BQE University:
Practical resources to help your firm work smarter, not harder.
Running a firm is hard enough without guessing. BQE University gives architecture and engineering firms the data, frameworks, and tools to make confident business decisions.
Explore free webinars, benchmarking reports, calculators, and guides to sharpen your business-thinking mindset. Learn what to track, how to price, and where your firm stands against the industry, so you can move from delivering projects to running a firm that's organized, profitable, and built to last.
Webinars
Engaging webinars are led by some of the brightest minds in the professional services industry, ready to offer advice and expertise to help you manage your firm more effectively. As a bonus, you can earn continuing education credits for qualifying courses.
Leadership, Culture & Organizational Behavior
Why Modern Firms Are Rethinking Payroll
Payroll at architecture and engineering firms is rarely just payroll — it's timesheets pulled from one system, project codes reconciled in another, and hours copied from spreadsheets or re-entered by hand before a check ever gets cut. This session examines why firms are moving away from standalone payroll processing toward integrated payroll solutions that connect directly to project and time-tracking data. Attendees will see how integration eliminates duplicate data entry, reduces reconciliation errors, and closes the gap between payroll and project accounting — and why firms that begin evaluating their options now are better positioned than those who wait until the busy season.
The AE Firm’s Foundational Trio: Defining Your Business Structure, Org Chart and Role Accountability
Part 9 of the ‘Blueprint for Success’ Series
Discover the many options for business structures and their unique benefits, gaining the insight to make informed decisions that align with your firm's goals. But it doesn't stop there – in this transformative webinar, Douglas delves into the crucial distinction between organizational and accountability charts and how to ensure that the right person is in the right seat to supercharge your firm's performance. By the end of this session, you'll possess the knowledge to craft an organizational structure that ignites alignment, propels productivity, and fuels your firm's ascent to greatness.
AI for Business Development in Architecture
From Strategy to Practical Workflows
AI is rapidly becoming part of how architecture firms market, develop relationships, identify opportunities, and pursue work. This workshop provides architects and business development professionals with a practical framework for understanding where AI fits within a firm's growth process and where it can create measurable value.
Participants will establish a shared understanding of how marketing, business development, seller-doers, pre-positioning, pursuits, and proposals work together to win work. The workshop introduces essential AI concepts and terminology, then provides a framework for identifying valuable applications and building the business case for AI, whether improving individual productivity or firm-wide processes and performance. Participants will also examine how seller-doers can more deliberately organize their limited business development time before exploring practical ways AI can support business development activities across the growth lifecycle.
The Tech-Forward A&E Firm
How Modern Systems Create Competitive Advantage
Technology is no longer a back-office issue for A&E firms. It is becoming one of the clearest differences between firms that operate with confidence and those that are constantly reacting. Many firms still manage projects, staffing, billing, reporting, and profitability through a patchwork of spreadsheets, accounting tools, disconnected systems, and manual processes. That approach may feel familiar, but it increasingly limits visibility, slows decisions, creates risk, and makes growth harder to manage.
In this webinar, Steven Burns, FAIA, will explore what it means to become a tech-forward A&E firm. Drawing on his experience as an architect, software entrepreneur, former BQE executive, and consultant to design firms, Steven will show how integrated systems, clean data, consistent workflows, and strong adoption practices can create meaningful competitive advantage.
The session will also examine why AI readiness depends on operational readiness. Before firms can benefit from AI agents, automation, forecasting, and intelligent recommendations, they need reliable data and connected systems. Attendees will learn how to reduce dependence on spreadsheets, prioritize technology investments, manage software transitions in practical phases, and build a stronger digital foundation.
The result is a firm that can make faster decisions, manage risk earlier, serve clients better, and scale with greater confidence.
What Waiting Another Year Really Costs
The Business Case for Moving to an All-in-One A&E Platform
Many A&E firms know their current systems are not working as well as they should, but they delay making a change because the transition feels risky. As a result, they tolerate another year of disconnected spreadsheets, duplicate data entry, manual billing, inconsistent project information, delayed reporting, and limited visibility into profitability. The problem is that waiting has a cost, even when that cost does not appear as a single line item on the P&L — and the consequences extend beyond the firm's bottom line to its capacity to manage projects accurately and serve clients reliably.
In this webinar, Steven Burns, FAIA, will help firm leaders evaluate the real business case for moving to an all-in-one A&E firm management platform. Whether a firm is coming from QuickBooks and spreadsheets, a legacy project accounting system, or a patchwork of disconnected tools, the session will examine how fragmented operations affect project performance, billing speed, cash flow, staffing decisions, financial confidence, and firm-wide accountability.
Attendees will learn how better systems can improve project visibility, billing speed, staffing decisions, financial confidence, and firm-wide accountability. The session will also help leaders think more clearly about transition risk, implementation planning, and how a platform like BQE CORE can support not just accounting, but the entire firm.
The Aligned Firm: Crafting Your AE Firm’s Story & Mission-Vision Statement
Part 10 of the ‘Blueprint for Success’ Series
Though it may seem aspirational, your AE firm's core values and mission can define the trajectory of your firm. Are your clients aligned with YOUR story? In this session led by Douglas Teiger, FAIA, we'll embark on a journey to sculpt a value-centric practice that resonates with your identity. Discover a step-by-step process to define your firm's core values and craft mission-vision statements that reflect your biggest goals. Additionally, we’ll explore the power of an analyzer tool that confirms if your employees, clients, and projects are harmoniously aligned with your core values.
The Path to Prosperity: How to Build & Measure Against Your AE Firm’s Strategic Plan
Part 11 of the ‘Blueprint for Success’ Series
Join Douglas Teiger, FAIA, for this session, where AE leaders discover the financial secrets hidden within strategic planning. In this session, Douglas gives a simple breakdown of the strategic planning process, providing a roadmap for development. He dives into the 'who, what, when, where, and how' of strategic planning, making it accessible and actionable. Moreover, he shows you how to identify and leverage essential Key Performance Indicators that will transform your strategic plan into a financial powerhouse, setting your firm on the path to prosperity for years to come.
The AE Firm’s Guide to Growth: How Marketing & Business Development Create Predictable Revenue
Part 12 of the ‘Blueprint for Success’ Series
Most AE teams are extremely thoughtful when developing their designs, but often let communicating their brand or actively pursuing ideal clients fall to the wayside. Marketing and business development are the twin engines that fuel your AE firm's ascent, and understanding their synergy is paramount. Join Founder of Teiger Consulting Douglas Teiger, FAIA, as he unravels the secrets to sustainable growth and revenue predictability.
Reports & Ebooks
Improve your efficiency and profits with expert advice on project management, billing, top KPIs and more. Whether you want an inside look at how to measure project performance or you’re looking for the best advice on building a stronger ROI, our complimentary e-Books and reports have the answer.
Firm Management Software Buyers Guide
A comprehensive buyer’s guide to evaluating firm management software for architecture and engineering firms.
Firm Valuation & Transition Report
The Insight Advantage
Learn how architecture and engineering firms use data to uncover performance drivers, improve decisions, and drive growth.
The Art of Estimating Fees
2025 Architecture Benchmarking Report
2025 Engineering Benchmarking Report
Tools & Templates
Running an A&E firm is complex, but the right tools can make it easier. These checklists, calculators, templates, and tools were built to help you streamline operations, improve profitability, and focus on the work you love so you can build a thriving, efficient firm with confidence.
Calculator: A/E Firm Benchmarking
Calculator: Firm Valuation
Calculator: Firm Management Software Impact Assessment
Checklist: Essential Features of Firm Management Software
Template: Revenue Projection
Quiz: AE Firm Maturity Index
Blog
From industry trends and product updates to time-saving strategies and expert advice, we’re here to empower your firm with knowledge that drives results. Stay ahead of the curve with content designed to simplify operations, improve profitability, and help your team thrive.
Progress Billing: Invoice Formats, Samples, Calculator, and Templates
Turning Project Managers into Firm Leaders: Developing the Next Generation of Engineering Managers
Civil Engineering KPIs: Formulas, Examples, Improvement Tips & Dashboard
Engineering Invoices: Formats, Examples & Templates
Engineering KPI Formulas and Benchmarks for Firms, Teams, and Managers
Top Architect KPIs: Formulas, Examples and Benchmarks to Drive Performance
Case Studies
We’re excited to showcase our customers and their stories of achievement using BQE CORE. Learn how BQE customers build better projects and improve their firm’s profitability.
Riley Engineering
See how Riley Engineering uses BQE CORE to bring clarity to complex projects, freeing their team to focus on delivering water infrastructure that changes lives.
Heights Venture Architecture + Design
From Battleship to Speedboat: Transforming How Architects Manage, Design, and Deliver
Shear Structural
INC Architecture & Design
Congrats to INC Architecture & Design Partners for being inducted into the Interior Design Hall of Fame!
Put Your Plans Into Motion
These resources help you work smarter, build confidence, and move your firm forward. Now bring those insights to life and drive measurable success.