ADP Workforce Now vs. BQE CORE

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
ADP Workforce Now
Score 8.0 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
ADP Workforce Now is a cloud-based HR platform for mid-sized businesses. It features customizable modules of various HR services that businesses can tailor to their specific needs, as well as regulatory monitoring and alerts to help businesses remain compliant.N/A
BQE CORE
Score 9.3 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
Pricing
ADP Workforce NowBQE CORE
Editions & Modules
Essential
Contact sales team
Enhanced
Contact sales team
Complete
Contact sales team
HR Pro
Contact sales team
Payroll Essentials
Contact sales team
HR Plus
Contact sales team
Hiring Advantage
Contact sales team
Performance Plus
Contact sales team
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ADP Workforce NowBQE CORE
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPlease contact ADP for a product demo and ask about a hands-on "test drive" of Workforce Now.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
ADP Workforce NowBQE CORE
Considered Both Products
ADP Workforce Now
Chose ADP Workforce Now
Our company was with Paycom and while it was very customizable - it required a lot of manual entry / management - often in multiple places within the system. Paycom did not offer the ability to easily scale that we were looking for - they also did not have a clean solution for …
Chose ADP Workforce Now
They pale compared to ADP because they each have broken systems that do not flow from beginning to end. Another system is required to support all of the functions needed to process payroll. That puts too much on me, the person, instead of the system. We should work smarter, not …
Chose ADP Workforce Now
The employee facing app for Paycom is better than ADP but on the back side administration ADP is more robust and provides a better experience for the payroll professional.
Chose ADP Workforce Now
With Bamboo they do not process Canadian payroll so we would have had to use a 3rd party to set this up which would have cost us additional money.
Chose ADP Workforce Now
ADP is more comprehensive and has more resources to help with employee information.
Chose ADP Workforce Now
No other program used - was manually done prior to ADP inception many years ago
Chose ADP Workforce Now
We need it for capturing employee data
Chose ADP Workforce Now
We only considered ADP Workforce Now. Since we were already using Workforce Now in the US, we only considered this offering and did not explore other products
Chose ADP Workforce Now
ADP Workforce Now is so easy to use, like a iPhone. UKG Pro was to complicated like a Android making it to hard to use and you cannot find half the stuff you are looking for. ADP Workforce Now made an easy tool to work with and actually use.
Chose ADP Workforce Now
We had previously used ADP's Run platform and thought it would make for an easier transition. We could not have been more wrong. Pay information was not transferred, we were told we would have access to our reports in Run for a year instead we were locked out after a month. …
Chose ADP Workforce Now
ADP Workforce Now is quite robust on the payroll side, but my overall favourite is BamooHR.
Chose ADP Workforce Now
I think every other payroll service is better. I left Payce because they were bought out by Deluxe. Paycom was fine, but need a HR component to our growing company. ADP Workforce Now proclaims to have this service, but I think it only exists on their time line and schedule. …
Chose ADP Workforce Now
ADP Workforce Now is lightyears ahead of Paycom! ADP's ability to accommodate our payroll needs surpassed anything that Paycom had to offer.
Chose ADP Workforce Now
not particularly different, except I think the customer service is worse with ADP Workforce Now.
Chose ADP Workforce Now
Although this SAS takes longer to perform the everyday functions related to payroll and HR data input, the difference in this software and our previous software is like night and day. We were on a very old server platform and had too many issues with continuous need for backup.
Chose ADP Workforce Now
The same if not a little better suited in a "start from scratch" type of way.
Chose ADP Workforce Now
The value of ADP Workforce Now is immense compared to ADP Run. There's so much more that can be tracked and managed in ADP Workforce Now.
Chose ADP Workforce Now
I've never used anything else personally. However, I have seen certain Kronos products and can 100% see why ADP Workforce Now is superior. It is 100% customizable and adaptable to suit your needs. A lot of other products are not this way and you kind of have to work with …
Chose ADP Workforce Now
In our evaluation of HRIS/Payroll systems we found ADP to be the most robust platform with the greatest number of features, fair pricing, quality, knowledgeable staff and so forth. None of the other systems offered as many features or options at the right price point for our …
BQE CORE
Chose BQE CORE
Toms Planner gant charts are very easy to navigate and edit.
Chose BQE CORE
I previously used Gusto for both benefits / employee details and also time tracking. It was really nice to have everything in one place, and Gusto felt very simple. However, it did not have as many broken down categories for time allotment. Harvest felt similar to Gusto, and it …
Chose BQE CORE
It helps and have a great impact on It employees like me to track and submit my timesheet to my managers and higher officials and make a note that I have spend my working house valuable and resourceful and the managers can take a look at what have I done in my working hours
Chose BQE CORE
our team uses both the platforms and does not tie very well. bamboo does have a more pleasant to the eye interface comparatively. it is also a bit easier to navigate and not have to click too many times to reach any particular information on bamboo. BQE CORE does do visuals of …
Chose BQE CORE
BQE CORE combined numerous products for us. It allows everything to be in one place which cuts down on the back and forth, as well as user error.
Chose BQE CORE
It was an admin desiring to switch. However CORE is easy to manage and calculate timesheet automatic with timer future. In addition I believe the admin stag like the billing aimless function and multiple additional future that monograph does not have. Without mentioning that …
Chose BQE CORE
BQE has more visual tools for determining billable hours and for tracking hours against a project. BQE has a better system for involving employee and simpler methods of tracking expenses.
Chose BQE CORE
Monograph did not allow exporting/importing of data nor did they offer integration with Quickbooks Desktop
Chose BQE CORE
Again, since I'm only an employee, I had no part in choosing BQE for my organization. But it is the best timesheet tracking system that I've used, and I've used 3 other ones in the past. BQE is the simplest to use, yet equally as powerful as the others. When editing my …
Chose BQE CORE
It’s the best program I have used to date! It was selected for me through my company.
Chose BQE CORE
They aren't used for the same thing so not able to compare.
Chose BQE CORE
Not used any other software than accounting. This is much easier for my staff to use because it's not a straight up accounting software.
Chose BQE CORE
I didn't take part in selecting BQE CORE; however, our CEO chose it because of its ability to help with invoicing and incorporating other software into the program such as Gantt charts. I like BQE CORE better than BillQuick because it is more user friendly and also displays the …
Chose BQE CORE
BQE CORE has a much more streamlined process for entering expense entries than Concur. You are able to select which project you would like to charge to and where expense entries are sent for approval, whether that be your manager or the project manager. BQE CORE also is very …
Chose BQE CORE
I have only really used this product.
Chose BQE CORE
BQE CORE is much more in-depth at time tracking than Harvest. Harvest is easier to use out of the gate but BQE CORE is worth the learning curve. I haven't had a chance to use BQE CORE on a mobile device so I can't speak to how it stacks up there against Harvest.
Chose BQE CORE
I don't recall the previous program we used as this was years ago, but we had to put in time manually each week and this was very time consuming. BQE CORE keeps your projects in the timesheet from week to week to you don't have to reinput the project number.
Chose BQE CORE
I felt like BQE CORE was the most up to date looking software interface. I like that it was developed by an Arch/Eng.
Features
ADP Workforce NowBQE CORE
Human Resource Management
Comparison of Human Resource Management features of Product A and Product B
ADP Workforce Now
7.8
Ratings
1% below category average
BQE CORE
-
Ratings
Employee demographic data8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Employment history7.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Job profiles and administration8.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.7.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Organizational charting8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Organization and location management8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)6.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
ADP Workforce Now
7.8
Ratings
2% below category average
BQE CORE
-
Ratings
Pay calculation8.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors6.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment7.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Benefit plan administration7.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Direct deposit files8.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management7.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Reimbursement management8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Leave and Attendance Management
Comparison of Leave and Attendance Management features of Product A and Product B
ADP Workforce Now
7.7
Ratings
4% below category average
BQE CORE
-
Ratings
Approval workflow7.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Balance details7.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Annual carry-forward and encashment8.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Employee Self Service
Comparison of Employee Self Service features of Product A and Product B
ADP Workforce Now
7.7
Ratings
5% below category average
BQE CORE
-
Ratings
View and generate pay and benefit information8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Update personal information7.70 Ratings00 Ratings
View company policy documentation7.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Employee recognition7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
View job history7.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Asset Management
Comparison of Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
ADP Workforce Now
6.0
Ratings
29% below category average
BQE CORE
-
Ratings
Tracking of all physical assets6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
HR Reporting
Comparison of HR Reporting features of Product A and Product B
ADP Workforce Now
6.8
Ratings
10% below category average
BQE CORE
-
Ratings
Report builder7.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Pre-built reports7.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Ability to combine HR data with external data5.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Onboarding
Comparison of Onboarding features of Product A and Product B
ADP Workforce Now
7.2
Ratings
9% below category average
BQE CORE
-
Ratings
New hire portal7.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Manager tracking tools6.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance and Goals
Comparison of Performance and Goals features of Product A and Product B
ADP Workforce Now
7.7
Ratings
3% below category average
BQE CORE
-
Ratings
Corporate goal setting7.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Individual goal setting7.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Line-of sight-visibility7.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance tracking7.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance Management
Comparison of Performance Management features of Product A and Product B
ADP Workforce Now
6.4
Ratings
20% below category average
BQE CORE
-
Ratings
Performance plans6.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Performance improvement plans6.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Review status tracking5.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Review reminders7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple review frequency6.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Succession Planning
Comparison of Succession Planning features of Product A and Product B
ADP Workforce Now
6.0
Ratings
26% below category average
BQE CORE
-
Ratings
Create succession plans/pools5.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate ranking5.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate search6.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Candidate development6.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
ADP Workforce Now
6.6
Ratings
16% below category average
BQE CORE
-
Ratings
Job Requisition Management7.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Company Website Posting7.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Publish to Social Media6.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting6.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention2.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Applicant Tracking7.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
ADP Workforce Now
-
Ratings
BQE CORE
7.6
Ratings
1% below category average
Task Management00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Resource Management00 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Gantt Charts00 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Scheduling00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Workflow Automation00 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Team Collaboration00 Ratings5.20 Ratings
Support for Agile Methodology00 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Support for Waterfall Methodology00 Ratings4.60 Ratings
Document Management00 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Email integration00 Ratings6.30 Ratings
Mobile Access00 Ratings7.80 Ratings
Timesheet Tracking00 Ratings9.50 Ratings
Change request and Case Management00 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Budget and Expense Management00 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Professional Services Automation
Comparison of Professional Services Automation features of Product A and Product B
ADP Workforce Now
-
Ratings
BQE CORE
7.5
Ratings
1% below category average
Quotes/estimates00 Ratings6.30 Ratings
Invoicing00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Project & financial reporting00 Ratings8.30 Ratings
Integration with accounting software00 Ratings7.30 Ratings
Best Alternatives
ADP Workforce NowBQE CORE
Small Businesses
Dayforce Powerpay
Dayforce Powerpay
Score 9.5 out of 10
Stackby
Stackby
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Paypro Workforce Management
Paypro Workforce Management
Score 9.7 out of 10
InEight
InEight
Score 8.3 out of 10
Enterprises
PeopleStrong
PeopleStrong
Score 9.9 out of 10
InEight
InEight
Score 8.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
ADP Workforce NowBQE CORE
Likelihood to Recommend
8.1
(0 ratings)
9.3
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.2
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
2.2
(0 ratings)
9.2
(0 ratings)
Availability
7.3
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Performance
6.4
(0 ratings)
7.3
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.3
(0 ratings)
7.4
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
5.8
(0 ratings)
6.4
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
1.5
(0 ratings)
2.3
(0 ratings)
Configurability
6.4
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
6.1
(0 ratings)
4.5
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
7.4
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
5.2
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
6.1
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
ADP Workforce NowBQE CORE
Likelihood to Recommend
well suited for folks in manufacturing or building (jobs and tasks required). Good for small and big business, ease of forming to what you want rather then getting oversold on items that you will not use. Lots of training options available
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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.
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Pros
  • HRIS that is personalized for the employee and addresses DE&I needs.
  • Payroll, of course! The system addresses all needs, such as deductions, additional pay, premium OT, and shift differentials.
  • Onboarding is an excellent way to stay in compliance and have all documents completed.
  • Tax and Banking and resolution to any issues.
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  • 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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Cons
  • Customized pre-process payroll reports (Limited on pre-process payroll reports)
  • Labor Allocation (Allocations make payroll reporting very hard to review and find any errors )
  • Recruiting (ATS is very basic)
  • Geofencing (should be able to change shape rather than a circle)
  • Pay Classes (should be able to change at Practitioner level rather than reach out to support)
  • Cookies and Cache have to be cleared on a regular basis
  • Only able to see employee documents/acknowledgements one at a time in the employee file
  • Timecards can only be managed/viewed by 1 person
  • Timeoff emails do not have a link
  • Cost per payroll - not just monthly fee so cost with off cycle payrolls
  • Separate I9 step not needed - during onboarding - 2nd Everify step
  • ADP Workforce Now does not pull in allowances for Houly employees into payroll ONLY Salaried employees
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  • 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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Likelihood to Renew
We are happy with the service and options offered by ADP. Although the cost is a bit high for a not-for-profit organization, it is essential that we have multi-jurisdictional support for the 20 plus states where employees work and reside. As our company is diminishing in size, we may need to look at making a change to conserve costs. At this time, that would be the only reason we would not renew our WFN contract.
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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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Usability
Lack of documentation and test environment make it extremely difficult to deploy work processes through the system. While there are a handful of things throughout the system that work well, particularly from an employee's perspective, many tasks, which would be simple for practitioner users in other systems, require these users to ask for administrator support. Additionally, the ghosts in the ADP machine cause established process (e.g. automated report delivery) to stop working with no notice and no error report.
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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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Reliability and Availability
ADP outages are very rare
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I can only remember a couple of times in 4 years that Core has been unavailable.
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Performance
Overall, I think the functionality of the program works pretty well. Sometimes, certain browsers do not work well for the policy function of ADP, but that is the only issue thus far
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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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Support Rating
Most of it is not local, which impacts barriers and customs. I do think they know a lot, but not the cohesive piece. Some naturally know more about certain things than others. The payroll section should be broken out more because payroll is a big topic with many problems, so it can be hard to get the right person who can actually help you.
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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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In-Person Training
In-person training was pretty good - I think this significantly depends on the trainer. Our trainer was really good and showed what ADP can do - but I know that all trainers are not the same - and this truly makes such as difference. Overall, our training went pretty well.
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No answers on this topic
Online Training
At the time training was not as expansive as it is now. If it could go wrong it did for me so the process was difficult and lengthy. I needed to have more in person walkthroughs of things to ensure the transition was done correctly. Not sure what else I can say, we were part of the initial move to Workforce Now when it was introduced.
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Make sure you have someone training you that fits your style of learning.
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Implementation Rating
Either assign more than one specialist to the implementation process, or assign less clients to the implementation specialist. The process requires attention to detail and the ability to test and re-test as well as verify the information. It also requires a lot of back and forth between the client ant the implementation specialist, so they need to be readily available during the whole implementation process.
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wont let me skip
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Alternatives Considered
I also used UltiPro (way back -- it didn't even appear in dropdown). Recommend ADP Workforce Now above all others. Paycor and Paycom were both very clunky. I even helped implement Paycom and could never get it to work how the business needed it to.
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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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Scalability
We have been able to grow with ADP from just a few hundred employees to over 10,000 so it's actually very scalable for payroll usage. We do not use the benefits and onboarding offerings for most of our employees but they are built to scale easily enough for when our corporate team has over 1,000 FTE.
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This software works on a small and large scale.
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Return on Investment
  • ADP Workforce Now handles all of our tax filing which frees up our time to do other things. They keep us compliant communicating updates on a timely basis.
  • Calculates payrolls accurately. Our management and employees have built a level of confidence due to the ease of pulling statements, year end documents etc.
  • A really nice feature is the follow up email what a change has been made to banking information. There were a couple of times the employee did not make changes to their account information. This kept their funds from getting routed into the wrong hands.
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  • 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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ScreenShots

ADP Workforce Now Screenshots

Screenshot of ADP Workforce Now: a simple and complete human capital management solutionScreenshot of Benchmarking by ADP DataCloud: an application with an extensive data set ... available to ADP Workforce Now clientsScreenshot of ADP Workforce Now clients can equip their employees with the ADP Mobile self-service app

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