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When you’re running a small business, time is of the essence. But between the meetings, cold calls, admin, and groundwork, it’s too often in short supply. The question remains: How can we manage our schedules more efficiently without losing out on productivity? The answer, it seems, has been sitting in our pockets all along.
Financial Apps
It’s a wonder that business owners managed to get by without the help of mobile apps. Nowadays, you need only glance down at your phone screen to get a real-time update of your business’s financial security. Finance apps are an excellent way to track expenses, sales, file taxes, and monitor cash flow. Best of all, many of these apps can be customized to your business needs and can be co-accessed by your accountant/finance department.
Payroll Apps
The ideal payroll system provides a good UI and easy management of employee perks and wages, whilst also tracking any developments by the team. There are apps that provide time and project tracking from mobile devices, easy-use team management features, and employee timesheets. You can control your team’s payroll from anywhere with real-time reporting and complete desktop integration — meaning, you and HR are never a screen apart.
Organization Apps
It’s amazing how many hours of the day are lost due to poor organization. With the right apps, however, it’s possible to get a handle on daily tasks and, through better admin, accrue back some of those valuable minutes. Time-tracking, project management, task management, and file-sharing apps are all crucial for business and can be coordinated on or off the desktop. This means, once the whole team is using them, it’s possible to stay connected at all times during the workday and keep everyone on the same schedule.
Productivity Apps
It’s true when they say there’s an app for everything, this apparently counts for our procrastination habits, too. Productivity apps focus on helping you maintain focus, reduce bad habits, and encourage good ones. It’s amazing how much time exactly we lose to tandems, but with these simple mobile downloads, you’ll be able to check exactly how much and set prompts to keep yourself on task. Better still, desktop versions will block certain websites that you know will suck up time that should be spent working.
Communication Apps
If you can’t get through to your team, clients, lawyers, accountants, or whoever else, you’re losing time. That’s why clear, usable communication apps are imperative for small businesses. Ideally, you want to narrow your decision down to one that can be used across platforms, on iOS and Android. This app should also be in wide circulation and easily accessible, as well as providing video call functions as this has become a crucial component of post-pandemic business practices.
Keep in mind that while apps can help you communicate with your team, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have alternate communication plans in place just in case your communication app is temporarily inaccessible. An online banner can be an effective way of updating employees about any communication issues, especially if they’re working through a restricted network. Prepare your banner ahead of time by using a banner template and then choosing your font and updating the copy when you need to make announcements.
Sales Apps
It’s actually possible now to link cash registers, credit card readers, and inventory all through a mobile app. Point of sales apps are handy ways to accept payments, track receipts, and sync everything up live with your accounting software. Ideally, your chosen app works well with a tablet and operates easily so you can avoid any hassle at the moment of payment. This has quickly become the easiest and most transparent way of handling sales.
Without realizing it, we often lose hours of our day to procrastination, poor organization, or miscommunication. But with a few helpful apps, it’s possible to fine-tune your work process and enjoy extra time moving forward.
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