It can be tricky to find the right software for your small business. You don’t want to download and install the wrong software and cause slowdowns, and you don’t want to spend money on something you won’t use. Here is a list of the top 10 software solutions every small business owner should consider using.
Ah, small business. One of the best things in life! But while starting a business is exciting, it is usually a lot of work too. In fact, entrepreneurs on average work longer hours then full-time employees at big companies. In this post I am going to show you some great accounting and invoicing software for your small business. This will allow you to save time by automating your invoicing and accounting.
Choosing the right small business software can be a daunting task. There are so many solutions available to you, each with a different feature set. Chances are, you have a solid idea of what your business needs software-wise, but making sure it happens is a whole other challenge altogether. Here is a list of the top software for small businesses that will help you succeed.
1. Microsoft 365
Best small business office software
TODAY’S BEST DEALSVISIT SITE
REASONS TO BUY
+Best functionality+Use on the go+Cloud storage+Multiple licences
There are many rivals, but Microsoft Office is still the best office software suite, and Microsoft 365 delivers a cloud version you can use on the go as well as at home or in the office.
The first thing going for Microsoft 365 is its familiarity – if you’ve used Microsoft Office before you’ll easily find your way around this platform. Even if you haven’t and have used rivals instead the same still applies because Microsoft Office is the market leader that others attempt to copy.
The second is that Microsoft 365 works in the cloud, which offers several advantages, the first being that you can use it on the go with your smartphone or tablet, but the second being that all your documents are saved online in the cloud with OneDrive. This means you don’t have to worry about losing important files to a hard drive crash, and also that you can switch between devices without losing your work.
Pricing can seem a little more expensive than it used to be for buying a standalone license for Microsoft 365 Personal, which provides you with Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Publisher, and Access, with online emails served by Outlook, and OneDrive for cloud storage of documents.
There’s also Microsoft 365 Home which offers up to six licenses which could be ideal and cost-efficient for distributing around employees if you have five or less. Microsoft 365 Business Premium is targeted at larger businesses and includes Sharepoint, Microsoft Exchange, and Microsoft Teams.
Altogether, Microsoft 365 delivers what you need in terms of an office software and admin platform, and remains superior in terms of functionality than rivals. Additionally, expect to find many suppliers and contractors also using it, making it easy to share, swap, or send send files between your both without any problems.
- Read our full Microsoft 365 review.
2. Sage Accounting
Best small business accounting software
TODAY’S BEST DEALSVISIT SITE
REASONS TO BUY
+Good value proposition+Neatly presented and easy-to-use+Impressive customer support
Sage Accounting makes a good first impression with its clear and gimmick-free pricing. The top Sage Accounting plan offers decent value and there is also a 30-day free trial.
For this, you get modules to manage quotes, invoices, handle and submit tax online, smart bank feeds and reconciliation, cash flow forecasting, some detailed reports, multiple currency support, project tracking and more, all available from your desktop or via a mobile app.Advertisement
All this is well presented and generally easy-to-use. If you run into trouble, detailed web help and video tutorials are only a click or two away, with the offer of “free unlimited 24/7 telephone and email support” that should help make any newbie comfortable.
Sage also has a more basic offering called Accounting Start. This doesn’t include support for quotes, estimates or vendor bills, and has no cash flow forecasts and could be enough for start-ups as well as small businesses.
- Read our full Sage Accounting review.
3. Asana
Best small business project management software
TODAY’S BEST DEALSVISIT SITE
REASONS TO BUY
+Looks great and works great+More than 100 plug-in apps and services
REASONS TO AVOID
-Overkill for some small businesses
Got both a team and multiple projects to manage? Asana helps you work out who should be doing what at any given moment, maximizing the chances of everything coming together on deadline (though you do need a certain amount of talent and hard work from your staff as well, of course).
As with the other software tools in this list, it’s not just the features that Asana has that make it special – it’s the way those features are wrapped up in an elegant and accessible interface that’s easy to navigate around and works across mobile apps and the web without missing a beat.Advertisement
We also like the way Asana integrates very well with more than a hundred other products and services. All the big names are included – Dropbox, Slack, Gmail, Salesforce and so on – and this means Asana is flexible enough to fit right into whatever workflow you’ve got set up at the moment (or want to try in the future).
Whether you’re mapping out the steps in a project, assigning duties and responsibilities, checking on the current status of a plan or trying to get a ‘big picture’ look at exactly what’s happening at any given moment, Asana makes the process much more straightforward than you might expect.
- Read our full Asana review.
4. Slack
Best for small business team communications
TODAY’S BEST DEALSVISIT SITE
REASONS TO BUY
+Intuitive, cross-platform interface+Packed with plug-ins and extras
REASONS TO AVOID
-Free plan is relatively limited
Believe the hype, or at least part of it – Slack may not have killed off email just yet, and it can turn into a time sink if you’re not disciplined in how it’s deployed, but it’s also fair to say that this communications platform has helped transform the way that a lot of small business teams keep in touch.
Like all the best software tools, the basic idea is very simple: real-time messaging in web browsers, mobile apps, and desktop clients. Team members can chat one to one, or in groups, or in channels based around topics (sales, finances, products and so on).
What Slack does well though is bring that simple idea to life very intuitively, with a slick and responsive interface, and a host of integrations, plug-ins and shortcuts to keep the conversation flowing. All the functions you think you might need, from file transfers to video calling, are right there for you.Advertisement
You don’t get much out of Slack for free – with 5GB of total storage, 10,000 recent, searchable conversations and no group calling – but it gives you a feel for the app, and should be fine for smaller teams. At the highest pricing tier, you get round-the-clock support and a guaranteed support response time of four hours, as well as unlimited message archives.
- Read our full Slack review.
5. Avast Business Antivirus
Best small business antivirus app
TODAY’S BEST DEALSAVAST BUSINESS ANTIVIRUS PRO Plus$67Avast Business Antivirus Pro Plus 2020$85.49VISIT SITEat Amazon
REASONS TO BUY
+Easy-to-use+Anti-ransomware+Shred files
Avast Business Antivirus Pro is an excellent business endpoint security software suite, giving you various tools such as antivirus, Firewall, email protection, anti-spam and the ability to sandbox applications for complete security. Avast Business Antivirus Pro (as opposed to the standard Avast Business Antivirus) also includes Sharepoint and Exchange protection, as well as a number of tools for your servers, and ranks top of our best business antivirus as well as our best antivirus in 2021 guide.
The AV protection you get is generally rated as good by independent testing, with Avast’s engine blocking 99.7 per cent of threats in AV-Comparative’s Real-World Protection report.
The free version of this security package has long been considered one of the best, but If value for money and simplicity are key factors, Avast Business Antivirus Pro could be a sensible choice.
- Read our full Avast Business Antivirus review.
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6. Hubspot Marketing Hub
Best small business sales and marketing app
TODAY’S BEST DEALSVISIT SITE
REASONS TO BUY
+Sales and marketing focus+Lots of features+Integrations available
Hubspot is a platform that provides a range of tools for content management, sales and marketing, and social media advertising. Hubspot goes way beyond simply setting up a website and editing its content, as much as delivering a wide-ranging toolkit to help improve conversions, and ranks as our top pick for best content marketing tools as well as features in our best CRM software.
It does this by offering options for split testing, content hosting, communications within a sales team and with customers, along with goals and targets that can be tracked using Hubspot’s analytics software.
There are also a number of additional integrations available, not least Salesforce, Google Workspace, and Microsoft 365.
All in all, Hubspot probably isn’t the best at any individual feature that it offers, but the comprehensive set that it does offer makes it a clear market leader, and the best at what it does.
Even better, there’s a free tier for trying out Hubspot.
- Read our full HubSpot review.
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7. Bitrix24
Best small business tools platform
TODAY’S BEST DEALSVISIT SITE
REASONS TO BUY
+Diverse range of tools+Capable CRM with detailed reports+Generous free account
Bitrix24 provides a vast suite of powerful business tools: collaboration, instant messaging, telephony, project management, document handling, scheduling, employee management, and more.
If you prefer to keep things simple then you can concentrate on the excellent CRM, which is a capable system all on its own. Contacts and communications are logged, leads assigned to sales managers, emails sent, calls recorded, quotes and invoices issued. Detailed reports keep you up-to-date and there’s convenient access via the mobile app.
Bitrix24’s unusually generous free account supports 12 users and includes 5GB storage, but if you need more, the Plus account offers more features to up to 6 users and provides 50GB online storage.
Overall, Bitrix24 is offers a powerful suite of tools that is especially going to be handy for small businesses and start-ups to help them develop and grow through improved productivity, all in one platform.
- Read our full Bitrix24 review.
Other small business software to consider
We’ve barely touched the surface of all the different software options a small business might want to consider, not least as there are multiple areas of interest and a strong range of competitors who want to offer the best product for you. However, here are a few more that get honorable mentions, either because they’re positioned so well in their respective industries, or they offer a wider ranger of features-and all of them geared toward small businesses:
Paypal is a long-established merchant gateway provider for taking online payments, and has since moved into physical retail as well as pay and go mobile card readers. All of which means that if you need a payment provider, Paypal can cover you well, no matter what sort of business you have. There’s no monthly fee for the basic plan, which will cover online ordering, which helps reduce upfront fees. And once you’re well established with a good sales volume and turnover, if you’d prefer to cut down transaction fees then you can switch to a merchant account where for a monthly fee upfront you’ll pay mostly interchange rates on each transaction.
Zoho provides so many different software and apps for small business the bigger question might not be what they do, but what they don’t. Zoho provides such a comprehensive range of solutions that it’s impossible to do the company justice here, suffice to say that they-currently-provide at least 45 apps covering everything from sales, help desk, finance, people, IT, office, project management, and collaboration. What’s even better is that not only do these all integrate with each other, but also often integrate with other popular business software platforms. If you need to do something, Zoho probably have already released software to do it!
Adobe Apps is probably another toolkit to consider here, not least because of Adobe’s real strengths in creativity and design, as well as PDF management-something every business will have to address at some point. Adobe sell different apps in different groups, however, so it’s important to ensure you’re looking at the correct set. However, don’t be surprised if you end up subscribing to multiple apps, not least the creativity bundle that includes Photoshop, and Adobe Acrobat for creating, editing, annotating, and signing PDF files. Advertisement
Salesforce is possibly the leading sales solution for businesses of many sizes. Whether you’re looking to focus on online or offline marketing, telephone or email sales, then this is an all-in-one platform that aims to bring customer sales and relationships together. However, it’s not just about logging numbers and ticketing as much as improving all-round efficiency. This means you can look to improve key metrics across all processes, not least your sales and CRM channels, ensuring both a good synchronicity and efficiency between them.
- Going mobile? We’ve featured the best small business apps.
Conclusion
Nowadays it is not that easy to define what small business really means. Is it a company that will have 10 employees next year? Or maybe just three employees working from home offices? Or 3-5 people in a small office? While there are many different approaches to define small business, this article will not bother you by asking such questions, but will provide you with the most popular software solutions for small businesses in 2018.