By Maureen “Mo” Elinzano
We all love our smartphones and tablets and we might even be addicted to them, like, really addicted to them. If we are one of those people who are glued to our smartphones and tablets as if they’re extra body parts, why not use that intense focus and attention in a productive manner? Am I right?
So before you comment on your friend’s Facebook post, tweet your lunch and like that selfie on Instagram, here are the 15 best smartphone apps for business, organization and productivity:
1. Evernote
Industry: Education, financial services, government, human resources, legal, mortgage
Summary: Whether you’re writing a grocery list or conducting lengthy research for a project, Evernote keeps you organized and progressing.
Cool features: Clip web articles, capture handwritten notes and snap photos into Evernote; connect, collaborate and share with anyone in the world in real-time; easily turn your notes into a beautiful, screen-friendly presentation with one click
Price: Free
Available: On all devices
2. Shoeboxed
Industry: Accounting, banking, financial services, insurance
Summary: Shoebox is basically does everything that a business expense manager would do in one digital program.
Cool features: Organize receipts with OCR, manage contact lists; send expense reports with receipt images from anywhere; track miles using your phone’s GPS; organize tax preparation with IRS images; use Shoeboxed’s “Magic Envelopes” to turn your paper clutter into digital data; integrates with most popular accounting programs including QuickBooks and Xero
Price: Free
Available: On all devices
3. TripIt
Industry: Transportation
Summary: TripIt makes travel easy and efficient with everything that you’ll need to have a great trip in one place.
Cool features: Organized and always accessible Master Itinerary; share travel plans with anyone and on social media; sync your travel plans with your favorite online or mobile calendar; automatic auto-profile of travel plans to TripIt; personalized Traveler Profile that has all of your info in one place
Price: Free, $49 for TripIt Pro
Available: On all devices
4. Freckle
Industry: Accounting, banking, financial services, insurance
Summary: Freckle makes sure that you get your work done and that you’re as productive as possible through a user-friendly website. It’s ideal for accountants and family businesses.
Cool features: Time and budget breakdowns for your projects by person and job; individual activity graphs; summary of billable and unbillable hours; automatic invoice delivery to clients; multi-currency invoicing; early warnings for off-track projects
Price: Solo ($19/month), Team ($49/month), Organization ($199/month)
Available: Online, mobile web browsers, Mac, iPhone
5. Mindnode
Industry: Accounting, banking, education, eRecording, financial services, government, human resources, insurance, legal, medical, special districts
Summary: Mindnode organizes your tasks and concepts into a web that looks like a public transit map called “mind-mapping.”
Cool features: Create as many “mind maps” as you want to; cross connect nodes from different main nodes; mind maps automatically arrange themselves, personalize maps with images and style; upload documents to your maps and share them with anyone; can convert maps into Word documents and digital images
Price: $9.99
Available: Only on iOS (iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch)
6. Any.Do
Industry: Accounting, banking, education, eRecording, financial services, government, human resources, insurance, legal, medical, special districts
Summary: Any.Do is an easy-to-use app with innovative features that will help you be productive and accomplish everything on your to-do lists.
Cool features: The “Moment” Daily Planner; sync across devices anytime; call/text/email/buy/book trips within the app; share to-do lists with anyone; add notes to tasks; notification center that continually updates; upload any file to your tasks; create subtasks; task reminders; advanced recurring tasks
Price: Free, Premium ($26.99/year, $2.99/month)
Available: On all devices
7. Schedule Planner Pro
Industry: Accounting, banking, education, eRecording, financial services, government, human resources, insurance, legal, medical, mortgage, mortuary/cemetery, special districts
Summary: Schedule Planner Pro is a daily planner that organizes tasks by category and priority and that easily syncs with tasks from both Google Calendar and Apple Calendar.
Cool features: Edit and change individual tasks; batch edit multiple tasks; add notes to tasks; accurate schedule management; set categories that can be color-coordinated; pie-chart and bar graph diagrams to analyze time management; day-by-day and future calendar views; export schedule via CSV and PDF and easily backup schedules
Price: $6.99
Available: Only on iOS (iPhone, iPad, Mac)
8. Expensify
Industry: Accounting, banking, financial services, insurance
Summary: Expensify keeps your business in order by keeping track of all of your business receipts and making sure that your business finances are always on track.
Cool features: Take pictures of your receipts; store everything on one dashboard; import all card transactions; capture billable expenses; global currency compatibility; custom invoices; SmartScanning; IRS compliant eReceipts; integration with other programs; process hundreds of reports; easily reimburse from PayPal, payroll, etc.
Price: Free
Available: On all devices
9. Wunderlist
Industry: Accounting, banking, education, eRecording, financial services, government, human resources, insurance, legal, medical, mortgage, mortuary/cemetery, special districts
Summary: Wunderlist is another organizational app that makes sure that you get your tasks done in an easy and organized manner.
Cool features: Big and small organized lists; set Due Dates, Reminders and Assign to-dos, share lists with anyone; group lists in folders; add notes and comments to lists; add anything from web or email to the app; use hashtags in lists; print lists and to-dos
Price: Free, Pro ($4.99/month)
Available: On all devices
10. SalesForce1
Industry: Accounting, banking, financial services, insurance
Summary: SalesForce1 has everything that you would need to make sure that you don’t miss a beat when it comes to your business.
Cool features: Feed First, dashboards and reports, notification center, Smart Search, sales productivity apps, organized contacts, task organization, share files from anywhere, Microsoft Office integration, lead tracking, customized actions and apps
Price: Free
Available: On all devices
11. LinkedIn
Industry: All industries
Summary: LinkedIn is the popular job app that lets you connect and network with all of your business contacts.
Cool features: Comprehensive profile that features everything from your education and work experience to your interests and volunteer experiences to people who influence you; write and publish posts, share updates, upload photos
Price: Free, Premium ($29.99-$119.95/month)
Available: On all devices
12. Wrike
Industry: Accounting, banking, education, eRecording, financial services, government, human resources, insurance, legal, medical, mortgage, mortuary/cemetery, special districts
Summary: With Wrike, you can manage and accomplish tasks and projects by yourself or with your co-workers.
Cool features: Complete view of your team’s workload and deadlines; online project management software; collaboration tools; project planning software that keeps all of your work in one place
Price: Free, Professional ($49.99/month for 5 users), Enterprise (TBD)
Available: On all devices
13. GoToMeeting
Industry: All industries
Summary: GoToMeeting creates easy, clear and comprehensive meetings and conference calls from anywhere and from all devices.
Cool features: Launch GoToMeeting from any device; easily send out invites to meetings via phone, email and instant message; share screens with everyone in your meeting or conference call
Price: Starter ($24/month), PRO ($39/month), PLUS ($49/month)
Available: On all devices
14. Buffer for Business
Industry: All industries
Summary: Buffer for Business makes social media marketing for your business easy and efficient.
Cool features: Powerful publishing tools; easily schedule posts; RSS feed integration; rich analytics for your posts
Price: Small Business ($50/month), Medium Business ($100/month), Large Business/Agency ($250/month
Available: On all devices
15. Square
Industry: Accounting, banking, transportation, financial services, insurance, mortgage, mortuary/cemetery
Summary: Square is the app of the future with easy payments and business money management across various industries and various devices.
Cool features: Accept credit cards and send invoices from your smartphone or iPad; easily set appointments; simplify your books; get paid quickly; take payments with the Square reader; eReceipts; apps for various industries like Square Register (transportation)
Price (Hardware): Square Stand ($99), Square Contactless and Chip Reader (Reserve for Free), Square Chip Card Reader ($29), Square Magstripe Reader (Order for Free)
Available: On all devices
The phrase “there’s an app for that” has never been truer than it is in our society today. Businesses and individuals that use eFileCabinet can utilize these awesome and highly-technical apps in their companies no matter the industry–from accounting to education to medical–all while keeping their documents safely and securely managed with eFC desktop, online or our new mobile app.
So go ahead and be glued to your tablet or smartphone, it’ll make your business more efficient, productive and successful!