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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

    Zoho Books

    Score8.8 out of 10
    N/AZoho Books is an accounting solution that is designed to help small businesses manage their finances. This solution includes dashboards and a wide variety of reports. Business users can automate tasks and set up custom workflows. Zoho offers a 14 day free trial.

    $20

    per month

    Pricing
    BQE COREZoho Books
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Free
    $0
    For businesses with turnover <50K USD per annum
    Standard
    $20
    per month per org
    Professional
    $50
    per month per org
    Premium
    $70
    per month per org
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    BQE COREZoho Books
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsZoho Books is available for both monthly and yearly plans. Users who sign up for the annual plan get a discount.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    BQE COREZoho Books
    Considered Both Products
    BQE Software Inc.
    No answer on this topic
    Zoho
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    94%
    Would buy again
    144 Answers
    89%
    Would buy again
    8 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    106 Answers
    89%
    Delivers good value for the price
    8 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    98%
    Happy with the feature set
    150 Answers
    89%
    Happy with the feature set
    8 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    92%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    70 Answers
    88%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    7 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    82%
    Implementation went as expected
    81 Answers
    89%
    Implementation went as expected
    8 Answers
    Features
    BQE COREZoho Books
    Customization
    Comparison of Customization features of BQE CORE and Zoho Books
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Zoho Books
    8.2
    18 Ratings
    8% above category average
    API for custom integration00 Ratings8.218 Ratings
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of BQE CORE and Zoho Books
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Zoho Books
    8.6
    28 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Single sign-on capability00 Ratings8.622 Ratings
    Role-based user permissions00 Ratings8.626 Ratings
    Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of BQE CORE and Zoho Books
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Zoho Books
    9.0
    27 Ratings
    14% above category average
    Dashboards00 Ratings8.727 Ratings
    Standard reports00 Ratings9.225 Ratings
    Custom reports00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
    General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
    Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of BQE CORE and Zoho Books
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Zoho Books
    8.3
    28 Ratings
    8% above category average
    Accounts payable00 Ratings8.426 Ratings
    Accounts receivable00 Ratings9.227 Ratings
    Cash management00 Ratings7.925 Ratings
    Bank reconciliation00 Ratings7.825 Ratings
    Expense management00 Ratings8.126 Ratings
    Time tracking00 Ratings8.418 Ratings
    Multi-currency support00 Ratings8.217 Ratings
    Regulations compliance00 Ratings8.015 Ratings
    Self-service portal00 Ratings8.819 Ratings
    Inventory Management
    Comparison of Inventory Management features of BQE CORE and Zoho Books
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Zoho Books
    8.0
    16 Ratings
    9% above category average
    Inventory tracking00 Ratings8.216 Ratings
    Automatic reordering00 Ratings7.710 Ratings
    Order Management
    Comparison of Order Management features of BQE CORE and Zoho Books
    Feature
    BQE CORE
    -
    Ratings
    Zoho Books
    8.7
    25 Ratings
    17% above category average
    Pricing00 Ratings8.421 Ratings
    Order entry00 Ratings9.420 Ratings
    Credit card processing00 Ratings8.020 Ratings
    Cost of goods sold00 Ratings8.820 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    BQE COREZoho Books
    Small Businesses
    Autotask PSA
    Score7.7 out of 10
    QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
    Score4.3 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Workday Professional Services Automation
    Score8.2 out of 10
    MYOB
    Score8.3 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Planview AdaptiveWork
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Microsoft Dynamics GP
    Score5.3 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    BQE COREZoho Books
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.4
    (167 ratings)
    8.9
    (29 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    7.0
    (8 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    9.6
    (117 ratings)
    8.9
    (11 ratings)
    Availability
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.4
    (90 ratings)
    5.3
    (5 ratings)
    Online Training
    6.4
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    2.3
    (6 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 COREZoho Books
    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
    Zoho
    If using other cloud applications and you wish to create Zoho Books transactions via APIs, Zoho Books is great. The overall UI and flow of the application are great. If you need a detailed job cost accounting solution and robust reporting there is some room for improvement here.
    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
    Zoho
    • Zoho Books invoicing and receipting features are second to none. We find it easy to quickly invoice clients and add items to their bills and also for our own receipting internally.
    • The accounting features are great for our accounting team to be able to see where we are financially and how the business is doing.
    • The ability to add contacts and run a mini CRM channel with clients within Zoho is invaluable. Since we use this in conjunction with our other CRM channels, it helps to have a centralized place to follow up and see through a sales funnel.
    • Zoho Books allows us to take payments from clients around the globe a feature we didn't have when we used another accounting system.
    • The pricing for Zoho Books is fairly reasonable for an SME organization which is a great for us as it pays itself back many times over every month.
    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
    Zoho
    • Zoho Books is only available in Texas and California. There is no integration allowed for paying employee expenses. The absolute worst aspect is the fact that if you make even the slightest error in data input there is no backing up. You cannot undo an error.
    • The system does not allow change once implemented, so you must get every one of your beginning balances perfect. The practice of Journal Entries is cumbersome. When reconciling, Zoho Books has adopted a number of required steps that significantly overcomplicate reconciliation using practices that are not consistent with general accounting principles in the US.
    • On the customer side, you must look in two places to see the beginning balance and the current receivables that might exist for current invoicing.
    • The way the system works, you must avoid having much trust with the balances depicted. So far, it appears that Zoho Books uses what we called in school "that new math."
    • It would be terrifying to rely on this bookkeeping system to support an IRS Audit. The system violates too many fundamental accounting principles.
    • The software is used by so few people that there is concern that we might never find a skilled bookkeeper.
    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
    Zoho
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Zoho
    Customization is the biggest struggle for us and most of the time we need to involve a tech person. The chat support is a great feature and very helpful. It would be great to be able to customize and create invoices and correspondence (templates) such are reminders in multiple languages within one organization. The currency (USD) would be the same. We have clients in different countries that don't speak English but pay in USD.
    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
    Zoho
    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
    Zoho
    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
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    Zoho
    The support team feels very disjointed. We have filtered through a number of "lead" contacts and are frequently spammed by other Zoho members. Once getting an appropriate support contact on the phone - the team is very helpful, it just takes a lot of hoop jumping to get there. We actually unsubscribed from their support package as we were not getting the value we were looking for.
    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
    Zoho
    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
    Zoho
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Zoho
    We had a lot of problems with Exact Online, support-wise and price-wise. So Zoho Books wins on every point there. While Exact offers way more options, it tends to be really slow... and complex. Again Zoho Books wins. If you want an easy-to-use tool and not pay a lot of money, or if you are a small administration office with a few clients, this tool will be perfect for you.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    BQE Software Inc.
    This software works on a small and large scale.
    Read full review
    Zoho
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Zoho
    • Integration: Zoho Books offers out of the box integrations to extend the functionality and connect with the applications you love like MailChimp, Microsoft Outlook, PandaDoc, and Quickbooks, etc.
    • Flexibility makes Zoho Books great!
    • Since I can use forecast reports, I can create customizable sales forecast data from the dashboard to accurately measure revenue forecasts and establish sales quotas.
    Incentivized
    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

    Zoho Books Screenshots

    Product screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshot