Running a business solely from an office is a thing of the past. Nowadays entrepreneurs attend meetings, prepare presentations, and manage people from airports, cabs, restaurants, and even their couches.
Whether you’re starting your first entry-level job, own your own business, or are sitting in the C-suite of a major company, you need the right apps to complete your business tasks and keep track of your projects, both inside and outside the office.
Evernote
Create lists, save clips from the web, discuss things with other Evernote users, and work on your projects from any device. Evernote is the ultimate note-taking tool. You can group your notes into notebooks to collect ideas and separate projects, and you can collaborate with your coworkers or clients through Evernote to get everything done faster. Two upgrades, Plus and Premium versions, offer extras like more space, offline access, and PDF annotation.
Scannable
Add Scannable to your Evernote account and turn your phone’s camera into a scanner. Scannable picks up on the document you want to scan, edits out any background images, and centers it on your screen. It also whitens the background for readable text. Collate multiple scans into a PDF document, which saves to your Evernote account.
Square Register
Every small business needs a way to do quick point-of-sale transactions, especially on the go. With Square Register, your Samsung Galaxy S5 and the T-Mobile network become your credit card swipe, signature pad, and direct deposit. With the free magnetic swipe tool that plugs directly into your headphone jack, you can take credit and debit cards directly from customers, and email or text receipts immediately. The money ends up in your bank in one to two days. You can also connect to a receipt printer or a cash drawer if you have them.
The Square Register app isn’t just a point-of-sale system; it also helps you manage invoices, see your sales history, and analyze your sales data. Issuing refunds and applying discounts are no problem with Square Register. It even helps you track and update your inventory. A fee of 2.75 percent is applied per swipe, rather than a charge for downloading the app or maintaining an account. At least you can write that fee off your taxes.
Expensify
The opposite side of Square Register is Expensify, which helps you track your business spending and create expense reports. It helps you do everything from tracking the miles you travel to snapping pictures of the receipts you (used to) need to save. You can also email a PDF of your most recent expense report directly to your manager, or if you are the manager, send it along to your accountant.
Trello
Use Trello to manage your projects and your employees. Whether you need to track team sales, assign projects, or create to-do lists, Trello helps you keep that data organized and easily accessible. The interface is designed like a storyboard: you write on cards, then put them up on a board. Each board can represent a project, a goal, a team of employees, or any other organization criteria you want. Trello is great for executives and small business owners because you can share tasks and boards with your employees and partners, ask for feedback, and assign tasks.
Google Drive
Don’t underestimate the power of the cloud when it comes to your business. Google Drive is a good choice for businesses because it’s free or low-cost, easy to use, and offers a large amount of storage. With easy-to-share documents and specific folder security settings, it’s a great way to communicate with your employees and store your private business documents. Make it even easier to access and edit your files by downloading Google Docs and Google Sheets as well.
Not only do these apps make it easier to do business when you’re away from the desk, they also help you with some of the tasks that are most arduous, like updating inventory or creating expense reports. Use them to stay connected with your employees and keep your business growing.