Every company is different. There are many software solutions on the market that will suit your need to keep your employees busy. You, as a manager, can either spend time to research each software solution or use the following list of the best software for companies to make your life easier.
Business software, by definition, is an application or a system of tools to help companies support, improve, and automate their processes. If matched well with your business needs, business management software will help manage all your core business processes in one system.
But whether a small business or a large enterprise, it’s important to keep in mind that any business management software solution should make your work more efficient, not create extra tasks. Unfortunately, 74% of employees say they spend up to an hour a day on data entry and searching for information. That’s why you should be extremely attentive and do proper research when selecting the best software to support your business.
The features you are likely to need in your business management software solution:
- project & task management
- time management & calendar
- document sharing & collaboration
- sales & CRM
- budget, invoice, and expense management
- business intelligence and dashboards
- accounting and financial reporting
- resource management
As you can see, there are various functionalities you might need. But how to put together a fully integrated system, which pulls and pushes your data and enables you to have complete control over your business with only a few clicks? The answer is – you don’t have to do it by yourself, choose an end-to-end solution.
With so many software providers, from single-feature tools to comprehensive enterprise solutions, it can quickly become overwhelming to choose one. To make the selection smoother and give you a direction, we have reviewed and listed 24 of the best business management software on the market.
Every Business Software listed here:
Is by a trustworthy provider, with regular updates and high security;
Is more or less of a comprehensive all-in-one solution or offers various features to choose from;
1. Scoro
Scoro is a powerful business management solution that combines all the features you might need to manage your company: projects & tasks, contact management, quotes, team collaboration, billing, and reporting.
Top features:
- Real-time customizable KPI dashboards
- Customer management & sales pipeline
- Detailed reports on every aspect of your business
- Quoting and invoicing with pre-set templates and automation
- Project, task, and time management
- Shared team calendar & meeting scheduling
What’s special about this tool: Scoro helps to streamline your entire work progress, so you don’t need to use different tools for every task. Scoro also has the most advanced business intelligence features – detailed reporting and custom dashboards.
Pricing: From $26 user/month
Read on: Scoro Named #1 Business Management Software
2. StudioCloud
StudioCloud is a solution that gives small businesses all the features they need to manage their work successfully.
Top features:
- Manage clients, leads, organizations, partners, and vendors
- Schedule, events, appointments, locations, and more
- Create and send professional invoices and quotes from customized price-lists
- Send personalized text and email reminders, payment requests, etc.
What’s special about this tool: Are you a one-man band? Then this software is for you! StudioCloud provides mobility by syncing all of your data between the cloud, your desktop, and all of your internet-enabled devices.
Pricing: $65/month for teams of 3 + (additional cost for every new user account)
3. Zoho One
Zoho One — The tools you need to create, collaborate, and communicate with your teams, in one integrated suite of apps.
Top features:
- Sales & Marketing – CRM, email integration, online forms, live chat
- Collaboration – documents storage and sharing, team chat, online meetings
- Finance – accounting, invoices, expense management, inventory management
- Create custom applications and automate your personalized business workflows
What’s special about this tool: You can integrate 37 of Zoho separate applications such as CRM, Mail, Finance, Creator, Books, Recruit, etc. to manage your business.
Pricing: From $30 user/month
Check out this Zoho Alternative
4. Odoo
Odoo is a suite of open source business apps that cover your company needs: CRM, eCommerce, accounting, inventory, the point of sale, project management, etc.
Top features:
- Get accurate forecasts
- Automate activities based on your sales scripts: calls, meetings, and quotations
- Real-time messaging to enhance collaboration
What’s interesting about this tool: Odoo focuses mainly on CRM and ERP functionalities. It also has a large application market due to its open-source model.
Pricing: From $14 user/month
5. Basecamp
Basecamp is the preferred tool for teams who enjoy its modern social media-like interface and carefree team collaboration features.
Top features:
- Projects to manage multiple users’ work
- Message boards for discussing new projects or ideas
- In-app collaboration with the team
- Reporting on project performance
- Separate dashboard for showing to clients
What’s special about this tool: Basecamp is free for teachers and students!
Price: $99/month for unlimited users
6. NetSuite
NetSuite is an unified business management suite, providing various tools for ERP, Financials, CRM, HR, and eCommerce.
Top features:
- Multiple currencies and taxation rules, financial consolidation, subsidiary management
- End-to-end eCommerce management (order management, CRM, marketing, and finance)
- Services resource planning (resource management, project accounting, timesheet, and expense management)
- Business Intelligence (dashboards, reporting, and analysis across the integrated processes)
What’s interesting about this tool: NetSuite offers various toolsets –NetSuite CRM, NetSuite OpenAir, NetSuite Global Business Management, NetSuite PSA etc. Be ready to take time and filter out which NetSuite solution could be the best for you.
Pricing: On request
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7. Proofhub
ProofHub offers a replacement for conventional emailing and a bunch of other tools, integrating multiple project management features under one roof.
Top features:
- Assigned user roles
- Online team discussions and chats
- Task delegation and assignments
- Reporting and tracking project history
- Secure file storage
What’s special about this tool: ProofHub has a simple and well-designed user interface that improves team collaboration.
Pricing: From $20/month (up to 10 projects) to $150/month (unlimited projects)
8. Active Collab
Active Collab helps your team stay organized, and gives you complete control over your work.
Top features:
- Time tracking and invoicing
- Gantt-like timeline for planning
- Kanban cards
- Creating tasks with multiple users and deadlines
- A shared team calendar for collaboration
What’s interesting about this tool: Active Collab is especially great for collaboration, with functions like collaborative text editing and @mentions for communication.
Pricing: From $6.25 user/month for a basic package
9. Clarizen
Clarizen’s cloud-based work management software that brings together project management, configurable workflow automation, and in-context collaboration for better engagement.
Top features:
- Unlimited number of projects
- Automated and repeatable processes, alerts and workflows
- Social collaboration
- Budget tracking & expense management
What’s special about this tool: Clarizen offers configurable workflows – customize Clarizen to fit how your enterprise does business.
Pricing: From $29.95 user/month
10. Bitrix24
Bitrix24 offers a complete suite of social collaboration, communication and management tools for your team.
Top features:
- Social intranet for internal communication for chats and document sharing
- Project and work management including time and workload tracking
- Customer relationship management including sales funnels, website forms, interaction tracking and marketing automation
- Telephone integration – call directly from the CRM and record conversations
What’s special about this tool: Bitrix24 has a large set of features, from traditional project management to integrated telephone and HR system, or internal email.
Pricing: Free plan, paid plans with more storage from $39/month
Check out this Bitrix24 Alternative!
11. Insightly
Insightly brings marketing, CRM and project management together into a single platform.
Top features:
- Manage leads, contacts, organizations, partners, vendors, and suppliers
- Track project activity and performance against milestones
- Look at your business any way you want with task dashboard, activity sets, reports and more
What’s special about this tool: Insightly is tailored for any level of experience – from first time CRM users to sales experts.
Pricing: From $15 month/user for teams
12. OneSoft Connect
OneSoft Connect helps to simplify your teamwork – organize your customers, relationships, people or projects in one place.
Top features:
- HR management – keep records on your employees, jobs and organizational structure
- Track all business activities, manage customer relationships, projects, and contracts
- Create reminders for important tasks and deadlines
What’s special about this tool: OneSoft offers a set of predefined datasheets for essential business needs.
Pricing: Paid plans from $6 user/month
13. WORKetc
WORKetc is a web-based platform for CRM, project management and collaboration.
Top features:
- Link timesheets, documents, discussions, notes, contacts and more to your projects
- Manage complex project budgets
- Automatically capture and invoice all revenue activities across departments
- Use live support, web forms, and email to capture support tickets
What’s special about this tool: By integrating support cases directly inside of all areas of WORKetc, you can ensure the customer is always looked after.
Pricing: From $49 user/month (first 3 users $65/month)
Check out this WORKetc alternative!
14. BlueCamroo
BlueCamroo aims to integrate CRM features with project management. It helps you manage your contacts, sales & projects in one solution.
Top features:
- Contact management
- Sales forecasting
- Visual sales pipeline
- Project management – tasks, stages, dependencies
- Budgets versus actual costs
- Customer Support opportunities
What’s special about this tool: BlueCamroo offers a unique Website Builder for websites, landing pages, microsites, and even eCommerce sites.
Pricing: From $41 user/month for a comprehensive solution
15. Teamleader
Teamleader helps small and medium enterprises work smarter.
Top features:
- Manage all contacts from one place, and build better relationships.
- Schedule and track meetings, tasks and events
- Send invoices automatically and effortlessly
- Handle customer questions and deliver an outstanding customer experience
- Manage projects at the click of a mouse
What’s special about this tool: Make and record calls directly from the CRM using just your internet connection.
Pricing: Starting from $55 per month for 2 users (additional users $27.50)
16. Deltek
Deltek is an integrated project-centric ERP solution designed to support the entire project lifecycle of professional service companies.
Top features:
- Finance management
- Time and expense tracking
- Job and task management
- Client management
- Business Intelligence
What’s special about this tool: Founded in 1983, Deltek has a long history in software solutions.
Pricing: Per request
17. Teamwork
Teamwork enhances team collaboration and helps creative teams to organize their work and tasks.
Top features:
- Project planning on Gantt charts
- Time tracking and reporting
- Task lists with sub-tasks
- Milestone management
- Comprehensive user permissions
What’s special about this tool: The tool integrates with Teamwork.com’s other two products; Teamwork Desk and Teamwork Chat.
Pricing: From $49/month
18. Frank
Frank is a wholesome management platform for architecture and engineering studios.
Top features:
- Customer database
- Project management & documentation
- HR management & recruiting
- Accounting
- Workload, project and resource reports
- Vendor qualifications
- Project phases, and contractual deliverables
What’s special about this tool: Frank is a niche-oriented software for managing complex architecture and engineering projects.
Pricing: Free plan available, paid plans from $150 per month
19. Oracle
Oracle is a comprehensive suite of connected cloud applications that deliver functionality, analytics, security, mobile capabilities, and social collaboration. Oracle has various products with different focuses.
Top features:
- Human Capital Management
- Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
- Customer Experience
- Supply Chain Management
- Enterprise Performance Management
What’s special about this tool: Oracle is the type of solution provider who wants to have it all. It might be overwhelming and confusing to differentiate all the products and features Oracle provides, but you can be sure you’ll finally find everything your business needs.
Pricing: Per request
20. Smartsheet
Smartsheet is a great tool for managing and automating collaborative work.
Top features:
- Project plans and schedule
- Program rollups
- Resource management
- Budget tracking
- Strategic planning
What’s special about this tool: Smartsheet enables you to create a hybrid, cross-data spreadsheets, and automated workflow
Pricing: From $15 month/user for teams
Check out this Smartsheet alternative!
21. Paymo
Paymo offers a simple yet powerful tool bringing together project management, work reporting, and time billing.
Top features:
- Billing customers for completed tasks
- Dashboard to see your team’s performance
- Integrated project accounting
- Thorough work reports
What’s special about this tool: With Paymo Plus, you can automate your time tracking completely. All you need to do is download the desktop app, let it track your PC usage, and at the end of each day, categorize all your time entries.
Pricing: Free and paid plans from $8.95 user/month
22. Podio
Podio is a flexible and highly customizable online hub for work and team communication.
Top features:
- Assign tasks, attach files and discuss details within the solution
- Automate the sales pipelines, project budget tracking, and more
- Get an overview of the company with visual dashboards
- Share encrypted & large files
What’s special about this tool: Podio’s workflow feature enables you to add if-this-then-that logic to Podio apps. For example, instruct your app to create a task or comment, when an item is created.
Pricing: Free for up to 5 employees, $19.20 user/month for the full suite
23. ProWorkflow
ProWorkflow makes it a breeze to collaborate, track tasks and time and communicate with your team.
Top features:
- Dashboard for an overview of your workload
- Manage invoices and quotes
- Share files
- Allocate tasks
What’s special about this tool: Convenient mobile application lets your track time, communicate, and complete tasks on the move.
Pricing: From $18 month/user for unlimited projects
24. ClickUp
ClickUp is a productivity platform that offers more than just a task manager – allowing teams to use a single place to plan, organize and collaborate.
Top features:
- Assign comments, and nothing will fall through the cracks.
- The elegant hierarchy will keep projects simple as they grow.
- Task tray will allow you to minimize tasks instead of opening multiple tabs.
- Tools like ‘Smart Search’ and ‘Smart Estimates’ make you more productive over time.
What’s special about this tool: Whether you’re a manager, developer or anyone getting things done, with ClickUp you can choose between three different ways to view tasks.
Pricing: Free for up to 100MB, Premium for $5 user/month
Business Software Features to Keep an Eye Out On
- Project Management—Is it easy to track progress of your projects? Can you use Gantt charts and timelines to stay up-to-date with what needs to be done? Do you have different options for project organization?
- Time Management—When running a business, you want to know exactly how much time you and your team need for different tasks, as well as when you have different events and meetings planned. That’s why calendars and time trackers are an essential part of business management tools.
- Task Management—It’s important to be able to plan everything into the smallest of details, regardless of whether the task is project or non-project related. Additionally, you’ll want to be able to assign tasks to team members when needed.
- Document Sharing—Managing a business requires a lot of documents, data, images, contacts, and so on, especially since you usually have to share it with other departments or clients. It’s also a great thing if you can create your own custom forms and send them out!
- Team Collaboration—How simple is it to communicate and collaborate with your team using this software? Do they understand how to use it? This is a vital feature for any business owner to consider, since there’s no business without a team.
- CRM & Sales Functionality—In a business, it’s all about sales and customers or clients. So, your business management system should be able to act as a CRM and help you keep track of your sales.
- Budget & Invoice Management—Managing a budget goes hand-in-hand with managing a business, so you’re going to need things such as tables, formulas, and similar features to make everything work. Same goes for invoicing!
- Resource Management—Does the software allow you to manage and plan your inventory, financial resources, skill sets, inventory, production resources, etc? If yes, then it’s a good choice for you.
Conclusion
Have you ever wondered what software for companies you should be using? It can be challenging to choose. I’ve worked with a lot of programs over the years and have come to my own conclusions. Below are my recommended software solutions for businesses. All have been tested first-hand so I know first-hand how they work.