8 finance apps to manage cash flow – and save you time and money
With a little help from technology, you can boost your business’ productivity and profit – and say goodbye to piles of paperwork.
Managing money and monitoring cash flow might not be the glamorous side of your business – but they’re essential skills for business success. And with the right tools, working smarter and staying on top of your bookkeeping is easier than ever. Here, we’ve rounded up the best finance apps on the market to keep your business running smoothly, with some input from the experts.
Apps to track expenses
Keeping track of expenses is an essential part of managing cash flow for any small business. Luckily there are plenty of apps for exactly that.
Dext Prepare
An expense-tracking application that automatically extracts data from uploaded receipts, invoices and statements, then sends it on to your accounting software.
Best of all? Every user is given their own email address, and digital receipts and invoices can be instantly submitted, rather than having to be uploaded manually.
For Kelly Baker-Jamieson, co-founder and managing director of Edible Blooms, Dext has been a game changer. “We love the efficiency of uploading our receipts quickly and accurately – it saves us time and money every day,” she says. “The speed of the process ensures our expenses are being reconciled daily to keep on top of cash flow.”
"It saves us time and money every day.”
Price: From $20 per month.
Best for: Anyone from sole proprietors to medium-sized businesses.
Expensify
A receipt-tracking and expense management app that tracks mileage and reconciles corporate card spends. Expensify allows users to snap a photo of a receipt to upload using its SmartScan software. It also offers its own online business credit card that can be applied for and set up in minutes.
For larger businesses, there’s an option to set up your employees with next-day reimbursement should they need to spend their own money for work expenses.
Price: From $5 per month, with a free option for sole proprietors.
Best for: Any size business.
Apps and tools for small-business accounting
Whether you run a florist or a pharmacy, every small-business owner needs an accounting system, and there are plenty of DIY software tools and apps out there.
Xero
This cloud-based technology allows you to access and manage your business’ finances from anywhere in the world, via smartphone, tablet or computer.
Xero allows you to schedule payments, send invoices or process payroll from the palm of your hand. “Xero is great for providing a snapshot of our accounts on the go, and it’s so easy to switch between our different entities and see how we’re performing,” says Baker-Jamieson, who oversees business in both Australia and the United Kingdom for Edible Blooms.
Price: From $12 per month.
Best for: Anyone from sole proprietors to larger businesses.
Quickbooks
Quickbooks is another industry-leading cloud-based accounting software tool, which aims to “make tax time less taxing.” Quickbooks allows small-business owners to send and process invoices, track profit and loss, and see real-time business performance at a glance.
Price: From $7.50 per month.
Best for: Anyone from sole proprietors to larger businesses.
Wave Invoicing and Accounting
Accounting software and expense-management systems can quickly become hefty expenses in their own right, especially for new and small businesses. Unlike some other accounting and invoicing tools, Wave is free. (It does, however, collect fees for credit card transactions or payment processing.)
Price: Free.
Best for: Smaller businesses and start-ups, as there are few advanced features.
A2X
Do you sell products via a Shopify store, eBay, Etsy, Amazon or Walmart? A2X will automatically link transaction data from these platforms to your accounting software, potentially saving you hours of manually matching bookkeeping entries.
Price: From $19, depending on the platform you use.
Best for: E-commerce businesses using Xero.
Apps for managing payroll
Employee salaries are likely to be one of your biggest expenses as a business owner, which is why keeping track of payments and payroll is so critical.
Square Payroll
Square offers a suite of payroll tax software that’s specifically designed for business owners. Square Payroll allows businesses to track employee hours, process staff payments, integrates payroll taxes, and manage benefits. You can even track tips and commissions.
The feature is part of the wider Square Point Of Sale platform, which also offers Square Banking which includes checking, savings and loans. It allows business owners to repay loans and automatically set aside a percentage of your sales to savings each month as well.
Price: Square Payroll from $5 per month for contractors, and from $40 per month for businesses with staff.
Best for: Small-business owners.
Gusto
Gusto is an all-in-one payroll platform that helps business owners pay their staff and also automatically files taxes. Employ staff who work on an hourly rate? Gusto also offers time-tracking for contractors, and facilitates payment in more than 80 countries.
Price: $6 a month for contractors, and from $45 per month for businesses with staff.
Best for: Businesses of any size.
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