All BQE CORE Suite Reviews

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Cecilia

11 - 50 employees

Used less than 12 months

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

5

Reviewed June 2021

We like invoicing in Core

User Profile

Robert C.

Verified reviewer

Legal Services, 11-50 employees

Used weekly for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed April 2019

Valuable software for billing at a law firm

Bill quick is a perfect solution to create invoices and be able to bill many different attorneys on different projects.

PROS

The ability to customize many of its features is great. You can setup and keep track of time associated with various cases, clients, projects. There are so many reports that you can run to keep track of your spending. Able to export invoices to LEDES format. Able to import time from excel spreadsheet.

CONS

It takes some time to learn the software, the tech support team was great in getting me up and running. If you want additional reports they have a custom report group but their cost is a bit high to modify reports. It looks a bit complicated but actually it is easy to use.

Juan Pablo

Architecture & Planning, 11-50 employees

Used daily for less than 12 months

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed January 2023

Best product out there, basically out of the box .... no implementation needed

Just great, it allows me to have a far quicker pulse of the business in financial terms and also marketing wise keeping track of proposals.

PROS

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.

CONS

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.

Reason for choosing BQE CORE Suite

It was jumping to something more familiar, avoiding costs of people learning something new, avoiding migration costs, and CORE is overall the best bang for buck software out there for small and midsize companies.

Reasons for switching to BQE CORE Suite

Archioffice was too old, needed cloud based software.

Stacy

Construction

Used less than 6 months

OVERALL RATING:

3

EASE OF USE

2

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

4

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed June 2015

BillQuick - A look at one year post conversion

PROS

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.

CONS

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.

Andrew

Environmental Services, 2-10 employees

Used daily for less than 12 months

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed July 2023

CORE usage = happy owners = happy employees = good business

It's been a huge change from Deltek, but for the better. It's been fairly easy for two non-super-tech savy guys to run and implement, import 50+ existing projects with partial budgets, and the help line is GREAT!

PROS

The dashboard integration is great, could use a few tweaks but exactly what we wanted out of this type of software - project based management system.

CONS

CORE is set up to be based off individual projects which is great for our business, however Vendor Bills don't have an "easy sort" button to be associated with projects, instead it categorizes it by Vendor. When the PROJECT dictates the Vendor and their bill, everything should still be linked back to the project.

Reasons for switching to BQE CORE Suite

Change in company structure

Katrina

Architecture & Planning, 2-10 employees

Used daily for less than 12 months

Review Source: Capterra

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.

PROS

I 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.

CONS

Data 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.

Felice

Architecture & Planning, 2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

3

VALUE FOR MONEY

4

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed December 2022

BQE Core Review Dec 2022

This software does take some time and effort to learn, but as with everything you get out of it what you put into it. You need to take the time to both learn and enter data so that you get accurate results.

PROS

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.

CONS

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

Reason for choosing BQE CORE Suite

We were already using ArchiOffice and where happy with this project, so we decided to stay with BQE.

Reasons for switching to BQE CORE Suite

We made the switch so that we have more insight into our projects.

Anonymous

51-200 employees

Used daily for less than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra

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.

PROS

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.

CONS

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.

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.

Irving

Architecture & Planning, 2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

4

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed December 2022

Best in Class Architecture Management

Overall, CORE has exceeded our expectations other than some basic simplicity in the user interface similar to Monograph, but with far more added flexibility meeting the daily needs of an architectural practice.

PROS

CORE has by far proven to be the most suitable fit for small architecture practices and firms as compared to many others out there cost hundreds of dollars more for each seat. The application serves our daily needs to keep our projects and staff on account, efficient and profitable.

CONS

Sometimes there's too much of a good thing, being that there's more than 1 way to get what you need and therefore it can get a bit complicated and confusing to navigate.

Reason for choosing BQE CORE Suite

We came over from ArchiOffice and CORE offers flexible pricing tiers and discounts for long term subscription, as well as a full compliment of modules included.

Melissa

Verified reviewer

Architecture & Planning, 2-10 employees

Used daily for less than 12 months

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed May 2023

Great software for a small firm

We went from no project management system and manual accounting. This has improved our productivity and improved profits.

PROS

Setup was very easy, the support was great at each step. It is the most cost effective for a small firm. At any time I can call or email a question and get a quick response. They are constantly updating and improving the system.

CONS

Updates sometimes cause lags the system, but if you sign up for updates they will let you know when they are doing them.

Reason for choosing BQE CORE Suite

Best value for cost, easy setup and support. Most programs weren't for a small firm.

Paul

Architecture & Planning, 2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

4

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed December 2022

If you can spend the time to implement it, it’s beyond worth it.

We have really enjoyed the experience, it has since become a bit more expensive and potentially out of our price range.

PROS

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

CONS

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

Reason for choosing BQE CORE Suite

Easiest to understand at the beginning. Seemed to be right in the middle.

Alexandra

Civil Engineering, 2-10 employees

Used daily for less than 6 months

Review Source: Capterra

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.

PROS

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.

CONS

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.

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

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

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.

PROS

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.

CONS

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.

Reasons for switching to BQE CORE Suite

We were looking for a streamlined application that is project centric

John

Civil Engineering, 2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

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.

PROS

SIMPLICITY – 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.

CONS

Some 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

Review Source: Capterra

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.

PROS

I 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.

CONS

BQE 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.

Jeff

Used free trial

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed July 2013

As architects, we get set in our own way of doing things and never want to change. In ArchiOffice 2013 we found a product that pretty much adapts to how we do things. Sure we changed our methods a little, but for the most part it does what we want it to. We began looking for an office management software in 2007. We realized that the old method of using a spreadsheet was making us miss lots of opportunity for reimbursements that we could have been charging clients until too late. Just recapturing these lost revenues has paid for ArchiOffice. After 6 years, the program is so comprehensive, there are modules for everything you need in an architects office. The main points are easy; project lists, contact lists, time records, billings, and a shared calendar. But dig deeper and you get time tracking per job, project phases or tasks; time records, that at entry, keep everyone informed as to project progress; intelligent records, filling in more than you really want to know about project time expenditure; RFI logging, shop drawing logging; billings, showing cash flow and work in progress; phone call records and a shared calendar; not to mention dozens of reports, and more. For example - when a project Architect is out, and an electrical shop drawing comes in, the office manager can look up the engineer in project info/contacts, and forward the submittal on the same day. Then, they can place a task on the architects to-do list, 7 days out, noting that it should be returned; and then also they can set another task for 10 days out, reminding them again that it should have been returned. We use it for document management; scanning and storing the shop drawing when it is returned. Remote access from anywhere with an Internet connection makes it easy to reach information in the field. The superintendant, without his copy of a spec or shop drawing, can remotely access it thru Archioffice. 6 years of use, and we love it. All that glowing review, and yes, it does have a few flaws. The biggest is that Syncing with Outlook is nearly a waste of time. It can be done, but it requires that you run old Java, then run parallel Outlook files. We just don't even bother. When we do have a problem, the tech support is awesome. In 2010, after a major upgrade, I think I wore out tech support for 3 months. But currently, I think I have emailed two questions in the last 3 months. Always fast and complete responses. AO2013 is mature enough of a product that problems are few and far between. I will admit, as Architect/IT guy/Managing Partner, I use every aspect of this program - not just a few areas like most of my employees. I still look at competing programs, and haven't found one that adapts to my ways as well, or is as comprehensive.

Amy

Architecture & Planning, 2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed March 2019

ArchiOffice has definitely been useful for our firm

PROS

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.

CONS

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

Barbara

Mechanical or Industrial Engineering, 11-50 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 October 2016

We Are All Surprised I Am Writing This Review!

I purchased my first licenses of Billquick reluctantly, as an overpriced timesheet management system for my very small business and quickly began fighting to make it meet my partners needs for invoicing our clients. It was not pretty and there were times when we had serious discussions about whether this was the right fit for me. but the BQ team didn't give up and I am glad I did not. One advantage of a rough start was the opportunity to get to know and really appreciate the exceptional quality, skill, and patience of the support team assembled for BQ clients. Over the years, we have struggled and grown and improved our skills and processes together, and that is one of the exceptional things about this software and this company. They really do listen to their users and try to incorporate our priorities and needs into the upgrade process. The program is feature rich, and most companies won't need to use every feature that is available, but there are convenient and graceful ways to make each person's interface efficient, streamlined and comfortable. When the same program is usable for an intern on his first day and our power user when she is invoicing you know it is easy to use. I used to wish Quickbooks would get a better time management and invoicing capability so I could stop buying Billquick, but now I am trying to get rid of Quickbooks! The network versions work well, I can access the program over a VPN, and I have gone months without calls to the Support Team lately. Having grown from 5 to 30 employees since becoming a customer, I have to say, Billquick has been part of our path to success.

PROS

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.

CONS

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.

Stan

Accounting, 2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE