BQE Launches CORE Insights, Giving A&E Firms Direct Access to Their Own Data

Embedded business intelligence inside BQE CORE replaces custom report requests and spreadsheet rebuilds for architecture and engineering firms.

TORRANCE, Calif., Sept. 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- BQE Software, Inc., the leading business management platform for architecture and engineering firms, today announced the general availability of CORE Insights, an embedded business intelligence tool built directly into BQE CORE.

Architecture and engineering firms have long had a data problem that has little to do with how much data they collect. Their systems will run and export the reports the software vendor built, but will not let them export the data itself as a spreadsheet or a raw extract. Analyzing that data properly has meant licensing, configuring and maintaining a separate business intelligence system alongside the one the firm already pays for, which most A/E firms will not take on. When a firm needs an answer its standard reports do not cover, someone runs three or four reports and rebuilds the answer by hand in a spreadsheet — or the firm pays for a custom report that answers one question, one time.

CORE Insights closes that gap from the inside. It gives firms direct, tabular access to their CORE data — hundreds of columns across projects, time, expenses, vendor invoices, and invoicing, custom fields included — along with the tools to filter, group, calculate, visualize, and publish what they find. Fifteen pre-built dashboards covering profitability, collections, utilization, and client performance are available immediately, and every one of them can be modified. Users can write their own formulas for metrics that do not exist as standard columns, drill from any figure into the record behind it, and publish role-specific views governed by the permissions already configured in CORE.

Insights supplements CORE's existing reports and dashboards rather than replacing them. Standard reporting continues to answer the questions most firms share; Insights is built for the questions specific to a single firm, and for the depth that standard reporting was never designed to reach.

"When the right information is accessible, understandable, and explorable across the organization, firms can spot patterns earlier, make better decisions about people and projects, and build a culture of continuous operational improvement." — Matt Cooper, CEO, BQE

Certa Building Solutions, a 25-person building-envelope consultancy with offices in Portland, Seattle, Orlando, and Ottawa, used Insights during its beta. Liz McKenzie, Certa's Director of Administration, rebuilt the firm's reporting in it — a firm-wide utilization table, a labor contribution report resolving to contribution per hour and per labor dollar, and a quality-control view surfacing every project missing required documentation.

"[The owner] wants a report and boom, boom, boom, I can build it in under an hour," McKenzie said. "Before, I couldn't do it. I'd have to run three or four different reports and build a completely new one in Excel or Power BI. I am not a Power BI person by any stretch of the imagination."

A recent request from Certa's Director of Architecture that would previously have taken days was answered in twenty minutes.

CORE Insights is available today as an add-on to BQE CORE, licensed per firm rather than per seat, so firms can give every user a role-appropriate view without per-user cost. Firms interested in Insights can contact their BQE account manager or visit bqe.com/features/insights.

About BQE Software BQE Software develops business management software for professional services firms. Its flagship product, BQE CORE®, centralizes time tracking, billing, project management, and accounting so firms can make faster, better-informed decisions. BQE is trusted by leading architecture and engineering firms and is headquartered in Torrance, California. For more information, visit www.bqe.com.

Media Contact: Paul Keskeys, Director of Campaigns and Content, BQE

SOURCE BQE Software