The best apps for small businesses

Running a small business often means doing several jobs at once.

As the business owner, you are simultaneously the employer, employee, accountant and admin as well as anything else that pops up during the course of a job.

If you feel like your time is constantly being pulled in multiple directions, and it is hard to stay on top of your tasks, don’t worry, we have a curated series of apps to help get your time back under control.

General productivity

Google Keep – iOS/Google Play

If you find that you are always misplacing notes, then Google Keep is for you. Keep’s strength comes from its simple design and tagging system. Quickly jot down a note and then either colour code it to the job it is related to or add a label for easy searching at a later date.

Keep also has a handwriting to text feature. Which, while admittedly not perfect, is an excellent way to save your pen and paper notes to the cloud!

You can also add photos, audio files and video to your notes as well, ensuring you have all of your information readily accessible no matter where you are.

Time management

Toggl – iOS/Google Play

With the press of a button, Toggl will track your time down to the second. This app is useful if you have billable hours that you need to account for, as well as getting a measure of how your time is spent. You can track different activities, and, importantly multiple employees which you can then break down into smaller groups as needed.

Ensuring that you are making the most of the time you have on a project is an excellent way to minimise stress and manage your workload.

Toggl is free for up to five users. The paid version, however, allows an unlimited number of users to log time as well adding rates and sub-projects.

Project management

Trello – iOS/Google Play

If you work in a highly visual manner, then Trello is the to-do app for you! Trello is a digital version of the Kanban system. You create a board with a series of cards to move across the different stages of a project. From quoting, to in progress, to complete. You can also assign cards to employees ensuring that everyone knows what part his or her role is in the project and who has dependencies at the different stages.

Having an overview of the project’s progress will give you a much clearer idea of the remaining time and costs involved and ultimately keep you and your staff on task.

Trello is free for personal use but does incur a fee if you are signing up multiple people under the one business.

Accounting

Invoice2go – iOS/Google Play

Invoice2go makes your accounting simple. With a few swipes you can invoice a client on the spot. Either by emailing them or exporting a PDF and printing.

It also keeps all of your accounts in the cloud, meaning wherever you are you can access your invoices, estimates and purchase orders from your office.

Users, reportedly, spend an average of three hours a week less on their accounting, meaning that you can devote more time doing what you do best – helping the customer!

If you are feeling overwhelmed at the thought of all you have to do, being able to keep all your notes in the one place, track your time, plan and manage projects and invoice on the go by downloading a few apps to help streamline your business will ultimately save you both time and money.