Published on 26/02/2020 by Any Business.Com.Au

What are the best business apps to use?

Technology has undoubtedly been the biggest influencer on the way businesses do business over the past decade.

Businesses have had to quickly acclimatise to the latest in technological developments or face the possibility of being left behind.

But how can you make the technology work for you?

If you're looking to increase productivity and organisation, or just make your life as a small business owner a little easier, a good business app well applied can be the unassuming asset you've been looking for.

Every business focuses on three basic concepts; boosting sales, building a reliable customer base, and improving the efficiency levels of the company. Mobile apps have helped in achieving these goals to a great extent.

We've compiled a list of popular business apps that could help your business progress and function more efficiently.

Finance and accounting

These apps can streamline your business's financial tasks, including payroll and taxes, and give you a better picture of your company's financial health.

Gusto

This app makes your company's payroll, tax and benefits processes more efficient.

In addition to managing online employee onboarding, Gusto handles new-hire reporting and all local, state and federal tax filings; automates deductions for benefits and workers' comp payments; and emails digital pay stubs to employees.

Xero & Quickbooks

These accounting software packages help you run your business and provides a sense of your company's overall financial health.

You can use them to track your business' sales and expenses; view financial statements, such as profit and loss reports; pay your employees and vendors; track unpaid invoices; maximse your tax deductions; and more.

Each can connect to your bank accounts and uploads data from these sources seamlessly.

Communication

Communicating effectively is critical for the daily operations of small businesses. Here are some of the best communication apps to improve productivity within your company.

Addappt

Addappt makes it easier to manage your contacts. When your business contacts, friends and family update their contact information, the changes automatically extend to your phone, provided your contacts also use Addappt. You can also organise contacts into groups and send messages via the app.

Slack

With Slack's instant messaging platform, you can organise your team's conversations into separate private or public channels or send a direct message. The app also makes it easy to drag, drop and share images, PDFs and other files right in the chat. It automatically indexes and archives any message, notification or file, and there's no limit to how many users your business can add.

Skype

Despite having been around for some time, Skype remains effective and popular, with more than 10 million reviews on Google Play.

You can use Skype to video or voice call anyone in the world; get up to 25 people together on a call; transmit video, photos and files of any size; share your computer screen; and send text or voice messages.

Time Management

Here are some of the best time-management apps to help you organise your schedule and stay focused on the most important tasks at hand.

Rescuetime

RescueTime automatically tracks time you've spent on applications and websites and sends you detailed reports based on your activity, giving you an accurate picture of how you spent your day. You can set alerts to notify you when you've spent a certain amount of time on an activity, like social networking or reading the news, and block distracting websites.

My minutes

If you find you can't stay focused on your most important tasks — or you're wasting too much time on Facebook — My Minutes can help you stay grounded by setting goals, such as "Spend only one hour checking email" or "Work out for 30 minutes." The app is available for iPhones only.

Organisation

Stay on top of all of your errands and work tasks with these top organisation apps.

Asana

If your business is looking to improve its communication and collaboration, look no further than Asana. The web-based and mobile app lets you view all tasks and projects and follow progress on the Asana board, and you can share notes, upload files and communicate without having to rely on email. Asana also integrates with Google Drive and Dropbox to attach files, and with Slack for communication to post updates to a Slack messaging channel.

Evernote

Evernote is the app for keeping your notes organized. You can store and share your personal and business to-do lists, reminders and notes across mobile and desktop devices. Evernote is available on Windows, Mac, iOS and Android devices.

Trello

Trello is an easy-to-use project management app that tracks your team's workflow. Each card you create on a Trello board represents an assignment or task. You can add members, comments, attachments, checklists, due dates, and labels and stickers to make the cards as descriptive as possible. Whenever you change a card, Trello notifies each member via email and on mobile devices.

Some of the favs

Below are some of the most popular and effective business focused apps on the market.

Expensify

Expensify makes keeping track of business trip expenses less painful. You can link your credit or debit card to your Expensify account so the app will place charges directly on an expense report. Or, if you prefer, you can take pictures of your receipts with your phone, and Expensify will automatically extract the relevant information. You can then make an expense report yourself, which takes only a few minutes.

Dropbox

Boasting 500 million users and 200,000 businesses, Dropbox is the most popular platform on which to store and share files in the cloud. It's especially useful for companies that need a reliable way to share information with telecommuters.

Mailchimp

MailChimp helps you build and manage your mailing lists and easily create and send newsletters. You can also build and customise email templates and view performance reports about your emails. This information can help you send your customers more relevant emails.

AnyBusiness.com.au

Curtis is a leading expert in the business-for-sale industry, serving as a senior content creator at anybusiness.com.au.

With a career spanning over fifteen years, Curtis has accumulated extensive knowledge in the domain of business sales, acquisitions, and valuations. His deep understanding of market dynamics and his ability to translate complex industry jargon into accessible insights make him a trusted resource for entrepreneurs and business owners looking to buy or sell businesses.

Author profile

Related articles

The Importance of Integrating E-Commerce Regardless of What You're Selling

25/06/2025 by AnyBusiness.com.au

Running a small business has its challenges, but with advancements in technology, there are more opportunities to grow than ever before.Along with the emergence of AI, one powerful tool that has revolutionised how businesses operate is e-commerce. And it may not be as hard to integrate into your business as it sounds.If you're a small business owner and haven't yet fully embraced e-commerce, you're missing out on an incredi...