Archinect - News

BQE Software Secures Significant Growth Investment from Serent Capital

2021-03-24T19:27:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by BQE Software

The investment further enhances the company's position as a technology leader for professional service firms.

BQE, a leading cloud-based software provider to professional service firms, recently announced that the company received a significant investment from Serent Capital, a growth-focused private equity firm that invests in technology and tech-enabled software companies.

Founded by Shafat Qazi in 1995, BQE Software quickly became a leader in time billing and project management for professional service firms with its original product, BillQuick. After acquiring ArchiOffice and EngineerOffice in 2009, BQE solidified its foothold in the architecture and engineering industries, while expanding the company's offerings to include project accounting and human resource management.

Image courtesy of BQE

“I am pleased to have found an amazing partner with Serent Capital,” said Shafat Qazi, CEO & Founder of BQE Software. “It was extremely importan...

8 Key Performance Indicators Architects Use to Measure Firm Growth

2021-03-04T12:34:00-05:00

This post is brought to you by BQE Core

As architects, nearly everything we do is associated with a project. As a project-centric business, understanding which key performance indicators (KPIs) are meaningful is only half the battle. What is equally important is having a system in place that delivers real-time information, so the KPIs are accurate and actionable.

Imagine you’re driving in your car and you look down at the fuel gauge on the dashboard. In most newer cars, not only would you see that you are low on fuel, but that you have only 17 miles left. That’s really helpful! You now know that you need to find a gas station within 17 miles or you will be stranded on the road. Your fuel KPI is critical and real-time. Now, imagine if the fuel level was only updated weekly. How comfortable would you be taking a road trip if you didn’t have a totally accurate reading of the fuel in the tank (or charge in the battery for our electric vehicle readers)?

Even if your car had a fuel gauge ...

7 Strategies to Prevent Past Due Invoices

2019-12-05T09:00:00-05:00

This post is brought to you by BQE Core

How many times have you sent a client past-due invoices, only to hear nothing back?

Small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the U.S. were owed $825 billion in 2016, according to figures released by invoicing financing company Fundbox. And the value of funds tied up in unpaid SME invoices is equivalent to 5% of the GDP!

If you have late payments from your clients, you aren’t alone. In fact, just 30% of businesses in a recent survey by YouGov said all their invoices had been paid on time.

Past-due invoices can have a crippling effect on your business. When an architecture firm isn’t paid on time, it can’t take on new projects, hire new employees, or scale very well. And nonpayments can negatively affect the company’s finances.

7 tips for avoiding past due invoices

It takes the average small business 21 days to get paid. And 81% of small business invoices are 30 days past due, according to Fundbox.

Past due invoices may seem like a fact of li...

7 Steps to Improve Cash Flow at Your Architectural Firm

2019-12-03T14:15:00-05:00

This post is brought to you by BQE Core

As an architect, you want to spend your time designing, creating, and innovating. But as a firm principal, you need to make sure you have a healthy cash flow to pay for those projects and support your passions. Manage your cash flow well, and you can stay in business, even when you’re not operating at a profit.

Unfortunately, many companies fail to properly manage profit and cash flow. According to a study by U.S. Bank, 82% of businesses fail due to cash flow mismanagement. And a survey by Fifth Third Bank found that 4 out of 10 small business owners didn’t have enough cash to meet their business goals.

Examine your own processes. How many days after sending and invoice does it take to see a check show up in your back account? Studies put the average collection period for AEC firms between 70 to 80 days. Can you go that long without getting paid for the work you perform?

If you want to avoid the perils of poorly managed cash flow, pay attentio...

8 KPIs That Can Make or Break Your Architecture Firm

2019-11-05T17:49:00-05:00

This post is brought to you by BQE Core

Your world revolves around projects. And while you know it’s important to keep these projects running smoothly and profitably, it’s not always obvious what you should be tracking to ensure the outcome you desire.

The growth and ultimate success of your firm will be determined by the consistency of results. And those results can only be achieved if your team consistently meets desired goals and targets.

Effective key performance indicators (KPIs) are important metrics to make sure that you can accomplish any business objective.

Whether you’re managing 3 or 300 projects, KPIs can help provide an immediate, comprehensive snapshot of your projects’ status and health. This real-time knowledge helps you continuously improve project management workflow, meet deadlines with confidence, and maximize your time.

1. Overhead Multiplier

The overhead multiplier (OHM) is the cost of non-project-related expenditures (such as indirect expenses including in...

How to Set Boundaries With Your Clients: Part 1

2019-10-15T09:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by BQE Core.

All too often architects find themselves dealing with clients and prospects who treat them as employees, rather than fellow business owners (Related: Clients from Hell… and Other Love Stories). Even if your clients aren’t difficult on purpose, they can still have overarching demands.

Maybe this sounds familiar: your client has approved the design development drawings and the project moves on to the next phase...but shortly after, your client asks you to modify the drawing. It’s nothing major, so you do it as a gesture of goodwill to your client. Then another small request comes in, and then another, and pretty soon you find yourself spending time on work that goes beyond the original project scope. And because you don't want to risk upsetting your client, you agree to the work without asking them for more money.

Scope creep, as this scenario is known, harms architects because it results in more than just lost time, money, and resources; it ...

BQE Software Offers Free Automatic Mileage Tracking to Core Users

2019-09-25T13:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by BQE Core

How would you like an extra $2,800 tax deduction at the end of the year?

For 2018 (filing your taxes in 2019), the IRS lets you deduct 54.5 cents per mile for business purposes. So, if you drive 100 miles a week for business, that’s a potential mileage deduction of more than $2,800!

However, to get that sweet tax deduction, you’ve got to keep proper records.

According to the IRS, your mileage log must include, at a minimum, for every trip:

The time and date of travel
Your starting point and destination
A description of the business purpose for your travel

Failure to keep a proper mileage log could result in an expensive tax bill if you’re audited and the IRS disallows your mileage deduction. That’s why the best thing to do is keep a contemporaneous mileage log — in other words, record your travel every time you take a business trip.

But the last thing most people think about as they get out of the car is tracking miles.

BQE Core Time and Expens...

How to speed up your firm’s cash flow

2019-09-17T08:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by BQE Core

You’ve done the work, delighted your client, and now you’re ready to get paid. You send out your invoice for all those billable hours your team poured their time and talent into...and nothing happens.

A day goes by...then a week...then a month...and all of a sudden, that invoice joins the growing list of aging accounts receivable that’s stifling your firm’s cash flow.

And there’s nothing more harmful to an architecture firm’s operations than cash flow problems. In fact, 82% of businesses fail because of cash flow mismanagement.

What’s the biggest cause behind slow cash flow?

An archaic payment process

Archaic payment processes limit firms. While many other services have switched over to automated and digital payment processes, architecture firms have been slow to make the transition. Much of the industry still relies on manual invoicing – printing, reviewing, stuffing envelopes, paying for postage and following up on payments.

That’s why BQE ...

BQE Software Partners with Stripe to Help Firms Get Paid Faster

2019-09-10T08:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by BQE Core.

ePayments will allow BQE Core users to speed up cash flow by sending automated invoices that clients can pay instantly via credit or debit cards.

BQE Software Inc. and Stripe have partnered to help professional service firms get paid faster via online payment solution with automated posting to BQE Core accounting.

“Businesses all over the world are recognizing the benefits of accepting credit cards, not just to get their invoices paid faster, but also to provide better experience to their client. BQE Core team has implemented ePayments in a most beautiful and intelligent way, eliminating the friction that business have to typically go through when adding a new merchant account”, said Shafat Qazi, CEO & Founder of BQE Software.

Core already provides users with tools to speed up cash flow, such as automatic billing, scheduled billing, and batch invoicing. ePayments solves the final step and bridges the gap between invoice and payment in smoo...

BQE Software Launches Core HR to Help Businesses Manage Employees for High Productivity

2019-07-25T09:00:00-04:00

New HR Software, designed for Professional Service firms makes it easy to manager people, projects, and profits from one system.

BQE Software, Inc., a global leader in accounting and project management software, launched Core HR, a new module of BQE Core that provides benefit tracking, salary history tracking, employee’s journal and incident tracking, certification, awards, paid-time off and employee reviews.

Human Resources is vital to every business, but many HR managers waste hundreds of hours due to administrative paperwork associated with HR functions. Core HR automates operational tasks, people-related entries, and the management of benefits, which frees up HR managers to focus on the development of the organization. By having a streamlined HR function, businesses also reduce the risk of being non-compliant. The software also provides easy, secure storage and retrieval of information from employee records, documents, and forms, which helps keep companies in compliance.

Image...

BQE Software Launches Industry’s First Conversational Artificial Intelligence Feature

2019-07-10T08:00:00-04:00

Accounting and project management software provider pushes innovation with release of Core Intelligence. BQE Software, Inc., a global leader in accounting and project management software for professional services firms, launched Core Intelligence, an Artificial Intelligence tool that allows users to have human-like conversations with their business software to gain actionable insights about their company and perform work-related tasks.

BQE is the first company in the project management and accounting software industry to release an AI that goes beyond being a voice input and functions as an intelligent business analyst.Instead of just providing simple answers to a user’s questions, Core Intelligence looks deeply into a company’s data to make contextual connections that provide additional insights related to the question asked. For example, while asking for your To-Dos for today, it will also remind you of the past-due To-Dos that need your attention.

“Core Intelligence will change t...

5 Foolproof Ways to Keep Projects Within Budget

2018-04-11T09:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by BQE Core.

You’re probably all too familiar with budget overruns. Whichever professional services field you work in, they seem almost inevitable. Indeed, the Project Management Institute (PMI) reports that last year, 43% of projects went over budget. So, what can you do? Here are some suggestions.

1. Get Educated: PSMJ noted an interesting trend among AEC firm: There’s a direct correlation between project manager training, budget performance, and client satisfaction. Businesses who say that they formally train all of their project managers are able to stick to their budgets more often. They also have the happiest clients. On the other side, firms that have no formal training program are the worst at adhering to budgets and satisfying clients.

These results send a clear message: It’s worthwhile to learn the ropes before diving into project management.

2. Set Realistic Goals: Don’t set yourself up for failure by always agreeing to shoestring budgets and...

Why You Should Care About Project Accounting

2018-03-21T09:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by BQE Core.

You probably hear a lot about the importance of data. Gathering the numbers about your projects and firm, using business intelligence…it all sounds good, but what is it really for? Well, in the case of project accounting, a lot.

This is a topic we’ve covered in previous posts on Archinect. As a refresher, project accounting is the practice of tracking and analyzing the financials of your individual projects. We’ve shown you the data you need to collect to undertake project accounting and told you about the technology that makes it simple. This time, we’ll zero in on the benefits it offers, from improved profitability to better staffing decisions and beyond.

1. Truly Understand Project Profitability: Increased profitability is the most widely cited and straightforward consequence of project accounting, and with good reason. By closely monitoring the resources that go into a project and their resulting revenue, you can drill down and truly unde...

4 Project Management Mistakes to Avoid at All Costs

2018-03-07T09:00:00-05:00

This post is brought to you by BQE Core.

Architecture firms typically work on several ongoing projects at any given time. A solid project management strategy and dedicated project managers are absolutely crucial for the success of these firms. Given this importance, it's essential to be aware of common project management mistakes, especially when they're easy to avoid. Take a look at these four and learn how to keep your projects on track.

1. Lack of Communication

A project manager should possess excellent communication skills. Ideally, each project should begin with a meeting so the entire team can discuss objectives. This meeting is an opportunity to get to know the project manager and to go over their expectations for the team.

The project manager should break down the project into smaller tasks, assign these tasks and make sure each team member has a clear understanding of their role and priorities.

Communication should occur throughout the project so that the team and the clien...

The Technology You Need to Boost Profits Without Headaches

2018-02-21T09:00:00-05:00

This post is brought to you by BQE Core.

It bears repeating that project accounting—the practice of accounting on a project-by-project basis—will give you transformative information about your company. With it, you’ll understand why and how your projects are succeeding (or floundering), and what you can do to ensure they stay on the right track.

There are different types of data you need to collect and synthesize to uncover these insights. These include time and expense entries, billing records, accounting metrics, and project management data.

While you technically can track and analyze all of your company’s data without a real project accounting solution, it’s not a wise choice. If you choose to just use spreadsheets, you’ll spend hours upon hours entering, formatting, and analyzing data. Copying and pasting creates a large margin for error, and if one of your formulas isn’t right, it’ll derail everything. Plus, whoever said that they actually enjoy using spreadsheets?

That’s why...

Getting the Data You Need to Run a Successful Firm

2018-02-02T09:00:00-05:00

This post is brought to you by BQE Core.

When your firm adopts project accounting—the practice of accounting on a project-by-project basis—you’ll get insights that’ll change the way you do business. You’ll understand your projects, employees, clients, and firm on a deeper level, and you’ll be able to make changes that will dramatically increase efficiency and profits.

Before this happens, though, you need to lay the groundwork. With the right tools, logging and making sense of the data you need is convenient and easy. You just have to be consistent.

Develop the Habit of Tracking Your Time and Expenses

Time and expense tracking is foundational for analyzing any type of business that works on a project basis, especially architecture firms.

Even if you charge fixed fees for your projects, you could be missing out on hard-earned cash by not tracking your time. You need to make sure you charge enough to cover all the effort that goes into your projects.

After all, it’s difficult to kn...

Make Invoices a Little Less Painful With These 4 Tips

2017-12-12T09:00:00-05:00

This post is brought to you by BQE Core.

Generally speaking, no one’s thrilled to receive a bill. Your clients are no exception. However, there are techniques you can use with your invoices that both highlight your architecture firm’s value and make the process more convenient for clients. The result? Bills that make them smile (or at least not frown).

Think about it: If you invoice a client every month (or every two weeks, as some savvy firms do), you’re consistently interacting with them and communicating the value of your services. If you get it right, you’ll end up with clients who are happy to pay for your services. That’s why you should follow these 4 tips.

1. Tailor your invoices.

The way something is communicated can make all the difference. It’s vital to provide clients with the information that they respond to in order to reduce conflict and questions. While these tips don’t apply so much if you only do stipulated sum billing, if you bill for additional services or exp...

The 3 Rules of Project Management for Architecture Firms

2017-11-14T09:00:00-05:00

This post is brought to you by BQE Core.

Having wonderful employees and great clients is vital. But the most significant component of running an AEC practice is project management. Having the best clients and most dedicated professional staff won’t do your firm any good if you and your team can’t make a profit on your projects.

Here are three maxims to follow if you want your firm to be even better at project management.

1. Stay Within Scope

Your firm and the client must be crystal-clear on the work that is to be completed. Spell everything out. Your project management software should highlight each phase of the project and what will be accomplished during it.

Staying within scope doesn’t mean that change orders should be avoided at all costs. They are, in fact, a part of life for architecture firms. But if something in a project needs altered, there must be a process, and everyone should understand why the change is being made. The modification needs to be agreed upon and spelled o...

The 11 Project Performance KPIs You Need to Track

2017-10-30T09:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by BQE Core.

Your world—at least during the workday—likely revolves around projects. Keeping them going smoothly and profitably is a critical goal for any architecture firm. That’s why you need to monitor them in multiple ways, including through key performance indicators (KPIs). Monitoring them gives you a straightforward, quantifiable way of ensuring that everything is going according to plan.

The 11 KPIs we’re about to discuss make up a potentially daunting list, but when you track them regularly, you’ll have the information you need to make the right decisions for your firm.

1. Work in Progress: Work in progress represents the billable time and expenses that you’ve done but haven’t invoiced yet. It’s important to track as an asset on your balance sheet and as revenue on your income statement. It doesn’t just show project managers how far along work is, but also acts as a booster if your firm needs a line of credit or loan.

2. Earned Value: This is a b...

5 Tips for Getting Clients to Pay You on Time

2017-10-09T09:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by BQE Core.

Putting up with a late-paying client every now and then is definitely annoying, but it usually won't break the bank. If late payments become a regular occurrence, however, you should take action by better communicating with your clients. Otherwise, you risk hurting your cash flow and damaging your firm. Here are 5 ways to avoid a cash crunch by doing your part to help clients make their payments on time.

Verbally read over contracts together

You just received a signed contract from your client. But does that mean your client actually read it and remembers all the details—including payment deadlines? Don't just get a signature from them and tuck the contract away in your file cabinet. Call your client on the phone (or better yet, meet in person) to verbally go over important sections of the contract, including when you're expecting to get paid.

Side note: Going through the contract with your client will also help you manage their expectations ...

How to Calculate Employee Efficiency

2017-09-19T09:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by BQE Core.

Have you ever wondered if you’re paying your employees less than they deserve? More importantly, how do you even assess your staff’s productivity and value?

Knowing the utilization or efficiency of your employees can help gauge their productivity and value. Remember, on average, your employees should be more than 70% efficient.

Getting started:

There are some specific terms you need to know and calculate before you go ahead with your new mission. Also, note that this efficiency or utilization rate looks at the billable or chargeable hours of your employees.

Pay Rate = Annual Salary / Total Standard Working Hours
Overhead Multiplier = Total Year Expenses / Total Payroll
Cost Rate Multiplier = Overhead Multiplier + 1

These formulas will help you calculate the important rates:

Bill Rate = Pay Rate x Cost Rate Multiplier x Profit %
Effective Bill Rate = Bill Rate x Utilization Rate
Max Pay Rate = Effective Bill Rate / Cost Rate Multiplier
Ideal Pay ...

Is Your Architectural Firm a Practice or Business?

2016-11-14T09:00:00-05:00

This post is brought to you by BQE ArchiOffice.

In my experience, most firm owners don’t appreciate the significance of being at the helm of a business. At the risk of sounding cliché, they run a “practice” and they operate it as if they’re just… well… practicing. This problem is evident in each firm’s mission statement. Of the many I’ve read, only a handful acknowledge the firm’s ultimate goal is to sustain itself and be a profitable, successful business. This is a primary reason why architects are notoriously under-compensated.

Mostly, firms use the mission statement as an opportunity to echo what every architecture school pounded into our brains: something touching upon the noble pursuit of our profession, improving the built environment, serving our clients and helping the planet. Neither our employees nor our clients can differentiate one firm from another. Imagine showing up at a conference and everyone is handed a name tag that reads “Joe.” Not much sense in that. Why bother ...

Quickly Recover from Missing Billable Hours and Miscalculated Project Costs

2016-10-10T09:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by BQE ArchiOffice.

Learn how this Brisbane-based architectural firm is enjoying faster cash flow now.

About

Based in West End, Brisbane, Tim Bennetton Architects is a small, private architectural firm with a single director and three employees. They work in an intimate, responsive environment that collectively values good design, simplicity and positive relationships. This Australian firm goes above and beyond for their clients to ensure that the joy remains through the ups and downs of their projects – from the initial meeting through to completion. Tim Bennetton and his team offer unparalleled service that provides excellent design, as well as an experience in transforming that vision into reality.

Background

Prior to finding the right software for their firm, Tim Bennetton Architects encountered many time tracking issues that made it difficult to estimate project costs and profits. “We used something called Timesheet Professional, which tracked our ti...

Financial Management for the Small Architectural Firm 101

2016-09-12T08:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by BQE ArchiOffice.

Providing great architectural services and running a financially successful firm are not mutually exclusive. It’s quite the contrary. If you are as good an architect as you think, you’ll be successful and it won’t be because of your design skills. However, what separates the great–struggling designers from the great-successful designers isn’t just luck.

It’s not your fault that after all the years of education and training you endured to become an architect, you don’t know the first thing about how to run a business. Sure, you can design – like nobody’s business – but do you truly understand the difference between income and revenue? How about a credit and debit? Do you know what an overhead factor is and why it’s so critical? Do you know what your minimum billing rate is? Did you ever sit down and map out your firm’s operating budget?

Chances are the answer to all these questions is no. So let’s get to work and get you on the right tr...

7 Bookkeeping Tips for Architects

2016-08-08T09:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by BQE ArchiOffice.

Many architects struggle with staying on top of their finances. After all, they were trained to draw and design, not how to run a business. Here are seven bookkeeping tips to help you better manage your finances with innovative tools.

1. Get Comfortable with Reporting
The first tip is to get comfortable with the reporting system of your accounting software. You spend money on bookkeeping so that you can get valuable information out of the system. This is precisely where the reports come in. If you have a good working knowledge of the reporting area of your accounting system, then you can pull reports, analyze your business and make decisions based on that. Of course you should also consult your bookkeeping and/or accounting professional for help understanding the reports, especially if something doesn’t make sense to you.

2. Know Your Numbers
The second tip comes right on the heels of the second. You should have a working knowledge of ho...

Big Risk for Bigger Reward in Small Architecture Firms

2016-04-13T09:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by BQE ArchiOffice.

Are you an architect who always had that special entrepreneurial drive? Were you mentored by another successful architect or by a friend or family member who was successful in their own business endeavor and aspired to be like them? Perhaps you were forced to open your own firm by necessity after getting downsized by a previous employer during the recent recession?

No matter what your background is, you as an entrepreneur and owner of a small firm comprise a strong portion of the architecture industry. According to Kermit Baker, chief economist at The American Institute of Architects, 63 percent of all AIA member-owned architecture firms have five or fewer employees.

Good news, smaller firms have reported a growing share of professional billing. Baker reported that for firms with five or fewer employees, the overall share of professional billing increased from 8 percent in 2005 to 9 percent in 2013. On the other end of the spectrum, fi...

Documents Live On in Paperless Architecture Firms

2016-03-14T09:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by BQE ArchiOffice.

Physical paper may have given way to PDFs. Ink pens may have been replaced by stylus pens. What architecture firms don’t have to worry about being replaced or disappearing, however, are documents.

From initial engagement contracts to drawings, specifications, change orders and RFPs when dealing with governmental agencies, architecture firms face a mountain of documents – and the necessary task of organizing and archiving these documents.

(Or, at least, a firm should have a policy for organizing and archiving.)

Here are three reasons why your firm should draft a recordkeeping policy that everyone can get on board with:

1. Be Prepared to Litigate Lawsuits

A significant amount of time can pass between the time you accept an engagement, complete the project, and finally receive a letter from a client alleging an impropriety. Because a lawsuit can be filed years after a project has been completed, your firm will want to be prepared to defen...

3 Critical Focus Areas for Start-Up Architectural Firms

2015-10-22T09:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by BQE ArchiOffice.

Expert Interview: Does Your Project Management Software Cause Data Overwhelm?

2015-08-06T09:39:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by BQE ArchiOffice.

Steven Burns, FAIA, the Chief Creative Officer (and self-professed recovering architect) at BQE Software, was a recent guest on the Technology Advice Expert Interview Series to share his insight on project management. The series explores a variety of business and technology landscapes through conversations with industry leaders.

Steve discusses the modern challenges and demands on project management software of those in the professional services industries.

Click here to listen to the full interview.

Here are a few of the highlights from the conversation:

TA: What are the main pain points that today’s professional services industry is facing?

Steven: Well, I would think the basic foundational issue with firms is that don’t really change over time. Their services haven’t really changed. What’s really wonderful and terrible at the same time is that there are so many incredible different options and choices [to view and track data]. People now...

Master the Business Side of Your Architecture Firm

2015-05-27T11:44:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by BQE ArchiOffice.

Architecture firm principals are the Chief Financial Officers of their firm, whether they want to be or not. Sure, they may delegate that authority to someone who knows more than they do about balance sheets, income statements and financing, but a firm’s principals are ultimately responsible for the decisions made and actions taken in their organization.

For many small architecture firms, principals don’t have anyone to guide them for financial and other business matters. In some instances, firm owners use other employees to assist with day-to-day operations.

Jennifer Pullinger writes in the “Architect Magazine” that Belmont Freeman, FAIA, of Belmont Freeman Architects in New York City, “delegates some of the firm’s financial management to individual project architects.” Freeman also explains in the article that he creates “processes that allow them to continually examine key metrics for their firm. It’s good to have an associate in th...