7 Apps That Will Increase Your Productivity

As bookkeepers, we’re always looking to systemise our work, and do the same in 30 minutes as it used to take us an hour to do.  Here is a round-up of some of my favourite apps for productivity and organisation.

 

17Hats

This is a fantastic all round CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and workflow software.  With just a little time setting this up it’ll handle all of your quotes, invoices, contact details, workflows and much more.

www.17hats.com $29/month

 

Trello

Sometimes you don’t need anything as complex as 17hats, but could do with a little help organising your tasks.  Trello is a great software that you can access free of charge that makes task management a breeze.  Simple click and drag tasks from one part of the process to another and you’ll always be up to date.

www.trello.com Free

 

HelloSign

With so many documents to get signed off, from letters of engagement to vat returns, final accounts and even self assessments it can be a challenge.  HelloSign allows you to email pdf’s to clients and for them to sign and return them all online, with not a single printed page in sight.  Electronic signatures are as legally binding as those in ink, and with 3 documents a month free give it a go.

www.hellosign.com Free for 3 documents a month, then $15 a month

 

Toggl

Sometimes, we all need to track how much time we spend on a particular client or project.  Toggl makes this really easy.  Whether you’re on a phone, tablet or computer toggl allows you to start and stop your timer effortlessly, showing you how much time in total you’ve spent on each project.  It’s one click timers work even when there is no internet access.

www.toggl.com Free

 

Canva

Social media is here to stay.  With that in mind text is good, but a picture really is worth a thousand words.  The problem is that we’re good with numbers, and you can’t be good at everything.  That’s why canva is great.  It makes creating custom images in just the right size for any social media format really simple.  It’s got loads of great images that you pay just $1 a use for, and even free images.  The templates are fantastic and so easy to use you’ll be a graphic designer in no time

www.canva.com Free

 

SpiderOak

DropBox is great, but it’s not as secure as it could be.  Step in SpiderOak, with end to end encryption and a zero knowledge cloud backup it’s one of the most secure file storage systems on the market.  Even the staff at SpiderOak can’t access your files.  The drawback, of course, is forget your password and everything is lost.  A fantastic backup solution when security is paramount.

www.spideroak.com Free for up to 2GB, then $7 a month for up to 7GB

 

Evernote

If you’re anything like me, you’re forever coming across articles and snippits of information that you want to keep, so end up with loads of postits around your desk.  The solution – Evernote.  With the ability to save small bits of information, or total lists it allows you access to this information anywhere.

www.evernote.com Free

 

I know I said 7, but no list of bookkeepers productivity software would ever be complete without the following software.  It’s become the bookkeepers best friend in getting paid on time

 

GoCardless

The ability to collect direct debits has been out of the grasp of most small businesses until GoCardless came along.  Charging just 1% of the money collected up to a maximum of £2 per transaction it’s much cheaper than other payment processors on the market.  Linking with accounting packages like Xero it’s at the forefront of allowing bookkeepers to collect payments, on time, from their clients.

www.gocardless.com 1% per transaction, up to a maximum of £2

 

What is your favourite time saving software?  Leave a comment below.

7 comments

Eilef L
 

Wow looks really good some of this stuff and most of it is free. I have used Canva and think it's great, will be spending my weekend signing up to the rest.
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Jeremy F
 

This is an amazing link, Thank you. Will definitely look at these.
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Arianna H
 

I already use toggl and Evernote which are both very handy and fabulous to use. Will have a look at the other ones.
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DIANA B
 

thank you for the apps will have a look
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Lindsay S
 

Thanks for the apps - I'll take a look. Trello sounds great.
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Shaun H
 

I had not heard of any of these apps, but certainly will be checking them out.
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Charlie T
 

Defiantly going to check out spider-oak and evernote.. thanks Kris
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