Small business apps are one of the most valuable tools that any small business owner can take advantage of. Because let’s face it, our smartphones are our lifelines and for small business owners, a smartphone can be way more than just a way to keep track of meetings and deadlines.
Small business apps that are available for every smartphone out there can also make you a more successful small business owner and help your business to grow and thrive in ways you never imagined.
From organization methods to finance help and even unique offerings such as helping your employees communicate better with one another, these 10 small business apps are some of the most valuable apps out there. So explore a few of them, test them out, and see just how much they can change your workflow for the better!
QuickBooks
Most everyone knows that Quickbooks is one of the best small business apps you can take advantage of to run a successful business with a well-balanced budget. QuickBooks is an accounting software program that helps you enhance your company’s financial help by tracking sales and expenses, monitoring your monthly financial statements, staying on top of unpaid invoices, reviewing profit and loss reports, and much more.
The best part about QuickBooks is that you can connect the software program to any of your financial accounts. Whether it be your bank account, credit cards or even your PayPal account, you can add any form of payment and financial service that you use and wish to integrate into the QuickBooks program.
Now, let’s talk about cost. The QuickBooks app is free and but the program itself does cost a small fee. However, they offer a 30-day free trial program if you’d like to test it out. After that, plans range from $10 – 24 for the first six months and then rise to $13 to $40 per month after that. In essence, it’s a must-try if you’re looking for more organized finances. So test out QuickBooks and see what you think!
Zip Schedules
Zip Schedules is a must-have app for small business owners who work in a variety of industries. It allows for workers and small business owners to communicate in unique ways no other app does.
Zip Schedules is at its core a scheduling app, but it goes much deeper than your basic scheduling program. For one, it allows you to communicate live with your co-workers and employees to discuss schedule changes, move changes around instantly, view who is covering what shift, and it can be used on both your desktop and app interchangeably.
Employees also get instant notifications once a new schedule is posted by the owner and can let their boss know if they can’t make it into work directly through the app. A manager can then open up a shift to team members for them to take advantage of the extra shift which also reduces the hassle worry of someone not showing up for a shift.
Small business owners can also fill out an online schedule in just seconds which updates everyone on the app. There’s even a 30-day trial for small business owners to test out Zip Schedules, so check it out and see how this new scheduling software can change your small business today!
FreshBooks
FreshBooks is another very popular small business app and one of the best for small business owners. It’s also very popular among self-start up companies and freelance workers because it simplifies managing money and tracking invoices.
With FreshBooks, you can also create your own professional invoices and accept credit cards on any mobile device. Want to track and organize your expenses? The FreshBook app even features that too.
The FreshBooks mobile app is completely free but the FreshBook program plans range from $12.95 a month to $39.95 a month depending on how many people are in your small business. It is available for any company who has 1- 50 employees and even offers a free 30-day trial.
Slack
Slack is one of the most popular forms of instant messaging for businesses and is used by some of the top business industries out there today. It’s basically an instant form of communication for employees that takes away from exchanging text messages and waiting on timely emails to go through for a response or important document to be delivered to one another.
With Slack, you can send documents, images, and any other files directly through the instant messaging app. They have a free app for your mobile device, PC, and Mac computer and you can create different groups within Slack to organize communication methods among a variety of different employees. (You could even use Slack with your family if you wanted to!)
Send basic messages, schedule group calls, drag and drop files to anyone anywhere at anytime, and keep track of everything someone sends you or that you send directly through the app. This is the new way to communicate with one another and is a must-have for small business owners looking to get more done in less time with less hassle.
Slack is free to try out, but if you decide to stay with it, each group account costs $8.00 per month and comes with a full archiving feature for you to keep track of everything your company and group has sent and received thus far.
Clear
If you’re looking for a way to organize your day and to-do list, Clear is the app for you! It makes your personal schedule and to-do list a cinch! It’s basically the easiest productivity app to use out there.
Clear helps you manage your tasks by pulling them down on the screen and swiping them once a task is completed. It works the same way your IOS notification methods do, but you can customize the list to suit your day to day schedule.
This not only helps you stay organized but you can also sync the app with your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and your iPod. It’s one of many small business apps that makes getting things done easier and even rewarding by virtually checking off your to-do’s and agenda as you complete them. And let’s be honest, we’re all looking for a little incentive to get more done each day, right?
Clear plans start at $4.99 for the mobile app and is $9.99 for desktops. It’s currently only available for IOS users.
Skype
Skype is another incredibly popular small business app and although it has faced some competition over the years from large industries, Skype still remains one of the best small business apps that even non-business owners can use for free voice and video calls.
With Skype, you can also transmit photos and files to one another of any size, call a group of up to 25 people at one time, and even send text messages through the Skype mobile app. You can also schedule video calls with groups up to 250 people and integrate it into your Microsoft Office software if you choose.
The Skype app is completely free and works with all operating smartphones. In terms of accounts, Skype’s basic plan is free to start out, but if you’d like to upgrade to Skype Business, the plans start at $5 per user for each month of use.
All in all, if you’re looking for a better way to host video and phone calls, Skype is one of the best must-try small business apps available that you can take advantage of.
TripIt
Looking to book a company trip or taking a business trip by yourself? Then consider downloading TripIt to your mobile device for a more enjoyable (yes, really!) business trip and a more organized one too.
TripIt consolidates all your travel plans into the app. Your itinerary is available to view 24/7 and you can access it no matter how or where you purchased your plane tickets. To use the app, you just forward all the emails and scheduling messages you get from your hotel and your airline to TripIt. It inputs your hotel information, travel plans, and your airline info into the app automatically.
This eliminates the need to keep going back to your email to check your itinerary or keeping up with multiple documents on your smartphone. It’s all in the app and get this—you can even check weather reports and find directions to the airport. View delays and departure times and more through TripIt and keep your travel plans more organized with this unique app.
TripIt is free to use for the basic app, but if you’d like to upgrade to TripIt Pro which features even more useful resources, it costs $49.00 per year. TripIt for Teams costs $29 per month for up to 10 users, so if you’re planning a small company trip, that might be something you’d like to take advantage of.
All TripIt plans come with a 30-day free trial and work with any smartphone device and are PC and Mac-friendly.
PayPal
While PayPal has its quirks, it’s also a very convenient and safe way to send and receive money instantly to anyone online or on a mobile device. Whether you’re sending money to a friend or family member, or you’re paying someone within your small business, PayPal has a program for a variety of users out there. PayPal small business owners can take advantage of the PayPal Business accounts which lets you do more with invoicing and keeping track of expenses than basic PayPal accounts.
You can link your bank accounts and credit cards to your PayPal account and your personal information is never shared with anyone. Users are paid and can pay others by simply sending it to their PayPal email where they can leave it in their PayPal account or transfer it to a bank of their choice.
Companies of any size can also pay invoices and receive payments in a variety of ways with PayPal making it extremely versatile and user-friendly.
Although fees do occur when payments are sent to employees through the business app, owners can choose whether to pass the fee onto the employee or pay the fee themselves. While this can be frustrating, the main perk about using PayPal for financing and payments is that it allows for fuss-free payments to be sent without hassle and exchange of personal information.
PayPal’s basic merchant plan is free and the Pro plan costs up to $30 per month which comes with added features. The PayPal app is completely free to use no matter what plan you choose. Many companies choose to also use PayPal’s system to receive payments directly on their websites and smartphones with the PayPal button feature that PayPal offers.
Evernote
How many notes and lists and to-do’s do you have lying around or cluttered up within your emails? If you’re like most small business and even large business owners, the answer is probably more than you care to think about. Right?
Enter Evernote! Evernote is probably one of the most popular apps if not the most popular app for syncing notes and to-do’s among all your devices. It also offers a variety of plans for however much data you anticipate you’ll be uploading to the app.
Evernote’s basic plan is free. The free plan allows you to upload up to 60 megabytes of data per month and after that you can upgrade to the Plus version if you choose. Plus versions of Evernote start at $35 per year and feature up to 1 GB of available data uploads per month.
If you need even more storage, there is also a Premium version of Evernote which offers up to 10GB of data per month. The Premium plan costs $70 per year and comes with other additional features.
Square
Square is one of the best small business apps out there, especially those that need to receive instant payments, such a retail shops or even small food truck companies.
Square users first download the Square app (which is free), enter their information, and then they receive a small, portable card reader that they can attach to any phone or other mobile device to receive instant, fast payments. It’s basically like having an instant credit card accepter that you attach to your smartphone! Once a customer pays, Square users can transfer the money to their bank or a debit or credit card of their choice.
In terms of costs, Square deducts a fee of 2.75% of every swipe automatically which is very small compared to PayPal’s merchant fees which can differ depending on the amount of the payments sent and received. Manually entered transactions (versus those swiped) of Square cost up to 3.5% per transaction plus an additional 15 cents. So for a $10 sale, you’d still make $9.50 with this percentage loss.
Square plans costs up to $49 to start for small business owners. Larger businesses can also use Square but will receive custom pricing depending on their business size and needs.
The Square app is completely free to download and works on all devices and operating
More Options:
Other small business apps that you may find beneficial for finance, scheduling, marketing, and organization are also available on most varieties of smartphones today. Some of the other most popular small business apps for a variety of small business owners include Trello, Expensify, CoSchedule, Dropbox, and Mailchimp.
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