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BillQuick is a product of BQE Software, Inc.
Project Center
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BillQuick is a product of BQE Software, Inc.
Budget
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BillQuick is a product of BQE Software, Inc.
Estimate
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BillQuick is a product of BQE Software, Inc.
Retainer
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BillQuick is a product of BQE Software, Inc.
Time Entry
BillQuick, by BQE Software, Inc., was initially developed for use by architects and engineers. Since then it has expanded and is widely used by all types of professional service firms, including law firms. BillQuick is a time and expense tracking, billing, project and business management solution. With its own accounting option or integration with QuickBooks, Sage 50 and MYOB, it is an option worth considering.
There are both desktop and online versions of BillQuick. They are quite similar, but for this article I focused on the desktop version. There are also different “levels” and while upgrading is easy, it is always best to make the right choice up front. Whichever version you consider you should do a thorough evaluation to make sure the features are right for you. BillQuick prides itself on working with its customers to meet their needs and offers extensive support and customization options. However, if adaptation might be required you should make sure you understand the costs.
BillQuick offers multiple ways to get the functionality you need, but for a new user the navigators offer friendly guidance to the right spot. (See figure 1 – Project Center) Not only can you access lists and data entry for expenses, payments, etc. you can also easily view information that may be important to the management of your firm. Tabs open across the top for easy navigation back and forth to different sections of the program.
Given its engineering and architecture roots, the strong budget (figure 2 – Budget) and estimate capability (figure 3 – Estimate) for tracking project progress is not surprising. Many law firms may not think this is important, but as more firms turn to alternative fee arrangements, these capabilities can be especially valuable in monitoring cases and identifying problems that may impact case profitability.
In BillQuick you set up clients and link matters to clients. A matter can be a phase of another matter which can be especially useful in a case with multiple stages. You can also link an unlimited number of contacts to a client. At this time the link is one-to-one, a contact is linked to a single matter, so this is not practice management software. You are also limited to one retainer account per matter. (figure 4 – Retainers) This account is a general retainer or an IOLTA account. You can work around this by use of retainer at the client level or sub-matters, and for many firms it won’t matter, but it worth noting.
I especially like that you can assign activities, expenses and employees to specific projects (Pro & Enterprise versions). Other nice features include:
- Expense and fee schedules with different prices
- Approval process
- Automatic billing – bills are automatically created and waiting for review
- Set default templates for invoices and statements based on contract type
- Multiple currency support
While I could go on about the features this is intended as more of a “Should I consider BillQuick?” overview. BillQuick offers a free trial version that you can use to check it out, as well as a sales team that is prepared to answer your questions. You can also speak with consultants, like me, who are familiar with the practical uses of the product. Of course, for our readers, it is important to touch on the QuickBooks integration.
BillQuick offers support for QuickBooks US, Canadian, UK and Australian editions. It also offers flexibility in the set up and flow of data between BillQuick and QuickBooks. BillQuick clients link to QuickBooks customers and projects/matters in BillQuick link to QuickBooks jobs. Synchronization choices give you flexibility to choose what is appropriate for your organization.
- real-time – completely automatic
- on-schedule – scheduled reminders to synchronize
- on-demand – exchange when you choose with no reminders
BillQuick provides a 72 page guide to the synchronization set-up and on-going use. QuickBooks classes are supported and can be assigned to BillQuick projects and/or activities/expenses. If you assign classes at both levels the project class will always take precedence. Invoices sent from BillQuick to QuickBooks are true invoices that can be reprinted, not summary transactions, but the detail level will depend on whether a summary or detailed invoice was created in BillQuick. Time and expense can be sent from BillQuick to QuickBooks, or QuickBooks to BillQuick, or stored only in one program. If you are using QuickBooks payroll, you may want to send time entries from BillQuick (figure 5 – Time entry). There are implications regarding changes made to entries at either end so it is a good idea to review the documentation and/or work with a consultant who understands both programs. While employee reimbursable expenses and vendor bills can be sent from BillQuick, they are sent over as vendor bills. This means that the employee may need to be both an employee and a vendor in QuickBooks. This is not generally problematic, but does mean you cannot easily include the reimbursable expense in the employee paycheck.
One concern relates to the link being an accrual basis link. Both invoices and payments are exchanged with invoices in QuickBooks being true invoices. Payments will not be sent from BillQuick to QuickBooks if the invoice has not been sent across. The downside to this is related to how QuickBooks handles partial payments of invoices. If an invoice includes both fees and costs, QuickBooks allocates a partial payment proportionately across the invoice, rather than allowing you to apply payments to expenses and then fees. For firms with large advanced client costs, this may lead to accounting showing income allocated incorrectly. Depending on the nature of your firm and your accounting needs, it is important to consider how this might impact you.
Overall, BillQuick is a powerful program with many features that can benefit a law firm. As with any solution, review the pros and cons and decide if BillQuick with QuickBooks can benefit your firm or your legal clients.
BillQuick is a product of BQE Software, Inc.; 3825 Del Amo Blvd., Torrance, CA 90503.