These days it’s difficult to find something you can’t do with your smartphone, from banking, to shopping, to dating – the possibilities are endless. But what does this mean for your day to day? While Tinder isn’t going to be a big help in your work life, we’ve rounded up a list of apps that are sure to make your day to day that little bit easier, whether it’s in the office or on the go.
Slack
Slack is basically like your in-office version of instant messenger and is super handy for your team to keep track of where they are in a project, or keep all communication about a specific task or client in one place. Create different channels in your workspace and add the relevant team members – you can share documents, emails and lists, as well as integrate with hundreds of other apps too. As an added bonus, you can invite people from outside your workspace into a channel, meaning you can use slack to message your clients, making communication and collaboration instant and that much easier!
Dashlane
Dashlane hides in your browser and saves all your passwords for you, as well as payment details, ID’s and receipts. It can even generate stronger passwords for you for all your online accounts to increase security. You’ll only ever have to remember the one password! Dashlane can auto fill forms and passwords and can sync with your devices, so it doesn’t matter if you’re on your PC, tablet or mobile. And while it may be kind of daunting having all that private information in one place, rest assured that Dashlane has the highest encryption possible, as well as extra security measures and alerts when something doesn’t seem right.
Service M8
Service M8 is the Holy Grail for the travelling tradie. It keeps track of all your jobs – past, present and future. It includes built in checklists for each job to check off as you go, and a place to store photo evidence of the job before or after completion. Keep track of your day with a schedule of all your jobs and receive a notification five minutes before you need to leave your current location to get to your next job on time (Service M8 automatically takes travel time into account here.) Your tablet or mobile is the only device you’ll need when out and about, as Service M8 has features that allows you to create, print, email or SMS invoices in the field, take payment and get the client signature. For employers, Service M8 keeps track of all your employees in the field and shows you their next job – it makes your books easier by syncing your clients, invoices and payments to your chosen accounting software.
Practice Ignition
While it was designed for the accounting and bookkeeping industry originally – Practice Ignition can be used across a range of industries, and works especially well with a business that deals in reoccurring services. Create a branded proposal to send to your client that details the services provided as well as your terms and conditions. You can charge the client upon acceptance, completion, billed monthly, or a selection of the three. Once accepted, Practice Ignition sets up a direct debit with your client, meaning that they can accept and forget! The app can also sync with your accounting software in order to generate invoices, send them out, and automatically reconcile them once paid. If you’re not not so good with the written word – then never fear, PI has templates of engagement letters and any other correspondence you need on hand, and the dashboard tab has a handy overview of your proposals, showing forecasts of your growth and tracking of your sales pipeline.
Cooking the Books
This one is for all of you in the hospitality or restaurant industry. Cooking the Books provides a digital operational management system, streamlining your kitchen and the way it runs and is available on desktop, or for easier access in the kitchen or on the go, also has an app available on your smart phone or tablet. Not only does it store your recipes, but it can identify the nutritional value for each – more importantly it also generates food costs, order sheets and recipe cards, helps control stock and sales revenue as well as providing electronic ordering and invoicing. It syncs with the cloud, keeping you updated 24 hours a day wherever you are, and if you don’t already have strong supplier relationships, the app can recommend some of their accredited partners to you.
Honourable Mentions
While you’re app hunting, check out these other awesome apps that will change the way you work!
- Zapier
- Todoist
- Tsheets
- Deputy
- Receipt Bank
