BQE CORE Suite

Pros

The ability to customize many of its features is great. You can setup and keep track of time associated
with various cases, clients, projects. There are so many reports that you can run to keep track of your spending. Able to export invoices to LEDES format. Able to import time from excel spreadsheet.

Cons

It takes some time to learn the software, the tech support team was great in getting me up and running. If you want additional reports they have a custom report group but their cost is a bit high to modify reports. It looks a bit complicated but actually it is easy to use.

Pros

Running a practice and staying financially solvent is key with a way to measure progress with tasks, time and fees. CORE does this and in a way architects can understand since it is designed by architects. However, it tries to cover all variations on running a firm and while appreciable, it can be confusing with too many choices to search and select from. The flexibility is a plus once you reach out to customer service (live24/7/365) and they kindly walk you through a solution.

Cons

It's a bit complex at the onset of setting up the account and projects. You do it often enough, it does become second nature but it takes time and includes some missteps readily corrected by the help system.

Pros

It's not Quickbooks. Quickbooks is stuck in the early 2000s. CORE shows promise if usurping it with its variety of tools and analytical reporting methods. It also doesn't log off when I leave the site, which is annoying.

Cons

The overall user experience, at least for accounts payables, is deeply flawed. Save and Add Another shouldn't vanish when pressing "Save" when I want to just attach a PDF. I think CORE should take a glance at [SENSITIVE CONTENT] and figure out how to copy its features for payables. It's fantastic.

Oh, and no ACH implementation.

Pros

Time and expenses recording. Invoice creation. Financial planning and reporting.

Cons

The ability to customise reports is an additional costed service. It is really set up for USA and I had some tricky times making sure I reset up the currency. Also, you need to use 'Purchase Tax' for 'VAT' to make things work as you would expect.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to BQE CORE Suite

Pros

Project management and billing are our favorite features, we couldn't run our business without them. Core integrates really well with how we setup and manage a project.

Cons

The Allocation feature needs a lot of improvement. It feels like all the information we need is in Core but it is not easy to retrieve or maintain, specifically around dependencies between phases within a project.