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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    BQE CORE

    Score9.4 out of 10
    Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
    BQE CORE is a business management solution built specifically for professional service firms. BQE CORE is a combination of a billing assistant, project management, and accounting solution. CORE is designed to do the hard work of delivering actionable insights directly to the user's dashboards or inbox. BQE CORE replaces the products Engineeroffice, Archioffice, and BillQuick; the functionality of these applications is now found in BQE CORE.N/A

    Microsoft To Do

    Score9.6 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft To Do replaces the former Wunderlist task management tool.N/A
    Pricing
    BQE COREMicrosoft To Do
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    BQE COREMicrosoft To Do
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    BQE COREMicrosoft To Do
    Considered Both Products
    BQE Software Inc.
    No answer on this topic
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    94%
    Would buy again
    142 Answers
    94%
    Would buy again
    32 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    104 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    34 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    98%
    Happy with the feature set
    148 Answers
    94%
    Happy with the feature set
    32 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    92%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    68 Answers
    88%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    21 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    81%
    Implementation went as expected
    79 Answers
    93%
    Implementation went as expected
    26 Answers
    Features
    BQE COREMicrosoft To Do
    Project Management
    Comparison of Project Management features of BQE CORE and Microsoft To Do
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    7.6
    73 Ratings
    1% below category average
    Microsoft To Do
    7.0
    74 Ratings
    9% below category average
    Task Management9.255 Ratings8.074 Ratings
    Resource Management8.654 Ratings7.040 Ratings
    Gantt Charts8.927 Ratings4.58 Ratings
    Scheduling8.035 Ratings5.056 Ratings
    Workflow Automation7.138 Ratings6.433 Ratings
    Team Collaboration5.245 Ratings7.867 Ratings
    Support for Agile Methodology7.321 Ratings5.117 Ratings
    Support for Waterfall Methodology4.418 Ratings6.316 Ratings
    Document Management7.938 Ratings6.937 Ratings
    Email integration6.533 Ratings6.040 Ratings
    Mobile Access8.045 Ratings10.070 Ratings
    Timesheet Tracking9.673 Ratings6.613 Ratings
    Change request and Case Management7.131 Ratings9.010 Ratings
    Budget and Expense Management8.957 Ratings9.06 Ratings
    Professional Services Automation
    Comparison of Professional Services Automation features of BQE CORE and Microsoft To Do
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    7.5
    54 Ratings
    1% below category average
    Microsoft To Do
    6.5
    7 Ratings
    15% below category average
    Quotes/estimates6.228 Ratings5.04 Ratings
    Invoicing8.147 Ratings7.04 Ratings
    Project & financial reporting8.553 Ratings7.96 Ratings
    Integration with accounting software7.334 Ratings6.02 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    BQE COREMicrosoft To Do
    Small Businesses
    Any.do
    Score8 out of 10
    Any.do
    Score8 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    KanbanFlow
    Score7.3 out of 10
    KanbanFlow
    Score7.3 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Microsoft To Do
    Score9.6 out of 10
    Workzone
    Score9.9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    BQE COREMicrosoft To Do
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.5
    (165 ratings)
    10.0
    (74 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    7.0
    (8 ratings)
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    Usability
    9.3
    (115 ratings)
    8.0
    (9 ratings)
    Availability
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.4
    (90 ratings)
    7.6
    (30 ratings)
    Online Training
    6.4
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    2.3
    (6 ratings)
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    4.5
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    BQE COREMicrosoft To Do
    Likelihood to Recommend
    BQE Software Inc.
    I would recommend this for our industry: architecture, engineering, or construction. I would recommend this for any larger firm with many employees or high number of projects. I would particularly recommend this for a company with projects that have budget constraints and where time tracking and expense tracking is very important. I would not recommend this complicated software for a small firm with a small amount of income or number of projects.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    It's such a simple and effective tool! If you need an app to safely store your To-do's and make sure you stay on top of things, this is it. You can divide tasks lists into folders (like "home" and "business"), share the lists with co-workers, set notifications, even mark items as a priority. It's great for smaller, day-to-day tasks but if you need something to manage a bigger project or a team, you should look into more robust project management tools. Although this is a great app, it cannot replace tools like TeamWork, Basecamp etc. But they work great together
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    BQE Software Inc.
    • Invoice Collections within Billing is a great tool because of the ability to take notes and track contact.
    • Invoices are professional looking and easy for our clients to understand the overall progress within each phase of their project.
    • Dashboards are the best tool EVER!
    • The Contact List feature within Clients setup is the perfect way to track multiple project managers within a large company that also has multiple contracts with us.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Wunderlist is what you need for your to do lists. It's really simple to use.
    • Allows you to set due date to your lists, share them with your team and/or create a folder to divide and organize all your list set
    • Also, Wunderlist is compatible with all platform and devices. So you can always be updated on your list or work on them from wherever you are and with all the devices you have.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    BQE Software Inc.
    • Customizable Reporting
    • Linking Project to Payment all together
    • Assigning contacts to particular roles - such as Invoicing, Contracts, etc.
    • Accounting Functionality - they are basically a project management accounting software, so in my opinion, they could learn some things from other accounting software such as QuickBooks etc.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Viewing more than one task at a time.
    • Email forwarding tasks - sometimes can be buggy and not always smooth.
    • Option to show more detail on a task without clicking task - example: being able to see attachment without clicking on task to view.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    BQE Software Inc.
    We have been using Core for a few years now, and honestly started to look at other software systems to see what was out there. What we chose was a nightmare for migration so we never left Core. Now we have added invoicing and payments from Core instead of double entry with QBO. Still only a few cycles in but looks like it will be up to speed soon and working smoothly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    It's working, and doing precisely what we selected it for. The only hesitation is if Microsoft suddenly drops the platform.
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    BQE Software Inc.
    The foundation is awesome, like I have said before, however the house being built on it, the educational resources being provided to us (more of sales pitches that don't work), and flexible workflow opportunities, is making us look elsewhere for how much we will be spending on per user. It's crazy to think how flexible they are not when it comes to user settings. Lack of integration with other sources is awful.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    The actual user interface and the way to navigate around the app is very intuitive and easy to learn/use which would make me give it a high ranking, but the syncing issues drop down my rating because there are times where you add an item to the list and then it just disappears. Then when you add it again the sync will happen and now you have duplicates. The other negative with the usability is adding extra information to an item, such as files or comments or assignments. You can do it but it's difficult to tell which items have this information from the main screen. You have to click on them individually.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    BQE Software Inc.
    I can only remember a couple of times in 4 years that Core has been unavailable.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    BQE Software Inc.
    This is one area that does need some improvement. It can be slow at time, so we had our IT look at it from our side and we had no issues, so it has to be some slowness on their side.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    BQE Software Inc.
    As a new employee and CORE user, I talk to support on a weekly basis. I have never had to wait for more than 3 min to get connect with a support rep, and all my questions have been answered. The support representatives are polite and eager to help no matter how simple your question is.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    I have not had an issue where I needed to reach out to Wunderlist, but I know their contact and online chat is easy to access and feel confident that they would be helpful. My only worry is Wunderlist is becoming Microsoft to-do in May 2020, and I believe the app will become worse after that.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    BQE Software Inc.
    Make sure you have someone training you that fits your style of learning.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    BQE Software Inc.
    It does take some time to understand the options and to find the best invoice template.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Wunderlist giving 100% work satisfaction for me and my organization
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    BQE Software Inc.
    Deltek Vision is far more advanced, more encompassing and offers more flexibility with what you want to do. However, it's also quite difficult to use, whereas BQE CORE is intuitive and user friendly. The trade off is worth it in some arenas but overall it's not suited for a larger fast paced company. Great for smaller companies.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Wunderlist is the cleanest of all these products, and also the most functional. It performs exactly like you would expect a to-do app to work, and you can make it as simple or as complex as you want. Trello boards were too much for my employees to comprehend and they could never get the hang of it. Microsoft TO-DO is just a stripped down remake of Wunderlist and will be a while before it catches up (if it ever does). Todoist is the most similar to me, and it was mostly an aesthetic choice that made me choose Wunderlist.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    BQE Software Inc.
    This software works on a small and large scale.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    BQE Software Inc.
    • Quick setup of new tasks under a parent project, with immediate hourly billing to it.
    • Monitoring of details of non-chargeable efforts in appropriate detail
    • Validation of hourly cost, billing cost, benefit cost, profitability by person and role
    • Company tracking of write-off's included in corporate and project reporting, no data is "lost"
    • Can track excessive work time as +PTO in lieu of pay for use as future vacation
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Productivity Increase - Knowing exactly what I need to do and when makes sure that I am on the right track, working on the right project and task at the right time, and not missing anything (or wasting my time on tasks that don't move the needle).
    • I'm delivering and following through on projects (big and small) without worrying about if I'm missing anything. This has helped specifically in product releases. One task I used to be late on every year was holiday greeting card releases in May. No one is ever ready to design holiday cards in April, so I wasn't even thinking about it. However, retail shops are buying their holiday products in the summer. I would always remember September as the weather started to change, which would lead me to miss out on the bulk of retail shop sales. With Microsoft To-Do, I mapped out the entire project, starting with designing 3 Hanukkah cards, to 3 Christmas cards, to printing them, photographing them, listing them, and marketing them. All with deadlines attached. Every detail was planned out in a doable way. For two years in a row, I did not miss out on this release and my sales have increased 300% year-over-year in part because of my release planning in Microsoft To-Do.
    • Do you know those tasks that pop up in meetings that you write down somewhere and then sometimes just completely forget? No? Just me? Either way, I used to have them scattered in notepads, sticky notes, and notebooks, and a lot would be lost in the wind. With Microsoft To-Do, I take all of those to-dos gathered during the day and add them to my to-do list with a deadline at the end of my work day. Now, I never miss anything.
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    BQE CORE Screenshots

    Screenshot of Core powered by BQE SoftwareScreenshot of BQE CORE Project Dashboard ViewScreenshot of BQE CORE 360* Firm Performance ViewScreenshot of BQE CORE Reporting & AnalyticsScreenshot of BQE CORE Project Time EntryScreenshot of BQE CORE Project Expense Tracking