BQE CORE Suite

Using CORE to invoice our clients has freed up so much of my time I'm afraid I could have streamlined myself out of a job. Billing previews that used to take days are now done in hours. The time to create invoices and submit them for approval takes about 25% of the time before CORE. Easy to learn and a breeze to use.

ORE is a very complex software system to set up, but once we worked out all of the nuances and specifications, this software rocks!

I like that BQE is user friendly and makes it possible for the entire company to enter their own time and expenses anywhere, anytime.
I like that when there are updates to the system, users are informed.
I really like that everything entered through the mobile app sinks right away into BQE.
The technical support customer services is great. Even when someone is not sure of the answer, they research and get back to you. The support group is dedicated, knowledgeable and professional. Lenny is the best.

I do not like that all reports are Word documents. With data, it is impossible to sort and filter when looking for information.
It would also be easy if questions/answers could be given directly in BQE prior to invoicing instead of having to print each pre-bill and send to managers for approval and then enter their answer back in BQE.
The system allows write up/down of billable hours but you cannot run an accurate report of the amounts that were written up/down (I think in BQE it includes non billable hours). I keep track of mine on an Excel spreadsheet and it would be nice if I did not need to have an additional spreadsheet.
It would make more sense if each field that is populated in all categories could be use for reporting purposes. For example, if running a list of client, it would be good if we could choose what fields we want to see on the report for each client (like contact person, email address, industry...). Sometimes, I have to run three reports to get the information that I compile in one Excel spreadsheet.
Maybe I do not have this information, but the only way to access report customization is via email. It would be nice to have a support line for easy questions regarding a new report.

Having support anytime I need it is tremendously helpful. I like being able to integrate accounting, project management and time/expense. I don't know what I would do without this feature. As a small business with only 4 employees, this package saves me a lot of time and headache where I might otherwise have to move back and forth between multiple software and risk making errors.

- The project setup seems a bit clunky, particularly, how to name the project name/phase name and how it will appear on the time card and invoice. I had to play around with this quite a bit.- I would like to be able to bill at the sub-phase level.- I would like to be able to turn off the write-up/write-down feature for percent complete billing.

BillQuick is a powerful tool in tracking project time and expenses for professional services. We converted from 7 years of Quick Books data. Although the conversion and integration was not a seemless process, and the learning curve was much longer than originally anticipated, we are now tracking project profitability at a much higher level than we ever have before.
BillQuick Tech Support is fantastic. They are patient and knowledgeable, and we have received a lot of added value by having the Gold Care Tech Support package added onto our services. Additionally, we have invested quite a bit of extra money on having Bill Quick Customization Department write customized reports. Although the standard reports section is extensive, we were unable to find reports that gave us exactly the data we wanted to see. It's nice that this additional service is offered, but it would be nice for them to give us a handful of customized reports as part of the conversion process and then charge extra from there on out.

The software is not as user-friendly as it could be. Some things are overly complicated and require detailed use before you understand the functionality of the software. It could not be more different that QuickBooks, and the transition for us was difficult. Personally, I highly underestimated the learning curve.

In the beginning, we were only using BQ for time and expense logging and we maintained our Quick Books file for all other general accounting, which I would strongly discourage. Although the SYNC feature does work to sync data between programs, it is not a clean sync and much of it needed cleanup on either side of the sync. This was very frustrating. We just recently converted all of our general accounting in QB over to the Accounting portal in BillQuick. This has helped to have all of our financial records in one software system and our data is much more consistent. However, the "Accounting" portal is not perfect and there are a number of features that are lacking where QB has it all dialed in. Examples: 1) in looking at a vendor bill, there is no indication or PAID FLAT to see it has been PAID or not. To see if it is paid, I have to look at the previous checks. 2) In a report that lists all AP checks written for a particular time frame, there is no TOTAL at the end of the report. 3) BQ allows duplicate check numbers. (This is not a complete list, but the top 3 things that drive me insane.) These seem like basic accounting features and for them to not be included in an accounting software is frustrating. DISCLAIMER: we have not yet upgraded to BQ2015 and remain on BQ2014 for a while longer. My understanding is that BQ2015 has updated a number of accounting features, so I look forward to seeing if any of those issues are remedied.