Would you believe us if we said that managers within large corporations lead less hectic lives than small business owners? If you’re a small business owner yourself, you probably would! The reason for this is that thanks to additional resources, most of their routine chores are automated. But with the right apps for managing a small business, independent business owners too can stay organised and find time for important things outside of work.

If you’re a small business owner in the UK, you should know that there are apps for pretty much every part of running a business. The key is to find the one that suits you from the top-rated apps for managing a small business. To help you out, here is Chalkboard’s list of the best apps that business owners should consider.

Finance

FreshBooks

Create personalised invoices in seconds, manage your expenses and track time with FreshBooks, one of the most popular apps for expense tracking and accounting. It makes it exceedingly easy to save your receipts which will help you when filing taxes. You can also accept payments through credit and debit cards in the app.

Who’s it for?: Freelancers, contractors and small businesses

Cost: Starts at £5.50

Coconut

Coconut is the app for those who hate doing accounts, which, let’s admit it, would sum up most of us. You can create customised invoices, track expenses and send reminders to clients, all automatically. It also gives you an easy-to-understand report of how your business is faring financially, with balances and reinvestment opportunities. It’s no wonder then that it has become one of the best accounting software used by small businesses.

Who’s it for?: Freelancers, gig economy workers and small businesses

Cost: Starts at £3.60

Payment

PayPal

It’s the name synonymous with online payment and it’s the one you should have if you accept payments over the internet. With close to 300 million customers worldwide, Paypal enables you to sell your product or service through almost all online marketplaces and even accepts in-store payments. It’s easy to set up and comes with enhanced fraud protection.

Who’s it for?: Small and medium businesses, online sellers

Cost: Their commission starts at 1.20% plus a fixed fee

Payanywhere

Be prepared for whichever way your customer or client may decide to pay you. With Payanywhere, you can accept payments in your store, online or even when they’re on the go. It also helps you manage your inventory and offer discounts.

Who’s it for?: Stores, restaurants, online sellers

Cost: Their commission starts at 2.69%

Organisation

Google products

Take your Google usage to another level by utilising all the value-rich features the search giant provides. You can use Google Drive to save and share documents, Google Sheets for spreadsheets, Google Docs for documents and Google Slides for your presentations. You can also organise meetings through Google Meet and synchronise them through Google Calendar.

Who’s it for?: Small businesses, freelancers, startups

Cost: Free for all the basic services

Evernote

An idea can strike you anywhere. When it does, Evernote helps you save it. More than that, you can also save images, PDFs and audio in the app. You can also add your schedule to it. Saw an interesting article online (perhaps like this one)? Just save it to Evernote and read it later at your convenience.

Who’s it for?: Business owners, employees, freelancers

Cost: The basic version is free

Communication

Slack

It doesn’t get better for teams to communicate, get organised or share reports. What makes Slack exceptional is its ease of use and the different channels it has for all the different projects your business may be working on.

Who’s it for?: Small and medium enterprises, startups

Cost: The basic version is free

In short

With any of these top-rated apps for managing a small business, you can improve your productivity, reduce expenses and better manage your time. The best part? All of them are either free for the basic version or offer extremely attractive introductory rates.