I’m guessing if you’re here, then you most likely own a business or are thinking about starting one. In either case are you ready to modernize, automate and make your life a little easier? Yes? Here are 7 easy apps to help simplify your small business finances.
Disclosure: This page contains affiliate links to products and/or services. This means I may receive a commission for purchases made through these links. However, these are services that I use myself and with my clients and all opinions are my own.
Simplify Your Small Business Finances
Quickbooks Online
Quickbooks Online (QBO) is a popular one and there’s a reason for that. This is cloud-based accounting software that also has an app for your smartphone. Can we say easy to keep up with? No more excuses not to record your receipts on the go!
This software is packed full of features with new ones constantly being added. For example, you can pay your bills through it, pay invoices, pay contractors, and so much more. The app even includes a mileage tracker and a receipt capturing feature. You can send invoices and accept electronic payments at competitive rates (less than the fees PayPal and other merchant services charge).
Most importantly, it syncs to your bank and credit card accounts, downloading the data automatically. You can categorize expenses and income as they come in. Can we save time-saving?!?! No more data entry!
Freshbooks
Freshbooks is an alternative to Quickbooks Online. While it’s not my favorite, it does serve a purpose for some. This is cloud-based accounting software similar to Quickbooks. However, if you have clients or customers in multiple countries, this app does multiple currencies so much better. For multi-currency accounting, skip Quickbooks Online and go straight to Freshbooks!
Freshbooks offers estimates, proposals, time tracking, etc. along with all the usual accounting needs like profit and loss statements and balance sheets. There’s also an app for your smartphone to help with accounting on the go.
Most importantly, just like Quickbooks Online, it syncs to your bank and credit card accounts, downloading the data automatically. You can categorize expenses and income as it comes in. Can we save time-saving?!?! No more data entry! Definitely a plus!
MileIQ
MileIQ is great for those who drive or travel for business purposes. As usual, I always stress having good business records to back up all data or claims on your tax return. Having a mileage log is so important. Miles is a red flag on a tax return especially if it’s there is high mileage. Never worry again about having a log if you use MileIQ.
It will track your drives for you! You then must tell the app if it’s a business or personal drive. You can record who were you meeting with and any other notes in the app. You’ll have all the data you need to defend any question on your mileage – date, purpose, exact mileage, etc.
It can even track parking fees and tolls! What’s not to love? Plus, you’ll no longer have to guess at miles driven or remember to record a business drive. Never worry about having mileage logs when you use MileIQ.
Gusto
Gusto is way more than just payroll. It’s a full-service payroll app that also offers other services like benefits, insurance, offer letters and so much more. It’s truly a full-service payroll and HR platform.
The biggest reason why I like Gusto is that it handles ALL employment tax filings for you. That’s super important so you don’t miss a deadline and end up with late fees and penalties. The laws are constantly changing and you don’t want to miss a deadline or filing when it comes to employment taxes. Let Gusto do all the heavy lifting for you.
It also offers employee offer letters, workers’ compensation insurance, health insurance, 401k plans, and more. It’s all in one easy-to-use platform. Plus, all the benefits integrate directly with payroll so there is no guessing or connecting different sources.
Gusto makes it easy to pay both employees and contracts while providing year-end tax forms for both. And you’ll never miss an important government payment. Score!
Dropbox/Google Drive
I don’t think these need much explanation but here’s why they are on my list. I like record keeping and stress it to all my clients for both business and personal records. Since we live in tiny homes, it is also super important to save space and avoid clutter. Am I right?!!?!
No more paper receipts. Upload them to the cloud! Throw away the paper. Done. Clutter be gone.
I utilize Google Drive and/or Dropbox not only for my own record-keeping but also to share information with clients and even contractors or employees. You can create and share word docs, spreadsheets, and even presentations for clients or events. There’s even a feature to allow docs to be available offline so you don’t always have to be connected to the internet to do work.
Lastly, they are both available on your smartphone making mobile work and sharing even easier.
Don’t delay. Keep your records on the cloud so they are always backed up and there’s no worry about losing important data.
Syft Analytics
Syft Analytics helps you easily create beautiful financial reports and see insights into your business. Why is this important?
Accounting is not about looking backward. It is much more about gathering data so you can make wise decisions going forward. How do you do that? Knowing this data will help you understand financial data, create reports, forecast the future, track progress, and benchmark performance. This tool will help you do all that so you can focus on improving a little bit each day.
With direct connections to major software like QuickBooks, Xero, and Excel it will do all the behind-the-scenes work for you.
I like that will this app will help you make better financial decisions and track progress. Many entrepreneurs skip these steps and I think they are so important. Don’t let your business fail because you forgot to check on reports and see the health of your business. Just like our personal health, we need to monitor and track results. Otherwise, our business could suffer.
Why not make it easy and simple to have all the data and reports at your fingertips? Syft Analytics will do all this for you.
Dext
Dext allows you to automatically collect sales and expense transactions from the top retailers, seller marketplaces, and merchant service platforms. This is super important for Amazon sellers, users of PayPal for invoices and payments and so many more.
This helps you have all the data you need including sales, refunds, and merchant fees. Plus, it will connect it all automatically to QBO. I’m all for simplifying and organizing. No more manual entry or exporting data.
Why is this important? If you are an Amazon seller or use a merchant service, then you no longer need to export complicated data to see your sales and fees. Let Dext do the dirty work for you so you can spend more time on selling, growing, and living your dream life.
Business finance can be easier with the right tools.
If you hesitate to work on the business finances because you’re overwhelmed or afraid you’ll mess things up, I hope these apps will help ease your burden and instill some confidence that you CAN do this.
These apps all work and help save you time. Remember time is money so let them do the heavy lifting for you.
