In today’s non- stop business world, it’s important to be able to conduct business from anywhere at anytime. As mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets have gained popularity, the ability to send invoices, create schedules and accept credit card payments is easier than ever. However, in order to do any of these activities you’ve got to have the best apps, and after reviewing numerous ones on the market business owners consider these as some of the best.

Freshbooks

If you’re into cloud accounting, check out the Freshbooks app. Created to make accounting easy for non- accountants, you can now send invoices, track expenses and track your time no matter where you are or what you’re doing. With the Freshbooks timer running in the background, a business owner can keep track of how their time is being spent. If you’re having dinner with a client, you can use your phone to take a picture of the receipt and have a record of your expenses. If it’s an invoice that needs to be sent, you can send the invoice from the client’s office and have your money by the time you get home.

Freshshifts

One of the biggest hassles of any small business owner is making out the work schedule for employees. However, with Freshshifts employees no longer have to come in or call on a day off to get their schedule, nor do you have to figure out who needs a day off or who’s on vacation. By simply plugging in the appropriate information, Freshshifts can create a work schedule in minutes that can then be sent to employees by email, app or the web. This app makes it easy to add or delete employees from the schedule as needed, as well as create a schedule from scratch or by using a template.  It’s a perfect hybrid of time clock, schedule maker and communication tool.  Worth checking out.

Square

If you have a business where point- of- sale transactions are common, using Square can make it that much easier. A great app for those with home repair businesses or those who sell at festivals or have other mobile businesses, Square makes everything easier. Made to help generate customer feedback, allow for next- day deposits and even conduct online ordering, it’s a great example of making numerous tasks easier.

So if you’re in the market for some apps that will make many day- to- day tasks of running a business easier than ever before, consider adding these three apps to your mobile devices.

Good employee planning software is a must for any office, regardless of size. The issue, however, is finding out which system is right for your office. To that end, in this article, we will be comparing three of the biggest names in the employee planning software business–ShiftPlanning, WhenToWork, and FreshShifts.

ShiftPlanning’s primary selling point is it’s aesthetics–simply put, the software looks good, and shows up well on mobile devices and computers alike. It also offers the same basic features as other scheduling software, as well as a few unique ones, including payroll management. However, while that sounds nifty, it’s actually rather underwhelming: because of the amount of information that it requires, for most managers, processing payroll through shiftplanning isn’t any more convenient than traditional solutions. Pricing is another issue: even the smallest offices will be paying $22 (actually closer to $25 including billing fees) per month, with prices increasing at larger employee densities. While at the top end this isn’t terrible, paying $44 per month for software for 15 employees is absurd.

WhenToWork is a little better on pricing, with further gradations depending on employee numbers. They also avoid the set-up costs that ShiftPlanning charges. However, the fact that the prices are gradated does still mean that you get a poor deal at certain employee numbers, and their top end is actually significantly worse. They also have rather bare-bones software, with fewer options for mobile devices than either of the other two companies. It’s one unique feature–online shift trading–comes with a number of issues, such as a lack of transparency, that will make most managers disable it.

FreshShifts has no similar issues: it’s software, while not as flashy as ShiftPlanning’s, is much easier to navigate and use than either of the other two. It also offers the hands-down best price for small offices of the two: under five employees, FreshShifts is actually completely free! Larger offices pay $2 per employee per month, providing competitive scaling as well as a free first month to prospective clients. Finally, Freshsfits offers the best communication between managers and employees, allowing for automatic schedule posts, excellent mobile compatibility, and lots of options when it comes to tweaking schedules.
When it comes to software, practical applications compared to price is the most important metric to use. For this reasons, most offices will find FreshShifts the ideal employee scheduling software, in terms of both price and quality.