By Neville Chamunorwa
Business apps are essential for running your business efficiently. They enable you to maintain control of the many aspects that are key to operating effectively on a day to day basis. With a plethora of apps on the market today, deciding which ones will work best for you depends entirely upon your unique business requirements. If you’re unsure where to start your search, the following article will point you in the right direction.
The apps are split into five main categories for your convenience.
· Project management apps
· Time tracking apps
· Team communication apps
· CRM apps
· Accounting apps
Project Management Apps
Basecamp
Basecamp was one of the first project management platforms designed to facilitate team collaboration on different projects. The app streamlines project management and client relations through its user-friendly interface, which means that communications are a lot more organized than lengthy email chains. All the tools needed to make a project successful are provided, including message boards, schedules, to-dos, group chats, and automatic check-in questions. The only drawback is that it doesn’t come with some of the advanced features that other project management apps have.
Basecamp Business costs $99 per month. This is an all-inclusive price with no additional fees for extra users. There is a 30 day free trial available to test the platform before you invest any money. You will benefit from unlimited projects, users, clients and contractors in addition to 500GB of storage space, VIP support and advanced client access, meaning you have control over what they can and can’t see.
Full pricing options and features are available in more detail.
Asana
Asana is an excellent project management tool that is particularly useful for organizing workflows. It enables your business to assign a variety of projects and tasks to different members of your team. You can communicate with colleagues on each task directly and also share important documents and files through the platform.
Asana is easy to navigate and you can track the progress of any task via the reporting function in a list or calendar view. The basic version of Asana is free for up to 15 team members and includes many useful features. The Premium plan costs $11.99 per person per month and takes away the team size restrictions in addition to providing more advanced features across the board.
Full pricing options and features are available in more detail.
Trello
Trello is a visual project management tool that enables individuals and groups to collaborate with any team. Different projects and tasks can be created and managed through boards, lists and cards. You can assign tasks, create checklists, attach files and chat to colleagues directly on the platform as well. Additionally, the user-friendly system has a level of flexibility that makes it adaptable to different user needs.
Trello is available as a free version, with up to 10 team boards, 10MB per file attachment and some useful but limited commands. The next level up is a Business Class plan for $12.50 per user per month. It provides all the features of the free version including unlimited team boards, up to 250MB per attachment and unlimited commands among many more advanced elements.
Full pricing options and features are available in more detail.
Time Tracking Apps
Jibble
Jibble is an exceptional time and attendance tracking solution that helps businesses to simplify payroll, client billing and employee productivity. The platform has an intuitive user interface and flawlessly integrates with a number of popular third-party applications including Slack and MS Teams. You can easily monitor the availability of your staff, which results in improved billable hours, minimized errors and increased efficiency for your organization.
The Basic plan is available from as little as $1.50 per user per month. It includes a basic dashboard and reporting feature, easy time tracking, export functionality and bot integrations. The next level up is the Power Lite plan, which costs $2.25 per user per month. All the features from the Basic plan are included in the Power Lite plan plus additional functions such as custom policies & restrictions and power-ups – extra components that tailor the system to your business needs.
Full pricing options and features are available in more detail.
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Toggl is a desk staff time tracker that’s designed to monitor how your time is spent to improve billable hours. It’s more expensive than Jibble but allow you track a variety of projects or clients, view visual graphs, export timesheets and synchronize with numerous project management apps.
Toggl’s Starter plan is available for $9 per user per month. It includes basic features such as time sinks and revenue earning, reporting, and project timelines and budgets. You can upgrade to the premium plan for $18 per user per month to make the most of improved functionality including productivity charts, tracking reminders and reports to email.
Full pricing options and features are available in more detail.
Team Communication Apps
Slack
Slack makes it easy to communicate with colleagues and clients in real-time. You can create channels for literally any subject area and this is supported by excellent filtering and search functionality, which means finding the information you need is a quick, simple process. The notifications system can be customized to your requirements if you only want to be alerted to specified communications.
Slack’s free version provides basic features including 10,000 searchable messages, 10 apps & integrations, and one-to-one video calls. The standard version costs $6.67 per person per month and delivers more advanced features such as smarter unlimited search, unlimited apps and group calls with screen sharing.
Full pricing options and features are available in more detail.
CRM Apps
Hubspot CRM
HubSpot CRM is a powerful solution that enables companies to track business relationships down to the finest details. You can manage your end-to-end sales pipeline, while staying organized and interacting with customers from the same tool. The software even allows you to monitor your contacts’ activity on the web in addition to being able to identify new website visitors who could potentially become customers.
HubSpot provides a completely free CRM solution that includes all the basic features of regular CRM systems. The Starter plan starts at $50 per month and offers more features than the free version. This includes better email marketing, ad management, list segmentation, landing pages and ad retargeting functionality.
Full pricing options and features are available in more detail.
Salesforce
Salesforce is a CRM solution that enables small to medium businesses and large corporations to manage sales and support services more effectively. The app’s functionality includes sales management, customer service, partner relationship management and marketing automation. This means, your organization can seamlessly manage customer accounts, track sales leads, carry out marketing campaigns and track performance in addition to offering post-sale services.
The first level of Salesforce CRM is called Essentials. It costs $25 per user per month and requires an annual contract. Essentials is an all-in-one sales and support app that comes with a 1 month free trial for up to 10 users. The next tier is the Sales Professional plan for $75 per user per month. It offers all the features in the Essentials plan and more. Sales Professional is a more rounded sales solution for teams of any size.
Full pricing options and features are available in more detail.
Accounting Apps
QuickBooks
QuickBooks makes managing business finances a straightforward process. The platform includes sales, invoices, expenses, payroll, taxes, and reports. It has a clean user interface with a dashboard that presents an up-to-date overview of your financial situation.
Quickbooks’ entry level for businesses is the Simple Start plan, which costs $25 per month, with 1 month free. It comes with all the basic accounting software elements such as tracking income and expenses, capturing & organizing receipts, invoicing & accepting payments and maximizing tax deductions to name a few. The next level is the Essentials plan for $40 per month, which comes complete with extra handy features such as time-tracking and managing bills.
Full pricing options and features are available in more detail.
Xero
Xero software is an accounting platform that connects businesses with their trusted advisors and provides comprehensive visibility into the firm’s finances. It enables you to view your cash flow, account details and bank transactions, which are imported and coded automatically among many other useful features.
Xero’s Early plan is available from $9 per month with a 1-month free trial. You can send 5 invoices & quotes, enter 5 bills, and reconcile up to 20 bank transactions. The Growing plan costs $30 per month with unlimited invoices & quotes, unlimited bills and unlimited bank transaction reconciliations.
Full pricing options and features are available in more detail.
Improved Business Management
These are our recommendations for the best apps to manage your business – good luck with them.
