All BQE CORE Suite Reviews
1-25 of 734 Reviews
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Cecilia
11 - 50 employees
Used less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
Reviewed June 2021
We like invoicing in Core
Steven
Verified reviewer
Insurance, 51-200 employees
Used daily for less than 6 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed August 2022
CORE is a real time saver !
Implementation took longer than expected but has proved worth the extra time to get it right.
PROSUsing 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.
CONSORE is a very complex software system to set up, but once we worked out all of the nuances and specifications, this software rocks!
Reason for choosing BQE CORE Suite
Price was a key factor, but so was familiarity.
Reasons for switching to BQE CORE Suite
Centralized online database for multiple locations and web-based time tracking.
Katrina
Architecture & Planning, 2-10 employees
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed December 2022
A helpful tool, once you get used to it.
When we compared different software options (Quickbooks, Monograph, Deltek Ajera, Smartsheet) BQE offered the most options we needed (project management, invoicing and time tracking) at the best price.
PROSI like having so much data at my fingertips to get a sense of finances for the company, tracking accounting (invoices, vendor bills, etc.). Customer service is AMAZING, you can call right from the app on your computer and they are available pretty much anytime, even when I'm working late. The workflow to be able to send things internally. The dashboard view is really helpful to see what's important to you. If you are already set up as a company, onboarding can be really quick as they have a team that can enter your data.
CONSData entries are sluggish, you have to wait for the line to be created before you can add information to additional cells. Invoices are not as tidy as I would like (activity & description, really duplicate the information). Individual training needs improvement, the consequences of choosing option A or B to enter information has consequences down the line that were not clearly explained and only discovered after months of entering in a way that was not what we really needed.
Reason for choosing BQE CORE Suite
Price and scope of things it can do
Reasons for switching to BQE CORE Suite
More automation for invoicing, time tracking to get us all on the same page.
Anonymous
11-50 employees
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
2
EASE OF USE
1
VALUE FOR MONEY
3
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
3
Reviewed September 2023
Software has issues, but their customer support is pretty good
In theory, I like all of the features that core has to offer, however, when the features don't work the way they're supposed to it becomes a bit of a nightmare to use. It has a lot of bugs, crashes often and in general is just not very user friendly.
PROSI like the expense management feature for employee reimbursement and client billing purposes. I also liked the accounting feature that allows you to bill expenses straight from the Cloudfeeds. I also really liked their customer support. They have a solid team on standby for customer support. I would often get the same person when I called. They are super friendly and know how to navigate the software.
CONSIt's time consuming to use - it's so slow and there are a lot of features that bug out and simply don't work the way they're supposed to, so I spend a lot of time navigating all of that, which is a bummer.
Reason for choosing BQE CORE Suite
The owner of the firm worked with the BQE team when they first started building the software, he was informing them of features that would be useful for the architecture firm, so he set the company up with BQE to support their mission.
Reasons for switching to BQE CORE Suite
The owner of the firm worked with the BQE team when they first started building the software, he was informing them of features that would be useful for the architecture firm, so he set the company up with BQE to support their mission.
Ulrich
Verified reviewer
Medical Practice, 2-10 employees
Used daily for less than 6 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed November 2023
Great BQE CORE Suite !
I like this software, it is satisfying and my experience with it is wonderful! It is a true ALL-IN-ONE and very easy to use. Managing time, tasks, expenses, satisfying customers, with a single software, it's magic. I highly recommend it!
PROSExcellent software! It's very intuitive and easy to use, with a dynamic team offering very satisfactory customer support. The expense management functionality for reimbursing employees and billing customers is just amazing. I also track my time and expenses, with a simple interface, while keeping a history.
CONSNothing to complain about this software! It is just incredible, and perfectly meets my needs and expectations.
Anonymous
51-200 employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
3
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed December 2022
BQE Core key to Business Operations
CORE allows us to operate efficiently as a business. Overall, the CORE product I would recommend to any business who relies on billable hours as their core business. The ability to invoice directly from the platform and customize project fields are nice features.
PROSBQE 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.
CONSCORE 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.
Reason for choosing BQE CORE Suite
BQE Core met our business needs better. The ability to customize project fields, bill multiple classifications for one individual on the same project, and the ability to invoice directly from the project time and expenses were the main factors in our decision.
robin
Civil Engineering, 11-50 employees
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed July 2023
Great time tracking and project tracking
The best thing about it is ease of use.
CONSI wish it would let you edit your entries from the timecard area without having to go into the entries list, but other than that I have no negatives.
Reasons for switching to BQE CORE Suite
I changed firms and the new firm uses BQE Core. MUCH better than Trello.
Mirna
Civil Engineering, 51-200 employees
Used daily for less than 6 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed November 2023
New product for us - Really like it so far
I would definitely recommend Core to others. You have to learn the product first but once you do, it's very helpful.
PROSThe reports we are able to run are extremely useful to us. You can see how each project is doing super easily.
CONSAt first it was a little hard to use but only because we were used to another program. Now that we use it every day, it's become very helpful.
Reasons for switching to BQE CORE Suite
Our company divested and so when we moved, we had to purchase a new program.
Virgil
Architecture & Planning, 11-50 employees
Used weekly for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed March 2024
How CORE is working for our Firm
So far so good. It will take some time to learn the program.
PROSCore, seems to provide leadership with all the information needed to evaluate production and man power..
CONSmultiple steps to get/run a report that provides what we need to understand production performance.
Sebastian
Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing, 51-200 employees
Used weekly for less than 6 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed January 2024
Easy for time tracking
It's a tool that help me and the project managers to control the time of the projects i'm participating in.
CONSSo far, i Haven't experience any bad experience with BQE
Jesus
Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing, 5,001-10,000 employees
Used weekly for less than 6 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed January 2024
Time optimization
It takes less time than other apps to register the tasks and their times. It is easy to use.
CONSI have not any cons to mention. I think that at this way is good.
Amy
Construction, 11-50 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed October 2020
BQE provides strong support for customizations
Overall experience has been nothing short of great. The strong support BQE offers for customization has resulted in effective time billing management but also leaves us with satisfied clients seeing their contracts clearly on a custom invoice based on their requirements.
PROSOur company transitioned many years ago to BQE from a different software which was not as detail oriented as we needed for project budgets as well as client satisfaction on invoicing. Offering services to many different types of agencies - from federal to local government agencies to the private sector, each client requires a different level of detail on invoicing. In the past, we have found it very difficult to track time and transition those hours into a contract based invoice.
CONSWould like to see more streamlined and simplified process of client credits. Right now the only way is to have it has a retainer.
Reasons for switching to BQE CORE Suite
We switched because TS was not able to handle our different contract invoicing.
Alexandra
Civil Engineering, 2-10 employees
Used daily for less than 6 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed October 2019
BQE Core Review
Since the minute we began to research and consider switching our project management software to BQE Core, we have felt that the team at BQE has been nothing but helpful through the process. The sales team were there to answer questions, suggest videos/webinars to get familiar with Core and to let us know about sales promotions we may be interested in. When we finally made the choice to move to Core, they were excellent at getting us set up with the software and following up on any questions we had. Since implementing Core, we have found that we have much better control over how our projects are managed, we are seeing much better performance data and are very happy with the product.
PROSWe 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.
CONSBecause 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.
Reasons for switching to BQE CORE Suite
We made the switch to Core because we found that there was project performance data that we were unable to track/analyze with the software we used before. We were looking for something more comprehensive and the fact that this was designed with arch/eng firms in mind was a large reason in our interest with the software.
Carmen
Architecture & Planning, 11-50 employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed June 2020
So far we have had positive experiences in Core
Core has greatly solved our resource allocation, project management and Time & Expense tracking.
PROSWe 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.
CONSAny 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.
Reasons for switching to BQE CORE Suite
We were looking for a streamlined application that is project centric
Anonymous
1 employee
Used less than 6 months
OVERALL RATING:
1
EASE OF USE
1
VALUE FOR MONEY
1
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
2
FUNCTIONALITY
1
Reviewed March 2020
JUST DONT!!!!!! Refused to give refund after acknowledging it doesn't work
It was the most expensive waste of time I've experienced in a long while. It's right up there with Yelp advertising. Once you get pay it's over. I determined that this didn't work for me at a bout 2 weeks in. But, I was patient and tried to work through it with them. Roughly a month later, we came to the understanding that it doesn't do what I need, and they can't make it do what I need. (Quickbooks and Method Crm was doing this stuff before) I asked for a refund or even for the remainder of the year I paid for. I was told they "Don't Do Refunds" So, They're cool with over-promising, Taking $650, understanding that you're not using the program any longer, and are dissatisfied. Pretty Lame If You Ask Me
PROSThe Sales guy was really friendly and try to rush me into a holiday sale. I should have known.
CONSIt was promised to be totally customizable to any business. It absolutely was not. I spoke with customer service well over 10 times, probably 20 calls. They could show me how things were set up, but never really able to make it work with my business flow as I had with Quickbooks. The program was often slow and sluggish between screen changes (I have very fast ethernet connection 250mbps DL speed). Many features were on different screens and made for a lot of loading time between simple tasks. Again....not customizable when I bring it up.
Reason for choosing BQE CORE Suite
Because it looked promising. Seemed like all the features were there and was promised flexibility in the program. Obviously, didn't turn out to be that. Definitely to good to be true.
Reasons for switching to BQE CORE Suite
Quickbooks terminated their merchant services
Vendor Response
Hi there! We are sorry that you weren't able to use the program as intended. We do offer 15-days free trial and live demos of our product and keep everything transparent to give our customers a chance to review the product before they actually purchase. We have hundreds and thousands of users worldwide who rely on our products each day to successfully run their business. We are truly sorry to see you go and hopefully you will give us another chance in the future. Please feel free to reach out to us at customercare@bqe.com.
Replied April 2020
Irma
Architecture & Planning, 11-50 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed December 2022
BQE - We rely it!
No issues to write about, just as mentioned it is a bit to maneuver, but overall experience is positive.
PROSHonestly, the support from the support team if there is a problem, has been key to rating the software.
CONSSometimes the software is a bit tricky to maneuver, but as mentioned the support team is great.
Reason for choosing BQE CORE Suite
I didn't choose it, but everyone seemed to think this was best for the architects and accounting.
John
Civil Engineering, 2-10 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed April 2020
I am happy to say that I took a leap of faith in upgrading my office to BQE
Prior to using BQE software I used Wind-2 and SEMA4 which are costly programs. I was not a newbie to using project management software when implementing BQE. My greatest frustration in using those legacy programs was that they did not have any flexibility in them that allowed me to update or “correct” erroneous entries into the system database without having the data reprogrammed in some way by the vendor. Support for BQE can assist making changes on the fly if need be and hopefully will continue to support the services industry in the future. I have witnessed the mission of BQE to continue to improve the software and support for its users. I am happy to say that I took a leap of faith in upgrading my office to BQE and have not been disappointed.
PROSSIMPLICITY – it is an easy transition from paper time sheets in a format that employees can easily understand. Employee time entries can add memos that are invaluable to explain charges to clients or counsel employees on their activities. FLEXIBILITY – Some projects require slightly different reporting/invoicing formats to fit the client’s needs. BQE support assists with accomplishing just that at a reasonable cost. SUPPORT – Over these years, issues in understanding inputs or reporting have been addressed in real-time, on-line, to help maintain operation schedules for billing and reporting. REPORTS – Both summary and detailed reports are available that can include memos to help clarify time and expenses. One can look at a project from different facets based on a manager’s needs.
CONSSome of the labor reporting modules need to be reviewed that use an integer formatted numbers that round off and be updated to use an accounting formatted number with 2 decimal places. My accounting department uses two report for payroll that use incorrect time (rounding up) instead of an exact job time/cost figure. I have to review and have them update to the corrected time values each time.
Reasons for switching to BQE CORE Suite
Cost and they were cumbersome to use
Lee
Computer Software, 2-10 employees
Used daily for less than 6 months
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
3
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed December 2022
BQE Core Review
I am staying with BQE because it is the best all-in-one program I could find. It isn't perfect and, in many ways, it is miserable to use because it takes a long time and is slow, not optimized for fast use and there are a lot of features that are missing required for efficient use.
PROSI like that this software is fully functional and can potentially do anything a consultant or engineer would need to do without having to use other products.
CONSBQE can do almost everything and therefore it is complex and requires a lot of assistance from tech support. I have found that on most calls I have made the lower tier tech support has to contact the upper tier tech support and gets back with me later - sometimes. I am still waiting on them to fix some things (for weeks or months now). The 'powerful' proposal builder is a joke. Tech support just told me to type it in another program and import it, but that doesn't even work well. I have found a bunch of bugs and half thought out ideas. For example, to enter receipts or documentation for transactions other than credit card transactions requires a bunch of extra steps and cannot be done from the phone. Projects are complex (which is a good thing because they can do a lot) but it takes a lot of effort to setup a project and it can't be created from a template on the phone. I have bumped up against a bunch of walls inside BQE and when I ask how to do this or that I'm just told that isn't a feature BQE has.
Reasons for switching to BQE CORE Suite
It has project management features.
Dale
Architecture & Planning, 2-10 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
3
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed April 2017
Great tool for the Architect's office
Overall, this is a good office management tool for the architect. We have used it for the past 10 years and find it invaluable in all we do in managing projects and running the business.
PROSThe product is great for the management of a project from time and expense reports to document management. It also manages the office contacts and calendar of events for all the employees. It will give you in real time if you are making or losing money on a project. It tracks and creates invoicing for all project clients. If you use QuickBooks, it is integrated directly with that software for complete accounting management. It is a great tool for Architects in that it is formatted for what we do (tasks and phasing of projects). If you have internet connection, you can get access to this program while on the road,
CONSWhen opening up project file, it takes 2 or 3 clicks to open up a file, such as Word, PDF and AutoCAD. Very, Very frustrating. Many of my employees do not use is function and simply use Window file manager to open and move files. We should not have to do this. It uses Java in the background for some of its operations, and I am not a fan of Java... it is always updating. Updating of the software is somewhat difficult for the person not a computer nerd.
Jaydra
Accounting, 2-10 employees
Used daily for less than 6 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed December 2018
Great product! Practical, customizable, and good value for the money.
This product saves me time and keeps all my cases organized so I never miss important deadlines or follow-up tasks. Well worth the money.
PROS1) It has a nice look and it's easy to use because it is organized in an intuitive manner. 2) It is also incredibly customizable. There are so many ways to filter reports and adjust who sees which reports and when, it kind of blows my mind. I have done so many things to customize this software to my firm's needs and I still feel like I've just scratched the surface. This also means it will continue to be useful as my firm grows, which is incredibly valuable. 3) It's a cloud-based software, which means I never have to worry about installing the latest updates. It's also an extra bonus layer of data security because the data is not housed on my local in-office server. 4) Tracking time is easy, and once hours have been billed to the client they are marked in the system (this may seem like a pretty basic feature, but it was surprisingly difficult to find in a case management software). 5) It talks to QuickBooks online, and it's easy to transfer data. It saves a lot of time to transfer invoice and other data from the project management software directly into my accounting system. 6) The customer service and follow-up support is great. I was walked through the initial implementation, which got me up and running almost immediately - very little work time invested in the implementation. After using the software for a few weeks, I scheduled a one-on-one training session with a BQE trainer to get all my firm-specific questions answered which was great.
CONSMy only (minor) complaint is that it does not yet also function as a CRM. I hope they add this feature because I'm looking forward to incorporating that data and function into the same system as my case management.
Joe
Accounting, 51-200 employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed June 2022
BQE, so easy to use
so easy to use, very little training required. everything is where you expect it to be
CONSthere are different reports or ways to view your time, this isnt very clear. i would like to use this feature but don't. this is of little importance to me. i am still able to do what i need to do in the software.
Louis
Civil Engineering, 11-50 employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed September 2020
Our experience with BQE Core has been incredibly great!
Overall our experience with the product and people supporting it has been incredibly great. All along our journey of selection process and then on-boarding and finally day to day support we need has been a wonderful experience. The easy setup of projects using templates and option to assign bill rates by projects using fee schedules has finally reduced the steps and workload.
PROSWe were struggling with using many software applications to run our business. With Core we everything is in one software from tracking time, expense reporting, billing and project tracking. Our project managers have real-time project progress on a wide variety of reports and the best part is they can customize dashboards to fit their needs. Rest of the management team has easy access to the information using the scheduled reports without even logging into Core. We really love the automation.
CONSEarly on we had a difficult time understanding the vendor bill workflow.
Reason for choosing BQE CORE Suite
For it beautiful modern looking user interface and definitely for the feature set it brings with it for running our engineering firm. Last but not the least sales and support teams we have dealt with are the main reason we went with BQE Core.
Teddy
Research, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed January 2023
Review on BQE CORE Suite
In conclusion, I would highly recommend BQE CORE Suite to any architecture firm looking to streamline their operations. The software is packed with useful features and has greatly helped our firm become more organized and efficient. The CRM and HR features are particularly impressive, allowing us to easily keep track of our clients and team members. The initial setup and learning process was a bit challenging, but with the help of the support team, we were able to overcome it. Overall, BQE CORE Suite has been a valuable addition to our firm.
PROSBQE CORE Suite has been a valuable asset for our architecture firm. The integration of front and back office operations through this software has made managing projects, tracking time and expenses, handling invoicing and electronic payments much more efficient. The CRM and HR features are incredibly robust and allows us to keep our clients and team members organized and informed. Thanks to BQE CORE our profitability and project efficiency has seen a significant boost.
CONSThe only downside to BQE CORE Suite is the initial setup and learning process. It took some time for our team to fully understand and utilize all of the features, but once we got the hang of it, we found the software to be very user-friendly and easy to navigate. The support team was helpful in guiding us through the process, and it was well worth the effort.
Christine
Civil Engineering, 11-50 employees
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
2
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed May 2023
Easy to use interface, with some room for improvement.
We've had our hiccups from the start when we decided to migrate from Billquick. The communication has been severely lacking from the start. Several data issues which have still be unresolved, and functionality that varied from BillQuick that we've had to adapt to, even though we were assured that everything that was in BillQuick would be part of CORE. The most significant issue we have though is response time and communication when there is a reported issue or problem. Customer service is readily available to address a new issue, but the resolution is poor.
PROSCloud-based, project performance data, reporting options.
CONSWe migrated from BQE's Billquick software. There were elements of the migration that went well, and some that did not. It's been over 6 months since migration and I'm still waiting on data issues to be repaired and issues to be resolved.
Reason for choosing BQE CORE Suite
Migration seemed to be an easier process coming from another BQE product.
Reasons for switching to BQE CORE Suite
Cost to replace server was significant as our database was on the large side. We also wanted online access so employees could access their time & expense entry remotely.
Vickie
Environmental Services, 11-50 employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed May 2021
Core has been a gamechanger
We use the Time, Billing and Project Management modules; with this, I've been able to reduce time spent on billing (and have much better analysis tools) even as our company has grown.
PROSLogical organization of procedures, ability to customize reports, outstanding live help service. Having staff manage time entries (rather than having to manually input from timesheets) has been a gamechanger. The reports are also hugely useful and help project managers keep track of budgets in real time. We're still learning and finding new ones that are useful to us.
CONSSometimes loading of project lists is a little slow/temperamental, but nothing major.