But the question is what small business apps are the best for completing different tasks? The answer will depend on your personal preferences, industry, and how you would like your company to expand.
If the demands of a small-business owner world seem as if they’re too much for you to manage, don’t worry. There’s a wealth of productivity and management applications available to assist. From delegating work tasks to keeping a comprehensive to-do list and managing your business’s expenses there’s a solution to any issue.
The Rise Of Mobile Devices Makes Business More Effective
With the increasing popularity of mobile devices’ use in business improvements in efficiency are hard to ignore. There is a myriad of apps there that seamlessly integrate into your business, providing a greater understanding of processes and overall efficiency. Yuri Shafranik
However, if you don’t have the time to go through a myriad of similar apps, we’ve got it covered! Continue reading to learn how you are able to stay at the top of your business duties with different apps for mobile devices.
The Best Apps For Small Business Productivity
There are a lot of task-oriented applications available. But, prior to focusing on these apps specifically specific apps, here are some efficient and useful productivity applications that are great for small-sized firms. These are great no matter the scale of your company.
Todoist
Todoist is the ideal blend of simplicity and function as a to-do application. With support for cross-platforms and amazing capabilities, this is the most powerful of everything lists-building. They support natural language input, productivity reports, collaboration tools offline capabilities, and much many more.
All of this is available with the no-cost version of Todoist. There’s a premium version that takes things up to a higher level. The team-focused version costs $5 per month for each user.
Evernote
Evernote allows users to “clip” pieces of information from any online source. They can then tag these pieces to make them easier to search. They are also able to be modified through subtractions, additions, or embedding rich media.
Additionally, Evernote is perfect for quick note-taking, task list creation journals, recipe creation, contacts, and much more. All of this is available for free. But, they also offer the option of a business version of the software. It costs $15 per month per user and includes additional features as well as an unlimited amount of upload storage. Yuri Shafranik
Pocket is the ideal application to use for “saving things for later.” It is focused on the snipping and clipping feature that is also present in Evernote. With Pocket, users can save videos, articles as well as other online content to read at a later date.
One of the main benefits of Pocket is the fact that all data saved can be viewed offline. There is also an advanced premium version that costs a price of $5 per month.
The Best Apps For Small Business Time Management
Small businesses need to ensure accountability of employees or a freelancer who needs to keep track of hours worked to clients, this time-management software can be a great way to ensure that the amount of time spent on work is properly recorded. Here are our top three options for the top applications for small-scale business owners seeking to maximize the benefits of time management.
Toggle
With just one click, the time tracking tools will show where you or your employee’s hours are spent. This is ideal for those who want to track time spent on billing.
Toggle is great for team and project management too. It offers reports, exports and connects to multiple other apps. While it’s free for 5 users, the Pro version lets you use it for unlimited users.
RescueTime
Digital distractions have a negative impact on productivity. No matter if your addiction is Facebook, Reddit, or another, RescueTime assists to create the habit of accountability. The intuitive app will help you pinpoint the points where you waste your time the most. It aids in setting goals for productivity as well.
A premium, paid version of RescueTime permits blocking specific websites, monitoring of offline activity, as well as timers and notifications.
Eternity Timelog
Eternity Timelog realizes that productivity is a constant when you step outside of your office. It breaks down your day into three parts that are: sleep, work and play. From this, you can keep track of time using labels and tags, as well as set up multiple simultaneous timers. While it’s an older version, however, it’s completely available for use at no cost.
The Best Apps For Project Management
Apps for managing projects help small businesses in ensuring everything runs smoothly in the day-to-day. They’re focused on streamlining workflows as well as centralizing communications. This leads to greater efficiency in time use for everyone.
Trello
Trello is quickly becoming one of the simplest and well-known project-management suites available online. With a strong focus on the visual, this mobile and web-based application is ideal for helping your team stays active. It’s easy to master and is completely free to use at home. If you want to use Trello for Business, expect to be charged $9.99 per month per user.
Asana
Asana is the ideal application for managing projects for those who is a checklist-oriented worker. It is simple to prioritize tasks and the user-friendly interface makes sure there’s a system that works for everyone on the team. With a wide range of integrations with tools such as Evernote, Slack, WordPress, Box, and more, Asana is a project management swiss-army knife.
Basic Asana is available for free for users up to 15 The premium version is available for only $10.99 per month.
Basecamp
Basecamp is a well-known application for managing projects due to its easy-to-use and intuitive interface. It lets you communicate within your projects, invite other people to collaborate, monitor the progress of your project, create checklists, adds files, and much more. Workflow calendars can also be used to ensure that everything stays in line over the long term.
The cost for Basecamp is on a per-project basis because users are unlimited. Basecamp Business is $99 per month, which includes unlimited everything.
The Best Apps For Payment Accepting
If you’re not running a non-profit and are not paid, it’s not an alternative. With the constant stream of innovative and effective payment platforms that allow for payment, it’s easier than ever. If you have a brick-and-mortar point of sale or solely online, here are our top three ways to accept payments.
PayPal Here
In the PayPal Here payment method that you can use, you will receive an electronic card reader that works with your device to make payments. PayPal earns commissions on the basis of a 2.7 percent basis per swipe and not as a monthly charge. PayPal Here is also able to handle invoices, checks, and even payments directly from PayPal.
The only disadvantage is that PayPal is an intermediary. The money you pay is deposited into the account of your PayPal account, which must be transferred to an account at a bank.
Square
If you run a business dependent on point-of-sale purchases, but you have a limited budget for a fully-fledged payment system, Square is ideal. With a card reader that plugs into your device, the mobile device can be transformed into a fully functional point of sale system, allowing the processing of transactions and accepting credit cards.
Square is the king of no-monthly fee payment processing. Instead, it charges 2.75 percent per swipe (slightly higher if you enter manually).
Dwolla
Contrary to PayPal This or Square, Dwolla doesn’t offer the POS debit card. If however, your small business can accept transfer payments from banks, this is the ideal choice since it’s totally free.
Mass payments which we make are acceptable. Recurring payments are set up, and the fee is timeable and scheduled. If you require more robust alternatives you can choose from user-friendly paid business plans in addition.
The Best Apps For Inter-Team Communication
While time management and project management applications aid in assigning tasks and completing projects it is likely that you will require speedy ways to communicate with your team members. This is where team communications apps come in as a better alternative to email. Here are the top 3 options.
Slack
Slack is the chat application that other chat applications try to replicate. Searching and filtering are easy and the format of the channel is extremely useful while the interface itself is simple and easy to use. Notifications are extremely customizable, making them ideal for looking at what is most important.
Basic Slack is available for free to unlimited users. It comes with a 10,000-message rotating cull. Premium paid versions with unlimited messaging and storage cost $6.67 per month for each user.
Skype For Business
Skype is among the oldest inter-team communication alternatives. It is owned by Microsoft, Skype for Business allows for large-scale meetings, Office integration, file transfer, and more.
Skype for Business is included in the Business package of Microsoft Office 365. The entire suite is priced at $8.25 per month per user.
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is a next-generation chat platform built for the replacement of Skype for Business and many of the features that have been successful from Slack but teams are Microsoft’s solution to a fully integrated small-business suite.
Although the service is free for the majority of small businesses. However, companies that are growing may consider the $5 per month per user option included with Office 365 Business Essentials. Office 365 Business Essentials pack.
The Best Apps For Accounting and Finance
Paying for your expenses is completely different. It comes to a point at which spreadsheets will not suffice particularly when tax time arrives. Below are the three most effective accounting and finance applications to make sure your balance the books.
Freshbooks
Do you need a straightforward way to handle your accounting needs in your small business focused on services? Freshbooks is the perfect solution. It’s an intuitive, simple solution offering a variety of features. You can track receipts, record hours, and issue invoices via your smartphone, connect with third-party platforms, and much more.
Freshbooks’ Lite version of the Freshbooks costs $15 per month. It comes with more options available when your small business expands.
Wave
If you’re in need of cash and are in need of a quick simple solution to bookkeeping take a look at Wave. If you have less than ten employees, Wave is among the top free applications for small-scale business owners (but it is ad-supported) and offers several of the advantages of other accounting software. You plan to accept payments or manage payroll, however, be prepared to be required to pay.
Quickbooks Online
Quickbooks is by far the most commonly utilizeable accounting software by small companies. It’s Intuit Quickbooks Online is its cloud-based solution. It offers a simple user-friendly interface and an excellent integration with third-party services.
Basic Quickbooks Online is only $8 per month, and it includes checking, invoicing, as well as integration to banks.
