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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

    Sage 50

    Score7.7 out of 10
    Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
    Sage 50cloud Accounting (formerly Sage 50 Accounting) is accounting software designed for small businesses. Sage 50cloud Accounting (formerly Sage 50, and formerly Peachtree) lets businesses invoice customers, pay bills, manage inventory, control costs, and pay employees. The solution includes high-level dashboards and in-depth reports.

    $61.92

    per month per user

    Pricing
    BQE CORESage 50
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Sage 50 Pro Accounting
    $61.92
    per month
    Sage 50 Premium Accounting
    $103.92
    per month per user
    Sage 50 Quantum Accounting 3 User
    $177.17
    per month per user
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    BQE CORESage 50
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—Annual billing plans also available for all products.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    BQE CORESage 50
    Considered Both Products
    BQE Software Inc.
    Chose BQE CORE
    BQE CORE was hands down more user friendly and customizable
    Incentivized
    Sage
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    94%
    Would buy again
    144 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    15 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    106 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    10 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    98%
    Happy with the feature set
    150 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    15 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    92%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    70 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    10 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    82%
    Implementation went as expected
    81 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    10 Answers
    Features
    BQE CORESage 50
    Payroll Management
    Comparison of Payroll Management features of BQE CORE and Sage 50
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Sage 50
    8.5
    19 Ratings
    12% above category average
    Pay calculation00 Ratings8.318 Ratings
    Benefit plan administration00 Ratings8.013 Ratings
    Direct deposit files00 Ratings10.014 Ratings
    Salary revision and increment management00 Ratings8.014 Ratings
    Reimbursement management00 Ratings8.014 Ratings
    Customization
    Comparison of Customization features of BQE CORE and Sage 50
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Sage 50
    6.8
    14 Ratings
    11% below category average
    API for custom integration00 Ratings7.311 Ratings
    Plug-ins00 Ratings6.313 Ratings
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of BQE CORE and Sage 50
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Sage 50
    7.8
    29 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Single sign-on capability00 Ratings6.924 Ratings
    Role-based user permissions00 Ratings8.626 Ratings
    Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of BQE CORE and Sage 50
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Sage 50
    8.2
    32 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Dashboards00 Ratings8.430 Ratings
    Standard reports00 Ratings8.932 Ratings
    Custom reports00 Ratings7.231 Ratings
    General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
    Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of BQE CORE and Sage 50
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Sage 50
    7.3
    35 Ratings
    4% below category average
    Accounts payable00 Ratings8.934 Ratings
    Accounts receivable00 Ratings8.633 Ratings
    Cash management00 Ratings7.933 Ratings
    Bank reconciliation00 Ratings8.433 Ratings
    Expense management00 Ratings8.531 Ratings
    Time tracking00 Ratings7.115 Ratings
    Fixed asset management00 Ratings7.122 Ratings
    Multi-currency support00 Ratings4.012 Ratings
    Multi-division support00 Ratings5.816 Ratings
    Regulations compliance00 Ratings6.215 Ratings
    Electronic tax filing00 Ratings8.218 Ratings
    Self-service portal00 Ratings5.513 Ratings
    Global Financial Support00 Ratings5.76 Ratings
    Primary and Secondary Ledgers00 Ratings6.89 Ratings
    Intercompany Accounting00 Ratings7.610 Ratings
    Localizations00 Ratings7.58 Ratings
    Journals and Reconciliations00 Ratings8.822 Ratings
    Enterprise Accounting00 Ratings7.69 Ratings
    Configurable Accounting00 Ratings8.111 Ratings
    Centralized Rules Framework00 Ratings6.67 Ratings
    Standardized Processes00 Ratings7.916 Ratings
    Inventory Management
    Comparison of Inventory Management features of BQE CORE and Sage 50
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Sage 50
    8.4
    21 Ratings
    14% above category average
    Inventory tracking00 Ratings8.121 Ratings
    Automatic reordering00 Ratings7.912 Ratings
    Location management00 Ratings8.010 Ratings
    Manufacturing module00 Ratings9.09 Ratings
    Order Management
    Comparison of Order Management features of BQE CORE and Sage 50
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Sage 50
    7.5
    25 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Pricing00 Ratings8.420 Ratings
    Order entry00 Ratings8.422 Ratings
    Credit card processing00 Ratings7.014 Ratings
    Cost of goods sold00 Ratings7.421 Ratings
    Order Orchestration00 Ratings7.58 Ratings
    End-to-end order visibility00 Ratings6.69 Ratings
    Order exception Resolution00 Ratings7.28 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    BQE CORESage 50
    Small Businesses
    Autotask PSA
    Score7.7 out of 10
    QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
    Score4.2 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Workday Professional Services Automation
    Score8.2 out of 10
    MYOB
    Score8.3 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Planview AdaptiveWork
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Microsoft Dynamics GP
    Score5.4 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    BQE CORESage 50
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.4
    (167 ratings)
    8.4
    (45 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    7.0
    (8 ratings)
    9.1
    (14 ratings)
    Usability
    9.6
    (117 ratings)
    8.6
    (15 ratings)
    Availability
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.4
    (90 ratings)
    10.0
    (7 ratings)
    Online Training
    6.4
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    2.3
    (6 ratings)
    9.1
    (5 ratings)
    CPA Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (4 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    4.5
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    BQE CORESage 50
    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
    Sage
    Sage 50 Accounts is well-suited for small to medium-sized enterprises, where there is a moderate number of expenses and invoices that need processing, typically by a company with a smaller finance team. Sage 50 is probably less suitable for a large organisation that needs to handle a higher volume of transactions and manage significant stock levels.
    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
    Sage
    • We can build "templates" for recurrent charges/invoices. This saves some time and also ensures that we always use the right accounting rubric.
    • A lot of additional information can be filled out such as client information (name, address, ...) which makes the software a little more complete.
    • If you don't need an updated version every year (my case) then the software is not too expensive. The pro version that I'm using was just a little over $300.
    • I really like the banking statement consolidation which allows you to ensure you got the right information registered.
    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
    Sage
    • Sage 50 could use some improvement in the Invoicing Module to allow for more flexibility in the design of the Invoice fields. The report customization tools could use some upgrading for easier use.
    • Fixed assets management module needs to be included with unlimited number of fixed assets.
    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
    Sage
    I use this rating simply because I have a thriving Sage 50 consulting practice and will continue to keep my expertise in the product. I have consulted on both Sage 50 and QuickBooks for over 25 years so I have to maintain expertise in the solution as well as accounting and verticals.
    Incentivized
    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
    Sage
    I think Sage 50 is a trusted product and is reliable from a product delivery and support perspective. They have deep domain expertise in the non-profit space and should be a consideration for new non-profit startups or existing non-profits looking to migrate from other platforms. Overall, I believe that Sage 50 does many things well with few limitations.
    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
    Sage
    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
    Sage
    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
    Sage
    They were very knowledgeable of the product, understood my timeline was limited for a software issue and allowed me to get back to my day to day work. The dial into your computer is great so you can monitor what they are doing and learn some tricks yourself
    Read full review
    Online Training
    BQE Software Inc.
    Make sure you have someone training you that fits your style of learning.
    Read full review
    Sage
    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
    Sage
    We implemented Sage 50 Premium Accounting in house, not using any third party or professional service. It was a relatively trouble free process, but can be tricky. Just read all instructions carefully, especially if you need to load the program on a network with more than one user
    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
    Sage
    As we did the conversion almost 10 years ago it is hard to answer this question. At the time it was the ease of being able to produce both cash and accrual financial statements and reporting that led us to pick Sage
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    BQE Software Inc.
    This software works on a small and large scale.
    Read full review
    Sage
    I define scalable from two perspectives; 1) the scalability to handle more bookkeepers/accountants using the product, and 2) the scalability to handle increasing customer/vendor/employee and transactional data. Sage 50 does a good job on both fronts. From the single users operating a micro-business accounting for customer invoices and bill payments only, to the multi-staff, multi-location, multi-departmental complex transactional operation. Although Sage 50 is quite expensive for that smallest user, it is quite inexpensive for the larger business entity. So, for the new enterprise expecting rapid growth, Sage 50 is the application of choice.
    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
    Sage
    • Sage definitely needs to do a better job with customer service. I have had to use them only a handful of times and it was not a great experience but not the worse I've seen. They didn't make us a priority and I felt that they didn't have a sense of urgency. They did address my lack of satisfaction and I can see that they are at least aware of the issues and they are trying to correct them.
    • Sage is exactly what we need in my current organization and I wouldn't change it for another system. I have used quite a few in my lifetime and I would say that it fits our needs.
    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