Apart from a cellphone being your daily organizer, music player, camera, GPS system and a news source – there is so much more you can do with that gadget and the possibilities are increasing with each new day. The phrase “there is an app for everything” has never been more real than it is today, with apps being developed to cover every bit of life. Would you believe there are even apps for things like rejection, quitting your job and motivation, you name it.
But for
us small business owners, what is in that gigantic box of tricks for us, what
can we pull out of it that can turn our smartphones into a business
productivity tool. Below are just 6 of the many apps that I have found
helpful…there are so much more but that is for another time another blog.
1. CamCard
CamCard will
come in handy for those who network a lot and need to follow up with the people
they meet. This app uses the built-in camera on the smartphone or tablet to
take a photo of the business card and uses OCR (optical character recognition)
technology to identify and populate the relevant fields in your contact list.
With cloud storage and synchronization capability, you are able to upload
scanned cards into a free online Camcard account.
The app
is available across the board – iOS, Android, Blackberry 7, Blackberry 10 and
Windows 8 Platforms - and supports multiple languages. It can be downloaded for
free at the iOS App Store and Android Google Play Store.
COST: FREE
ALTERNATIVES: CardReader, CardMunch,
ScanBizCards,
BusinessCard Reader
2. Expensify
Expensify
is an expense account management app that allows you to snap photos of receipts
and which the app then scans, logs, and creates meticulous expense reports
from. Frequent business travelers and field staff will appreciate this
app because it helps them keep track of their receipts as well as classify and
categorize them ensuring that you get to submit accurate reports to the
accounts department for reimbursement.
The service
is FREE to join and has both a web version and an app version. Expensify
is available for iPhone/iPad, Android, WebOS, and BlackBerry devices. Get
it at expensify.com
ALTERNATIVES: Xpenditure,
Shoeboxed,
WebExpenses
3. Evernote
You know
those ideas that pop into your mind and you wish you had a pen and paper to jot
them down because just as first as they came, they might evaporate into thin
air.
Evernote
ensures that you can hold that thought, by enabling you to store your ideas,
notes (via text or voice), web clips and images all in one place for later
use. You can sync these entries between your mobile and desktop for
access anywhere. This app makes planning and doing research much easier
for the mere fact that you can do both on the go.
ALTERNATIVES: GoogleKeep, Quip, OneNote, Spring pad, Simplenote
4. TurboScan
TurboScan
turns your phone into a scanner allowing you to quickly scan multipage
documents – receipts, notes – into high quality PDF’s, store them or
email them as multipage PDF or JPEG Files. TurboScan uses the camera
functionality on your device to take pictures of the documents you would like
to scan. One of the coolest things about it is that it uses advanced fast
algorithms to auto-detect document edges, straighten the documents; has instant
one-tap brightness, rotation, and color controls and you can copy pages to
clipboard and paste.
COST: $2.99
ALTERNATIVES: GeniusScan, CamScanner, DroidScan, Scanner
Pro
QuickBooks
the accounting software of choice for many small businesses also has a mobile
app. With QuickBooks mobile app you can easily manage your business accounts
while away from your office. You can view and edit customer information,
send invoices, receive payments, create estimates and record sales receipts on
your mobile device.
The app
has a payments feature with which you can mark invoices and bills as paid,
track your payments and record sales and manage accounting and bookkeeping. You
can also manage customers by viewing and editing customer accounts from mobile
CRM, manage outstanding customer balances and CRM.
For those
who already have subscription to QuickBooks Online the Mobile apps are included
free. For the available plans (start at $9.99) visit http://appcenter.intuit.com/quickbooksconnect
6. Drop box
Dropbox
is a cloud based data storage service for your docs, photos and videos. With
this app you can sync your files across various devices including PC, Tablet
and Mobile making it easy to access your data anywhere. You can share
these files with other users for collaboration. The app allows you to schedule
automatic backups and control bandwidth usage and configure email
notifications.
All new
Dropbox accounts and downloads are totally free. The accounts start with 2GB of
free space. You can earn more free space by i.e referring your friends to
Dropbox. If you run out of space you can upgrade your account with a monthly or
yearly subscription to a Dropbox Pro 100GB, 200GB or 500GB
Dropbox
is available on Google Play
ALTERNATIVES: MyPC Backup,
SugarSync,
OpenDrive,
iBackup
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