Getting your small business prepared for the next year is always a concern of owners. Budgets need to be finalized, and as we all know, tax time is just around the corner.
Luckily, small business owners with an iPhone or iPod Touch can get a little help with some great apps for getting your loose ends tied up tight. All of these app are free, or super cheap, so the best part is you won’t have to break the bank just trying to stay on top.
One of the top iPhone apps for getting your affairs in order
As the end of the year quickly approaches, it’s easy to wonder where all the time went. Sometimes, the best thing to do is just to figure out what needs to get done. If you’re a small business owner, chances are you’ve got a long list of chores to sort through. But fear not — just download the EasyTask Manager app to give you an extra hand. EasyTask Manager (free) works like a digital to-do list that you can carry with you wherever you go. This app is not only easy to use, but it’s so simple that you can just get started right away. Tasks are added by clicking the — you guessed it — “Add Task” icon. The mini-calendar on the phone helps keep your to-do list in order and lets you know what tasks you have coming up, as well as the due dates for each one. You can also color-code tasks to show their importance to you. Sometimes, the best thing to be is just to be organized.
iPhone apps for keeping track of your people
Even with all the extra work you have to do before the end of the year, you can’t forget about your customers and contacts. Otherwise, you might not have to worry about them at all next year. In a recession, keeping in close contact is a top priority, and one you can’t let slide. For help, try the Salesforce Mobile app (free). This handy little app has a lite version that you can try out for free for 30 days to see if you like it. To fully use it however, you’ll have to get a Salesforce account, which isn’t a bad thing. Salesforce Mobile is useful for managing your contacts — you can scroll through contact info and accounts. It will also allow you to initiate phone calls and emails with your customers and contacts. The uses of this app go on and on, so you’ll have to download the lite version to see all the great ways it will work for you.
While you’re managing your customers and other contacts, you can’t forget about your employees. There’s probably a ton of work to do in this department, which is why you’ll need to download the SurePayroll app (free). Now, you can keep track of payroll expenses on the go. SurePayroll allows you to pay employees, enter payroll hours, preview totals, and even approve and run your payroll with just one click. This app also has the handy calendar feature, which will keep track of your payroll deadlines and will help to submit your payroll sheets to the proper branches of government. What more could you ask for? But, you’ll have to sign up for a SurePayroll account to get full access.
Get your numbers in order with these iPhone apps
With tax time just around the corner, there’s a million apps out there to make sure you’re doing it correctly. But we’ll get to those in a minute. First, you’ll have to make sure your budgets are right and find out how much money you’ve got and where it’s going. For all that, I suggest you give the Roambi-Visualizer (free) a shot. Interact with and share you business information with this handy app, which imports your excel spreadsheets and turns them into something you can actually understand. The Roambi-Visualizer app even works with your Salesforce account to give you better information about you business. This app will make all those numbers appear nicely ordered and presented as interactive graphs and charts.
Also here to help is the Mint app (Free). This app helps you budget and track your money from anywhere you are. You can add your online bank accounts and access your personal finances on the go. The best part of this app is that it does the hard work for you. You don’t need to enter in all your info, Mint downloads it from your banking records so you can view income versus expenses, or how great your market accounts are performing. Plus, if you lose your iPhone, no worries; just go to Mint.com and with one click, your account is put on hold so nosey people can’t see what you don’t want them to.
iPhone apps for tax time
Finally, we’ve arrived at tax time. Since this area is so important to running a small business, we’ve got two different apps to lend you a helping hand. First up is Dr. Taxes ($1.99). This app ain’t free, but it’s well worth your money if it helps you with your taxes. To begin to file your taxes, you have to understand what’s going on first and Dr. Taxes is here to help. Dr. Taxes let you know what has changed from last year in your filings. It also features tax tips from the IRS as well as answers your tax questions “to make sure you save the most in these tough economic times” (as the app’s description says). The app’s format is easy to use and interactive, so you wont be totally bored as you read tax information.
Finally, there’s the behemoth of all tax-time programs: Quickbooks. Since business is more mobile than ever, you need to be too. Luckily, there’s an app for these users too! Check out Opcenter.view- Quickbooks Desktop Data on the GO. Wow, that’s a long app name, but managing your taxes won’t take nearly as long when you’ve got this one. Get all your customer info, accounts, and transactions on your iPhone, so you can worry about your business anywhere. This app is 99 cents, but it’s only the viewer. You’ll have to download some stuff on your desktop as well as be a Quickbooks owner to fully use it. But if you’ve done all those things, you’re as linked up on your mobile as you are at your desk.
