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.

We are particularly impressed with CORE’s user-friendly, “all in one” design

Our small but rapidly-growing architectural firm was looking for a project management and billing solution. We were particularly impressed with CORE’s user-friendly, “all in one” design.

Pros

It provides us with a single source to record employee time, manage project tasks, budget, invoice and track project performance. We took advantage of the various training packages and technical assistance BQE offers to help us get up-to-speed with CORE in a matter of months. BQE also worked with us to develop a custom invoice that provides our clients with current and past billing information in a clean and easy-to-read format. With the mobile app, our partners access CORE data anytime, anywhere, and can record travel expenses directly from their smartphones. BQE has demonstrated to us that they listen and responds to suggestions on how to make CORE an even better program for its users by providing regular updates and enhancements that incorporate our suggestions. We are very pleased with CORE and BQE.”

Cons

Everything is working for us and if it does not then that is what support is for. Like any other new software implementation there is a learning curve. We took advantage of the various training packages.

CORE has given our principals and project managers more access to real time data

As we continue to get more proficient navigating CORE, it has given our principals and project managers more access to real time data reducing the potential for errors in reporting and data transfer in multiple areas to better service our valued clients.

Pros

Project management and accounting real time data metrics anytime and almost anywhere through cloud based hosted subscriptions allowing quick response time to our valued clients. CORE has eliminated need for complicated spreadsheets and various other methods of housing project data. Coming from QuickBooks desktop accounting which we have used for almost 19 years, CORE accounting subscription has given us access to company financial data anywhere. We are utilizing Core for time tracking, expense reports, billing, project management and accounting.

Cons

The display as feature needs to be expanded and made specific to invoices and time cards. Core has ePayments for credit card and we are waiting for ACH feature which is going to be there somewhere in August.

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.

Core has been an integral in helping us to understand and grow our business

Overall experience has been great as we use Core 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.

Pros

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.

Cons

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.