What do you need to get started running a successful startup? There are more tools and options than ever before … the credit card processing company Square has been around for a few years, Apple Pay is new on the scene, and there are countless apps that will get your business into the cloud. StartupSmart has put together this list of essential apps for startups covering all bases from credit card processing to marketing to accounting, plus some bonus tools.
The Mobile App Market is exploding and there are thousands of mobile apps you can choose from. The challenge is figuring out which ones will help your small business! Below we’ve highlighted what we believe to be essential apps for startups, both for creating and managing the startup process.
GoCo
For many small businesses, HR can be a mysterious thing. It’s complex, tricky to navigate, and often filled with paperwork. If you’re in a startup environment, it can be difficult to dedicate the headspace (and personnel) that are necessary to do a great job. The good news is that there are all-in-one platforms to help you meet your company’s needs.
GoCo.io is a platform that moves human resources and benefits to the cloud, streamlining employee onboarding and offboarding, time-tracking, performance management, benefits administration, document management, and compliance. It also works with some of the payroll and management software and productivity apps – we’ll get into later in this article, giving you the HR capabilities you need without all the paperwork.
Goodhire
When it comes to growing your startup, one of the biggest pieces of advice you’ll get over and over again is to hire the right people. The problem is that there’s a lot that can go into that process: from reference and employment checks to pre-hire skill tests, there’s a lot that you probably want to know about someone before you decide to bring them onto your team. GoodHire helps you figure it all out with just a few clicks on your device, and gets everything back to you in less than 24 hours.
Gusto
Formerly known as ZenPayroll, Gusto makes your small business’s tax, benefits, and payroll process easier than ever before. It helps take care of all of the onboarding paperwork and also handles all of the reporting you need to do when you make a new hire. It takes care of federal, state, and local tax filings; emails paystubs to your employees; and automatically makes deductions for benefits and workers’ comp.
Google Workspace
Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) lets you port files among PCs, tablets, and smartphones. The standard package comes with 30 GB of online storage per user with options to upgrade to unlimited. And it allows you to create docs, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, and more.
Key Features:
- Offers a popular set of intelligent business apps
- Stops the need to use different apps for basic business functions
- Provides professional and ad-free business email experience.
Price: Plans start as low as $6 per user per month.
ShipStation
If you sell and ship products online, you need a time-saving e-commerce solution to streamline your shipping. Cloud-based ShipStation is simple to use and allows you to process online orders, get order alerts, print shipping labels, track shipments, and more.
Key Features:
- Works with most e-commerce platforms, including WooCommerce and Shopify
- Streamline the order processing system to fit your business’s needs
- Create custom shipping labels that show off your brand
Price: Plans start at $9 per month
SurveyMonkey
Stop guessing what your customers want, and ask them yourself. With SurveyMonkey, you can create surveys to measure user engagement and get anonymous customer feedback on your products, pricing, website, and any unmet needs of your target market. Build simple or more complex surveys, and find tips on the SurveyMonkey website about question types and how to word them. Survey creation is collaborative, and results and reports can be viewed by different team members without sharing login information.
Key Features:
- Create surveys from a template and brand with your own business colors and logos
- Review survey results as they come in from any device
- Send your surveys out into the world via your website, email, social media accounts, and more
Price: Freemium, with advanced packages starting at $32 per month (there are discounts for students and educators)
QuickBooks Online
One of the biggest names in the accounting world, QuickBooks Online is simple, powerful, and everywhere. (In fact, many of the apps on this list integrate with the QuickBooks software in some way.) Resources abound on how to get started with it if you’re not familiar.
From tax accounting to payroll, profit analysis, and inventory management, QuickBooks can do it all—depending on which version you’re paying for. Whether you’re a one-person business or a growing startup, QuickBooks Online has a version and a price point that will fit your needs. Plus, with whatever version you choose, you’ll have access to the mobile QuickBooks app, which is one of the top-rated small business apps on the Apple App Store.
With the QuickBooks mobile accounting app, you can create invoices, track miles, manage expenses, and more—and all on the go.
Image source: QuickBooks
FreshBooks
For an accounting application with a focus on invoicing, lower prices, and one of the best mobile accounting apps on the market, you might use FreshBooks. With the FreshBooks online software and mobile app, you can oversee your cash flow, expenses, invoices, and more—plus, receive top-notch customer service with all plans, at no additional cost.
Wave
Wave is one of the only truly free accounting software systems—allowing you to use their online-based platform, mobile invoicing app, and mobile receipts app without paying anything for a subscription.
The Wave accounting app is great for small business owners just starting out—and, they offer payments and payroll paid add-ons to give you the opportunity to extend your functionality within a single application.
Conclusion
This essential pack of tools offers startups the best of the best in mobile productivity apps that will help you streamline your workflow, master your social media, make better informed decisions with data insights, create better quality mobile apps and websites, all from a mobile device.