BillQuick Advisors in Actions

BillQuick Advisors are out working with their clients. New and upgrade sales in May 2009 were over 158% higher than April. This continues the trend of month-over-month higher sales by BillQuick resellers.

This indicates the economy is turning around for professional firms. Not only accounting firms are investing in BillQuick, but also law firms, engineering firms, architectural firms and others.

In April, BillQuick’s most active resellers were

• Kara R. Haas, CPA (top seller of the month)
• Paul J. Davidian & Company
• Technology Solutions Associates

In May, the most active resellers were:

• The Attivo Group (top seller of the month)
• Being in Balance, Betty Van Dyck (close second for May)
• Balanced Bookkeeping, Heidi Triezenberg Morgan
• Deemer Dana Froehle, CPAs

Thanks to all of you for great advising!

Sample BillQuick 2009 Available to Advisors

BQE Software Releases BillQuick 2009 with Features that Help Businesses Offset Economic Slowdown with Improved Productivity.

Los Angeles, March 18, 2009:  BQE Software Inc, the innovative leader in Time Billing & Project Management solutions, announced today the release of BillQuick 2009, a major upgrade to the affordable business software application that simplifies time tracking, project management and billing. Focused on maximizing billable hours in professional firms, the latest version gives businesses the ability to do more with less time and resources.

“To survive the current economic slowdown, businesses must optimize processes and eliminate all overheads related to repetitive tasks. BillQuick 2009 is packed with features to achieve process optimization and therefore offset the slowdown with improved productivity.” says Shafat Qazi, President and CEO of BQE Software.

(See the full press release.)

———————————————————————————————————————-

As part of your membership in the BillQuick Reseller Program, you can request sample licensed copies of BillQuick and add-on modules. The software is licensed to your company (with “Sample” in the company name). Please send an email requesting BillQuick 2009 and other modules to the Channel Manager.

Pre-Release BillQuick 2009 Available

The pre-release version of BillQuick 2009 is available for download. Also “What’s New in 2009″ demo are available along with a summary page.  (See the links below.) Fifteen of the top features (from among 200 new and improved features) include:

1. Simple Expense Log: A brand new Simple Expense Log screen allows you to enter expense quickly and easily.
2. Dash Board: A brand new dashboard available from the View menu to display your business Key Performance Indicators. Each widget in the dashboard has its own refresh time setting.
3. Reports Customization: Enhancement in Report Viewer toolbar. Tools available that will allow you to customize reports, change fonts, colors and email as Word, Excel or PDF.
4. Report Filters: Ability to filter by discrete items instead of the “From and To” range when applying filters to the reports.
5. Vendor Bill: Ability to create a vendor bill automatically from un-billed time and expense data.
6. Spell Check: A brand new global spell checker that can spell check Description and Memo fields in time and expense data. Available from Sheet View, Simple Timecard, Expense Log, Simple Expense Log, Reviewer and Billing Review.
7. Custom Invoice Number Per Project: Ability to specify custom invoice numbering sequence per project.
8. Retainage + New Contract Types: In BillQuick 2009 we have introduced two new contract types. “Cost + Fixed Fee” and “Cost + Percentage”. In addition you now have the ability to specify “Retainage” percentage per project.
9. Allocate Hours by Activity Group: The self-policing feature has been improved. You can now assign hours to any employee without having to specify a specific Activity. Instead you can specific an Activity Group or “All” activities.
10. QuickBooks GL Accounts per Project: Ability to assign separate GL accounts per Project for all invoice items + Retainer collected and applied.
11. Assigning Made Easy: We have added the new “Assign” tab to the Employee and Project Screen. Makes assigning Project Control or Employee Control items easy.
12. Expense Part of the Contract: If your fee includes expense, you can now manage such contracts by simply selcting the “Exp Part of Contract” rule on the Project screen’s Detail tab.
13. Company: Closing Date in company screen prevents editing of items older than closing date. Impacts Time, Expenses, Invoices and Payments.
14. SMTP Support: You can now specify your SMTP Server (Outgoing mail server) info and have BillQuick bypass Outlook when sending email.
15. New Themes: Last but not the least, Check out the new themes in User Preferences screen. Please let us know if you like the default “Pear” theme.
16. File Linking: Ability to link documents to your time and expense data and many other records including employee, project, vendor bill, purchase order etc.

To view the What’s New in BillQuick 2009 demos, click here.

To review the What’s New in 2009 summary page, click here.

To download a copy of pre-release copy of BillQuick 2009, click here.

A few items more:

• BillQuick 2009 does not overwrite BillQuick 2008 or earlier versions. It installs into its own folder.
• When you first start-up BillQuick 2009, it will “see” your 2008 (or earlier) database and ask if you want to upgrade it for BillQuick 2009. This does not change your original database.
• You can answer No to the ‘upgrade database’ question and work with the sample databases in BillQuick (for up to 30 days in Evaluation Mode).

Your feedback is very much welcome.

Bob

Training – Managing Your Business with Web Suite

• Are you spending hundreds of hours cutting and pasting and re-entering time and expenses?
• Do you need to capture time in-office, in the field, in satellite offices, or from consultants?
  
• Are project managers in and out of the office, making it tough to review and approve time and expenses for billing?
• Are busy project managers in the field or in multiple locations slowing the billing cycle?
• Got SmartPhones and wish you could do more with them?

The dynamics of remote users, multiple offices and outsourced staff can waste hours every month and slow cash flow.

You need to attend the Managing Your Business with Web Suite training session.

Principals and partners will learn how Web Suite significantly improves productivity. Even the simple act of capturing time anywhere, anytime can add tens of thousands to profits each year. Project managers can be as productive on the road as they are in the office.

It all comes down to. . . It’s All About Time. Taking this truism to heart results in more billable hours that are more accurate and complete, and fewer wasted non-billable hours. Billing is not delayed. Report review becomes anytime, anywhere.

Bottom Line: Managing Your Business with Web Suite will help you gain the most out of Web Suite and improve your productivity.

When: Thursday, January 22, 2008 9:00 AM – 10:30 AM PST
Price: $145.00 per attendee
To Sign Up: http://sites.fastspring.com/billquick/product/timeandexpensetrackingwithwebsuite
(Click the Order button)

After paying for the training, check your email. You will receive a link to complete your training registration. You must complete the registration to attend the training.

BillQuick 2008 SP3 Released

BillQuick 2008 SP3 version 9.0.103.0 was released on January 7, 2009. BillQuick Customers and trial users will receive an automatic update notification when they start up BillQuick (if they have an Internet connection).

In case there is an issue in downloading the service pack, refer to our BillQuick Support Download Page at http://www.bqe.com/supportpages/download_support.htm#BQ2008.

Click to view the Release Notes (Build Log) for BillQuick 2008 SP3.

BillQuick and QuickBooks 2009

BillQuick 2008 has undergone extensive testing with QuickBooks 2009 (US and Canadian editions). BillQuick now works with:

• QuickBooks 2002 thru 2009 U.S. Edition, including Accountant’s Edition
• QuickBooks 2003 thru 2009 Canadian Edition
• QuickBooks Enterprise 2.0 (US) and later (including Accountant’s Edition)

Training – In-Depth BillQuick-QuickBooks Integration

There is an opportunity to go deeper into the BillQuick-QuickBooks integration, learning best practices and more advances topics. This can help you AND YOUR CLIENTS better understand the depth and breadth of our integration with QuickBooks. The session is the same one delivered by Irfan Qazi, our BillQuick-QuickBooks guru, to a Wowed! capacity crowd of BillQuick customers.

NOTE: The training session is commissionable to BillQuick Advisors.

Integrating BillQuick and QuickBooks has the potential to save hundreds of hours each year. Accounting staff and others can build on the basics and learn about how BillQuick handles important items with QuickBooks, including:

• QuickBooks Classes
• Retainers
• Discounts
• Vendor Bills
• Checks
• Employee Expenses
• Invoices

The session will also look at BillQuick’s Smart Matching capability and share best practices about which tasks to do in BillQuick and which ones to do in QuickBooks.

With the extended Question and Answer period, you and your clients will gain even greater insight and get the most out of BillQuick and QuickBooks and improve your productivity.

Click Training Checkout to sign up for the session. Once payment is confirmed, you will receive an email with a link to complete your registration.

Email Subscription Option

You can now subscribe to BillQuick Advisor by email as well as RSS feed.

At the bottom of the right column, click on the email link. On the Feedburner Email page, enter your email address. Immediately a confirmation email is sent to you. As soon as click the link in the email, your BillQuick Advisor email subscription is activated!

BillQuick Advisor publishes a daily email of new posts and pages at midday.

Updated eBooks Now Brandable to Advisors

Three BillQuick eBooks for Business Managers, Billing Managers and Project Managers have been updated. Advisors can now brand these marketing pieces with their logo and contact information.

Use the eBooks to target information to key individuals within a company. Each eBook provides sample reports and invoices important to owners, principals, partners, accountants, office managers and project managers.

The new marketing piece is located on the Marketing Resources page (password required).

Do you have ideas for other BillQuick marketing pieces or advisor tools?

Updated 25 Reasons Brochure

The 25 Reasons Why QuickBooks Users Need BillQuick brochure is now brandable by BillQuick Advisors. Drop your logo and contact information into the brochure.

Use this small brochure to help clients view their management needs, daily activities and other “pains” in a new light. Rather than twist and wedge QuickBooks or punt into Excel and Word to capture information, help them learn about BillQuick’s flexibility and critical project and business management information. And remind them that BillQuick tightly integrates with QuickBooks.

This new marketing piece comes in two formats:

• PDF ready for download and viewing from the web or an email
• PDF ready for your printer, including color bleeds

The new marketing piece is located on the Marketing Resources page (password required).

If you have an idea for other marketing pieces, please add a comment to this post.

New Brandable BillQuick Datasheet Brochure

Available immediately, the new BillQuick Datasheet can be branded by BillQuick Advisors. Drop your logo and contact information into the brochure and you’re ready to go.

Let them know you are thinking about their future success. Keep a few printed copies of the brochure in your briefcase to give to clients. Also, keep a PDF copy on the Windows Desktop of your laptop and desktop. Be ready to send it to anyone with a few clicks.

Hey, you’re on the road. Keep a PDF copy in your smartphone ready to send to a prospect or client.

This new marketing piece comes in two formats:

• PDF ready for download and viewing from the web or an email
• PDF ready for your printer, including color bleeds

The new marketing piece is located on the Marketing Resources page (password required).

If you have an idea for other marketing pieces, please add a comment to this post.

New Marketing Tools for Advisors

BillQuick Advisors now have 3 new marketing tools to help them better communicate BillQuick’s benefits. The new tools are role specific. The 3 tools are:

1. BillQuick for Billing Managers eBook
2. BillQuick for Business Managers eBook
3. BillQuick for Project Managers eBook

Each eBook identifies key problems of the the target user. Summaries along with sample reports and invoices illustrate how BillQuick handles each problem.

By being role specific, the main influencers and decision-makers get information that helps them understand what BillQuick does for them as well as for the company overall.

These new tools are available to Advisors on the Marketing Resources page (password protected).

Agent 2008 SP1 Released

Agent 2008 SP1 version 9.0.34.0 was released on August 27, 2008. BillQuick Customers and trial users will receive an automatic update notification when they start up Agent (if they have an Internet connection).

In case there is an issue downloading the patch, go to the BillQuick Support page at http://www.bqe.com/supportpages/download_support.html#114.

Latest release notes (Build Log) for Agent 2008 SP1

BillQuick 2008 SP2 Released

BillQuick 2008 SP2 version 9.0.97.0 was released on August 24, 2008. BillQuick Customers and trial users will receive an automatic update notification when they start up BillQuick (if they have an Internet connection).

In case there is an issue in downloading the patch, refer to our BillQuick Support download page at http://www.bqe.com/supportpages/download_support.htm#BQ2008

Latest release notes (Build Log) for BillQuick 2008 SP2

Is BillQuick compatible with Microsoft SQL Server 2008?

Yes, BillQuick is compatible with Microsoft SQL Server 2008. In fact, BillQuick works with any Microsoft SQL Server version from 2000 to 2008.

BillQuick also supports Microsoft SQL Express 2005 (free from Microsoft).

In addition, on the server side BillQuick supports Microsoft Windows 2003 Server and Microsoft Windows 2008 Server.