While you’ve probably downloaded plenty of apps for your personal smartphone, there’s a wealth of apps for accountants and accounting support staff that can make everyone more productive. These include apps for communications, file sharing, and note taking that enhance all areas of your practice.
Charlie: Prepare for Client Meetings
Preparation before an important client meeting helps you learn more about who you’ll meet with and how you can build rapport. Knowing that your client likes golf, you can schedule a golf outing, or at least have some news from the world of sports as an icebreaker for the meeting.
Charlie, a free app, does this homework for you. Charlie scours the web to find out more about people you’re meeting with and prepare a report with publicly available information. It can tell you which mutual friends you have in common and items of interest that make it easier to begin conversations with new clients. Charlie is currently available for iOS only.
Skype Your Next Meeting
Perhaps you’re traveling and need to meet with your team to brief them on the results of an important client meeting. Or your assistant needs to work with a freelancer on the design of a new brochure for your accounting office. Skype is the app of choice for many people. It features video, audio, and text-only messages, allowing you to choose the level of contact you wish for your meeting. Calling within the Skype network (a “Skype to Skype call”) is free no matter where the two parties reside; there are charges for calling from Skype to a landline. The charges vary according to location. Skype can be used on any smartphone, tablet or computer. It is free to download and use.
Sweeten Your Cloud Storage with SugarSync
SugarSync brings cloud computing to a new level. This app backs up all of your files so that you can access them remotely. Unlike DropBox and other file-storage or cloud-based sharing sites, you don’t have to upload the files; SugarSync does it for you. And it keeps them in the same configuration you had them on your main device. SugarSync is available for Android and Apple devices.
Noteworthy: Notability
If you or other members of your team take a lot of notes during meetings, Notability may be an appealing tool. This app lets you scribble notes on your smartphone as if you were using a pen, and you can also type notes into Notability. Use it to take notes during meetings, calls, or simply while working on accounts. It’s a great tool for everyone in your accounting office.
Notability may be downloaded for Apple devices from Ginger Labs.
Explore Other Apps
Don’t forget to explore other apps for your accounting practice. If you’re on social media such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, there are convenient apps you can download to your smartphone that enable you to check and respond to messages, post images and content, and update your account. Many clients use social media to communicate with their accountants and it is helpful to be able to respond quickly via this channel if someone communicates with you.
Calculator apps are plentiful, but these newer apps can help accountants be ever more productive than ever before. Notetaking, cloud storage, communications and meeting preparation apps can help you become more efficient and benefit your accounting practice.
Welter Consulting bridges people and technology together for effective solutions for nonprofit organizations. Check out our complete listing of free webinars on nonprofit technology. We offer software and services that can help you improve and grow your accounting practice. Please contact Welter Consulting at 206-605-3113 for more information.
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