10 Must-Have Apps for Running a Business With the help of today's technology, running a business is a little easier.
By Rose Leadem
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Running a business is no walk in the park. Luckily, with the help of today's technology, it doesn't have to be as difficult.
Related: 20 Productivity Apps You Didn't Know You Needed
There are an abundance of apps today to make your job as a business owner, manager or leader a little bit easier. By utilizing some of this tech, you can outsource and streamline a number of your business processes. From employee management to booking travel to expense tracking -- there's an app out there to help you cover almost every task.
Not sure where to start? Here are 10 must-have apps for running a business.
FullContactFullContact, free
From customers to clients to colleagues, managing your contacts can get messy. Rather than depending on the generic contact list that comes on your smartphone or laptop, FullContact is a contact management app that does the hard work for you. By simple putting in basic information such as a company's web address or a person's social handles, FullContact creates full profiles of these people and companies for you. While they'll all be put into a master list, you can also sort them into categories, projects or groups where you see fit.
(iOS, Android, MacOS, Windows)
WireWire, free
With the amount of hacks today, securing your communications is extremely important. Secured with end-to-end encryption, Wire lets users make calls, text and send pictures, videos, GIFs, music, drawings and more.
(iOS, Android, MacOS, Windows)
PleoPleo, free
Keeping track of your expenses is vital to the health of your organization. While documenting receipts, filling out paperwork and reimbursing employees can be a tedious process, Pleo is an app that does all of this for you. Calling itself "a company payment card solution," Pleo does expense reporting and helps to find ways to simplify and reduce company spending.
(iOS, Android, MacOS, Windows)
Related: 6 Tips to Running a Business and Improving Your Education
AdobeAdobe Scan, free
The process of finding a scanner, scanning a document and emailing it to yourself can be long, and feels a bit outdated. And that's because it is. With Adobe Scan, you can simply snap a picture of things such as receipts, notes, pictures, business cards and more and upload it to the app for it to be transformed into a PDF.
(iOS, Android)
CashNotifyCashNotify, $19.90
Keeping a close eye on your company's cash flow is crucial to keeping things running smoothly. And for any small businesses that use Stripe for their sales or payments, they might also want to tack on CashNotify. CashNotify is an app that helps monitor all of a person's or business's Stripe accounts, notifying users when they've received money, if any payments have failed and more.
(MacOS)
AppearAppear, free
Many businesses today have dispersed staffs, with employees working remotely from different parts of the world. While a distributed team can be perfect for some organizations, it does come with its own set of challenges, one of the biggest being communication. However, with Appear, teams of up to 12 people can collaborate through group video conferencing, being able to communicate face-to-face worldwide.
(iOS, Android, MacOS, Windows)
Law DocumentsLaw Documents, $1.99
Launching and running a business comes with lots of paperwork and legal documents. And finding or drafting these items can be time-consuming. Law Documents does that work for you, providing an archive of free legal documents, with everything from non-disclosure agreements to office leases.
(iOS)
Related: 9 Free Apps That Immediately Make Life Easier
ShiftShift, free
Logging out of your email account, logging into your second account, then logging out and signing back into your first email account is tedious. But there's an easier way to switching between email accounts. For Gmail users only, Shift lets people easily switch between email accounts without having to keep logging in and out. Available on Gmail, Outlook and Office 365, Shift not only lets you switch between emails, but it also helps de-clutters your desktop and sends you notification about what's going on in your inboxes.
(MacOS, Windows)
TripItTripIt, free
From booking hotels to dealing with delayed flights, travel can be stressful. Another thing you don't want to have to deal with is creating an itinerary, especially if you've got multiple people in the company who are traveling for business. TripIt consolidates all of your travel plans into one master itinerary. All you have to do is forward any travel emails to TripIt and the app will take it from there.
(iOS, Android, MacOS, Windows)
KanbanFlowKanbanFlow, free
As a manager or business owner, it can be difficult to keep track of employees' workloads. With KanbanFlow, you can assign tasks, upload documents, schedule deadlines and create a visual graphic of employees' workflows.
(iOS, Android, MacOS, Windows)
