Modern smartphones are far more than just things for making calls and having fun. From Chromecast apps to data storage they can become great work tools, mobilizing the business processes and work-life of the average person, student, or pupil.
Today, many business matters can be handled through a smartphone. And it’s not just reading emails, calling partners, and ordering cabs. Apps with new business features are coming out so often that you can’t keep up with them.
What mobile apps can do for you
Pay taxes and file reports
Dealing with tax authorities is, probably, the most routine task for the business. Unfortunately, there is no getting away from it. You can pay your taxes through online banking, and you can file tax returns on the IRS website. Either way, you have to be physically at your computer to do it.
With the smartphone, it all comes down to a couple of taps. You can transfer money and send statements wherever you are: at home, on the road, on vacation. You can do everything through a single cloud accounting application or use separate tools.
Perform banking transactions
Paying and issuing invoices is another essential part of doing business. And sometimes it all has to be done urgently so that business doesn’t stop: suppliers have shipped goods on time, and clients have transferred money to pay wages.
Of course, online clients now allow you to do all this in a couple of clicks. You don’t have to print payments and go to branches. But what if you don’t have access to a computer and need to transfer money or send an invoice urgently?
In addition to desktop clients and browser-based personal accounts, many banks have mobile applications that allow you to make mobile invoices in a matter of minutes. Counterparty requisites, information about past movements, and other data are saved. If the partner is not new, you don’t have to fill anything in.
Keep track of tasks and manage projects
Keeping track of tasks, reading employees’ comments, and correcting their actions is convenient from a smartphone. Especially when you are on vacation, on the road, at a business meeting, or on vacation. Most products have mobile apps, which are developed and updated regularly. By the way, such versions often have additional useful features like a widget for today’s current tasks or a button to quickly create a case on the home screen.
Watching what’s going on in the office
For offline businesses, video surveillance is an indispensable thing. It’s easier with cameras:
- solve an ambiguous situation with a customer;
- prevent an offense or find a criminal;
And some modern services have analytical functions: counting the visitors of a retail outlet, analyzing the target audience and the popularity of different categories of products.
Of course, you can view records, online broadcasts, and reports from your computer. However, when urgent issues arise on the road, it will be useful to watch the cameras from your phone. In addition, some services send notifications via apps when sound or motion sensors are triggered. By reacting quickly, you can catch the offender right on the spot.
Monitor phone conversations with customers
Virtual PBX is not a surprise anymore. Such a way of corporative telephony organization is easier, more flexible, and cheaper than a traditional one. Distributed companies without a physical office, warehouse, or sales point have no choice.
In brief, modern virtual PBXs are programs that run on developer’s servers, and users get access to them via a web service. These tools distribute calls between employees, record calls, store call history, integrate with CRM, and have other useful features, the set of which depends on the specific solution.
Of course, it is more convenient to configure the service, create call distribution scenarios, and integrate telephony with other products from a computer. And with a smartphone, it is convenient, for example, to listen to conversations with customers while driving, so that you do not waste time on it later.
Capturing information and ideas
An entrepreneur’s head is full of thoughts about business development 24/7. At any moment, a brilliant idea may flash, important information may come up, or a useful link may pop up in your browser. Trying to keep everything in your head is a bad idea. Something is bound to get forgotten.
Many people use paper notebooks and diaries to record and store valuable ideas. However, they are not very convenient to systematize and search for information. In the case of references, this method does not stand up to criticism at all. Mobile applications are much more functional in this regard. You can sort notes, links, documents, and photos by folders and tags, and quickly find what you need using a keyword search. When you need to record something quickly on the go, voice dialing and audio recording come in handy.
Scan documents
In business, sometimes there are situations when you need to scan a document to save it to yourself or send it to someone. At the same time, there is no computer or office equipment at hand.
Of course, this task can be solved with the help of an ordinary smartphone camera – just take a picture and send it. However, such photos are not always of high quality, and a desk, chair, or the back of a subordinate will remain in the background.
Special mobile applications for scanning also use a smartphone camera, but they:
- automatically capture the document itself, cropping everything unnecessary;
- align it as if you were using a normal scanner;
- they apply filters that increase quality and make the image readable and presentable.
