If you’re a business owner, you understand it’s both a gift and a burden to have a large amount of work on your plate. The weight of having numerous unfinished tasks running through your head at any one time can be overwhelming and it can be hard to manage your workload efficiently.
Luckily, there are many beneficial resources out there to help keep you and your business on track – and apps are unquestionably amongst them. We have listed some key areas where apps could help the overall efficiency of your business.
Payment & Finance Management
You obviously need this app in your life. Obviously. Our Walker Hill app is your go-to application for everything tax and finance. Features include a GPS logbook tracker that automatically keeps track of your mileage, a receipt and expense management feature, an income tracker and a GST calculator. You also get the latest and greatest industry news as well as key dates, facts and tax updates. And, as always, the Walker Hill team are here to provide professional and personal advice.
Stripe is an excellent app for those who operate an online business. Whether it’s an ecommerce store or a demanding marketplace, Stripe ensures you have the support features to get paid quickly and securely online. Stripe currently works in 25 countries and accepts 135 currencies, which is extremely beneficial to businesses who work internationally.
Unless you’ve never bought something online, you’ve most likely heard of PayPal. The PayPal app is such a simple way to transfer and receive money on the go in a secure way. PayPal has partnered with millions of websites and stores worldwide, so your clients are most likely to be familiar with the service. You can also create and send personalised invoices for efficient client billing.
Xero is a fantastic online accounting app. You can rely on Xero as your money managing guru and create invoices, view your cash flow and access professionals when you need advice. You are notified when a client has opened their invoice and each transaction is categorised for simple reviewing. You can also schedule your own personal expenses and view your account details in real time.
Fresh Books gives you access to simple and secure invoicing, expense tracking and time tracking. This is an easy app to function with customisable features to ensure your invoices look professional and match your style guide. You can send personalised invoices and automated follow-ups to your clients, so you can spend your valuable time where it’s really needed.
Time Management
If you’re looking to improve your time management, downloading Toggl could be your next life-saver. Toggl is a simple time tracker which helps you log the time you or your employee has spent on a task. This app is particularly useful if you bill clients for your time. It also helps to identify where you may be wasting crucial time or re-evaluate where more of your time is required. With Toggl, you can export timesheets and even email your billable hours straight to your clients.
This is another great app that helps to schedule and track your time. No more guessing how long you spent on a task, TSheets gives you accurate timing and allows supervisors to track an entire team at once. TSheets also includes GPS location tracking so you can manage your travel time and distance precisely.
Productivity
Asana is an online task manager service that enables you to send and receive tasks to staff members, and yourself! So, if you’re one of those people who has an endless list of things to do and you have trouble keeping track of them all, this is the app for you. You can provide deadlines, project descriptions and categorise each task you set for easy organisation.
If you’re getting lost in a mountain of tasks, content and folders, put them all into one place with Trello. This is a great application that enables you to create numerous ‘boards’ containing ‘lists’ where you can categorise, well, anything you like! You can invite multiple staff members to your account to ensure your entire team are across all important projects.
Don’t have time to schedule new posts for your social media each day? Download Meet Edgar to do it for you! This app schedules and posts the material you upload, and then automatically reschedules posts, so you have an endless stream of content posting to your chosen platforms. Meet Edgar keeps all your uploaded content in a library and carefully rosters them so the same content isn’t republished too often.
Internal Communication
Business can get busy, and sometimes you need to contact a staff member quickly … like ‘right now’ quickly. To avoid boundless trips across the office floor, or becoming just another email in a full mailbox, download Slack for your team, an instant messaging service for businesses. Slack allows you to send large files, video call and contact staff on the go with the mobile and desktop app. Think of is like the MSN of the corporate world!
Dropbox is a personal favourite of mine because I am constantly needing to access big files on the go, and my phone just can’t hold them all. Dropbox is an online storage centre where you can upload, download, share and open files and content. Whether you’re a solo photographer with a large portfolio of high-res images, or a team of accountants who share multiple client documents, Dropbox gives you quick and easy access to documents at the click of a finger.
External Communication
Social Media
It’s a given, but in the twenty-first century having your business on various social media platforms is a must. Many customers and clients turn to social media to contact a business or service, therefore it is important to have the access to your accounts on to go. Download the fundamental social media applications such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Skype to ensure you are always contactable.
It’s important to stay in-mind of your current and potential customers, so monthly or weekly emails are a great way to do this. MailChimp is a fantastic email marketing service that helps you produce, organise and send emails to your own personalised mailing list. MailChimp helps you to create eye-catching email templates, awesome signatures and stores your mailing list in a secure place.
