There are four areas of business that everyone needs to keep track of. They are accounting, human resources, marketing, and sales and customer service. Keeping on top of these four areas can take a lot of work. But, with the advent of software solution and tools that you can use to make it easier, your business can run very smoothly – whether you’re a business of one or 100.
1. GoDaddy Bookkeeping – It used to be called “Outright” but it was such a good system that GoDaddy bought it. If you already have a GoDaddy account you can set it up really easily by simply going to Online Bookkeeping and adding an account. It’s fast to set up and easy to use. It’s made for non-accountants and people who do not understand double entry bookkeeping. It syncs with your PayPal account, bank accounts, and has other integration for you that makes it easy. This program books everything for you automatically. They’ve also added invoicing features.
Link:
GoDaddy Bookkeeping – https://bookkeeping.godaddy.com/
GoDaddy – http://www.godaddy.com/
2. Wave Accounting – This cloud-based software lets you do invoicing, regular accounting, payments, payroll and more. You can even use it for personal finance and not just business. It’s made for very small businesses, those with nine employees or less. It’s great for freelancers, contractors and other entrepreneurs. They want to work with accountants, too, so if you decide at some point to have an accountant you can easily tell your accountant about Wave and they’ll understand it.
Link:
Wave Accounting – https://www.waveapps.com/
3. QuickBooks Online – QuickBooks Online is full-featured financial software that lets you create invoices, set up a chart of accounts for many different types of businesses, handles everything from bookkeeping to billing to payments and payroll. There is nothing left out here. Plus, this is what most accountants and CPAs are familiar with, so it’s a good choice. It has features which allow it to integrate with a number of payment processors.
Link:
QuickBooks Online – http://quickbooks.intuit.com/
4. Basecamp – This is a wonderful cloud-based project management tool that you can use from any device to help run your business and organize your contractors and projects. You can use it to assign tasks and more. Your clients can even sign into the system when you give them an account password where they can look at only their own projects, and assign tasks to you and your team. It’s a great system that most business owners can use.
Link:
Basecamp – https://www.basecamp.com/
5. Teamwork.com – With price points that are affordable for any needs, this cloud-based system allows you to have complete control over your projects with simple navigation, exportable and customizable reports and milestones. And if you are a visual person you can use their visual editor to drag and drop tasks, milestones, lists, and more.
Link:
Teamwork.com – https://www.teamwork.com/
6. WORK[etc] – WORK[etc] is a piece of all-in-one online business management software. You can manage all aspects of your business from projects, billing, email, sales, CRM, and customer service via support tickets and more. It also has social media marketing features available. You can do it from any device, too, as it works with iPhones and Android operating systems. It integrates well with Inbox, Outlook and Gmail, and has an Open API integration tool set.
Link:
WORK[etc] – http://www.worketc.com/
7. ONTRAPORT – This used to be called Office Autopilot but due to copyright issues had to change their name. However, they are still the same company that sought to put your office on autopilot with their innovative cloud-based software solution. ONTRAPORT helps you systemize your business and manage multiple websites from one dashboard. You can handle marketing, affiliate marketing, form creation, payments, build easy membership sites, publishing and more from one console. It also works very well with WordPress.
Link:
ONTRAPORT – http://www.ontraport.com/
8. ZenDesk – If you want to offer exceptional customer service and your business is growing big enough, eventually you’ll need to offer a ticketing system and help desk. If you’re not ready for an all-in-one system yet like WORK[etc] or ONTRAPORT, you should check out ZenDesk. It integrates via API with many of your favorite tools, and puts some of your customer service issues on autopilot.
Link:
ZenDesk – https://www.zendesk.com/
Keeping ahead of the curve with all the new software that is coming out is an important component of running a successful business. Change can be hard, but as you grow you want to be assured that you’re using the right software and tools to make your business run lean, mean and smoothly.
