BQE Core - Time, Billing, Project Management, and Accounting Software

Don't use their accounting module, just use their practice management

Pros

Saas based, logical navigation, good user interface, many reports

Cons

Billing is somewhat cumbersome for accounting practices with clients that are both fixed fee and hourly; workflows were not designed with accountants in mind

Pros

BQE is awesome it makes things so easy when entering time and billing clients. Before we got BQE we would do everything by hand, when switching over it made thing go 10 times faster. Its a great software.

Cons

little glitches here and there but the customer support is so fast and responsive and the are willing to fix the software glitches.

Pros

It does the job. It can be a bit wonky and sometime you aren't sure if it's saving or freezing. Doesn't really have helpful features - like auto populating commonly used activity ID's. Very basic features.

Cons

Mobile app isn't great but allows you to update time when offline - which is helpful when you're updating on the subway. Customer service is not great but their account managers are on top of billing issues.

1 stop shop. And, it integrates with QuickBooks online.

Pros

It's great at tracking projects, invoicing and payments. The system is only as efficient as the data going into it though. The tech support is outstanding.

Cons

Understand the process flow between modules before creating your first set of invoices, especially if you have sub-consultants/expenses.

Pros

Good service before the purchase, after they want to make a dollar for every single question.

Cons

Very difficult to implement without paying the training. It is not intuitive. The client support is very poor.

Pros

The accounting features are easy to access & use. It's lead to a much greater sense of control of our business and best yet, we can access it even from our mobile phones.

Cons

Signing in multiple users can sometimes take some time to set up, but once that process is complete everything goes extremely smoothly.

Pros

Nice and easy to use and helps me stay organised in time for tax. I don't have to store a whole stack of receipts as the software does it for me. I can also get a report to easily know what I am claiming for in tax.

Cons

There is not much not to like. They are even prized reasonably.

As close to nothing as you can get. Do not use it!

Pros

Intuitive design, easy to set up and easy to enter timesheets. In some cases there are some good instant data available

Cons

This is still in the Beta. When we originally got it there were Gannt charts. These have since been removed with no explanation. Various functions are still unavailable such as the ability to divide report into departments and offices. Most of the functions don't work. The live cost tracking does not work. There is inconstant use of terminology. Functions such a contract cost tracking on the structure does not work. The formulas for Spent are incorrect in some functions but correct in others. Customer service is the worst. When you call up generally you get told there is nothing they can do for a few months. Even had a customer service rep yell down the phone at me telling that Spent, represents hours invoiced, and Invoiced represents what was invoiced. When I pointed out it made no sense I was yelled at. However later I pointed out that the Project Status widget has SPent calculated at WIP+Invoiced which makes sense, I was told he has no more time and will look into it. Consistently I am promised calls back and don't get them. THis product has potential but I would advise right now not to use it.

At this point, we get absolutely no benefit. I have spent over 100 hours of my time trying to set it up over the past month and our employees are still unable to use it to track their time and expenses. Very frustrating experience!

Pros

Core promises to give project managers lots of granular insight into their projects, tracking budgets, employee time, expenses, etc. In demos it looks great!

Cons

Almost nothing about this software works properly. It is full of bugs and terrible user design. Support technicians, while nice, don't seem to be very familiar with the software.

Project integrated with time and expense management once stable

Pros

Good response to issues and extensive bugs with commitment to resolve over time. Tools for logging on and/or providing work around has been helpful (necessary).

Ability to add modules as required will provide a cost effective tools once the platform is stable.

Cons

BQE CORE has great potential, however as at 17th October 2017 it is still in beta format with lots of unresolved bugs and serious usability issues. Whilst BQE have been very responsive to our reports of software bugs and usability issues it is user beware and use at your own risk. I suggest you wait until mid next year before investing in this product.

The reviews for this product have been misrepresented and relate to the broader BQE software suite NOT BQE-Core. So don't be fooled (as I was).

There seems to be ZERO software quality assurance with this product, evidenced by software revisions with new bugs and half resolved issues. I think it is being developed in India not the USA but I am not sure what the exact arrangements are.

Pros

Lot of report options, that's about it.

Cons

Horrible customer service. All they want to do is sell you expensive blocks of "training hours". Our training hours were spent waiting for our trainer to connect with his supervisor to get the answers to our questions. Then we come to find out that some of the initial information we were given about certain features and data entries being optional turned out to be required. BQE said they could help us fix the errors based on their incorrect information for hundreds of dollars which was just about the same price as what we paid for the software to start. Unbelievable, definitely feel like there was a lot of over-selling of the intuitive and seamless nature of this software. Does not seamlessly integrate with Quickbooks at all as it was advertised.

BillQuick is a great resource for our Architectural billing needs. It's design and features caters to our Architectural billing needs. Would be nice if the software functionality and features felt more modern and up to speed with other software platforms out there, similar to an web app feel.

Pros:
Access - app syncs nicely with the main project - for timesheet entry
Online/web access - makes it platform independent - so you can access program on Mac or PC
Duplicate projects - you don't need to start from scratch to create a project
Invoice/Transaction Entry - easy to enter and track

Cons:
Timesheets are not as easy as they could be - other programs allow you to enter time by the week - this is an individual entry per project, per day.
NTX is for the project or phase - can't be coded as monthly - tried many work arounds - nothing worked.
Back function doesn't work - if you are looking at a timesheet entry in a specific project - you will back out to the home page of the project - not the timesheet screen.

The support team has gone above and beyond to work out any issues that we have had along the way including writing special reports that we have needed.

Cons

It is way more powerful than we need with many features and reports that we don't use.

Advice to Others

Run a test before you purchase any software to make sure that it suits your needs.

Like time management, invoicing, reports and syncing with QuickBooks. Good support especially on customized reports

Cons

Would like more flexibility for multiple companies on the licensing platform, i.e. QuickBooks platform allows many companies on the same license

Advice to Others

Relatively inexpensive compared to other time management/invoicing software. Comprehensive reports for project managers.

We have been using this software for more than 20 Years. This is a great software and technical support are awesome. Always resolve the issues right away.

Cons

Some times we face some reporting issues, but by calling technical support, they always find away to help us.

It does exactly what we need it to do and the vendor is quick to respond with any questions, no run around. Ease of use for new employees with very little training.

Cons

Different time zone, we are on the east coast. Occasionally have to wait a few hours for a response because of the 3 hour time difference.

Advice to Others

Let the software do the work for you. We started with unnecessary customization, and should have let the software do it's job.

We switched to Bill Quick at just the right time! It allowed us to respond to client demanded invoice templates and enabled us to continue to grow without adding additional back office support staff. The mobile app is also great for time and expense entry and so is web suite for all our remote offices and mobile staff. Billing can be accomplished quickly with this product!

Cons

We work on the east coast and from time to time we have needed morning support and had to wait until support staff arrived at BQE who works in the pacific time zone. Not a major issue by any means, but still resulted is some downtime that otherwise could have been eliminated.

Advice to Others

I highly recommend this product. We only used QuickBooks before and needed a product that would integrate and provide enhanced project management tools and project structure with multiple phases. I highly recommend the initial support and training services offered that helped us get up and running faster and with less stress.

I like the base program and included reports but I really like that the reports can be customized. Very important for my invoice formatting.

Cons

I have been with Billquick for a very long time (over 10 years), and I've never been disappointed by them. They work very hard at customer satisfaction.

Advice to Others

The drop down style of time/expense entry makes easy work of sometimes tedious time entry for staff. It's quick, easy, and efficient. The set up of new projects and budgets is intuitive.

I've worked with BillQuick for the past 6 years. Overall it is a pretty easy system to use, it also interacts with Quickbooks nicely.

Cons

There are a few glitches, such as adding unnecessary multipliers to reports that make them incorrect, and we have to go back and fix all of these. Something our previous product from the 90's, did much better at. There is a lot of manual corrections

Advice to Others

Make sure you gift the system as much information as you can from the beginning, going back later to correct things, doesn't always work.