When you run a business you have many demands on your time so you need all the help you can get.
Enter the apps! There are many useful apps and app advisory services offered by professional advisers in your industry. To find out which will help you the most it’s well worth reviewing what you currently do and how it can be streamlined to save you time, money and reduce stress.
Let’s look at some apps that will improve your working day, free up time for creativity – and give you back your life:
FreeAgent, Xero and Quickbooks
Do you ever get nervous about your accounts or how much tax you have to pay? Bookkeeping software used to be written in complicated languages that only accountants could understand – thankfully these days are gone. The likes of FreeAgent, QuickBooks and Xero have transformed how bookkeeping and accounting is done. You can see how your business is doing on a monthly rather than yearly basis.
Receipt Bank, Auto Entry and Expensify
It can be time consuming to collate and record invoices and receipts. There are some good apps including Auto Entry, Expensify and Receipt Bank that allow you to capture these receipts on the go and send them directly to your accountant. You can even ask your suppliers to send their invoices to the app to free up your inbox a bit. How much more headspace will you find with less in your inbox?
Clockify, Toggle, Hubstaff and Time Doctor
With so much going on, it’s not uncommon to ask yourself, what you’ve achieved during the day. Now you can automatically monitor how you spend your time so you can identify where and how to be more productive. You will be amazed how much of your time gets diverted away from important tasks. And these tools also help you get organised. So, you can focus on a task for 45 minutes and really get things done.
Zoom, Goto Webinar and RingCentral
Cut out the travel time and meet your prospects or staff online via a video meeting app. You can share screens, take control of their computers and even use white boards just like you would do in a live meeting.
People HR, Breath HR and Others
Do you still spend time on paper forms or excels or legacy desktop systems to keep your HR records? Do your staff have to submit forms or send you other manual requests to book their holidays? How long does it take you to check whether the business will have sufficient staff during a holiday period and then to approve the holiday? Try any of the above tools and see the time, money and effort they can save your business.
Calendly, Acuity Scheduling and Timetrade
Going back and forth with clients and stakeholders to schedule appointments, reschedule, and then reschedule again can be time consuming. Avoid email and telephone tag when arranging meetings. With any of the above tools, people can now access a version of your diary that shows them all of the slots that you have decided to make available for meetings.
Business Operation and Management Apps
There are other great apps that could be discussed here depending on your industry. For instance, if you’re retailer, restaurant or you hold stock, then an apps like Vend, Izettle and others are worth looking at. For other businesses, tools like Zoho CRM, Infusionsoft, Trello, Monday and Asana can really save you time and help you find that creative space.
GoCardless, IntegraPay and Others
If you customers have not paid within the agreed 30 days you could be dashing for cash or frantically calling customers at the 11th hour to get assurance that you will be paid just so that you can, at least, meet those bills including payroll.
Why not avoid all of this and use an online direct debit app so that you and your customer can agree when you will take payment? Easier and quicker for everyone – and certainly less stressful for you.
Zapier, Workato and Others
With all these apps, it’s important to ensure they integrate and talk to each other to avoid further waste and chaos. Apps like Zapier and Workato allow you to link two systems together without any coding or programming skills. Always check whether the App has what is called an API so it can link to other systems.
Clearly this list of apps is a sample of what is available. What is important is that you use the apps and tools available to automate where possible, reduce the number of manual processes and avoid time consuming and unnecessary work. That way you can make the most productive use of your work time, have space for creativity, and even free time up for other aspects of life.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jonathan Amponsah CTA FCCA is an award winning chartered tax adviser and accountant who has advises business owners on business streamlining apps and processes to make business less taxing. Jonathan is the founder and CEO of The Tax Guys. www.thetaxguys.co.uk