Friday, May 27, 2011

6 Apps to Boost Efficiency


Does your business need a boost? Here are apps to help make your small business more efficient, while also saving money.

Clock in and out no matter where you are or which job you’re on, see how much money you’ve earned, and add notes to remind yourself what you did on any specific day. HoursTracker is particularly helpful for people who bill for separate clients and projects at different hourly rates — at the end of a pay period you can view your totals and see paychecks broken down by job. Price: $2.99

This app enables you to swipe and charge your client’s credit cards through your smartphone — which means getting paid on the spot when your business takes you out and about is no longer an issue. PayAnywhere tracks invoice numbers and keeps an inventory of items and services offered, with the added benefit of environmentally-friendly emailed receipts. Best of all, the app that puts money in your wallet comes to you completely free of charge; that means no minimum processing or hidden fees to subtract from your profit. Price: free

By linking up to your device’s address book, Invoice2go lets you provide bills, credit memos, purchase orders and estimates to clients and vendors, then allows for collection through PayPal and subsequently offers up all the information in a summary report. International businesses will find the global currency and tax options particularly helpful. Plus, with over 20 built-in invoices and the option to design your own template with your business logo, it isn’t a challenge to keep your documents professional and on-brand. Price: $9.99

Need to keep track of expenses? Expensify is a comprehensive expense report-generating app. It syncs up with your credit cards and bank accounts to log expenses, can scan paper receipts via phone camera, records your traveling mileage, and then aggregates all of your info into easily-understood analytics. Price: free

Efficiency means more money in your pocket. Basecamp, the wildly popular online project collaboration and management tool, is now mobile. You can quickly access project statuses, assign projects, complete tasks, post messages and add time logs with the click of a (smartphone) button. Access all of the information from a streamlined dashboard where you’ll manage your team’s tasks, to-do’s and time entries as well as view a multitude of computer files — PDFs, JPGs, Microsoft Office and more — from your phone. Price: $9.99

Keep track of your contacts using the mobile app for arguably the largest business-oriented social networks. The app gives users real-time updates from their contacts and allows users to look up important information about someone before, say, a big meeting. Users can also see what those in the same industry are working on, while also reading up on the latest headlines shared by their contacts. Price: Free



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