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BQE CORE

Score9.2 out of 10

190 Reviews and Ratings

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What is BQE CORE?

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.

Categories & Use Cases

Media

Screenshot of Core powered by BQE Software
Screenshot of BQE CORE Project Dashboard View
Screenshot of BQE CORE 360* Firm Performance View
Screenshot of BQE CORE Reporting & Analytics
Screenshot of BQE CORE Project Time Entry
Screenshot of BQE CORE Project Expense Tracking

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Screenshot of Core powered by BQE Software

Key Features

Learn about the best (and worst!) features BQE CORE has to offer, as determined by TrustRadius' reviewers.
Based on 190 ratings of BQE CORE's features
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Top Performing Features

  • Timesheet Tracking

    Timesheet tracking is the ability to track all billable and non-billable hours for each project.

    Category average: 8.3

  • Task Management

    This includes the ability to plan, track, collaborate and report on tasks.

    Category average: 9.1

  • Gantt Charts

    Gantt charts are charts that show tasks or events along the y-axis displayed against time along the x-axis.

    Category average: 8.3

Areas for Improvement

  • Email integration

    Email integration allows work requests to be made directly from email.

    Category average: 8.3

  • Team Collaboration

    Team collaboration capabilities let team members work directly with each other and provide team updates.

    Category average: 9

  • Support for Waterfall Methodology

    Waterfall methodology is a tradition development method that is linear and sequential.

    Category average: 7.9

Reviews

What users are saying about BQE CORE.
View all reviews

We Highly Recommend This All-In-One Business Solution

Sydney Hayes
Office Manager in Marketing at Ackerman Engineering, Inc. (11-50 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Now that we use BQE COREwe have a better way to track time and expenses along with accounting. In our industry we are typically a subconsultant on new construction projects and this software is particularly useful in our industry. It is helpful for marketing and project managers to be able to view all of the client information in one place, as well as keep accounting visible for particular users. Time tracking for us has never been more efficient!

Pros

  • Time tracking
  • Expense tracking
  • Project details and accounting details
  • Sorting projects by many different fields
  • Creating reports

Cons

  • Time tracking view saved instead of resetting each time
  • Searching projects for details
  • Honesty this software works really well, maybe only a couple bugs so far

Return on Investment

  • Less time spent on tedious tracking tasks
  • More time available for employees to get more project work done instead of admin work
  • Our ability to view the time it takes for different tasks has increased
  • We have more correct records after implementing BQE CORE

Usability

BQE Core Suits All Our Needs

Mary KinsleyView profile
Finance Analyst in Finance and Accounting at Steadfast City Economic Partners (11-50 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

BQE CORE is used for project management, budgeting, invoicing, expensing and time tracking, amongst many other aspects of our business.

Pros

  • Invoicing
  • Expensing
  • Time Tracking
  • Report Configurations

Cons

  • Calendaring
  • Managing clients within a project
  • Speed of performance

Return on Investment

  • Accurate financial reporting
  • Allows for more accurate budgeting
  • Tracking employee and project allocations

Usability

Other Software Used

QuickBooks Online, Teamwork.com

BQE is Awesome!!!

Michael Vargas
Architectural Designer at ARKO Architecture (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

BQE makes it very easy to manage your time performance which is crucial to an architectural office. They give you a very clean and simple interface making it very easy to use and understand. Overall, I've had a great experience with BQE. It has made me a much more organized person in terms of my job and managing the hours of our projects.

Pros

  • Easy to use interface
  • Easy to edit projects

Cons

  • Loading lists and projects
  • Making the website more seamless and less buggy

Return on Investment

  • We use it every day to manage our time performance.
  • Used to coordinate out weekly meeting in office with project list and status.

Usability

Other Software Used

AutoCAD

Awesome Tool for Engineering Company

Incentivized
Kree Champion
Office Manager in Engineering at ME Cubed Engineering (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use BQE CORE for practically all administrative and bookkeeping tasks in our engineer firm. Over the past few years the capabilities have expanded greatly. We have junior level drafter and subcontractors log time on specific projects. We invoice and collect payments. We are also able to to create vendor bills and purchase orders which is very useful in keeping up with outstanding items. It also features comprehensive reports that analyze profit etc.

Pros

  • Invoicing
  • On demand live customer support
  • Bookkeeping
  • Time entry

Cons

  • When time is received on a purchase order, you are unable to simply delete the the vendor bill and the time received. A new purchase order must be created
  • Receiving or logging time directly on invoicing screen
  • Customizable invoicing templates - have to have customer service create.

Return on Investment

  • It is quite expensive but we have been able to keep booking in house which saves about $5000 per year.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)

Other Software Used

monday.com

BQE Core for Engineering Firms--RECOMMEND!

Incentivized
Lyn TestaView profile
Office Manager in Finance and Accounting at Kurt Fischer Structural Engineering (11-50 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use BQE Core for Project Management, Time & Expense tracking, Accounting and Billing, Human Resources and as a CRM Platform. Being able to input information into one platform for use across many different modules saves time and energy on our administrative staff. All of the data is tracked and displayed in efficient widgets and customizable dashboards. The customized reports are very helpful as well. You can drill down all or only what you want to see. Customer service is responsive and able to sort out issues quickly.
Update 1/3/2025: CORE has put in some great work this last year, with special attention to efficiency and user experience. The follow up on support requests continues to be top notch, a rep will respond to you within a few hours, and they still offer around the clock service by telephone. Very excited for roll out of new modules, including Insights Board and Payroll!

Pros

  • Ease of Use: the layout of each page makes sense and flow is easy to follow
  • Update: CORE has recently rolled out more column and filter options, making it even easier to manipulate your data to display what you're really looking for.
  • online: It's great that it can be accessed from any browser, and does not require a software download. Even with this accessibility it remains secure.
  • Education: the webinars, videos and community posts are very helpful when onboarding or troubleshooting.

Cons

  • cost: having to pay for each module for each user is expensive. Would be easier to have different license tiers that group modules.
  • development can be slow: fix releases are not as often, feature requests are the only way current users can influence what goes into the new builds.
  • UPDATE: Service has improved. CORE has dedicated the last year to improving user experience. As a part of the client advisory board, it's great to have an opportunity to speak with the development team directly about functions and special requests.
  • additional filters: would be great to have more filters to drill down reports.
  • UPDATE: CORE delivered!

Return on Investment

  • BQE Core has been time saving in terms of billing/invoicing
  • BQE Core has been useful in tracking project profitability, custom reports make it easy to complete quarterly reviews of projects/employees
  • Rising cost of the platform in conjunction with the growing number of staff can be daunting at time or renewal
  • UDPATE: While pricing continues to be a challenging point for us, we have seen added value this last year with the many improvements.

Usability

Other Software Used

QuickBooks Desktop Pro, Zoom Workplace, Trello

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