BQE CORE Suite Erfahrungen

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 Sales guy was really friendly and try to rush me into a holiday sale. I should have known.

It 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.

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.”

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.

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.

I have had more time with the software since my last review. As I slowly convert the firms old data to this new software, things are falling into place quickly. I'm becoming attuned to the software. Learning little things I didn't know where there, both by playing around and talking with customer support. This software is easy to learn. Not a real big learning curve, assuming you are familiar with project management, accounting, project setup or you have people familiar with those areas. I do it all, and basically maintain everything for everyone else.

I don't have many, but if I had to pick... they are not really cons, as I hope they will expand to these later on. API with Office 365/Outlook would be a nice added bonus. For me, especially Outlook. Also API with Quickbooks desktop version. This isn't a big issue, as I hope to also phase out QB and only use that software for payroll. Which I will then have an API if I go with QB Online/payroll. I will always use QB for payroll, so I am use to doing journal entries into systems to reflect the payroll numbers. This is not a hardship for me.

Our 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.

Would like to see more streamlined and simplified process of client credits. Right now the only way is to have it has a retainer.

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.

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.

It is very easy to learn to use for both staff entering time and new accounts staff.
The ease of time entries means that fewer staff are delinquent on keeping timesheets up to date.
Projects can be broken down into phases - this is KEY for tracking fees within an Architectural Full scope of services.
You create your own Activity Codes which you can align with your preferred Contract
It REALLY does speed up invoicing tremendously
It offers a WIDE range of invoice templates and reports to analyse project Fee expenditure and report to Clients
It allows for various levels of security access so that Senior Staff are not beholden to the Accounts Department when they need to report to a Client or check the Fee against the Contract
All staff can monitor Fee in real time (assuming time sheets are up to date)
Senior Staff can easily monitor and give feedback to staff on performance and productivity, based on various time periods, for example on Billable vs non billable hours, contracted hours performance etc
The technical support is excellent
Integrated with Quick Books very well

I can't think of anything really....If I had to be critical I would say:
- there are so many reports that you are unlikely to use them all and can get lost in the Report Centre. However there are tabs for your favourites and memorised reports.
- Expenses are very very to enter but not as easy to unwind/change as Time entries

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.

Overall, very good. There was a learning curve, as with all software, but it makes sense once you figure it out. There are lots of connectors/features so knowing what you need is a big part of this. Support has been very good. They methodically think through processes and help with issues, configuration settings, or bugs (which I recently filed and it will already be fixed by the weekend). The software appears to do what I need it do (Project/Time/Expense Management) and may also be our replacement for QuickBooks once we get the processes figured out. The cost seems to be fair and it’s Tiered Usage based on user needs was great and something competitors didn’t offer very well. We look forward to continue to use the product

Its big and complicated. I would spend time investing in documentation on what things really do for the back-end. For example: The QuickBooks integration is great, but finding out what actually happens is confusing. I had to set up small tests to figure out that “activities” really mean “services” in QuickBooks and you can have select what records have to sync… documentation (very technical) is very good for people like me!

We 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.

Early on we had a difficult time understanding the vendor bill workflow.

BQE 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.

The 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.

Cloud-based, project performance data, reporting options.

We 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.

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

The ability for each employee to input their time/expenses is one of the features that I like the most. I also appreciate that staff members can check time and expenses for their projects to see where they are on projects with a budget. Invoicing is now streamlined because the information for the project manager's review is on one page. Budget information is on the draft invoice which makes it easy to see when a project is over/under budget, and who has coded time to the project.

I wish there was a better way of archiving old vendor bills.