5 Apps for Small Businesses

Software has become a pivotal part of business and will only continue to grow in importance. The effective use of software not only makes jobs easier but saves a company money and gives management more time to focus on more important matters such as growing the business. Here are a few applications and packages that can really help a small business focus its efforts where they are needed.

1. Xero - Whether you are just starting up or have a few years under your belt, Xero is a great accounting package for a small business. Automatic bank feeds, for the majority of commercial banks, makes reconciliation much faster and reliable. The whole platform is cloud based which makes it easily accessible from anywhere and having the ability to set up custom and bespoke reporting with ease means you can access your information efficiently.
2. Slack - In a small business, communication is key and Slack provides an easy to use service for all. Having group channels for communication around specific projects, clients and topics drives efficiency. Transferring files through slack is more straightforward than other methods and makes the reviewing process easier.
3. G-Suite - This covers a multitude of applications but this service is a must have for any small business. Gmail is easy to administer and easy to use for any team member. It integrates with Google Calendar meaning organising meetings is no extra hassle. If you then combine these with Google Docs and Sheets, you can see why people believe they are essential for a small business, especially when collaboration is required. Google Drive creates a backup for all the previously mentioned services and is a great place to hold and back up non-Google documents. The price of this all inclusive service is also an important factor when comparing multiple packages against G-Suite.
4. Receipt Bank - This app makes reconciliations and expenses a breeze. It uses optical character recognition software (OCR) to read the receipts and fill all relevant information into the fields automatically. You can also set up auto publish rules to push through regular receipts to your accounting software. The expense process is also great - creating expense reports for senior management takes seconds. Having used other receipt/invoicing software, none have come close to Receipt Bank when it comes to reliability and consistency of its OCR technology.
5. Harvest - In any business, tracking what your employees spend their time doing is incredibly important. It’s not about keeping tabs on people but to make sure that you are spending time in the right areas and not over servicing for no reward. It also makes it easy to export data which allows you to thoroughly analyse time-sheets.

by Connor O’Brien