The Best Apps for Small Business Owners

Starting and running your own business is no easy task, but there are things you can do to make your life just a little bit easier. Staying organized is important for any business owner, but when you are the accountant, the assistant, and the salesperson, you really need to keep your ducks in a row.

Check out some of these apps that will give you back the time you desperately need.

QuickBooks

Quickbooks connects to your business bank account, PayPal, and Square (and thousands more) and uploads real-time data to help you keep on track with your spending. This app also allows you to track expenses and upload pictures of receipts from your phone — a time saver for sure.

Key Features:

View profit and loss reports

Track unpaid invoices

Pay employees

Price: Starts at $7.50/month for freelancer plan

Freshbooks

This cloud accounting software will make your invoicing both quick and simple. Create and personalize invoices, and set up automatic billing. You can also track business expenses and create a record of how you spend your time so you can track productivity.

Key Features:

Accessible from any and all of your screens

Accept credit cards on your mobile device

Converts estimates into invoices

Price: $15/month for five clients; Free Invoice Template downloads

Gusto

Gusto is a lifesaver for small business owners with a few employees. Gusto handles payroll, benefits and taxes all in one powerful mobile app.

It helps onboard new employees, reports new hires to the government, handles taxes at the federal, state, and local levels, automatically deducts worker’s compensation payments and deductions, and emails employees’ pay stubs.

This app is free for the first month.

Point-of-sale

Point-of-sale software allows you to ring up customers and complete sales, and customize to fit your business needs. Restaurants, for example, need POS systems that allow for table management and coordination. Retail shops, meanwhile, require robust inventory management features.

Square

Software cost: Free and up. (Additional hardware and payment processing are additional costs.)

Square features transparent pricing, live support, and easy-to-use flows. It’s mobile-friendly and works on iPhones, iPads, and Androids. There is a basic free plan for those that don’t need to use all the features.

Google Workspace

Google Workspace (formerly called G Suite) lets you port files among PCs, tablets, and smartphones. The standard package comes with 30 GB of online storage per user with options to upgrade. It also allows you to create docs, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, and more.

Key Features:

Offers a popular set of intelligent business apps

Stops the need to use different apps for basic business functions

Provides professional and ad-free business email experience.

Price: Plans start as low as $6 per user per month.

DocuSign

DocuSign allows you to collect signatures online or via a mobile device. This is an easy-to-use tool for collecting necessary information from clients and remote employees.

Key Features:

Offers rapid app development

Stops inconvenience of collecting signatures in person

Provides powerful integrations with Salesforce, Google, Microsoft, and more

Price: Starts at $10/month

Shopventory

For small businesses with inventory, Shopventory offers a simple solution with powerful inventory management features. Check profit margins, compare locations, and see sales trends.

Shopventory will help pinpoint what isn’t selling well so you can choose to discount it or skip a restock. It also alerts you if it suspects theft. The app helps small business owners stay up to date on their inventory. It’s definitely one of the best apps to manage small business inventory.

Shopventory doesn’t have its own payment processing system, but it does integrate with systems like Square, Shopify, PayPal Here, and others.

A basic plan is free for one business location. Paid plans start at $29 a month.

Evernote

This app helps you to organize your voice recordings, documents, notes, images, and content clipped from the web in one place, plus search, collaborate, and also annotate. It’s like a filing cabinet for your computer, phone, or tablet.

Wunderlist

Sometimes things just need to be easy. Wunderlist keeps things simple but effective. It’s a to-do list that you can share with your team. It syncs automatically so your employees can see what items are done and which ones are still pending.

The basic version of Wunderlist is free. Wunderlist for Business is $4.99 per user, and it lets you delegate tasks to your employees, make subtasks, set deadlines and reminders, and add notes.

Slack

Slack has gained popularity over the past few years because it allows you to communicate with your team via group chat or private message from anywhere.

Toggle

Toggle is a time-tracking app great for freelancers who need to track billable hours. You can categorize it by listing your clients and keeping track of who gets billed what.

Small business owners are always on the go, so find ways to be efficient and give you back some much-needed time.

Have an app that makes your life easier? We’d love to hear about it!