BQE CORE vs. Salesforce Essentials

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
BQE CORE
Score 8.3 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
Salesforce Essentials
Score 8.2 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
Salesforce Essentials is a small business CRM that replaces the former SalesforceIQ product. It is priced at $35 per user, on a monthly basis, or at $25 per month for if billed annually ($300) and can be tried free for 14 days on a trial.
$35
per month per user
Pricing
BQE CORESalesforce Essentials
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BQE CORESalesforce Essentials
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 CORESalesforce Essentials
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
BQE CORESalesforce Essentials
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
BQE CORE
6.0
16 Ratings
24% below category average
Salesforce Essentials
-
Ratings
Task Management6.110 Ratings00 Ratings
Resource Management6.112 Ratings00 Ratings
Gantt Charts3.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Scheduling7.46 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow Automation6.06 Ratings00 Ratings
Team Collaboration6.09 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for Agile Methodology4.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for Waterfall Methodology9.13 Ratings00 Ratings
Document Management5.09 Ratings00 Ratings
Email integration6.08 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Access7.08 Ratings00 Ratings
Timesheet Tracking8.916 Ratings00 Ratings
Change request and Case Management3.05 Ratings00 Ratings
Budget and Expense Management6.015 Ratings00 Ratings
Professional Services Automation
Comparison of Professional Services Automation features of Product A and Product B
BQE CORE
5.7
11 Ratings
28% below category average
Salesforce Essentials
-
Ratings
Quotes/estimates5.24 Ratings00 Ratings
Invoicing6.98 Ratings00 Ratings
Project & financial reporting6.011 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with accounting software4.85 Ratings00 Ratings
Sales Force Automation
Comparison of Sales Force Automation features of Product A and Product B
BQE CORE
-
Ratings
Salesforce Essentials
9.1
2 Ratings
14% above category average
Customer data management / contact management00 Ratings9.02 Ratings
Territory management00 Ratings9.52 Ratings
Opportunity management00 Ratings8.02 Ratings
Integration with email client (e.g., Outlook or Gmail)00 Ratings9.52 Ratings
Quote & order management00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Interaction tracking00 Ratings9.52 Ratings
Channel / partner relationship management00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Marketing Automation
Comparison of Marketing Automation features of Product A and Product B
BQE CORE
-
Ratings
Salesforce Essentials
7.4
2 Ratings
6% below category average
Lead management00 Ratings7.42 Ratings
CRM Project Management
Comparison of CRM Project Management features of Product A and Product B
BQE CORE
-
Ratings
Salesforce Essentials
9.0
1 Ratings
15% above category average
Task management00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Billing and invoicing management00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Reporting00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
CRM Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of CRM Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
BQE CORE
-
Ratings
Salesforce Essentials
9.0
1 Ratings
15% above category average
Forecasting00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Pipeline visualization00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Customizable reports00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
BQE CORE
-
Ratings
Salesforce Essentials
9.1
2 Ratings
15% above category average
Custom fields00 Ratings9.52 Ratings
Custom objects00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Scripting environment00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
API for custom integration00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
BQE CORE
-
Ratings
Salesforce Essentials
9.3
2 Ratings
10% above category average
Single sign-on capability00 Ratings9.52 Ratings
Role-based user permissions00 Ratings9.02 Ratings
Social CRM
Comparison of Social CRM features of Product A and Product B
BQE CORE
-
Ratings
Salesforce Essentials
9.0
1 Ratings
19% above category average
Social engagement00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Integrations with 3rd-party Software
Comparison of Integrations with 3rd-party Software features of Product A and Product B
BQE CORE
-
Ratings
Salesforce Essentials
9.0
1 Ratings
20% above category average
Marketing automation00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Compensation management00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Platform
Comparison of Platform features of Product A and Product B
BQE CORE
-
Ratings
Salesforce Essentials
9.5
2 Ratings
22% above category average
Mobile access00 Ratings9.52 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BQE CORESalesforce Essentials
Small Businesses
FunctionFox
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Score 9.7 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
SAP Ruum
SAP Ruum
Score 9.0 out of 10
SAP Business ByDesign
SAP Business ByDesign
Score 7.8 out of 10
Enterprises
Kanban Tool
Kanban Tool
Score 9.0 out of 10
SAP Business ByDesign
SAP Business ByDesign
Score 7.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BQE CORESalesforce Essentials
Likelihood to Recommend
8.5
(105 ratings)
9.5
(2 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(8 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.4
(93 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
7.3
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.4
(88 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
6.4
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
5.1
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
4.5
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
BQE CORESalesforce Essentials
Likelihood to Recommend
BQE Software Inc.
CORE is well suited for time entry and reporting across employee groups and projects. CORE can generate many useful reports, however the customization and filtering of these reports isn't exactly intuitive. It can be difficult to get the reports to show the data you want, and there is no way to remove data fields from a report or create a custom report.
Read full review
Salesforce
SalesforceIQ is a perfect CRM to start with and get your organization used to tracking customer contact. It was an easy setup and well adopted. It allowed us to rollout completely in just 30 days. We have seen a large increase in our ability to communicate. It may be lacking in some items if you already have a tracking method but was the perfect starting point for us.
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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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Salesforce
  • CRM Managment
  • Streamlining Sales Funnel
  • Providing data sets and analytics
Read full review
Cons
BQE Software Inc.
  • Startup training is available (& you need it so that you get off to a great start)
  • A report that shows the key setups for a project that can be glanced over quickly to assure it is correct
  • A way to set a new start date for the dashboards and data set, or a way to default old bad data to a default so reports run without bad data showing up.
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Salesforce
  • SalesforceIQ has some reporting items that are a little harder to easily uncover but I have found work arounds or manually created reporting to get that information, such as number of times a salesperson was at a location.
  • Some of the upgrade items I would like to see are available in salesforce sales cloud that allow easier automation for marketing.
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.
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Salesforce
No answers on this topic
Usability
BQE Software Inc.
It's very easy to use and straightforward. Everything is laid out in an easy to use pattern and can be changed, somewhat, based on user preference. The options are limited but it's a pleasant experience using the product and I can perform the tasks I need to perform quickly and without any issues.
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Salesforce
No answers on this topic
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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Salesforce
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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Salesforce
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
BQE Software Inc.
Our team has had to contact support on a number of occasions, mostly to address a slow system and/or not being able to log in. The support is very responsive and fixes the issue within the same day. Additionally, any time we need to modify codes, BQE helps with that support and gets it turned around quickly.
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Salesforce
No answers on this topic
Online Training
BQE Software Inc.
Make sure you have someone training you that fits your style of learning.
Read full review
Salesforce
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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Salesforce
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
BQE Software Inc.
I am a user and was not involved in the decision making. Tool was already in place when I joined. But comparing to other tools I have used in the past, BQE is by far the easiest to use. You do not need any training to start using this tool immediately
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Salesforce
We selected SalesforceIQ over Insightly because of the email automation they offered. Their app also seemed to be a little more robust. I highly recommend a trial before you make a decision. The trial with SalesforceIQ is what sold us on the product
Read full review
Scalability
BQE Software Inc.
This software works on a small and large scale.
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Salesforce
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
BQE Software Inc.
  • BQE Core has allowed our growing business to manage time tracking in an effective and efficient manner. We could not have effectively kept running our operation without it.
  • BQE Core provides all of the reports we need to do our monthly management reporting. This allows us to quickly spot problems such as capacity overloads, receivables problems, budget overruns, or timekeeping issues.
  • BQE Core has supported our business objective of generating more profit from projects that we undertake by allowing us to quickly and effectively monitor budget burn rates before it becomes an issue.
Read full review
Salesforce
  • Not budget friendly for smaller start-ups.
Read full review
ScreenShots

BQE CORE Screenshots

Screenshot of Core powered by BQE SoftwareScreenshot of Core DashboardScreenshot of Core ManagementScreenshot of Core AnalysisScreenshot of Core Mobile

Salesforce Essentials Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of