With account software giants such as Quicken, Xero, Intuit and MYOB incorporating cloud-based services into their products many years ago, checking the office finances has become as easy as logging onto the internet wherever you might be. But these efficient solutions can be overkill when it comes to mere expense recording when on the road or organising a small but impactful sales event.
Instead, here are a number of apps that can be used to record those sundry expenses, each with easy methods of exporting the subsequent data into the bigger financial apps. To make this list, the apps must be compatible with both Android and iOS devices (iPhone, iPad), and apart from tracking income and expenses, must also capture and organise receipts, organise tax deductions, accept payments and manage invoices in its own right, track sales if required, manage vendors and contractors, and offer analytics and insights at the very least. These apps meet the criteria and more:
Expensify
Expensify is famous for making expense reports on the go. This is perfect for frequent business travellers, and of course allows you to take photos of receipts and manually log expenses. When you take a photo of a receipt in Expensify, the app automatically reads the receipt and translates it into a logged expense. Perfect! Expenses can be organised by categories like mileage, travel and food. Best of all, Expensify is free for individuals and charges a tiny fee per month for teams. A great reputation well earned.
http://www.expensify.com
Concur
Concur is a trusted business expense reporting app that is best suited to established (and growing) small and mid-sized operations. In addition to the ability to track expenses, Concur has built-in systems for employee expense reimbursements, submissions and approvals, invoice and payment tracking, vendor payment and reconciliation, travel booking, and plenty of other features. While being quite powerful, the really great thing about Concur is that you can customise it in the best way for you, and its fee structure then charges you accordingly (based on the features you choose and the number of users). Concur is also a great choice for serious financial tracking, because the company offers a further suite of products for small businesses. These add more functionality as you need it. The app in its basic form is free for existing Concur customers too.
http://www.concur.com
FreshBooks
This is a popular comprehensive cloud-based accounting program that also has a practical companion app. FreshBooks starts at a modest fee per month for a single user and five clients, but if you own a small business, consider opting for the premium monthly plan, which allows an unlimited number of clients and an extra staff member, as well as project management tools. Being entirely cross platform, you can access FreshBooks on any mobile device, as well as on your laptop. This makes it a good option for entrepreneurs with limited teams who want a fully functional accounting package that also has mobile expense-tracking abilities, although there’s no reason why the application can’t also be adopted by larger firms seeking a solid user-friendly accounting solution.
http://www.freshbooks.com
Mint
This is one of the best expense tracker apps known for personal finance tools as well. This app is free and supports a wide range of banks and lenders, but this will depend on where you are in the world. Mint also provides bill payment reminders, customised alerts when you are over budget and a credit monitoring service. It comes from one of the largest financial software developers, Intuit. The app’s monthly bill payment tracker is a particularly useful feature, which allows you to see all your bills at one glance and get reminders on upcoming due dates and alerts if your funds are low.
mint.intuit.com
