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5 Apps for Small Business Owners on the Go

Small business owners know that running their company is a 24/7 hour job, but that means more than just working crazy hours. It also means doing your job outside of your office – at home, in the car, on the plane, you name it.

That makes mobile apps vital to the survival and success of small businesses.

At this point, most productivity software – be it for accounting, personnel management, workflow management, communications and more – offers some sort of mobile version. While there are literally hundreds of programs out there that can help small business owners keep tabs on things while working on the go, these are five essential apps any entrepreneur should have on their phone or tablet.

5 Must-Have Apps for Small Business Owners

1. QuickBooks (Accounting):We’ve already given Intuit’s QuickBook suite the nod as one of six top accounting software programs for small businesses, and it also deserves a space on this shortlist. The app, which is free with a QuickBooks Online subscription, allows mobile access to most of the most essential QuickBooks functions: invoicing, creating estimates, viewing sales receipts, tracking expenses and receiving payments, among many others. You can test out QuickBooks online for free for 30 days, and promotional pricing includes $5/month for the “Self Employed” option and $10/month for “Simple Start” plan.

2. Slack (Communication): Slack is a communications tool for desktop and mobile that any business owner will love given its numerous options and app integrations. Slack is a chat app that also allows for voice and video calls, aptly using channels and threads to keep conversations pertinent and focused. At the moment, 1,500 apps can be integrated into Slack, including DropBox, Google Drive and SalesForce – and particularly tech-savvy outfits can even customize their experience with the Slack API. While Slack does have more feature-intensive subscription plans, small teams can use Slack’s most basic functions for free, on an unlimited basis, until they decide whether the program is right for them.

3. Trello (Project Management): Trello is a popular project organization tool that uses a “card”-based system. These cards allow you to do things such as create checklists, add due dates and upload file attachments – then you can bring people into those cards to help assign tasks, including comment-based discussions and file-sharing integration with Google Drive, Dropbox, Box and OneDrive. The system is seamless, too, running in real-time so changes are shared to all users as soon as they happen. Trello also features “Power-Ups” that integrate with other apps such as Zendesk and Slack to add even more features to the system. Trello is free for basic features on an unlimited basis, though more powerful business-class versions start at $9.99/month.

4. PayPal (E-commerce):Any small business with e-commerce operations should have ubiquitous payments solutions provider PayPal on their radar…and mobile devices. PayPal provides all sorts of options, including allowing for credit-card payments on your website, accepting PayPal as payment, customizable checkout processes and more. The PayPal Business mobile app lets you to create and send invoices, as well as track customer transaction history, while the PayPal Here app turns your mobile device into a point-of-sale device.

5. Hootsuite (Social): Hootsuite is an all-in-one social app that helps you publish posts to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and more via one single, high-powered system. The original Hootsuite app lets you manage and edit posts on the go for several social media sites, monitor customer conversations and even use geolocation to locate local customers. Meanwhile, Hootsuite Enhance (App Store only) helps you find (and edit) better images for your social posts. Plans start at $29/month.

McManamon & Co. offers much more than accounting – we can also help you take your office completely paperless, which means weaving not just desktop software but also apps into everyday tasks. So while these five apps certainly are a start for any small business, we can help you determine more specific technology solutions for your unique business, as well as help train you and your employees on software, including accounting programs.

Make sure you’re always ready to drive your business forward – not just from the comfort of your office, but from anywhere in the world. Call us at 440.892.9088 or contact us online today.

 

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