30 Apps to Run your Business By
I’ve been a Mac user for many years now and a business owner for just as many. I’ve needed apps for everything from invoicing and time tracking to contact and money management. I’ve used literally hundreds of applications over the past few years and know how frustrating it can be to find something that works for you.
So to help with that I’ve compiled a list of some applications I’ve used over the years including the ones I think are the best. There are certainly more applications out there that aren’t listed here so if you’ve used something that has worked well, definitely let me know about it.
Time Tracking & Invoicing
On The Job – If simple time tracking an invoicing is all you need, On The Job is the app for you. It purposefully has less features than some of the competition and that is something it definitely has going for it. It’s my app of choice for time tracking.
Studiometry – Full-featured time tracking, invoice, and client management. This is really one of the most solid applications for any client-based business. The $190 price tag is seriously worth it if you need all of the features it has.
Billings – Billings is a newer player in the full-featured time tracking and invoicing market but they’ve made a solid splash. Billings doesn’t have quite as many features as Studiometry but the features it does have are the core ones you’d be using regularly anyways. It’s $59 price tag also makes it significantly more affordable than Studiometry.
QuickBooks – While QuickBooks does not have any real time tracking abilities, it does have a fairly stout invoicing system that can be very convenient if you use QuickBooks to manage your business finances.
Web alternatives:
Blinksale – I use this for all my invoicing needs. Straightforward invoicing at its best. Prices starting from $12/month (not including the limited free plan).
Harvest – Solid time tracking (OS X Widget included). Prices starting from $9/month (not including the limited free plan).
Money Managment
QuickBooks – The industry standard for business finance management. The Mac version of QuicKBooks is frequently chastised for its clunky interface compared to its Windows counterpart but in all honesty I’ve yet to have any real gripes. This app is a core part of running my business. Pricing for this is $200.
Cha-Ching – Arguably one of the best looking applications on the Mac, Cha-Ching has somehow managed to make a boring financial application hip and fun. Class OS X features like smart folders and iSight integration make this a fairly easy application to learn and use. This one will cost you $40.
iFinance – Fairly simple interface. At $15 it’s one of the cheapest solutions available.
iBank – Pretty full-featured with things like report and chart creation and budget tracking. It’s $50 for one license with a 30-day money back guarantee.
Money 2 – Jumsoft’s Money has recently seen a major upgrade to Money 2. The new feature set in Money 2 really is extremely solid though some may find the extra features as a little overkill (ie. a built in web browser). For the number of features it offers, the $40 price tag is steal.
Web alternatives:
DimeWise – Super cheap ($5 a month).
Wesabe – Includes a helpful community for tips and suggestions.
Communication
Mail – This pretty much goes without saying. I know some people prefer other mail applications but Apple’s own Mail.app really is the best mail application I’ve ever used. This app is included with OS X.
Skype – Despite the recent outage, Skype is still one of my favorite tools for phone communication. With bookoodles of add-ons from personal phone numbers to voicemail and more, Skype has raised the bar and become a viable solution for many small business owners.
Adium – Whether you think chatting is productive or not, it’s great for hitting up co-workers or clients for quick questions. This one is free in every way possible.
Web alternatives:
Mailroom – Mailroom is a fairly niche mail application in that it’s mainly built for customer support teams. Pricing starts at $9 (not counting the limited free plan).
Campfire – Perfect for group chats with co-workers and clients with features such as file attachments and chat logging. Pricing starts at $12/month. There is a free plan that would work fine for smaller groups.
Project Management
Daylite Productivity Suite – An incredibly full-featured project management application, Daylite is one of the most useful applications on the Mac today. The full suite includes some killer features such a Mail integration, shared calendars, contact management, and more. A 1-user license costs $189.
OmniPlan – One of the newer Omni Group applications, OmniPlan makes heavy use of Gantt charts to help schedule out any project you have. The full version costs $150.
Web alternatives:
Basecamp – 37signals’ flagship product, Basecamp has become the standard for project management in many offices (especially small/home businesses). I keep Basecamp open almost the entire day to help manage things. Pricing starts at $12/month.
Contact Management
Address Book – Some people prefer simplicity (myself included). I prefer Address Book to keep up with all my contacts and it has served me great over the years. It is included for free with OS X.
Daylite – In addition to being a great project management app (as mentioned above), Daylite also does a killer job of managing contacts. I’ve used it to manage everything from new client leads to team members on a project. A 1-user license costs $189.
SOHO Organizer – SOHO Organizer is a bit less business focused than Daylite. In addition to helping you organize contacts, it also helps lets you attach everything under the sun to those contacts as well as group them together however you wish. This one will cost you $100.
Redlien Account Executive – Redlien is almost exclusively for people who are in sales. With features such as email logging and opportunity management, I can’t imagine this not helping you increase your sales to other people. Cost is $130 for a new license or $90 to upgrade from a competing applications (such as Daylite).
Web alternatives:
Highrise – The newest application from the 37signals crew, Highrise is contact management in the usual 37signals style. Simple, straightforward, no feature-bloat. It has just the tools you need to customize it to your workflow. Prices start at $12/month. There is a limited free version as well.
Miscellaneous Tools
Yep – Yep (formally known as Kip, and covered here) is an application for organizing your documents. I use it religiously to digitize and organize paper receipts and other documents so I can keep a paper-free work environment as much as possible. The $34 price tag is well worth it.
VMware Fusion – Prior to VMware Fusion’s release, I was Parallels guy. But since Fusion came out I’ve exclusively moved to it. Doing so much frontend development, I keep it open almost all day to do browser testing on Windows browsers. Right now you can get it for $60 (after a $20 mail-in rebate).
OmniGraffle – Whether you need to build a simple wireframe for a new web project or create a flow chart for any type of information, OmniGraffle is really the best option for you on your Mac. Pricing starts at $80 for the standard version.
MailTemplate – If you have a lot of email that frequently requires the same response (such as customer service emails), I highly suggest you check out MailTemplate. You create custom mail templates for either new mail or replies that will ultimately save you tons of time on responding to certain types of email. MailTemplate costs around $15.
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Sounds like Yep might be similar to Yojimbo, which is great for organizing and securely storing items such as text, passwords, images, word docs, pdf, the list goes on. Very handy tool. One of the only “shareware” apps I’ve ever paid for and I love it. It’s made by BareBones Software…
http://www.barebones.com/products/yojimbo/
If I could add something to this list it would be:
Contactizer Pro
DEVONthink Pro Office
@RevrendMaynard: Actually I’d say it’s nothing like Yojimbo. Yep is solely for scanning, storing, and organizing PDFs. Yojimbo is significantly more feature-heavy and made for many different tasks while Yep has specific tools for handling and organizing PDFs.
I have Parallels. What are the advantages to switching to VMware’s Fusion?
@Neil: We’ve got an article in the works that covers a lot of Fusion’s positive aspects, but for me Fusion just runs significantly smoother than Parallels. Even on my MacBook Pro with 3GB of RAM Parallels seemed clunky most of the time and Fusion really has run flawlessly.
Time Tracking & Invoicing suggestion:
TimeEqualsMoney from Stone Design
Why did you leave out the MYOB products? http://www.myob-us.com/products/new_mac.htm
Great article! Big thumbs up for Daylite….. it’s such a great app that integrates so well with Mail if you have the DMI module. Perfect for saving emails in there and then deleting them from Mail to keep my mailboxes nice, small and tidy!
@MacRat: You could ask that about any product on earth. This is a listing of products I’ve tried over the years and I haven’t tried the MYOB stuff…so I didn’t list it.
I’m not asking about every product on the earth. MYOB has been a cornerstone for businesses using Macs and it is really strange that you don’t even mention it. The fact that you’ve never even used it just raises questions about your credibility on the topic.
@MacRat: I made no guarantees about this being an exhaustive list in any form or fashion. So I’ll say this again…it’s a listing of products I’ve used…nothing more, nothing less.
This has nothing to do with “credibility” my friend. It’s a simple post of stuff I’ve used when running my business. Just because I haven’t used an app that you like says nothing about the “credibility” of my business.
So, how about you tone down the sensationalism a bit?
Adium is indeed a great chat client. However, Meebo is a good web-based alternative to Adium. It works on all the major IM networks, except Skype.
@Al: Great point on Meebo as a web-based alternative. I only tinkered with it back when it was still pretty new but from what I hear it’s really become a solid web application.
Thanks for this article. Though I’ve played with a few of these applications, its refreshing to find a “Mac App List” thats oriented toward business usage.
Josh: Sorry if my wording was a little too harsh.
Okay, Yep! is awesome. This may be the missing piece that leads me to scan my entire life into PDF… If only there were something like this for text files…
Whoa…awesome post.
I can attest to the awesomeness of Highrise, Basecamp and Adium – though the latter has been fairly buggy as of late.
i would put in a word for iRachet for time tracking and invoicing. I use it, and it’s pretty easy to figure out and get rolling with it.
I would look at Elements CRM, it offers multiple of the topics covered above. It’s super easy to use, and I love it
For Project Management, look at Merlin2 as a solid, professional grade PM tool.
Thanks for this article!
There aren’t enough of these sorts of things around. I have used Macs for years and years and never heard of some of these apps. Yep looks especially promising in terms of organising all the little scraps of paper that clutter my home office.
My only problem is that I now have to admit I actually found something useful on Digg once. :-(
Good one! Oh, I love my Mac a little bit more now! Thanks!
Well this list to me seems incomplete. I would have loved to see more emphasis on Apple applications first such as iWork (Pages, Keynotes, Numbers)?
What about iWeb to create quick websites?
@TheMacThinker: Yes. It’s quite incomplete. I mentioned that it was some of the applications I have used over the past few years.
Obviously I haven’t used every single business app ever made.
And I didn’t mention Apple applications because it’s pretty much a given that Apple users know about Apple products. The point of this post was to show a few more options.
You have to keep in mind that any sort of post listing applications for something will never list everything under the sun. That’s precisely why I asked for people to post the apps they’ve used.
RescueTime is a Mac-friendly time management tool… Provides analytics to understanding how you use every second of your computer time. Drop me an email if you want a beta invite!
(disclaimer: I helped build it– this is a shameless plug!)
@Tony: Thanks Tony. I actually got in on the beta a few days ago and have been using it and love it. I was actually going to include it in this list but since it was private beta I left it off since it wasn’t readily accessible to folks.
Definitely a great app though.
I’ve found ReceiptWallet to be a great addition to my apps, it scans and managed paper receipts.. They also make a app that scans and manages all your paper files.
http://www.receiptwallet.com/
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I MUST throw FileMaker Pro into the ring. The most vital part of my business!
What about iCal? With publish and subscribe I run my business on it. It’s free with every Mac!
And a significant upgrade will be coming in Leopard!
John Davis
Great article. I can’t do business without Studiometry anymore (ain’t that scary), and I also switched from Parallels to VMware’s Fusion (rocks). Recently I dropped DEVONthink Pro for Eaglefiler (http://c-command.com/eaglefiler/) to archive almost anything. Question: what about MS Office products? Do you use them, or are you using iWork or another alternative. Not a day goes by or I have to open a Word document.
For project management, you can also look at xTime Project from app4mac.com. This is a product much more simple than Omniplan and Merlin. You can also take a look at xTime Planning, an amazing product to manage the daily schedule of a team.
good summary – we use many of the ones you listed. Gcal Sync and Missing Sync work great together and allow me to sync my Treo with iCal with my Google Calendar which is nice.
I might also drop a shameless plug for the JumpBoxes for various open source usiness applications. They run via virtualization and therefore work great on a Mac (as most mac users seem to have either Fusion or Parallels running). The equivalents here are:
Contact Mgmt / Invoicing = SugarCRM and vTiger
Proj Mgmt = Trac/SVN
And various wikis, blog systems and CMS’s for collaboration and content authoring.
http://www.jumpbox.com/jumpbox-applications
You should really give a look at Parallels v.3. Their multiple snapshot feature caused me to switch back from Fusion, though it’s basically an arms race between the 2 companies at this point matching features in subsequent releases. great post.
sean
Hi,
If you work with chemicals (pool, cleaner, insecticides, laboratory etc etc ) or in a inherently dangerous work environment (mining, science) my Risk and Safety documentation application might be useful as well.
It helps keep away the lawyers when a worker is injured (oh and it helps avoid the injuries in the first place…)
If you need to do payroll, forget about Quickbooks on the Mac. A separate product ( Aatrix ) is coupled with Quickbooks for payroll and it is to be avoided at all costs. We struggled with it for a couple of years until we saw the light and used a PC strictly to run the PC version of Quickbooks.
I’m glad that someone has mentioned MS Office. Frankly, if not for Office 2004, I wouldn’t be using a Mac these days. Aside from a few rudimentary chores, virtually all of my business tasks are done using Word, Excel and Entourage.
My one gripe with OS X and the Mac platform is the near-onslaught of differing designs and inconsistent interfaces. So many different apps, each with its own interface, its own methods, its own learning curve, its own inconsistent level of OS integration and so on…
MS Office allows me to avoid most of that.
Billable is a nice invoice/time tracking tool too : http://clickablebliss.com/billable
One you left out that I use is iRatchet. I really like that for invoices.
For invoicing and time tracking, I use iBank’s sister program, iBiz. I’ve been delighted with its ease of use and useful features, especially the customizable invoice and estimate templates.
http://www.iggsoftware.com/ibiz/
And keep yourself motivated with http://bmindful.com/ !
Great list, I tried Billable for basic accounting and found that to be quite good.
Also, FastTrack does project management
I think http://www.budgetpulse.com is a very good Web alternative for Money Management which is FREE.
I’ll second Merlin as a decent (and more mature) project management tool that still retains some of the mac feel to it. And the price is the same as omniplan (tested both before opting for merlin).
Hope the competition between both app will lead to great development in project management tools on the mac!
I got very frustrated with the myriad shortcomings of Wesabe. Then I discovered Expensr and I’m blissed out.Great free web app for tracking expenses:
You forgot Voodoo Pad. Great note taker with hyperlinks. A must for bloggers.
I’ve been a huge fan of http://www.lighthouseapp.com
What about Checkout?
This is an excellent checklist and well put together. Managing your business in the early years is as much about managing to avoid failure as to succeed and is the subject of a recent article I’ve just published at http://www.zimbio.com/New+Zealand+Business/articles/2/Managing+to+Succeed
Yes … but …. There is still nothing like QuickBooks Enterprise (ie. a multi-user, shared company file, accounting system — we have 15 users) that runs under OS X .. at least that I know of. Hence … next to every non-Intel Mac here I have to have, in addition, a cheap-ass PC laptop just to run QBE client. On my Intel Macs I run the client just fine under Parallels.
Otherwise I wouldn’t have a single Windows machine inside this building. I suppose the market isn’t big enough to support developing such a system for OSX. But if you look at a company like MarketSystems they have done a great multiuser contact management system for OSX called DayLite. We use it as a replacement for ACT!
Holy #!@#…. thanks for the list of apple software guys. This stuff is good.
Hi,
I would also like to suggest Fanurio http://www.fanuriotimetracking.com which does both time tracking and invoicing.
Fanurio is a desktop application designed to help freelancers manage their work and be paid for it. It can do basic project management, time tracking and invoicing in order to have all the functionality in one place.
Hi,
If you work with chemicals (pool, cleaner, insecticides, laboratory etc etc ) or in a inherently dangerous work environment (mining, science) my cross-platform Risk and Safety documentation application ‘RiskyBusinessSOS’ http://www.macsos.com.au/riskybusinesssos might be useful as well.
It helps keep away the lawyers when a worker is injured (oh and it helps avoid the injuries in the first place…)
(Sorry for the double post – I mucked it up the first time)
I tend to use Office Time for time tracking.See: http://www.officetime.net
Seemlessly syncs with Apple’s iCal.
pocketbusinesstools.com is something you might want to look at. it makes business tools for your mobile phone.
There is also http://www.tradeinvoice.com.au/ for those of us invoicing in Australia.
Thanks for the list! You’ve greatly helped my small (mac-run) business!!
I recently picked up MacFreelance from the Apple store. I used my iPhone rebate so it was kind of a whim, but it actually seems pretty full-featured for a $40 program. Has anybody else had success with this app?
Al Luckow:New Media Architect: http://www.luckow.com
I use iCash for finance. . Has a more “business like” approach to econemy, still simple enough for newbies. (My accoutant likes it, too)
@Ken Jenkins There is a mac alternative to QuickBooks. It’s called MoneyWorks and it’s native to both Macs and PCs and you get both versions in the same box, it’s multi-user, and, it integrates with Daylite!
I use iCash for finance. . Has a more “business like” approach to econemy, still simple enough for newbies. (My accoutant likes it, too)
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Don’t forget about TSheets.com for an easy to use time tracker. With a Google Gadget, a Mac desktop widget, Jott.com integration, clock in/out via SMS, and an iPhone app, there’s something for everyone at TSheets.
Why would an application be “frustrating” if “it works” for you? Do apps that don’t work make you happy?
Adium > skype in every way…
Can’t say enough good things about MarketCircle’s DAYLITE program and add-ons. I have used them for years and currently am running 25 clients off a Mac mini hosting the shared company file with no problems. All my users are mobile laptoppers and the program allows you to transition to an OFFLINE database copy of the main shared file, work offline, then transition back to ONLINE shared with everything being properly sync’ed. We use it for contact management, project management, task lists, shared calendars, and even some production job tracking. There are modules available to sync and integrate with Apple MAIL client, FileMaker PULL or PULL data, etc.
pocketbusinesstools.com is something you might want to look at. it makes business tools for your mobile phone.
Umm, pocketbusinesstools.com shows a bunch of crap Windows software for cellphones. I thought this was an Apple forum? Besides, there are free business apps (or $1-$4) for the iPhone that do that stuff and much more. Poor sap. Either that or I’d label that post as spam.
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Just stumbled across this list a year or so later. It’s a great list and illustrates how far things have come in mac business software, and the web in general. Under the category of more recent web alternatives you may want to check out Intervals, an online project management tool that also does time tracking and task management.
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pocketbusinesstools.com is a webbased software that runs using any webbrowser. They have a mobile optimized version along with a full size version for your desktop browser.
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thanks for this great article.
it’s such a great article.
Nice list of applications to run a business with.
I think we could all use more “joined up thinking” when it comes to business software. There are some applications where you can’t even Export your data. And even if you can, there’s no easy way of linking it all together.
I’m trying to start solving this problem by developing my own time tracker without timers for the Mac, and eventually it will be able to export to a lot of the web applications in this article – Havest, Freshbooks, FreeAgent and so on. I’d love to know what other people think of my idea.
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One we feel you left out is Oasis CRM. The offer an Intuit QuickBooks interface which leverages many companies existing accounting system investment. For a full review see Oasis and other hosted CRM solutions at http://www.crmsoftwarefreetrial.com . We have put together extensive line of hosted CRM software products here for your review and trial.
thanks
Another service that could go in this list is Bill On Site – we just launched this week!
Bill On Site is a full-featured web-based invoicing system, with a unique twist: you can use Bill On Site on your mobile phone, enabling small business owners to send invoices to their customers while still on their client’s site. All you need is a semi-recent phone – one with a web browser on it – and internet access on your phone.
Other invoicing services offer web-based access, but completely ignore the mobile web, making sending invoices on the go difficult at best, and impossible at worst. For Bill On Site, it’s our sole focus, and something we’re working on improving all the time.
All accounts come with a free 30 day trial, so if you wanted to try out the service, go ahead. No payment information is collected, so it is absolutely no-risk.
HourDoc is another tool for Time Tracking. http://www.HourDoc.com is right treatment for time and labor management processes has to be an easy-to-administer and affordable solution for Freelancers, supervisors, employees and HR and payroll managers. They offer free application to companies less than 50 employees. You must Try it!
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HourDoc is tool for Time Tracking. http://www.HourDoc.com is right treatment for time and labor management processes has to be an easy-to-administer and affordable solution for Freelancers, supervisors, employees and HR and payroll managers. They offer free application to companies less than 50 employees. You must Try it!
Thanks a lot for the discussion! This is very informative and helpful especially for those in the field of entrepreneurship.
Here is our software:
We are developing the software constantly it’s only $25.00 and you receive all future software updates free, no monthly fees.
http://bee-software.net/invoice-software/
What about Checkout?
very good thanks
Do you have any samples of QB “Chart of Accounts” for graphic design?