We recommend the following smartphone productivity apps to our customers to help them be more organized and productive. These apps are available in both the Google Play Store and the App Store unless otherwise noted.
Business Card Scanner
- Evernote – (see more information below about Evernote) – a truly remarkable product for scanning and keeping cards organized. Just take a photo of the card and you can save it, add it to your contacts, search and share.
Calendar Options
- Week Calendar – lets you group, color code and view appointments by the day, week or month. (iPhone and iPad Only). It streamlines really well with iCal, and it eliminates some of the limitations of iCal.
- Cozi – Online calendar that you can share with others in your family or group.
Expense Tracking:
- BizXpenseTrkr – This application will track expenses, mileage and time. You can include notes with the picture of your receipt and export expense logs.
- XpenseTrkr – It has the same features at the one above, but it is cheaper and does not include the ability to track time.
Note Taking Tools
- Evernote – captures everything from pictures to text and makes it fully searchable from anywhere anytime. You can start an Evernote premium account with this link.
- Penultimate – take notes by typing or writing on your tablet. Your notes will automatically save to your Evernote account. All of your handwritten notes will become searchable text!
Online Tools for Collaboration
- Doodle – Let others schedule time on a calendar. So if you need to meet with several people, you can ask all of them at once and have everyone respond on the same page.
- Timebridge – An online way to show your calendar with others and to schedule meetings.
- Dropbox – drop files into Dropbox to share with others. It is highly encrypted and is a great way to share documents without using email.
Password Protection:
- Lastpass – The premise of this app is, “it is the last password you will ever have to remember.” It is a secure place to store all of your passwords and to generate new ones. It also has a secure place to store important numbers and notes. It sits on your browser, and works easily across all devices. This app is highly recommended by computer security professionals to prevent hacking.
Task List Options
- Wunderlist – manage projects, share tasks, create to do lists.
- Toodledo – manage projects, share tasks, create to do lists.
Miscellaneous Helpful Tools:
- Key Ring – eliminates the need for store reward cards, loyalty cards and discount programs. You enter your store reward number and it will put it in a barcode and hold the number for you. It will also look up all the current deals and coupons online for you. You can pull up the card image and barcode at the register with your phone!
- ShopSavvy – you can use this while shopping to compare competitive pricing. Scan the barcode of any item in a store, and the app will “look around” and show you the price of the same item at stores nearby. So, you will know if it is cheaper somewhere else!
If you are looking for more apps and business solutions, Pixpa has published an extensive list of productivity apps for business owners.
Sara Genrich is an Organization and Productivity Consultant, an Evernote Certified Consultant and the creator of the Organizing@Work for Success Workshop. She’s committed to providing real-life solutions so her clients have time to focus on the things that really matter.