The Best Finance Apps for Banking and Budgeting
- Capital One Mobile
- Amex Mobile
- Bank of America
- Citi Mobile
- Simple
- Square
- QuickBooks GoPayment
- PayPal Here
- InDinero
- Mint
- Goodbudget
- Wally
- Home Budget With Sync
- Digit
- Credit Karma
- You Need a Budget
- Mvelopes
- Spendee
One of the best parts of owning a small business? You get to have a hand in every pot. Whether that means creating a marketing plan, overseeing employees, managing inventory, checking equipment, dealing with financials, or coming up with the big idea in the first place, you’re the jack of all trades.
But that’s also one of the greatest challenges, too. Once your business gets up and running, who really has the time to wear every hat at once? Plus, plenty of daily tasks are tedious and menial, but important… and easy to mess up.
Sure, hiring an employee or five to deal with all of these issues could solve the problem—but create others in their place. Especially when it comes to your business’s financials, you want to be a perfectionist.
Meanwhile, the best finance apps for small business owners are designed to let you focus on what’s most important—and leave the computing to the computers. And so many of them are free, or dirt cheap, that you’d need a good reason not to use them each and every day.
To help you zero in on what needs your attention most, we’ve come up with a list of the 51 best finance apps for small business owners. Enjoy!
Best Personal Finance Apps: Banking
The best banking apps allow you to easily glimpse at your available cash, pending charges and more with just the click of a button. These apps, when linked to their respective bank accounts, are the best to help you manage your personal (and business) finances.
1. Capital One Mobile
Many of the bigger banks—and plenty of smaller ones!—have their own mobile apps these days, and Capital One is no exception. Check out your bank balance, review your credit card payments, transfer money, and do just about anything you’d want to do with your bank accounts on the go.
2. Amex Mobile
Available for iPhones and Android phones, Amex Mobile lets you take a peek into your bank account when you’re away from a keyboard. You can even make use of your phone’s fingerprint scanner to ensure a secure login.
3. Bank of America
Maybe surprisingly, a lot of banks don’t just have mobile apps—they have good mobile apps. Bank of America won first place in the “Overall,” “Functionality,” and “Mobile App” categories of the Keynote Mobile Banking Scorecard last September, so if you’re a BoA user, you’re in luck!
4. Citi Mobile
Right—no need to belabor the point. Citi Mobile is yet another official bank app. They all function pretty much the same way, so look into your bank’s mobile offering and snag it to monitor your personal and professional finances, no matter when or where. Small business owners need to be on top of their spending, so don’t delay!
5. Simple
A bank for millennials and the tech-savvy, Simple makes banking, well… Simple. You can manage your finances, pay bills, monitor your spending and saving, and more with this app-bank hybrid. It’s revolutionary in the way only the best finance apps can be.
6. Square
This is more of a payment app than a bank app, but we’re including it here all the same. Square lets you use your smartphone (iPhone or Android) or tablet to swipe a customer’s credit card, using their app and proprietary credit card reader—for free. All you’ll pay is a flat 2.75% per transaction.
7. QuickBooks GoPayment
If you like the idea behind Square, there’s plenty more where that came from. Point of sale apps are all the rage these days, helping you interact with your customer (and his or her credit card) seamlessly. QuickBooks GoPayment offers a free card reader—although you don’t even need one, since you can use the camera to scan a credit card instead—and it integrates with your Apple Watch. You can create lists of frequently sold items and track your analytics, as well.
8. PayPal Here
We’ll talk about PayPal in a bit, but PayPal Here is a different story. Like Square and GoPayment, PayPal Here offers a point-of-sale credit card reader for your phone (iPhone or Android). It can process checks and create invoices, but it also deals through PayPal rather than your bank account—which could be good or bad, depending on your business.
Best Finance Apps: Budgeting
Gone are the days of manually tracking incoming and outgoing payments. Today, there are endless apps to help you start and maintain a business budget in every category possible. Here are some of the best options.
9. InDinero
InDinero pulls financial information from all the bank and business credit card accounts you sync it with, giving you a comprehensive snapshot of how much you spend, on what, and when—as well as analyses and forecasts on your business’s financial trends. Even the smallest of small businesses incurs countless costs in every direction, but InDinero can help you manage the confusion without the headache.
10. Mint
Similar to InDinero, Mint pulls information from your bank and credit accounts to give you weekly reports and track your spending. You can set up certain budgets and goals—only spend $60 a week on restaurants, for example—and Mint will analyze your bank statements to see whether you’ve succeeded or failed, and by how much money you spent. Connect your business bank account to see if you’re spending too much on Starbucks—it could be curbing your cash flow!
11. Goodbudget
If you’re looking for a more manual version of Mint, you’re in luck: Goodbudget has your back. You can set up categories for spending and monitor your own habits—and their consequences—on your smartphone.
12. Wally
In the same category, Wally lets you track your money (specifically your expenses). Wally’s additional usefulness comes from its receipt-scanning capabilities, which stop you from having to manually enter everything you spend your money on.
13. Home Budget with Sync
A family-style budgeting app, Home Budget with Sync lets groups figure out their budgets together. If you manage a small business with a few others, you might put your funds together and manage your budget through this app.
14. Digit
Speaking of savings, Digit helps you save money you weren’t even aware existed. By analyzing your spending habits, Digit gathers a sliver of your capital into a no-interest savings account that you otherwise might have blown on something unnecessary.
15. Credit Karma
You’re probably familiar with Credit Karma already, but did you know they had an app for you iPhone and Android wielders? Now you can check your credit score and credit card options on the go.
16. You Need a Budget
Make sure to check out the free trial of You Need a Budget, or YNAB, to break down your budget and check out your bills and paychecks. Upgrading costs $60, but it could be well worth the investment.
17. Mvelopes
Whether you’re on a phone or a tablet, Mvelopes can help you break down and control your spending habits. While we’ve seen this kind of app already in our list, Mvelopes focuses on categorizing your debts more than, say, Mint does. If you’re looking for some self-discipline alongside financial spending data, then Mvelopes might be right for you.
18. Spendee
Spendee, on the other hand, emphasizes simplicity. At a glance, you can understand your personal finances, including what you spend money on and how those habits match up with—or miss—your goals.
Best Finance Apps: Accounting
If you need more than a simple budgeting app, a great accounting app can the solution to managing accounts payable, accounts receivable and more—all on the go.
19. QuickBooks
Designed for non-accountants but used by professionals, Intuit’s QuickBooks is the big name around town for best finance apps. It’s easy to learn but incredibly powerful, and can scale according to the size and needs of your business—from the software and the pricing model.
The more you pay, the more you get, of course… And with QuickBooks, you can get quite a lot. Whether it’s basic accounting management for taxes, inventory and billable tracking, payroll, or close-up profitability analyses, QuickBooks does it all.
(Plus, they’ve got the QuickBooks mobile app with limited—but useful—functionality.)
20. TurboTax
Also made by Intuit, TurboTax is another of the best finance apps even non-accountants can probably name. With a free version to try out, a laundry list of features at higher price points, a live help desk, and more, TurboTax is a powerhouse of an accounting finance app.
Now, it’s true that TurboTax aims for everyone, not just small business owners. However, it does have a small business owner version, so we thought we’d include it even if the app doesn’t specialize the same way most of our others do.
21. Wave
With over 2 million small business owners as users, Wave comes highly recommended. With it, you can manage your accounting, payroll, and invoicing—for free. Plus, it comes with a receipt scanner, and will hook you up with a local accountant if you’re having any issues.
Like many of the best finance apps, Wave runs on your phone as well as your computer, so you can account on the go.
22. FreshBooks
Another free accounting app, FreshBooks lets you manage your invoices, expenses, and cash flow online or off. It’s well known as an easy-to-learn app, and it also comes with customer service to write home about. Many of its users are freelancers and contractors, since it makes invoicing especially easy, but bigger businesses employ it as well.
Plus, it’s intuitive on mobile as well, so you can control your business’s finances away from home.
23. Due.com
The best finance apps aren’t just multifunctional—they’re also intuitive. Due.com definitely fits the bill, with its organized and efficient design that lets you create and track high-quality invoices.
While it’s not completely free, you can make use of the trial that grants you five clients per month. For only a few dollars a month, though, you can arrange recurring payments, sync with PayPal, and send out as many invoices as you need.
24. Gusto
The best personal finance apps will help you avoid doing what you don’t want to do… And everyone knows how frustrating it can be to manage a business’s payroll and benefits, all while staying compliant.
If you’re more interested in skipping those tedious tasks, then Gusto is for you. Gusto automatically calculates and files state and federal payroll taxes for you, and it’ll let you easily onboard and pay employees, track sick and vacation time, and much more—paperlessly and on the go.
25. Expensify
Filling out expense reports is simply a pain for employees and administrators alike—no way around it. It’s tedious, boring, time-consuming, and actually quite difficult to manage. If only one of these best finance apps could help…?
Oh, right! Need to process billable expenses or scan receipts for your employees? Expensify will help you deal with employee expenses! They even have apps for both Android and iOS so you can expense on any mobile platform.
26. Neat
Neat lets you file receipts and invoices, create tax and expense reports, and look over your records without shuffling through paper records or disorganized computer files. The Neat app comes free—but it’s cloud service doesn’t. Hey, even the makers of the best finance apps need to make a living, right?
27. Zoho
Easy to use and easy to get a lot of use out of, Zoho can help you with sales, marketing, coordinating projects, recruiting, and report generation. And the best part? It won’t break the bank.
Plus, Zoho integrates with Google Apps—so it’s not a pain to get started on the platform. And it includes a complete suite of Office-like products that sync with Microsoft Office!
28. Xero
Xero lets you send invoices, sync with your banks, share your accounting books remotely, and deal with payroll on the move. It also touts its simplicity compared to many of the other best finance apps on the market, which never hurts.
It’s not free, unfortunately, but if you’re looking for “beautiful accounting software” then the Xero app could be for you.
29. Sage One
Depending on your payment plan, Sage One can help you with everything from creating invoices to reviewing your business’s finances, building reports, and tracking time and expenses. It’s one of those affordable best finance apps that give you functionality without too high a price tag.
In addition, Sage One has particularly strong project management features, so you can manage your freelance or contracted workers from this app as well.
30. Intacct
If you’re looking into super-secure cloud-based accounting software, Intacct might be for you. (They backup their data on three different continents, just to be safe!) With customers like Ted, IndieGoGo, Marketo, GrubHub, and Kayak, Intacct has a wide base of users and are familiar with growing companies. That said, they’re not specifically small business-minded, so investigate your particular needs before joining!
Best Finance Apps: Industry-Specific
Whether you’re a restaurant or a handcrafted small business, here are our picks for the best apps that are specific to your industry.
31. Restaurateur
Looking to expand your operations? The Restaurateur app will consolidate your notes, operating expenses, revenue needs, and more as you scout for your next location.
32. AccuPOS Restaurant
If you’re not familiar with Point-of-Sale Software, then maybe it’s time to get acquainted. Apps like AccuPOS Restaurant give your customers better experiences and increase your turnover rates. You’ll speed up the payment and receipt process, limit miscommunications between servers and cooking staff, and more. Whether you’re running a full restaurant, a food truck, a coffee shop, a bar, a lounge, or something else altogether, AccuPOS could be one of the best finance apps for your small business.
Plus, it integrates with QuickBooks, Sage, and other accounting apps, alongside working with magnetic card readers and other innovative POS hardware. It comes with a bit of a hefty price tag, but it’s very likely worth investing in.
33. Revel Systems
Another POS software app, Revel Systems will transform any iPod into a restaurant management tool. You can monitor seating and ordering alongside your restaurant’s financials, inventory, sales, and employee schedules. And with Revel, you can now split any bill with ease. Magic, right?
34. Nowait
Looking for a way to manage that Friday night waitlist? Search no further: Nowait is here to help. Don’t fiddle with pagers or missed connections. Instead, this app—especially designed for restaurants that don’t take reservations—will take control of your waitlist process, from seating charts to front-of-house optimization. Plus, their customer support is great!
35. Waitlist Me
Another waitlist management app, Waitlist Me also comes with a complex wait time analysis program, so your guests can feel confident that they’ll get seated when you say.
36. Inventory Tracker
Pretty much what it sounds like, Inventory Tracker is one of those best finance apps that delivers something simple but necessary. Take charge of your inventory, sales, expenses and credits, and so on—plus, you can scan barcodes and create spreadsheets to port your data elsewhere.
37. Belly
Interested in starting a loyalty rewards program? Belly can help. You can set specially-tailored rewards, so your customers are incentivized to return by what they’re actually interested in buying, as well as set up a points system, so customers can keep track of their milestones.
Plus, Belly comes with email marketing, social media, and analytics software, so you can really take your customer loyalty programs to the next level.
38. AppSuite
This app lets you customize your loyalty reward programs as well, based on what specific customers actually spend their money on, while integrating with your POS technology.
39. Sell on Etsy
Etsy’s app lets online retail business owners manage orders, deal with customers, and—best of all—process credit card payments… All from their smartphones. Easy and intuitive to use, Sell on Etsy will help you run your e-store no matter where you are.
40. eBay
Although you can’t swipe credit cards with this one, the eBay app also lets you manage your online seller account on the go. Although it’s not a dedicated seller application like Etsy’s is, the eBaypreneur can still get a lot of mileage out of this free tool.
Best Finance Apps: Miscellaneous
From timekeeping to invoicing, these finance apps are handy for nearly every small business owner out there.
41. LivePlan
LivePlan is a nifty app that helps you create a stellar business plan—plus one-page pitches and infographics—and then track your budget and revenue progress by connecting to your accounting software. Safe, secure, and easy to learn, LivePlan isn’t an app to miss.
42. TSheets
A timesheet app, TSheets simplifies employee management—and will save you time, energy, and money on processing payroll. You won’t look back.
43. InvoiceCare
Previously known as ZenCash, InvoiceCare syncs with your accounting or invoicing system and helps you manage your accounts receivable from one platform. They’ll email and even call your late-paying customers, send thank-you notes, and keep your records fully organized.
44. FundingGates
Similar to InvoiceCare, FundingGates will help you keep track of your accounts receivable—and will work with you to recover overdue payments from customers, finance your ARs, and even get trained and certified in AR management.
45. Simple Loan Calculator
This app will help you calculate your monthly loan payments—you just have to enter the terms of your loan, the interest rate, and so on. It includes an amortization table alongside graphs for the visually-inclined. And best of all? It’s free.
46. Chargify
If you deal with online subscriptions in one form or another, your business might benefit from Chargify. It lets you manage coupons, special offers, expiration dates, and renewal plans—even if they’re on paper rather than digital.
47. Ebates
Lose track of the coupons and deals you qualify for? Ebates can help with that. It’ll track the deals and discounts on products you need to run your business, saving you time, money, and energy.
48. Boxmeup
If you use an Android phone and deal with shipping, then you’re in luck: Boxmeup is here. You can create and scan labels, search the locations of all your inventoried packages, and track where they’re heading. Getting into the habit of using it might take a little bit of time at first, but soon you’ll be glad you did.
49. PayPal
Just one of the best personal finance apps to keep in your mobile arsenal, PayPal is a ubiquitous platform for managing online payments. Having it will help you make payments without using your credit card, receive, and track payments if you run an ecommerce store, for example.
50. Evernote
You might not think of this note-taking app as one of the best finance apps for your business, but there will always be some random information you need to keep track of that just doesn’t fit into anything else you use. There are plenty of alternatives these days, so shop around and find the best one for your needs.
51. Clarity Money
As more companies start to offer subscription models, it can be hard to keep track of them all. Clarity Money helps you manage, monitor and close any subscriptions that you don’t use, saving you and your business money.
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Good luck with app-hunting, and remember: the prepared business owner is the successful business owner. Make the most of these modern technological innovations!
The post The 51 Best Finance Apps for Small Business Owners appeared first on Fundera Ledger.
from Fundera Ledger https://www.fundera.com/blog/best-finance-apps/
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