I say this with a little authority, as well, because I wrote my first program at age 15 in 1968 and I have seen (and suffered) *everything* in all the eras of computing since. Core is badass.

Every system has issues, but it's important we all stop and appreciate the unimaginable amount of work that went into making Core really effective.

No one paid me to say this and I'm not getting any brownie points. I'm saying this because I know intimately what the developers have gone through to make today's Core possible. Whew!

While Core has one of the best time sheet entry forms around. It would be great to have a more graphical time entry interface such as the kind iOS and Android users are familiar with when using, say, a calendar app, in which they can use a mouse or finger to draw time blocks graphically, then double-click/tap them to set the info for that block.

A little over one year back as we started up our new business I was researching for the best accounting, time and expense tracking and billing software. I selected BQE Core because it had an intuitive interface, easy reporting and it was on cloud. For any startup business the cost is always a big factor, the fact that BQE Core was a fraction of other similar software packages was an added bonus! We use BQE for our integrated accounting, time/expenses, and invoices, and it has been integral in helping us to understand and grow our business in the first year. At every moment, I have the info available to understand my cash flow, liabilities and A/R all in one interface, which never would have been possible if I used other accounting software.

In a separate excel doc I track our projected income and expenses for each two-week period so I can plan cash expenditure. If BQE had a feature to track overhead and projections in relation to billable work, that would really integrate all functionality in one software. Other than that, I don't have any suggestions for improvement.

The customer service is outstanding and available 24-7. The software itself is easy to use as long as you put the time in to learn what it can do. Reports are great and very customizable and if you cannot find what you need there is an option to reach out for a custom report for a fee. Time entry is extremely easy to do whether you are in the office or on the go.

Invoices when in draft mode cannot only have some changes made to them, whereas other PM software I have used lets you update more whilst in this mode. Also we started using the accounting feature and the bank feed updates are still not working

We like that there is a lot of control over how we set up our projects and the integration options available through Core. We recently made the switch to this software and find that we are able to track project time, expenses and profitability much easier than with our previous software.

Because there are so many options and settings it can take a bit of time to get used to finding what you are looking for. Things are taking us a bit longer to manage in this software - however, with more time using it and the training/support options available, we recognize this will only be a temporary issue to using Core.

We are getting more and more use out of Core. So far we are just diving in, but it has helped our time tracking and expenses and keep our documents in one place. Allocation and forecasting, project management and time and expense setup are all helpful. We are using our custom report for allocations and it is working well for us.

Any changes, we pass through ideas and so hopefully they are updated as new features - we would like to know the status of our requests just so we can discuss in our meetings.

I like that BQE is user friendly and makes it possible for the entire company to enter their own time and expenses anywhere, anytime.
I like that when there are updates to the system, users are informed.
I really like that everything entered through the mobile app sinks right away into BQE.
The technical support customer services is great. Even when someone is not sure of the answer, they research and get back to you. The support group is dedicated, knowledgeable and professional. Lenny is the best.

I do not like that all reports are Word documents. With data, it is impossible to sort and filter when looking for information.
It would also be easy if questions/answers could be given directly in BQE prior to invoicing instead of having to print each pre-bill and send to managers for approval and then enter their answer back in BQE.
The system allows write up/down of billable hours but you cannot run an accurate report of the amounts that were written up/down (I think in BQE it includes non billable hours). I keep track of mine on an Excel spreadsheet and it would be nice if I did not need to have an additional spreadsheet.
It would make more sense if each field that is populated in all categories could be use for reporting purposes. For example, if running a list of client, it would be good if we could choose what fields we want to see on the report for each client (like contact person, email address, industry...). Sometimes, I have to run three reports to get the information that I compile in one Excel spreadsheet.
Maybe I do not have this information, but the only way to access report customization is via email. It would be nice to have a support line for easy questions regarding a new report.

We upgraded from BillQuick to CORE earlier this year. The ability to access whatever I need online makes it so much easier if I need to work from a location outside of the office. Integration was effortless and the help videos are easy to understand and implement. I needed very little training as it was very similar to BillQuick and feel anyone who has used any type of accounting software should be able to use without a great deal of effort. There are several training sessions available to new users on a weekly basis that made it easier for me to schedule. The ability to get immediate customer support is a definite plus.

Sometimes I've had issues where it takes awhile to save time card entries but this may be an issue with our internet and not the software. There have been a few quirks where completed jobs suddenly become active; the interest in the bank reconciliation doesn't carry over to the general ledger. There were also several report default templates that were available in BillQuick that are not available in CORE. You may need to pay for a customized report that used to be free.

ArchiOffice has definitely been useful for our firm over the past six years! We don't use all of the features that are available but the time tracking, budgeting and invoicing have been incredibly helpful for us. I used to spend a lot of time with spreadsheet updating to get accurate information on where we were in each client's budget and with ArchiOffice this is done for me and it is information I use daily. I especially like how we can see the hours to date as they are entered and how many hours we have exceeded our estimate. This information becomes valuable when we create new proposals. We have a much better handle on exactly what it is taking for us to complete each project so we can forecast with more accuracy.

Also helpful has been the Performance report which gives us a real look at how each project performs financially. I would not go back to doing this all in spreadsheets! ArchiOffice has made my job much easier over the years.

Another thing I appreciate is the project list which saves me from tracking that in another program.

The only thing that would help us out would be to run ArchiOffice on a Mac platform.

Great ability to customize individual user views, strong client and project tracking functions. Efficient invoicing capabilities with interface with Quickbooks. Consistent updates and improvements to the program. Very strong customer support and help desk.

I do wish there was a different pricing model that allowed different segmentation of the features, I would like to see stronger payroll/benefits/hr functionality and accounting completed so we can ditch Quickbooks, and my project managers would like additional flexibility in building gantt charts.

I like the flexibility and design of the software once I gone through the learning curve. The reports are straight forward and give me all the insightful data without customizing.

I find the billing process steps a bit awkward but I am used to them now. It is annoying to have to look for the most recent invoice under Invoice Review once the invoice is processed as final.

In my capacity as an Accounts Manager, I feel liberated to access critical client data in real time. Ability to update the Core database remotely from multiple devices has increased efficiency and productivity for the Finance & Accounting Dept.

Seamless integration across one interface has been a game changer for project management. Collaboration, time and expense entries and accessing overall health of projects is readily available. Key performance indicators and customizable dashboards offers the foodies who eat with their eyes an appetizing experience using Core.

Change is the only constant. Offering end user of Core inclusivity and engaging in product improvement will enhance significant updates. Select a Core group of users, incentivize and march to the finish line fielding their hands on user experience , constraints and limitations. Polishing and adding new features are the key to user satisfaction.

This software has lot of features and the best part is you can pick and choose the features that best fit your business. Although, Core is feature rich it is amazing how intuitive this software is. Support is great but most of the times we are able to figure out or answer our own questions if we get stuck that how simple and user friendly Core is. After switching to Core our management team is able to analyze the real time data to figure out the areas of improvement.

No real changes to suggest as of yet. There is already a lot to absorb. Anytime we need help or improvement in the software we send the feedback to BQE

It's easy to get sold on it's capabilities and functionality. Real time dashboards and remote access to timesheets via any electronic device are very nice touches.

Despite being told it would be an easy transition, it has not been the case. Software is not nearly as intuitive as current software (QB), for my needs had to buy a report writing software (SAP) which also requires training. First time through with data conversion on four of our company files, two came back incomplete and wrong, one came back with our project structure flipped upside down, and we never got back the fourth file which may be because it was for a Canadian entity and despite being told they know how to handle the tax issues faced in Canada, we did not have that confidence in them, and we have yet to see the first run through of the data conversion three months after uploading the file. Customer support is also not as responsive as I'd like and I would say working with them is just another negative issue

In our previous software we were not able to run reports that are helpful to our business. After switching to BQE Core we are now able to run all kinds of reports and it has been a big improvement just in this area. We are utilizing Core for time and expense tracking and billing. All our staff use it and with everything in one place it makes data mining easier.

Some bumps in the road in the very beginning but well past that now.