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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    BQE CORE

    Score8.8 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 Dynamics 365

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft Dynamics 365 is a CRM providing sales, marketing, and service functionality. It is offered as SaaS and on-premise. Dynamics 365 is part of the larger Dynamics suite of business intelligence and ERP products.

    $44

    per month

    Pricing
    BQE COREMicrosoft Dynamics 365
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    BQE COREMicrosoft Dynamics 365
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    BQE COREMicrosoft Dynamics 365
    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
    144 Answers
    88%
    Would buy again
    23 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    106 Answers
    87%
    Delivers good value for the price
    20 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    98%
    Happy with the feature set
    150 Answers
    88%
    Happy with the feature set
    23 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    92%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    70 Answers
    86%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    12 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    82%
    Implementation went as expected
    81 Answers
    82%
    Implementation went as expected
    18 Answers
    Features
    BQE COREMicrosoft Dynamics 365
    Sales Force Automation
    Comparison of Sales Force Automation features of BQE CORE and Microsoft Dynamics 365
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Dynamics 365
    7.7
    84 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Customer data management / contact management00 Ratings7.981 Ratings
    Workflow management00 Ratings7.980 Ratings
    Territory management00 Ratings7.160 Ratings
    Opportunity management00 Ratings7.672 Ratings
    Integration with email client (e.g., Outlook or Gmail)00 Ratings7.879 Ratings
    Contract management00 Ratings7.961 Ratings
    Quote & order management00 Ratings7.358 Ratings
    Interaction tracking00 Ratings8.171 Ratings
    Channel / partner relationship management00 Ratings7.362 Ratings
    Customer Service & Support
    Comparison of Customer Service & Support features of BQE CORE and Microsoft Dynamics 365
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Dynamics 365
    8.0
    68 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Case management00 Ratings7.863 Ratings
    Call center management00 Ratings7.950 Ratings
    Help desk management00 Ratings8.557 Ratings
    Marketing Automation
    Comparison of Marketing Automation features of BQE CORE and Microsoft Dynamics 365
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Dynamics 365
    7.9
    78 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Lead management00 Ratings7.672 Ratings
    Email marketing00 Ratings8.171 Ratings
    CRM Project Management
    Comparison of CRM Project Management features of BQE CORE and Microsoft Dynamics 365
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Dynamics 365
    8.0
    76 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Task management00 Ratings8.171 Ratings
    Billing and invoicing management00 Ratings8.054 Ratings
    Reporting00 Ratings8.065 Ratings
    CRM Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of CRM Reporting & Analytics features of BQE CORE and Microsoft Dynamics 365
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Dynamics 365
    7.6
    77 Ratings
    1% below category average
    Forecasting00 Ratings7.667 Ratings
    Pipeline visualization00 Ratings7.773 Ratings
    Customizable reports00 Ratings7.476 Ratings
    Customization
    Comparison of Customization features of BQE CORE and Microsoft Dynamics 365
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Dynamics 365
    7.7
    80 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Custom fields00 Ratings7.678 Ratings
    Custom objects00 Ratings7.572 Ratings
    Scripting environment00 Ratings7.956 Ratings
    API for custom integration00 Ratings7.861 Ratings
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of BQE CORE and Microsoft Dynamics 365
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Dynamics 365
    8.8
    75 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Single sign-on capability00 Ratings8.869 Ratings
    Role-based user permissions00 Ratings8.770 Ratings
    Social CRM
    Comparison of Social CRM features of BQE CORE and Microsoft Dynamics 365
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Dynamics 365
    7.7
    44 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Social data00 Ratings7.843 Ratings
    Social engagement00 Ratings7.643 Ratings
    Integrations with 3rd-party Software
    Comparison of Integrations with 3rd-party Software features of BQE CORE and Microsoft Dynamics 365
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Dynamics 365
    7.2
    65 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Marketing automation00 Ratings7.665 Ratings
    Compensation management00 Ratings6.834 Ratings
    Platform
    Comparison of Platform features of BQE CORE and Microsoft Dynamics 365
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Microsoft Dynamics 365
    6.8
    56 Ratings
    11% below category average
    Mobile access00 Ratings6.856 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    BQE COREMicrosoft Dynamics 365
    Small Businesses
    Autotask PSA
    Score7.7 out of 10
    Salesflare
    Score10 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Workday Professional Services Automation
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Kintone
    Score9.7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Planview AdaptiveWork
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Oracle Sales
    Score8.9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    BQE COREMicrosoft Dynamics 365
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.4
    (167 ratings)
    7.9
    (104 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    7.0
    (8 ratings)
    8.0
    (20 ratings)
    Usability
    9.6
    (117 ratings)
    7.8
    (34 ratings)
    Availability
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.4
    (90 ratings)
    8.0
    (11 ratings)
    Online Training
    6.4
    (1 ratings)
    7.5
    (2 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    2.3
    (6 ratings)
    9.2
    (4 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    -
    (0 ratings)
    3.8
    (3 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    4.5
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Professional Services
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    BQE COREMicrosoft Dynamics 365
    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
    Provides our company access to manage and customize the folds tailored to our needs. We needed to have certain paragraphs on certain paperwork per customer. MD 365 has those options to customize where needed and remove when not. The system is easy to navigate, and training can be done in a matter of days, even without prior knowledge of the system or similar systems.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    • Best to use for AP - like in our organization, there are plenty of AP bills, so with Dynamics, we can quickly enter the same into the Excel utility, which means CSV-based upload, and then we can easily upload the same to the software. It's a time saver.
    • Best for Bank reconciliation - MS Dynamics makes Bank reconciliation easy. Banks can easily sync with software and easily get reconciled.
    • Generating invoices to customers and directly sending them to their inbox is easy with this software.
    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
    • Small learning curve, obviously. You won't figure this out in a day, a week, or even a month. But given time, you can learn to be an expert. Or you can always get a consultant or hire in somebody. But learning the tool isn't out of the questions by any means.
    • Licensing can be confusing at times and isn't cheap, but it is cheaper than Salesforce. Plus no additional fees for data calls to better integrate your D365 CE data with other systems.
    • The Classic user interface left a bit to be desired, but now with the much-improved Unified Interface, the web client and the mobile client look the same, much more modern, and have more flexibility and power behind them for customizers as well.
    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
    CRM has allowed us to keep all of our data in one place that is easy for all users within the company to view. I came into the company after they had been using CRM for about 4 years. They have all said that since we have used this it has helped us control work processes better, it has allowed us to be able to track things so much better, and has been something that has helped unite many processes that used to be all over the place. We are currently using CRM 4.0 and are planning on upgrading in the next 18 months to the 2011 version. Support for 4.0 is almost all but dried up. Understandably so. Some of the customization we have done, and a plugins we use, are now contained within the 2011 version so we are looking forward to that upgrade. We use an email marketing company as well, and they primarily support the 2011 version, but their product connects and is integrated within CRM. This is a great benefit as well so that all of our marketing information can be contained in one location.
    Read full review
    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 usability is easily adopted for users familiar with other Microsoft products. Dynamics 365 has several interfaces that cross over browsers and tablets. These multiple interfaces will be phased out and updated to a single unified interface eventually to provide the same usability across all devices. The backend configurations is slowly improving with the introduction of PowerApps compared to pre-D365 Online versions
    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
    Our partner, Ledgeview Partners has been FANTASTIC to work with. They are always timely in their response and have taken time to understand our business and our specific needs. We've made a lot of advanced customizations and they have been a great help in making those updates.
    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
    We used a data warehouse to house our data, and our IT team and implementation vendor worked diligently ahead of time to construct idea implementation plans. Out of millions of records- we had less than a dozen errors, which is remarkable. My major insight is simply having a group of completely devoted individuals working towards your goal who fully understand the desired outcome. Focused resources for implementation season are critical to success.
    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
    Microsoft Dynamics was part of a system overhaul for a local school, and we looked at many products. If we had used it for a company with low turnover, then it might have been more feasible. They needed something a new person could learn quickly, someone who might also be learning marketing terms at the same time - especially if there is nobody to train the individual now expected to know the system. Similar issues occurred with all of these programs (we called it being too big for their britches), and one of the bigger things we liked was that it is more compatible with MS Office products in both technical and visual appeal. If you have a steady employees who use a CRM consistently, low turnover, and those who are very familiar with Office products, Dynamics would be the smartest option for you. Unfortunately, this was just not true for the school environment
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    BQE Software Inc.
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    On our purchase, I'd been interrogated about our usage. Our needs are met by Microsoft Dynamics 365, which is simple to use. With so much data and information available, we must ensure that it is presented correctly to managers. Due to a lack of use, we don't have to spend as much money on Salesforce.
    Read full review
    Scalability
    BQE Software Inc.
    This software works on a small and large scale.
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Professional Services
    BQE Software Inc.
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    My company's preferred program right now is Microsoft Dynamics 365. We use it to keep track of customers and important sales metrics in a streamlined manner. Anyone familiar with CRMs will find the tool extremely useful. Considering that we have a good turnover, this product will be used for its basic segments. As a result, there are few chances of error with Microsoft dynamics because it is so easy to use. Many options for recording data on these leads are available. It meets our needs and pays off.
    Read full review
    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
    • For those without a centralized, all in one solution for major HR, Finance and other departments, Microsoft Dynamics 365 has vastly improved employee time utilization and profit.
    • Migrating clients from on-premise to the cloud has reaped benefits including better security, no unscheduled downtime and frequent updates to functionality.
    • Those transferring from cheaper solutions have lost money in the aim to be better integrated with other Microsoft products and AI they don't really utilize.
    Incentivized
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    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