BQE Software — BillQuick

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From the November 2005 Review of Time & Billing Software

BQE has actively developed its BillQuick time and billing system, continually adding productivity features, enhancing integration capabilities, streamlining workflow and increasing its capabilities. In the most recent version, BillQuick 2005, the software vendor has added a document management system, project management features, workflow automation, retainer tracking, enhancements to the interface and even a PayPal feature that allows clients who receive invoices by e-mail to click on a button within the e-mail and make a secure payment online. Wow!
BQE’s innovation and continued work on the system never fails to impress, which is why it remains one of the most outstanding time and billing products on the market. The system costs $395 for a two-user license; $695 for up to five users. Support for larger organizations is available through an Enterprise version, and sole practitioners have the option of BillQuick Lite.

Ease of Use/Program Set Up -- 5 Stars
BillQuick installs quickly and, during setup, offers the choice of general company templates to assist in initial setup and to tell the system what terminology to use as well as the general characteristics of such businesses, including accounting, architecture, legal and consulting. The program uses an Access database by default, but can also use SQL or MSDE depending upon user preference, although no knowledge of these databases is necessary to utilize the program. A series of Wizards further guides the setup process, taking the user step-by-step through input of company information, user preferences, clients, staff and other settings. Clients, staff and projects can be “cloned” to speed setup.

The user interface is very pleasing, offering a crisp work area in the middle that, by default, opens a Navigator subwindow, which provides shortcuts for the most common tasks, Reminders, a Work Flow area that shows management any time entries that need to be reviewed and processed, access to billing and reporting features, and a panel with a variety of help topics. The main window provides a tabbed vertical menu of additional functions, while the upper horizontal icon bar and pull-down menus also offer access to functions. There are probably too many icons in this upper toolbar, but it is customizable, along with most other components of the interface, allowing each user to select the specific tasks to which he or she needs one-click access.

Comprehensive client and timekeeper lists are available from the Navigator window, opening into a separate screen that allows searching or sorting by various fields, and allowing entry or editing on intuitive tabbed entry screens. Time and expense entries can be made on timesheets, in a calendar view mode, or by utilizing BillQuick’s timers. Entry sheets color code billable and non-billable entries to ease review. Recording time is very simple, with resizable drop-down lists throughout the timecard for clients, project IDs, Activity IDs and other information. Through integration with Outlook, BillQuick can also quickly change appointments into timesheets.

Management Functions -- 5 Stars
BillQuick supports fixed fee, recurring and hourly billing down to 1/100th of an hour, which can be set at the client or project level, and the system includes retainer-based fee management. BillQuick supports an unlimited number of rates per timekeeper, client, project and task via its Service Fee Schedule. As well, the system supports a virtually unlimited number of clients, projects and tasks, with multiple rates each. The system automatically manages both actual time and billable time, using an A-B method by which it records two separate hour fields with each time entry: A-Hours and B-Hours. The A-Hours (actual hours) are used to record the true amount of time spent on a task so that management
can monitor productivity or use it for job-cost reports or basing payroll amounts.

B-Hours (billable hours) are billed to clients when invoicing. BillQuick also allows minimum billable hours to be assigned to tasks and can set spending caps or other limits and alert management as necessary. Through a workflow add-on module called Agent, the system can also automatically generate and deliver reports via e-mail and can monitor employee timecards to ensure that staff complete them as necessary. It also sends e-mail reminders to those staff members who are delinquent. Since keeping on top of time entries is vital, this is an excellent feature!