Overview
Project settings in BQE CORE allow you to configure default project behavior and formatting options. You can define project ID structure, control contract amount rules between parent and phase projects, and customize how project names and breadcrumbs appear across CORE.
Field Descriptions
| Field Name | Field Description |
| Settings > Projects > | |
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General: Auto increment Project ID |
If you check this option, CORE automatically pre-fills and increments the Project ID number set below for newly created projects. |
| Project ID |
This is the project ID format, which consists of a prefix, ID number and suffix (you should add space or hyphen to separate them). The middle number is automatically incremented by one unit from the value entered here. CORE supports both numeric and alphanumeric IDs. Example: If you fill Prefix with Tax, Project ID with 100 and Suffix with 2026, the resulting project code will be Tax-101-2026. |
| Project Auto Notes |
This option triggers CORE to record project-related notes automatically when there are changes in the selected items on the list. These automatic notes provide useful information like the date and time of change, original and new values, Employee ID of the logged-in user, and a note. This ensures that a perfect history of projects is maintained in the background without you having to enter any data manually. Auto notes are created for:
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| Contract Includes: |
You can choose the default option for all project contracts.
Note: The line item taxes from the time entries are always included in the contract amount. |
| Sync budget and allocations on new projects | Automatically enables synchronization between budget and resource allocation for newly created projects. When enabled, changes in one are reflected in the other, helping keep project planning and forecasting data consistent. |
| Include billable expenses in the contract amount |
Includes billable expenses as part of the contract amount for all projects instead of adding them on top of it. Thus, total amount spent is equal to the value of both billable and non-billable services and expenses, whether approved or not, excluding WUD, markups, and extra time and expenses. You can override this rule at the project level. Spent = Client Hours x Bill Rate x (1 +Taxes/100) + [Units x Cost Rate] |
| Use rates from activity list | Typically, CORE follows the rate hierarchy and uses the fee schedule rates for billing, if available. If you want to use the bill and cost rates of the Activity Items screen instead, check this option. This global rule is inherited by all projects, but can be changed at the project level. |
| Auto approve time entries for projects | Selects the Auto approve time entries rule in the Projects screen, thus ensuring time entries get automatically approved for all new projects. This option auto approves the entries when they are entered and there is no need for any submission of entries. You can override this option at the project level. |
| Auto approve expense entries for projects | Selects the Auto approve expense entries rule in the Projects screen, thus ensuring expense entries get automatically approved for all new projects. This option auto approves the entries when they are entered. You can override this option at the project level. |
| Restrict the contract amount of phases within... | You can select this 'Restrict the contract amount of phases within that of main projects' option for the projects to ensure the contract amount allocated to phases does not exceed the contract amount assigned to the main parent project. It is unchecked by default. |
| Always show in Invoice Batch | Adds projects to the Invoices screen for billing, whether they have unbilled, approved time and expenses or not. This allows you to include, for instance, completed and yet-to-start projects on a joint invoice. When the project status is changed to 'Completed' or 'Canceled' and there is no unbilled time and expenses, this rule is automatically turned off in CORE. In other words, projects with status other than active are not considered for billing even if they have the 'Always show in Invoice Batch' rule applied. |
| Send as Joint Invoice | Allows you to generate a single, combined invoice for the main projects and all their phases. When selected, CORE consolidates the related phases into one joint invoice in the Invoices screen, streamlining billing for projects with multiple sub-levels. |
| Required attributes to be copied to new projects | Specifies which project attributes are always copied when creating projects from templates, cloning projects, or adding phases. When selected, these attributes are required and cannot be deselected during project or phase creation. |
| Project Display As |
You can set the format in which the project names are displayed in CORE screens, reports and drop-down lists. You can add or remove various fields and add separators to set the naming format and order. CORE lets you choose the display name for Projects and Project Phase. While setting the naming format, you can preview it in real-time. Example: For Projects, you can select Client ID - Project ID - Project Name as the display name. For Project Phase, you can select Root Project ID - Parent ID - Phase ID- Phase Name. The default format is [Text] [Separator] [Text]. |
| Project Breadcrumb |
You can customize the breadcrumb layout and appearance for the Projects screen using the drop-down lists that represent both the projects and their phases. In the first drop-down list (representing the root projects), you can select any of the following:
Additionally, there are more drop-down from which you can choose how the phases display:
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| Fix and Repair | CORE prompts you if the parent projects are missing contract amounts while their child projects (phases) have allocated amounts. When triggered, you can click on a link in the message to go to the Settings > Projects > General screen. Here you can use the Fix Contract Amounts option, which sums up the contract amounts of the child phases and updates the parent project with the correct value. |