There are tens of thousands of apps in the App Store and Google Play Store that can help you with your to-do lists, keeping an eye on your business expenses and with assigning tasks to your employees and team members.
We’ve compiled a list of the top business apps that you should be using in 2016 to manage your work, collaborate with a team and much more.
As our lives get busier, we tend to lose sight of how we manage our time more efficiently. Technology is bombarding us with so many work / life balance tools that help us with productivity, it is very overwhelming to choose the right ones. Let’s take a look at which of the tools will set your productivity levels soaring high by helping you better manage your time and schedule.
Rescue Time tracks how much time you’ve spent on websites and applications. Is a great way to get an accurate idea of how you spent your day so you can set your productivity goals. It gives you a breakdown where you spent your time by website and application.
The basic version is free and is available for PC, Mac, Linux, and the mobile app is only available on Android phones. You can also get a premium version at $9 per month and it comes with features such as alerts, the ability to block any website and more comprehensive reports.
This app is perfect for people who need to track billable hours. You can track any number of projects or clients, export timesheets, view graphs and sync your number with a number of project management applications.
If you have employees, you can divide them into different groups as a way to stay organised. Toggl is completely free for up to 5 users, and you can upgrade to a Pro version for $5 per month per user, which allows an unlimited number of users and adds features such as subprojects and billable rates.
Long are the days where we have to be at our desk sitting at a computer to handle all our invoices, account balances, and cash flow management. Technology has changed the way people do business and making it easier to handle everyday accounting tasks when they’re on the road or working from home. Here’s our selection:
FreshBooks is ideal for small and service oriented businesses that need a simple way to manage and track invoices. With FreshBooks, you can create and send a very personalised and professional invoice; organise your expenses; bill your clients with recurring invoices etc.
FreshBooks is very easy to use and features intuitive and visual interface. You can also integrate it with PayPal, Basecamp, ZenPayroll and more.
The base plan is $12.95 per month for up to 5 clients. If you have more clients, you can upgrade your plan, and for unlimited clients option, you’ll be paying $39.95 per month.
This accounting software gives you a full sense of your financial health. With QuickBooks, is easy to track your sales and expenses (such as profit or loss reports), pay your employees, view financial statements, check unpaid invoices, view balances, send invoices on the go etc. It includes easy to use interface and integration with numerous other services and accounts such as PayPal, Square and business bank accounts, and uploads data from all these sources with ease.
With QuickBooks online, you can access it with iPhone, Android phone, iPad or any Android tablet.
The basic version costs $9.99 per month and upgraded plans are $19.99-$29.99 per month and include advanced features, such as inventory tracking and bill payment scheduling.
Wave is made specifically for small businesses and independent contractors with fewer than 10 employees. It is a free and easy-to-use platform that lets you manage invoices and customer payments, track expenses, scan receipts, pay employees and more. You can also integrate it with other services such as PayPal. Wave app is available at Google Play Store and App Store.
As technology and business continues to evolve into the online side, so must businesses adapt to keep up. Many people don’t regularly carry cash around anymore, leading to a surge in secure payment systems. Get paid faster and more securely with our pick.
If your business is based on point-of-sale purchases such as retail shops and beauty salons, then Square is perfect for you. When you sign up, you’ll get a small portable card reader that you attach to your phone or tablet, and you just swipe credit cards and process payments.
Square costs $49 upfront, plus 2.75% of each transaction, and manually entered transactions cost 3.5% plus $0.15. If you are a business that is making over $250k in annual revenue, you can contact Square for custom pricing. There are no monthly fees.
Square app is free to download and is available on all devices and operating systems.
PayPal Here is very similar to Square in a way that you use a card reader to receive payments. The fee is 2.7% of each transaction and it has a few extra features, such as electronic invoices, PayPal payments, and checks processing. Payments are deposited in your PayPal account.
The way people communicate is changing everyday. As we slowly move away from handwriting and back and forth emails wasting time, there has been a variety of communication apps that have stood the test of time, and now more efficient and user friendly then ever.
Skype is the most popular video conferencing app for free video calls. With Skype, you can chat, share your computer screen, send files, and call a group of up to 25 people.
With Skype For Business, you can hold online calls and video meetings with up to 250 people and record those meetings. Is only $2 per month per user.
Slack is an instant messaging app that allows you to organise and separate your team’s conversations and chats into public or private channels. You can also drag and drop files, PDFs, images etc. You can deeply customise notifications to stay in the loop and filter any unwanted noise. It also automatically archives all messages, files, and notifications.
Slack is free, but there is a paid version for $8 per month that has more features like app integrations and group calls.
As business owners, we have a lot to keep track off. Important dates, thoughts, appointments – with so much going on with our day it is imperative we are organised. Oorganising your time better, for instance, or improving the way you collaborate with others are very important, so here is our pick of the bunch:
Evernote is the most popular app for syncing notes across desktop and mobile devices. You can use it to save bits of information from the web, tag them, add pictures, videos and more. Is great for keeping to-do lists, any kind of notes, contacts or journaling. You can upload 60Mb of data per month.
The basic version is free. The Plus version is $34.99 per year and allows you to upload 1Gb of data monthly and access notes when you are offline. The Premium plan is $69.99 per year and lets you upload 10Gb of data monthly, plus many other features.
This is a great to-do list app that lets you create task lists and share them with your team members or anyone else. All lists are synced automatically so others will see all updates and items that are completed. The basic version is completely free, and you can upgrade to a business version that will cost you $4.99 per month per user. Business version lets you break down tasks into subtasks, set deadlines, add notes and set up reminders.
Transparency and getting everyone on the right page is important for project management. There are so many pieces of the puzzle that must be managed effectively, apps have bombarded us with a wide range that help us from time management, scheduling, and communication. Here is our pick you should implement now:
Trello is a very easy to use project management app that is highly visual. In Trello, you can create boards, which are different projects. On each board, you can create cards that represent task or an assignment.
You can add files from your computer, Dropbox, and Google Drive, checklists, members, attachments, labels and much more to make those cards descriptive and easier to manage. Trello sends notifications to members via email when someone changes a card.
Trello is free for Android and iOS users and you can upgrade to a business version for $9.99 per month per user for extra features, such as integration with Evernote and Slack.
Basecamp is the most popular project management app. It is very easy to use and the interface is intuitive. You can easily attach a file, chat, invite people, and create checklists and more. Overall, if you want an easy to use app that doesn’t have a big learning curve and if your projects are straightforward, then Basecamp is for you. You can add unlimited users, but you pay per project. $20 per month will get you 10 projects and $150 per month is for an unlimited number of projects.
In Asana you can create tasks that you can rearrange on is the flexible dashboard. You can attach files or documents, chat with other team members, assign due dates and customise notifications. Integration with other services is well supported, including ZenDesk, Google Drive, Slack, Evernote, and MailChimp. You can use Asana for free for up to 15 users, and upgraded versions start from $21 per month for 5 users.
CRM apps can be expensive—not to mention complicated and frustrating to set up—especially when you’re a small business when your time is of utmost importance. Here are our pick that help streamline everything into a simple user friendly app.
Streak is a great CRM that integrates with Google Apps and Gmail. It organises your customers based on where you are in your business relationship. For example, you can organise contacts where you are just starting a pitch, or where you are closing the deal. There is a news feed that keeps everyone on your team updated.
You can use Streak for free for 5 users and upgraded plans go from $19 to $119 per month per user.
Nimble is great for those of you who have an outstanding social media presence.
It gathers data from your contact’s social profiles and updates itself automatically. Nimble integrates with Hootsuite, Outlook, Gmail, and many others. It highlights future opportunities as it learns and figures out your relationships that you value. Price starts at $15 per month per user.
Insightly sure packs a lot of features and is a popular option for CRM. You can create tasks for your team members, create email reminders, set up pipelines, and categorise contacts and integrate their social media profiles. You can use it for free for up to 2 users, and upgraded plans start at $12 per user monthly.
It is very easy to become overwhelmed with the amount of tedious tasks involved in a running a business. And to top things of, the app store market is becoming saturated with business apps. With the right combination of tools, you can streamline your business processes, simplify your finances, and save both time and money.
What is your favourite business app or tool? Have you tried any of these on the list? Let us know in the comments below.