Digital and online tools are an indispensable part of our lives already. Nowadays, we need an app for almost anything – even mundane and ordinary activities such as ordering food, hailing a taxi, researching and meeting new people can all be done with just an app. Many people also use apps to aid them in physical activities, exercises, diet program, event organizing, and even activities that are intended to boost business.
Entrepreneurship comes with a lot of responsibilities. There are simply so many things to do especially if you are still starting out and trying to establish a name. For one, you need an efficient organizer app to ensure that all your to-dos are in order, and second, you need a few other apps to help you with marketing, networking, and of course, accounting and financing.
Business financing could be tricky, especially if you are still starting out as an entrepreneur, and you don’t have a substantial background when it comes to accounting. However, this does not mean that you cannot succeed in business. Many entrepreneurs have been successful despite the lack of financial knowledge, or even a good skill when it comes to numbers. All you really need is discipline and some assistance from a reliable partner or from a good set of tools.
In case you are scouring the Internet for the most helpful financial apps for your business, we are making it simple for you by listing down the best ones so far below:
Mint: Money Manager
Tracking all your financial and operational expenses is important especially when it comes to determining how much your returns are. Managing your expenses is important, especially if your business has limited capital resources to go around with.
Mint is a money-managing app where you can plan your budget and track your expenses down to the last coin. It can also help you pay bills automatically, and can even track the financial activities on your bank account. It can show you how much is left in your account, and how much debt you have incurred in each account.
The app can also help track daily expenses – such as food, transportation, and other living expenses. Users can also set a limit, so the app can notify them whenever the limit is almost reached. Aside from that, Mint offers heaps of financial and investment advice – not just in business, but in personal and family budgeting as well.
Availability: As of the moment, Mint is only available for US and Canada residents. It is however compatible with both Androids and iPhones (iOS), and it can be downloaded for free.
Toshl Finance
Like Mint, Toshl is also a money managing app and finance tracker. However, it comes with different features. The app can separate budget expense and finance tracking through categories and tagging. It can also export information and reports from Excel, PDF and Google Sheets. It is also capable of providing different currencies and exchange rates.
You can also set up and sync your Toshl Finance account across different platforms (via the cloud), so you won’t have to fear about losing any of your data. The app also presents data in a visual way – like through charts, graphs and maps, where all your expenses are being shown.
Availability: Toshl is compatible for both iOS and Android. They also have a free and premium version of the app.
Acorns
One way to grow your money is to invest them in the right stock/fund/portfolio. Whether you are planning to invest part of your returns or simply invest some money to grow your capital, Acorns is a great app to go with.
Acorns is developed for young, starting investors who need some guidance and discipline to hone the habit of investing. The app connects your profile to a bank account where it can determine your financial status. With that data, the app recommends which portfolios are best for you to start investing in. Initial investment starts at only $5, and you can then schedule automatic investments each month or do it manually. The best part is, Acorns can automatically save up your spare change and set them aside for investing.
Availability: Acorns is not available for every user worldwide. As of the moment, it is only available for US and Australian residents. The app can be downloaded for free, but there are fees or charges depending on the worth of your portfolio. For those who have portfolios that are lower than $5,000, the app charges $1 per month, but those with over $5,000 is only charged $0.25 annually. College students who have a valid college email can avail of the app’s services for free (up to 4 years).
Venmo
Another useful finance app for entrepreneurs (especially for startup business owners) is Venmo. This is basically a money remittance app which allows users to send and receive money by just searching a username. It kind of works like PayPal (because it is indeed a subsidiary of PayPal).
This is particularly useful for startups when it comes to salary payment. It can also be used among business partners to transfer money and track debt in. Signing up to the app is easy, because it can be synced with Facebook.
Availability: Venmo is available for both iOS and Android for free. There are however fees and charges on certain transactions. Sending money through a credit card for example, has a 3% service charge.
Micro (Loan Calculator)
Every entrepreneur at some point would obtain a loan just to maximize capital and funding. The simple loan calculator developed by Micro can help users compute credit sales, profit value, and determine which loan amount is more affordable. However, the app does not show information through charts and graphs, which could make it quite difficult to read and compare financial information from.
Availability: Micro’s Simple Loan Calculator is only available in iOS exclusively.
So far, these apps are simply tracking and automating apps that can help financial transactions and budgeting easier and traceable. The bottom line is, you still need to do the actual saving and investing. The apps can only help us make everything organized, convenient and smoother, but behind that, actual work is still needed and is of course, indispensable.
Much discipline is still needed, because your financial goals will not be reached if you are still overspending in real life. Ensuring that your return of investment remains high requires more than just tracking your finances and budgeting. It requires marketing and networking to get your brand out there.
So aside from financing apps, you may also need tools and apps that can help ease your marketing efforts. This will however include common apps such as major Social Media platforms (Facebook and Twitter) that can help you connect with your market. However, this may also need a few more complex tools such as Google Analytics and customer management platforms like Salesforce.
However, budgeting and finance apps are great tools to start with. After all, a business is still dictated by numbers – and you have to make sure that these numbers remain good. And you can easily monitor these numbers to stay within its limits with trackers and financial apps that can be relied upon.
This post contributed by Sarah Jacobs – an experienced writer who loves creating articles that can benefit others. She has worked as a freelance writer in the past making informative articles and fascinating stories. She has extensive knowledge in a variety of fields such as technology, business, finance, marketing, personal development, and more.
Find out more about her company here: http://www.lea-p.com/