There are plenty of business software solutions available in the market. For small businesses, these software solutions allow you to create better visibility and structure to your activities, thus leading to greater efficiency and improved performance.
As a business person, you need to keep your day-to-day activities simple and efficient. You also do not want to arm yourself with hundreds of tools. For example, staying up to date on emerging social media sites can get overwhelming, especially when these sites continue to change over time. Instead of trying to stay on top of the latest online trends, however, choose the ones that best fit your needs and comfort level. Here’s a rundown of some of the most important small business software solutions out there today
FreshBooks
Quite a popular tool for invoicing and accounting, FreshBooks is one of the best small business management software when it comes to financial management. Coming with a complete suite of accounting features, FreshBooks provides a fast and reliable solution for creating quick invoices, tracking expenses, and much more.
Through native time tracking, you can easily monitor the time your team is spending on tasks and bill your clients accordingly.
Not only this, but the tool also facilitates project management through an elaborate feature set for effectively handling project-related activities. Few prominent features include centralized file location, team chat, and project assignment.
Key Features
- Expense tracking
- Time tracking
- Invoicing
- Cost estimates
- Accounting reports
- Dashboards
- Customized team permissions
- Team chat
Pricing Plans
- The tool comes with paid plans which start from $15 per month. All plans come with a free trial of 30 days.
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
nTask
Forget about effective business management without using a dedicated project management tool. That’s why we’re starting off the list with nTask. A project management software coming with a multitude of features to help you complete your business projects successfully.
nTask comes with powerful native modules that provide a multi-dimensional solution to all your project needs. A single platform to plan, collaborate and monitor your project performance without switching applications. With nTask, you can get a holistic view of what lies ahead in your project lifecycle.
Through beautiful Gantt charts and built-in timesheets, the tool also allows you to track your project performance seamlessly.
Let’s see what you can accomplish through nTask:
Top Features
- Create and manage your projects through systematic workflow which allows you to add things as you move along with the project
- Use it as a to-do list app and assign tasks instantly to your team members and make roles transparent
- Automatically repeat tasks by setting task recurrence according to a frequency of your choice
- Execute successful team meetings through powerful native meeting management solution which lets you take control of your meeting details with more precision
- Create and associate issues with your respective projects and resolve them proactively through smart issue metrics, like issue severity and issue priority
- Safeguard your project from potential hazards by documenting risks earlier in the project lifecycle
- Monitor your project performance through built-in Gantt charts and auto-generating timesheets
- Communicate with your team members and provide timely feedback through comments within tasks
Pricing Plans
nTask comes with three plans:
- Free plan: unlimited tasks, unlimited meetings, timesheet reporting, and unlimited workspaces
- Premium plan: starting at $2.99 – unlimited projects and Gantt Charts.
Bitrix24
Bitrix24 is total business management software that’s 100% free. You get over 35 free tools, like CRM, tasks, document management, project management, time management, business process automation, invoicing, collaboration, absence management, email marketing, virtual PBX, shared calendars, company directory, HRMS and much more. Available in cloud and as software that you can install on your own server, it’s ready to be used in less than 30 seconds.
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)
Slack
Slack is where team collaboration is. No matter at what stage your business might be, the chances of information slipping through the cracks is real. Save yourself the horror of miscommunication and choose Slack as a professional team collaboration tool.
Whether you’re onboarding a new employee, sharing critical files, planning your next meeting, or simply exchanging routine messages, Slack has you covered! With distinct channels for multiple teams, Slack not only makes team communication easier but better.
Not only this, but Slack also comes with hundreds of integrations to serve your respective project needs. Through these integrations, the software makes sure you don’t have to constantly switch applications for executing basic business functions.
Key Features
- Specific channels for teams, projects, or topics
- Hundreds of third-party application integrations
- Search option for instant access to desired messages
- Customized availability statuses
- In-app notifications
Pricing Plans
- Free and paid plans. Paid plans start from $6.67
VOGSY
Built for Google Workspace users, VOGSY runs your services business from Quote to Cash on the simplicity, intelligence and security of a Google-based platform. Manage and track customer relationships, projects, resources, tasks, timesheets, expenses and automated quotes, invoices & reports with Gmail, Drive, Docs & Sheets. Collaborate in real time, work from your Gmail inbox, understand project, pipeline & company health at a granular level and make sales, resources and revenue predictable.
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’s separate applications such as CRM, Mail, Finance, Creator, Books, Recruit, etc. to manage your business.
Pricing: From $30 user/month
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
Conclusion:
Business software solutions are indispensable to the growth of any business. They help companies automate many of the time-consuming tasks that used to be done manually. One of the most important aspects of any business is keeping track of the finances. The best business software will have built-in financial tracking tools, along with ways to automate regular scheduling, payrolls, invoicing, and more. Being able to automate your business’s processes free up time for things like networking, development, marketing, and more.