BQE CORE vs. Sage 50cloud Accounting

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
BQE CORE
Score 8.5 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 50cloud Accounting
Score 7.8 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.
$299
per year
Pricing
BQE CORESage 50cloud Accounting
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Sage 50 Pro Accounting
$299
per year
Sage 50 Premium Accounting
$449
per year
Sage 50 Quantum Accounting 3 User
Starting at $1,499
per year
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BQE CORESage 50cloud Accounting
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsAnnual traditional plan with license, monthly, and annual subscription plans available.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BQE CORESage 50cloud Accounting
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
BQE CORESage 50cloud Accounting
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
BQE CORE
8.1
55 Ratings
8% above category average
Sage 50cloud Accounting
-
Ratings
Task Management8.537 Ratings00 Ratings
Resource Management9.138 Ratings00 Ratings
Gantt Charts6.716 Ratings00 Ratings
Scheduling8.226 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow Automation7.627 Ratings00 Ratings
Team Collaboration8.031 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for Agile Methodology8.712 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for Waterfall Methodology8.312 Ratings00 Ratings
Document Management7.230 Ratings00 Ratings
Email integration7.225 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Access8.532 Ratings00 Ratings
Timesheet Tracking9.355 Ratings00 Ratings
Change request and Case Management8.521 Ratings00 Ratings
Budget and Expense Management7.343 Ratings00 Ratings
Professional Services Automation
Comparison of Professional Services Automation features of Product A and Product B
BQE CORE
8.4
38 Ratings
13% above category average
Sage 50cloud Accounting
-
Ratings
Quotes/estimates7.820 Ratings00 Ratings
Invoicing8.833 Ratings00 Ratings
Project & financial reporting8.737 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with accounting software8.424 Ratings00 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
BQE CORE
-
Ratings
Sage 50cloud Accounting
9.0
14 Ratings
18% above category average
Pay calculation00 Ratings9.014 Ratings
Benefit plan administration00 Ratings9.011 Ratings
Direct deposit files00 Ratings9.011 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management00 Ratings9.013 Ratings
Reimbursement management00 Ratings9.013 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
BQE CORE
-
Ratings
Sage 50cloud Accounting
9.0
10 Ratings
24% above category average
API for custom integration00 Ratings9.08 Ratings
Plug-ins00 Ratings9.09 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
BQE CORE
-
Ratings
Sage 50cloud Accounting
9.0
19 Ratings
12% above category average
Single sign-on capability00 Ratings9.017 Ratings
Role-based user permissions00 Ratings9.017 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
BQE CORE
-
Ratings
Sage 50cloud Accounting
9.0
21 Ratings
17% above category average
Dashboards00 Ratings9.020 Ratings
Standard reports00 Ratings9.021 Ratings
Custom reports00 Ratings9.020 Ratings
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Product A and Product B
BQE CORE
-
Ratings
Sage 50cloud Accounting
8.7
24 Ratings
16% above category average
Accounts payable00 Ratings9.023 Ratings
Accounts receivable00 Ratings9.022 Ratings
Cash management00 Ratings9.022 Ratings
Bank reconciliation00 Ratings9.022 Ratings
Expense management00 Ratings9.022 Ratings
Time tracking00 Ratings9.012 Ratings
Fixed asset management00 Ratings9.013 Ratings
Multi-currency support00 Ratings8.910 Ratings
Multi-division support00 Ratings9.010 Ratings
Regulations compliance00 Ratings9.09 Ratings
Electronic tax filing00 Ratings9.08 Ratings
Self-service portal00 Ratings9.07 Ratings
Global Financial Support00 Ratings9.04 Ratings
Primary and Secondary Ledgers00 Ratings6.95 Ratings
Intercompany Accounting00 Ratings9.06 Ratings
Localizations00 Ratings6.95 Ratings
Journals and Reconciliations00 Ratings9.011 Ratings
Enterprise Accounting00 Ratings9.06 Ratings
Configurable Accounting00 Ratings9.06 Ratings
Centralized Rules Framework00 Ratings7.44 Ratings
Standardized Processes00 Ratings9.09 Ratings
Inventory Management
Comparison of Inventory Management features of Product A and Product B
BQE CORE
-
Ratings
Sage 50cloud Accounting
9.0
16 Ratings
25% above category average
Inventory tracking00 Ratings9.016 Ratings
Automatic reordering00 Ratings9.010 Ratings
Location management00 Ratings9.07 Ratings
Manufacturing module00 Ratings9.08 Ratings
Order Management
Comparison of Order Management features of Product A and Product B
BQE CORE
-
Ratings
Sage 50cloud Accounting
8.4
17 Ratings
13% above category average
Pricing00 Ratings9.014 Ratings
Order entry00 Ratings9.016 Ratings
Credit card processing00 Ratings9.011 Ratings
Cost of goods sold00 Ratings9.015 Ratings
Order Orchestration00 Ratings7.85 Ratings
End-to-end order visibility00 Ratings7.45 Ratings
Order exception Resolution00 Ratings7.85 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BQE CORESage 50cloud Accounting
Small Businesses
FunctionFox
FunctionFox
Score 8.3 out of 10
Dext Prepare (with Receipt Bank)
Dext Prepare (with Receipt Bank)
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
SAP Ruum
SAP Ruum
Score 9.0 out of 10
Accounting Seed
Accounting Seed
Score 8.3 out of 10
Enterprises
Quickbase
Quickbase
Score 9.2 out of 10
Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP
Score 8.1 out of 10
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User Ratings
BQE CORESage 50cloud Accounting
Likelihood to Recommend
8.6
(148 ratings)
9.0
(34 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.2
(8 ratings)
9.6
(12 ratings)
Usability
8.1
(100 ratings)
10.0
(8 ratings)
Availability
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
7.3
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.0
(90 ratings)
10.0
(7 ratings)
Online Training
6.4
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
2.9
(6 ratings)
9.0
(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 50cloud Accounting
Likelihood to Recommend
BQE Software Inc.
BQE CORE is well suited for a firm trying to get a better understanding of their project performance as a whole as well as better manage time and project resources. It is not the greatest for client management through a project or through invoicing, but it is do-able within the system.
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Sage
Sage is great for portability and exchange with external accountants as it is widely used and people will be able to read your data in. It's a very good and complete solution for a little business where one person can handle all of the accounting. I doubt that it scales well to large companies with several in-house accountants working at the same time.
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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.
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Sage
  • It has the capability of "Single Click" processes that allows you to turn Quotes into orders, instant invoicing and track A/R in the Order Screen
  • I can email Sales Orders directly to my Customer and also remind them of past due from a single screen. I can track Project, Closeouts, Over Seas order by setting up Jobs and clicking the job name in Order Entry.
  • You can use recurring entries and copy and paste on the P&L, using masking for department reporting and budgeting
  • You can use the BI feature and export into Excel in Pivot format and utilize Timeline and Slicer to see the company overall performance by months, day or years
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Sage
Sage delivers what it promises. The whole accounting package is user friendly and can be easily picked up by a novice. The support is second to none. They always keep us abreast of new technologies and/or changes to accounting that would impact us. The range of reports fits both small and large companies.,
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Reliability and Availability
BQE Software Inc.
I can only remember a couple of times in 4 years that Core has been unavailable.
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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.
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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.
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Sage
Although I have only needed to call tech support on three occasions through out the entire time of usage, each time my problem was quickly resolved by people who were obviously well trained and easy to understand. Sage 50 Premium Accounting is a reliable and "bug-free" product that is regularly improved upon.
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Online Training
BQE Software Inc.
Make sure you have someone training you that fits your style of learning.
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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.
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Sage
Sage 50 is a strong accounting software package. It will work efficiently if it is installed correctly. If one puts garbage in, one will get garbage out. Also it is important to train the staff to use Sage 50 properly. It is also important to set up security for each user.
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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.
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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
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Scalability
BQE Software Inc.
This software works on a small and large scale.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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