BQE CORE Suite Erfahrungen

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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