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Smartphones have changed how everyone lives and works. From a personal perspective, they’ve revolutionized how people stay in touch with friends and family members. While calling someone was the norm less than two decades ago, it’s almost a rarity today. Instead, sending a quick message via text or replying to their Instagram is much more common. You can even manage business responsibilities from your phone.
That’s because, from a business perspective, these handheld devices have simplified processes and made it much easier to work remotely. You no longer have to be tied to your desk to get work done. Instead, you can do many of the mundane, repetitive tasks directly from your phone. Work gets accomplished faster and more efficiently thanks to new business-minded smartphone apps. Here are just a few business responsibilities that you can manage from your phone.
1. Invoicing
You’ve put in the work. Now, you’re looking to get that paycheck. Invoicing is definitely one of those business responsibilities you can manage from your smartphone. What’s more, this is an easy way to bill your clients no matter where you physically are. You don’t need to log onto your computer or enter the office to complete an invoice. With mobile invoicing, you control when you send the statement.
With free invoicing templates, invoicing from your phone is easier than ever. These templates are already formatted with the most requested information and can auto-populate some of the data too. This includes today’s date, the company name, and the invoice number. You can also customize the templates according to your business needs. For instance, if you have a preferred payment method you can instruct clients to pay that way in the notes section.
2. Internal Communication
When communicating with your team, there will be times when you are not at your desk and need to send a quick message. Perhaps you’re dropping off your child at school and running late to the office. Or, maybe if you’re fully remote, you’re at an appointment and need to send a reminder to a teammate while in the waiting room. For these reasons and plenty of others, internal communication platforms are widely available for smartphone use.
Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Google Chat are three of the most popular applications you can use for these sorts of business responsibilities. All of these allow for direct message communication with your team. In some instances, such as Microsoft Teams External Access, you can even send a message to a client or contractor. This can be useful if you’re running late to an in-person meeting with them and don’t have their phone number. When using these communication apps, be mindful of how and when you’re using them; just because you’re working late into the night doesn’t mean your entire team is as well.
3. Expense Tracking
How many receipts have you lost that were for a business expense? If this is a recurring problem for you, then you may want to start tracking your expenses from your phone. Various apps will help you automatically track your expenses after snapping a photo of the receipt from your smartphone. These apps will automatically upload the information to your expense report, eliminating the hassle of uploading the information yourself.
Of course, the main purpose of utilizing an expense tracking app is to get paid easily and quickly. If your business currently has an expense platform, see if they have an app for mobile devices. Many companies including Intuit QuickBooks, Expensify, and SAP Concur have mobile applications. If you’re a business owner and are deciding which platform the entire company should use, think about your own responsibilities, as well as your company’s needs and size. Some applications are meant for larger corporations with thousands of people while others are better for smaller teams.
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4. Social Media Management and Your Business Responsibilities
With numerous social media apps, creating content on the various channels can be cumbersome. You’re likely juggling different logins and various content production schedules while trying to stay on top of direct messages too. Thanks to social media management applications, you can access all of your business’s social handles from one dashboard. Installing this type of app makes it all the easier to post and see your content go live in real time.
These apps also allow you to schedule your posts ahead of time, which can help you stay organized and stick with the production schedule. Once a post goes live, you can follow up from your phone and see how people are responding. Having access to your phone also means you can step in and intervene, if necessary. If you see that the post has a typo or is causing a negative reaction, you can quickly fix the situation before too much damage is done.
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Managing Business Responsibilities from Your Smartphone
These four business-related tasks are just some of the many responsibilities you can manage from the palm of your hand. Others include emailing, calendar scheduling, task management, and time tracking, just to name a few.
Before downloading any new business-related app to your phone, be sure it’s safe and reliable. Privacy and data protection are top of mind these days. You never want to compromise your consumer or client’s privacy for the sake of accomplishing a task quickly. With that in mind, download some new apps and see which ones make your work life easier.
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