Creating something from scratch is never easy, which is why a good idea, detailed planning, and organization are key in order to succeed and not crash in your first year. When starting a company, understandably, there are plenty of things to consider and keep in mind just from the business aspect, and when we add responsibilities and duties we have towards our employees, management, and, of course, clients into this equation, it’s no wonder why planning before launching a company can last for over a year.
Luckily, today, many new tools are available, and no matter if someone wants to improve the business they already have or start a new one, having these tools can considerably help you with that.
The good thing today is that, unlike before, when running a small business and startups were quite costly, we now have many apps that can help us with that. Of course, since there are plenty of these apps, one question arises, and many find it difficult to determine which ones can actually have a positive effect on the success of their business, but if we shorten that list and divide it into three categories, it can do wonders for our business. Everyone knows how having the right tools such as paystub can speed up the whole process, and that is why we created the list of the top essential apps for startups.
Apps for productivity monitoring
Productivity is what running a business is all about, as it best determines the company’s success. Of course, like everything else in the world, companies evolve too, which is why closely monitoring the productivity and whether it follows the growth of the company is the key. Every single one of your employees attributes to the company’s success. The saying “A chain is as strong as its weakest link” describes this the best. So, let’s have a look at the best apps for productivity monitoring.
1. Clever Control
Undoubtedly our first pick is Clever control, and for many reasons. The main one is that it is easy to use, and you can monitor the productivity of your employees from any device. All the monitoring data is stored on the online dashboard that you can access at any given time. Personal preferences aside, the wide variety of features including the hidden mode and monitoring computer screens in real-time are beneficial for any business. That is why if you want an app that’s efficient, easy to use, and without any bugs, clevercontrol.com should also be your first pick.
Features:
- Time monitoring
- Automatic screenshots
- Keylogger
- Visited websites and search queries monitoring
- Social media monitoring
- Printer tracking
- Live Viewing of the screen and webcam
- Screen, sound and video recording
2. Time Doctor
If you are searching for a tool that can help you track and monitor the employees and do the project management, Time Doctor is probably one of the best choices. By using Time Doctor, you will have detailed information about each employee, and you will be able to check their productivity during the time. Time Doctor gives us the option to make track of everything our employees use on their computers, and it can even take screenshots of their screens for further check. Another great characteristic that Time Doctor has is timesheets and payroll integration.
Features:
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- Automatic screenshots
- Calculating payroll
- Monitoring chats
- Distraction alerts
3. Hubstaff
Hubstaff is a very similar tool to Time Doctor when we speak about tracking possibilities, but it has one more advantage, and it is the option for tracking the employees even out of the office. That means that you can track their computers and phones all the time and have insight into their work. Besides tracking time, it is possible to track the location by using a GPS tracker, which is great for companies whose employees travel a lot.
Features
- Automatic screenshots
- Payroll software
- GPS tracking
- Timesheet templates
Apps for project management
1. Asana
We will be available to visualize our work and choose between various ways to see it if we choose Asana for our project management app. That can help us see and organize our job in the way that suits us the most and make our business even more productive. We can also integrate different third parties into this app, comment on tasks, attach various files, and do many different things.
Features:
- Different project views
- Subtasks
- Third-party app integrations
2. nTask
If you need a powerful tool to help you run your business and create various projects, then nTask can be a perfect choice. Besides separating all the work in workplaces with tasks, nTask also allows us to track time directly into the app without adding other tools. It has great features and a pleasant look which makes it much easier to use.
Features:
- Productivity features
- Time tracking
- Timesheet panel
- Schedule meetings
3. Jira
Jira is one of the best solutions for those people who want to manage software projects with agile development philosophy. It can help us deal with many issues such as bug fixing and project tasks and organize them into a backlog. Jira can also help us to visualize our projects, which makes working on them simpler and much faster.
Features:
- Organizing issues into a backlog
- Visualizing project tasks
Apps for accounting and finance
1. Xero
Xero is one of the best-known apps for finance and accounting because of many reasons, and one of them is definitely functionality and amazing design. With Xero, we have an insight into our cash flow all the time, we can create invoices and do many other things connected to finance.
Features:
- Creating, sending, and tracking the status of invoices
- Connecting to the bank account
- Unlimited users
2. inDinero
If you choose to use inDinero, you will have all the benefits that one finance app has, and it is almost impossible to outgrow this service. We can use it to record all our expenses and categorize them, and inDinero will send us alerts from as many accounts as we have. It has great features that can help us build complex financial statements.
Features:
- A suite of accounting and bookkeeping services
- Gathering info from many payment methods
- Many complex financial services
3. Mint
Although Mint does not allow us to create invoices, this is still one of the great apps we can use to organize our finances and make our business book simpler and easier to check. That makes Mint perfect for small businesses because it can assist them and make operating much easier.
Features:
- Goal setting, tracking, and budgeting
- Connecting to the bank account
- Notifications for upcoming or late payments
The bottom line
Hopefully, after reading everything mentioned above, it should get much easier for you to decide which apps to use for your business. Choosing the best one for a startup is never easy, but this shortened list should come more than handy as it provides the best options and covers all of the important aspects and branches of one company.
Rhydian Choi 
Nicola Holder