If you’re looking for an online accounting app to manage your small or medium sized business, a way to write and deliver professional proposals quickly, an easy to understand stock market update, or a way to keep an eye on the big companies for marketing or employment opportunities, keep reading.
1. QuoteRoller
This program is perfect for business owners who loathe the idea of writing anything. QuoteRoller decreases the frustration of creating job proposals and helps you organize and track them to strengthen your business. A web based service, QuoteRoller has proposal templates that include sample text to get you started. Once you register on their site, you scroll through their proposal templates, choose one, revise the sample text to meet the needs of your unique proposal, and add your contact information. Block buttons can be used to skip certain blocks. The completed proposal can be printed and sent online to your customers. Three (3) proposals a month are included in the free package. More proposals and the ability to include collaborators on your account are part of the premium packages. www.quoteroller.com
2. ProposalPad
An online service to create business proposals, ProposalPad will help you design proposals for your business and assist you to manage the proposals. If you need several different types to cover the variety of products or services you offer, ProposalPad gives you 20MB free to design several. Proposals customized with your company name, logo, information, services and products, as well as terms and conditions, affiliations, and testimonials are some of the items you can include on your proposals. Once you open an account, the information you enter into the ProposalPad system is collated and given to you in a PDF file. Modifications for individual customers can be archived online and easily accessible to download when you need them. The proposal files can also be embedded on your company website. If you need more than the free 20MB account, premium packages are available. www.proposalpad.com
3. Upstartly
Starting a business is risky, but starting one online with worldwide competition is even riskier. Upstartly gives you an advantage. You can check your new idea for its success potential before you step out and launch. Once you register on Upstartly and enter the information for your business idea, they provide you with a URL, which you can share publically to solicit feedback from possible customers. Their feedback will help you formulate a game plan to go forward, make adjustments, or ditch the idea. If you decide to go forward, Upstartly users can pay to be part of the private beta testing. www.upstartly.com
4. SohoOs
Management solutions for small businesses and freelancers, SohoOs is a web based service that organizes information and data for easy access. SohoOs offers integration with your social media accounts and supports text messaging. After you enter your company details and data, SohoOs divides the information into distinct categories, e.g. calendar, accounts, contacts, sales, inventory, marketing, and finance. Having this information in an organized manner and easily accessible improves customer relations, provides quick access to service rates, and processes your invoices in a timely manner. Payments can be processed via PayPal or credit cards. www.sohoos.com
5. Quotebase
Designed for busy business owners who need quick access to company information for the production of new and adjusted job proposals, Quotebase gets the job done efficiently. A web based service that generates expert quotes with quick turnaround. Quotebase has a collaborative app that allows other members of your business to prepare the quote. Documents can be uploaded with your customized quotes and include currency conversions and your company logo. A preview of the drafted quote is available in a PDF file. The final can be sent online. All quote drafts and final documents can be saved on Quotebase, further organizing your business with all quotes filed in one place. This expedites revisions. www.getquotebase.com
6. StockTwits
Great idea for saving time and making money – StockTwits is a web based app that keeps traders on the stock market up to date with streaming in real time. StockTwits is aimed at stock market beginners but is another tool for seasoned stock followers to add to their information arsenal. Now with a quick glance at your Twitter account, you can get stock tips from investors. Getting info and advice from the investor community through StockTwits enables you to expedite your decision making on what to buy and what to dump. A big step-up is the ability that StockTwits gives you to get stock updates on not only your desktop, but website widgets, smartphones, WordPress plug-in, iPads, and browser extensions. And if that isn’t enough, you can sign up for StockTwits TV Live. www.stocktwits.com
7. GoneGoogle
According to Google, they will save you a lot of money if you switch to their apps, and they’re happy to show you their stats on the GoneGoogle website. Once you enter your company’s name and employee count, they will calculate what you will save if you switch to Google apps from Microsoft apps like Outlook, Office, etc. Included in the barrage of slides are your savings from improved productivity and storage costs and it’s all calculated per employee. You can choose to download the information for sharing within your organization on a PDF file, Google Docs, email, poster, or a URL. Free. www.gonegoogle.com
8. Map-Of-The-Market
Map-Of-The-Market (MOTM) is a succinct and user-friendly way to follow hundreds of stocks simultaneously. The color-coded, graphic depiction of stocks can be customized, sorted by industry, etc. Its legend couldn’t be easier to understand – the bigger the stock’s rectangle, the bigger its market cap. Green means the stock price has climbed; red means the stock price has declined. If the stock can’t make up its mind, the rectangle turns dark for neutral. An ‘N’ means the company’s news is updated. Click on the rectangle of your choice and a vertical menu appears so you can choose specifically what you want to know about a company. This highly informative mapping of stocks updates every fifteen (15) minutes all on its own, and you can even customize that by time frames and add highlights. If control panels are the bane of your existence, hide it. Free with no registration. www.smartmoney.com/map-of-the-market
9. Tracked
There are a lot of reasons to keep track of company executives particularly in this day of rapid turnover to see what positions have opened. The same applies to tracking companies – not the least of which is for investment purposes. Are they downsizing or growing, adding affiliates, what’s their market share, what are the new products? Do they need a new marketing team? A new IT Exec? Tracked is a web site that offers a broad base of company data to include leaders, employees, finance, insider trading, stock value, compensation packages, etc. If you’re into bars and charts, graphics are included. Privately or publicly, you can set up corporate watch-lists – both people and companies – track data, create new business connections, and even track what those connections are tracking. Free accounts are available. Currently only in the United States. www.tracked.com
10. PocketSmith
Every business needs to know where they stand at any given point, but creating spreadsheets and struggling with complicated accounting programs frequently nips enthusiasm for up-to-date records. PocketSmith, an online accounting service, can help you get caught up, stay caught up, and keep on top of where the company’s financial position. With this web based package, you will be able to forecast cash flow every day if you want. Imagine that you enter all your financial data, starting with the current cash balance and including planned future financial events, e.g. a balloon payment, and like magic PocketSmith wades through the data, produces forecast graphs, and gives you a basic cash flow statement. Wasn’t that easy? And the program will import your transactions in a CSV file or you can enter them yourself, so you have a comparison of actual vs. forecasted profits and losses. For presentation purposes or for your eyes only, graphical representation of income statements are available. An annual analysis of expenses and income is maintained. All of this makes financial planning and tracking much easier and sustains progress. If you’re on the go and need the data available in places other than your desktop, PocketSmith integrates with Google Calendar, Outlook, and iCal. www.pocketsmith.com
11. BionicBooks
Another online accounting program, BionicBooks, focuses on small and start-up businesses which need a good accounting tool that doesn’t break the bank. BionicBooks is a free web based service, user friendly with a tab interface, simple explanations of accounting terms, and is confidential. The package organizes your data for both every day and tax accounting purposes. BionicBooks lets you maintain an updated profit and loss statement and balance sheet. Their online user community shares tips and questions to help each other. www.bionicbooks.com
12. Outright
Currently for U. S. customers only, Outright is a web based accounting system designed for small businesses. Outright tracks expenses and income, maintains profit and loss data, and calculates taxes. Integrated with FreshBooks to create invoices, the package has graph features and generates reports for a detailed analysis of your financial position. Educational articles on taxes and forms of payment such as PayPal and credit cards are available online. Data from your credit card, PayPal account, or FreshBooks can be imported. Collaboration with your accountant is allowed. Free. www.outright.com
13. InDinero
Another finance tracking system for start-ups and small businesses, InDinero takes some of the irritation out of financial management. An online app that is user friendly for non-financial types, InDinero integrates the business’s banking account, credit cards, and PayPal accounts, making it much easier to see the overall financial picture of expenses and income. Data from over 10,000 financial institutions is in the system. The InDinero free account allows up to fifty (50) transactions. More transactions can be added for a monthly fee. Information is exported to Microsoft Excel, CSV, or QuickBooks through which you can see your financial standing at any given moment. It tracks expenses, monitors cash shortages, trends spending, and based on that information predicts the business’s financial future. www.indinero.com
14. Ganttic
Managing resources within a company is vital to its well-being. This includes human, technological, physical, supply, equipment, financial, transport and the myriad of resources within each of those categories. Ganttic, a web based, multi-task program, helps companies to effectively plan and schedule shared resources across projects to sustain viability. Strategic planning and budgeting across the organization is improved when leaders get a synopsis of proposed and budgeted projects. Drag-and-drop features make reorganizing tasks easier. Data fields can be customized to your organization. This feature-rich program gives data in real time, provides a work log, and supports multi-platform operations. Collaboration with colleagues and clients for efficient resource planning is available through Ganttic, which is free for five (5) users or less and up to ten (10) resources. A fee-for-service system is in place for each additional resource or user you add. Ganttic can be hosted on your company server if you prefer not to work online. www.ganttic.com/en
15. Zferral
Creating affiliate marketing with other businesses sounds like a good idea until you realize you need some way to keep up with marketing campaigns, sales, invoices, commission payments, and on it goes. Zferral, through their comprehensive analytics, puts you in the driver’s seat with real time views of the sales for each marketing campaign and the commissions pending and paid. You can determine whether the affiliate has increased the number of visits to your site, comments, conversion numbers, number of clicks, and impressions. Time data on Zferral is collated for days, weeks, months, year to date, or historical. You can customize the affiliate panel by including your logo, changing colors of texts or backgrounds, and incorporating product and company descriptions.
You get two marketing campaigns and ten (10) or less affiliates at any given point after you register for the free account. To each you upload your banner and text advertising, fill in descriptions, establish structures, and payment tiers for commissions. Affiliates, who market your services or products, create codes for embedding your ad materials to their website. Additional packages with increased affiliates and campaigns are on a fee-for-service monthly basis. www.zferral.com
16. Talleyzip
Talleyzip is an online accounting service that works for both small and moderate sized companies. An accurate and secure tool for tracking accounts, it is an adjunct to good customer relations. Also a multi-tasking accounting based program, Talleyzip uses SSL to protect your company information, offers customer relations management (CRM) functions, task management and collaborative features. User friendly, Talleyzip has free and premium packages. Both provide maintenance of your product list, keep a record of invoices, record company bills, and retain your contact list with their information. The free account is for one user and three or less customers. Premium packages start at $19 a month. http://www.tallyzip.com
