Small Business Management: Books, Apps & Tools + Business Partnership Advice

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Liz Strikwerda

Content strategist and corporate blogger (2000+ posts). Her work has been featured on G2's Learning Hub, Human Resources Today, Better Buys and over 500 business websites. She plays bluegrass mandolin and enjoys sailing her catamaran and hiking in the red rock wilderness of southern Utah. Connect with me on LinkedIn

The Swipeclock Guide to Small Business Management Tools

This guide is for entrepreneurs, start-ups and small business owners.

Chapter 1. The Best Small Business Management Software

The Best Accounting Software for Small Business

In this section, we start with accounting software. Newbies quickly learn that one product–QuickBooks–dominates the market. Which leads us to the question, ‘Is QuickBooks the only game in town when it comes to small business accounting software?’ Certainly, no one can question its popularity—QuickBooks claims to have 80% market share and over 2 million users.

Some small business owners, however, prefer other software. Let’s talk about additional accounting and business software products you can consider.

First up, what does accounting software do?

These are the 7 most common functions:

  1. Invoicing
  2. Purchase orders
  3. Bill management
  4. Payments
  5. Expense tracking
  6. Financial reports
    • Profit and loss statements
    • Income statements
    • Cash flow statements
    • Balance sheets
    • Customer balance summaries
    • Accounts receivable aging summaries
  7. Inventory management

What small business management software for accounting offers an alternative to QuickBooks?

Onlineinvoices

  • Website
  • Invoice Template
  • Small $6.50/month
    • 15 clients, 15 invoices, 7 subscriptions, 30 estimates (per month)
  • Silver $9.95/month
    • 300 clients, 300 invoices, 30 subscriptions, 120, estimates (per month)
  • Gold $19.95/month
    • 2500 clients, 1000 invoices, 50 subscriptions, 1000 estimates (per month)
  • Platinum $39.95/month
    • Unlimited clients, invoices, subscriptions and estimates (per month)
  • Track payments and sales
  • Inventory management
  • Client management
  • Project management
  • Expense tracking

FreshBooks

  • Website
  • Lite plan: $6/month
  • 5 billable clients
  • Plus plan: $10/month
  • 50 billable clients
  • Premium plan: $20/month
  • Unlimited billable clients

Xero

Early plan: $12/month

  • 20 invoices and quotes
  • 5 bills
  • Reconcile bank transactions
  • Multiple currencies
  • Capture bills and receipts with Hubdoc

Growing plan: $34/month

  • Invoices
  • Quotes
  • Bills
  • Bulk reconcile bank transactions
  • Multiple currencies
  • Capture bills and receipts with Hubdoc

Established plan: $65/month
Features of Early and Growing plus:

  • Multiple currencies
  • Expenses
  • Project tracking
  • Bulk reconcile bank transactions
  • Capture bills and receipts with Hubdoc
  • In-depth analytics

Zoho Books

Website
Free 14-day trial

Free plan

  • 1 user + 1 accountant
  • Manage clients
  • Up to 1000 invoices annually
  • Client portal
  • Online/offline payments
  • Payment reminders
  • Multi-lingual invoicing
  • Credit notes

Standard plan: $10/month

  • Everything in Free plan
  • 3 users with predefined roles
  • Bulk updates
  • Transaction locking
  • Custom views
  • Expense tracking
  • Timesheet and billing

Professional plan: $20/month

  • Everything in Standard plan
  • 5 users
  • 10 automated workflows
  • Recurring bills
  • Vendor credits
  • Sales and purchase orders
  • Reporting tags
  • Purchase approval
  • Budgeting

Premium plan: $30/month

  • Everything in Professional
  • 500+ contacts
  • 10 users
  • 3 branches
  • 200 workflow rules
  • Budgeting
  • Validation rules
  • Vendor portal
  • Custom reports
  • Custom domain

Wave

Website

  • Free accounting and pay-per-use software designed for entrepreneurs
  • Fees for payments: 2.9% + 30 cents per credit transaction, 1% per bank transaction

Fun fact: In July 2019, Wave was acquired by H&R Block for around $400 million.

For comparison, here is the pricing for QuickBooks Online:

For small businesses:

  • Simple Start plan (1 user): $12.50/month.
  • Plus plan (5 users): $40/month
  • Advanced plan (25 users): $90/month

Of course, all small business accountants and bookkeepers are familiar with QuickBooks. In fact, there are over 50K accountants/bookkeepers who have been certified by QuickBooks as QB Pro Advisors.

Because of QuickBook’s ubiquity, if you choose a QB alternative, make sure your financial people are okay with it. Of course, if you haven’t hired an accountant or bookkeeper, you can choose your software first. Once you’ve done that, you can find an accountant who is familiar with your software.

Quickbooks Basics for the Newbie

What is QuickBooks?

As mentioned previously, QuickBooks is the most popular accounting software for small business.

What is the difference between QuickBooks and QBO (QuickBooksOnline)?

Before cloud computing, QuickBooks was sold as a product you installed on your business computers. You paid a one-time upfront cost and paid for updates.

Conversely, with QBO, the software is housed on Intuit’s (the company that makes QuickBooks) servers.

This method of delivering software to customers is also called Software as a Service or, more commonly, the acronym SaaS. Incidentally, SaaS is pronounced ‘sass.’

What is the ‘cloud?’

The cloud is another name for the internet. With cloud computing, software is housed on remote servers hosted on the internet. Therefore, you access the software with a web browser.

How do you pay for QBO?

Software hosted in the cloud works like a subscription service. Instead of buying the software in a box and paying once, you pay a monthly fee.

Project Management Software for Small Business

Good project management is key to achieving business goals. Unfortunately, however, few teams believe they are successful. In starker terms: few teams believe they do their work well.

Because effective project management is no easy task, choosing the best project management software is vital. Because it helps you organize, track, assign, and visualize project tasks and timelines. This results in higher quality products and services. In addition, well-designed software helps you stay within your project budgets. Just as importantly, good software improves performance and job satisfaction.

Project Management Software Features

Task Management

  • Milestone Tracking
  • Recurrent Tasks
  • Percent-Complete Tracking
  • Resource Management
  • Critical Path
  • Time Tracking
  • Gantt, Kanban Charts

Financials

  • Budgeting
  • Cost-to-Completion
  • Billable Hours

Collaboration

  • Discussions
  • Notes
  • Assign Tasks
  • Activity Feed
  • Auto Email Updates

Project Management Software Recommendations

As mentioned previously, here are our picks for project management software. The following five platforms are top sellers for good reason. Firstly, they contain the most popular tools for small business processes. Secondly, they are intuitive to use. In fact, on multiple software review sites they have received hundreds of 5 Star Ratings. Thirdly, for the most part, they are affordable.

1. Wrike

  • Website
  • Paid Plans: $9.80-$24.80/month/user
  • Free version
  • Free 2-week trial

2. Monday.com

  • Website
  • Free Individual plan 2 seats
  • Basic plan $8/seat/month (minimum $24/month)
  • Standard $10/seat/month (minimum $30/month)
  • Pro $16/seat/month (minimum $16/month)

3. Zoho Projects

  • Website
  • Free plan 3 users/2 projects
  • Paid Plan $5-$10/user/month

4. Asana

  • Website
  • Premium $10.99/user/month billed annually
  • Business $24.99/user/month billed annually
  • Free version
  • Free 30-day trial

5. Freedcamp

  • Website
  • Free version
  • Pro $1.49/user/month billed annually
  • Business $7.49/user/month billed annually ($8.99 billed monthly)
  • Free upgrades for nonprofits, students, teachers

Workforce Management Software

Managing your workforce is as important as managing your projects. Human Resources software has similar tools and features that help you manage your labor force. Small business owners that use project management software and Human Resources software boost productivity.

Swipeclock’s WorkforceHub is an all-in-one Human Resources portal based on robust time and labor. It handles all core HR functions from one web-based interface.

If you are shopping for project management software, consider workforce management software at the same time. That way, you’ll get the most bang for your buck because they work together for workforce and business process management.

Inventory Management Software

In addition to work and project management tech, inventory management is a useful business management tool. However, it is often overlooked. 43% of small businesses either don’t track inventory or they use manual processes.

The Benefits of Effective Inventory Management

Good inventory management ensures that you maintain a steady production schedule. As a result, you can deliver products on time and never lose a sale or customer because you’re out of stock. Equally important, it will prevent you from storing extra inventory that ties up working capital. Because of these reasons, it’s essential for managing cash flow.

Free Inventory Software for Small Businesses

Fortunately, small businesses can use free or open source inventory management software while they are getting their business going. A freemium software pricing model starts with a free plan with basic functions. This may be sufficient for a small business that sells relatively few products.

Furthermore, as a business grows, it can upgrade to paid levels with more feature options and capacity.

MyStore

  • Website
  • Free for one user
  • Basic $16/user/month billed annually, $19/month billed monthly
  • Professional $33/user/month billed annually, $39/month billed monthly

Ordoro

Features in the free plan:

  • Website
  • Unlimited users
  • 1000 orders per month
  • Batch shipping labels
  • Barcode scanning
  • Multi-carrier shipping
  • Automation rules

Zoho Inventory

Features in the free plan:

  • Website
  • 50 online orders per month
  • 50 shipping labels per month
  • 50 aftership tracking per month
  • 1 warehouse
  • 2 users
  • Composite items
  • Ecommerce integrations

Boxstorm

Features in free plan:

  • Website
  • 1 user
  • 1 location
  • 25 items
  • 100 transactions/month

How Does Inventory Management Software Work?

Firstly, inventory management systems allow you to categorize your stock. Secondly, it helps you organize it in a logical fashion. Thirdly, it ensures you have the right materials and the right amount at all times.

If you carry perishable items or those with a limited shelf-life, the software can help you sell them before they expire.

Your software tracks inventory through your supply chain. This may require moving it to multiple warehouses, fulfillment centers, or retail stores.

In addition, automatic alerts tell you when to order more supplies or products.

How to Set Up Inventory Management

  1. Create a database
  2. Label each item
  3. Categorize items
  4. Create and document processes
    1. Purchasing inventory
    2. Receiving inventory
    3. Storing inventory
    4. Moving inventory between locations
    5. Fulfilling orders

Components of the Supply Chain

Inventory management is a function in the larger process of supply chain management.

A supply chain includes the following components:

  • Non-capital assets
    • Parts
    • Raw materials
    • Work-in-process
    • Finished goods
    • Supplies
  • Processes
    • Ordering
    • Storage
    • Production
    • Packaging
    • Distribution
    • Transport
    • Recordkeeping
  • Supply Chain Entities
    • Your company
    • Producers
    • Vendors
    • Warehouses
    • Manufacturers
    • Shipping companies
    • Distribution centers
    • Other service providers
    • Customers
      • Retail customers
      • Business customers

Inventory Management Fuels Business Growth

“Inventory management software will be the keystone of your inventory management system, as it tracks, manages and organizes product sales, material purchases and other production processes. It essentially allows your employees to switch where they spend their work hours: less time inefficiently searching for products or tracking inventory by hand and more time analyzing and planning for growth.” Paul Trujillo, Informatics

Small Business PTO Management

For this section, we look at how PTO tracking software solves common workforce management problems.

Problem #1 Managing PTO with spreadsheets takes too much time.

Solution: A small business PTO accrual app tracks accruals as your employees clock in and out.

It’s accurate and automatic. It can save you several hours every month. It syncs to payroll so you don’t have to transfer hours manually from spreadsheets.

Online Timecards

Plus—it creates virtual time cards so you don’t need to track down paper timesheets every pay period.

Problem #2 It’s hard to keep track of vacation requests.

Solution: A small business PTO accrual app allows employees to request vacation time from their smartphone.

Employees log into the app on a mobile device to request vacation time. Once that’s done, managers approve or deny PTO requests in the app. It allows managers to see all requests in a centralized location. Because they are all together, managers can easily spot conflicts.

Automated Notifications to Employees

Furthermore, when a manager approves or denies a request, the app sends an automated message to the employee.

Problem #3 PTO causes scheduling confusion.

Solution: A timekeeping/scheduling/PTO app syncs PTO and scheduling.

Let’s talk about how linking PTO to scheduling works. If you try to schedule an employee when they’re on PTO, it will alert you. You won’t have to scramble to find someone to cover a shift because you didn’t realize an employee was on leave.

A Better Way to Track Small Business PTO Accruals

Clearly, spreadsheets don’t make sense when there are inexpensive PTO tracking apps. Indeed, cloud-based solutions are plug-and-play.

How Do I Buy a Timekeeping/PTO Tracking App?

This is how a cloud-based timekeeping/PTO app works:

  1. Choose an app online
  2. Start an account
  3. Enter your employees
  4. Choose your PTO policy from pre-programmed defaults
  5. Enter your settings—for example, your company might allow PTO to rollover
  6. Employees clock in and out in the app
  7. The app tracks PTO with employee hours
  8. Employees can start clocking in immediately after you set up your account

Plus…

  • Employees request PTO in the app
  • Managers approve/deny PTO requests in the app
  • PTO syncs with employee scheduling
  • The app sends automated notifications
  • The app stores historical data for compliance and reporting

Keep Your Employees Happy

PTO is very important to all employees, so it’s imperative to handle them properly. Not surprisingly, if a PTO request is forgotten, it erodes employee trust.

Clear Up PTO Confusion

Clearly, mismanaged PTO ALWAYS lowers employee satisfaction.  In fact, it’s a common reason employees quit. Because of that, don’t risk losing your best employees because of PTO confusion.

WorkforceHub is an inexpensive HR system that includes timekeeping/scheduling/PTO.

There are benefits for everyone—employees, managers, payroll personnel—and execs:

“Our employees like being able to easily access their PTO and send in requests for their time off as well. The time clock feature is good too because it is accessible online anywhere.” Kim T. CEO

App Recommendations From the Reddit Business Community

Looking for proven apps and tools for small business?

Let’s tap the wisdom of the Reddit business community.

What are the apps and tools that YOU use in your small business?

Here are solutions to real-life business needs not mentioned on business management software review sites.

Do you purchase business supplies on Amazon?

camelcamelcamel can track millions of Amazon prices and let you know when a price drops. If you buy the same supplies on Amazon every month you can save time and money.

How can I separate calls from two different businesses?

With Dialpad, I pay $20 a month for two lines one for my side business and one for my main business as a cell phone so customers don’t have my personal line. Makes it easy to completely shut down for the day without the customers calling you at 9:00 p.m. with the flick of a toggle switch in the app.

Need to link Outlook to Android?

Akruto links Outlook contacts and calendar events with Android calendar and contacts apps

Need easy-to-use project and information management?

I use Trello both for to do lists and general information we all need access to all the time—like when staff members are not available.

Do you want to save time with online forms?

Streak for CRM and waiver management. Zapier for automation. If you’re on Gmail, and use any sort of online forms, both are excellent. When I found Zapier last year it saved us 20 hours a week.

Do you lose track of voicemails?

Phone: FreePBX – self hosted on a Raspberry Pi type device (SBC). Love it because I can forward voicemail recordings to my email, since I’m always on the go. Plus the IVR that gives clients key options, based on the nature of their call

How can I improve mobile sales efficiency?

Google Maps/Google My Maps: Plan your potential client canvasing geographically to make the most use of your face-to-face sales campaigns.

How do I automate IT support?

Hesk is a simple open source way to track customer tickets, projects, and requests.

Need to create cool infographics for your website?

Try Visme, Canva, or Venngage. Create basic infographics with templates.

Looking for time and attendance software to sync with your time clock?

WorkforceHub supports facial recognition and finger scan clocks and PIN-based, magnetic and proximity cards.

Chapter 2. The Best Books for Running a Small Business

Warren Buffet says he spends about 80 percent of his day reading. Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, and Jeff Bezos are also voracious readers. Small business owners can gain valuable knowledge and inspiration from books of all genres.

First, we will tap the wisdom of the Reddit small business group. Then we will discuss the recommendations of notable business icons.

When a user asked, ‘What are the best books for running a business?’ fellow Redditors replied with the following picks:

  • The Lean Startup — Eric Ries
  • Blue Ocean Strategy — W. Chan Kim/ Renée Mauborgne
  • The Power of Habit — Charles Duhigg
  • Profit First — Mike Michalowicz

Make Money First

I’ve run a small business for a few years struggling to fully grasp managing the money coming in and out. This book [Profit First] provides a detailed breakdown to make sure that you are, first of all, making money and how to pay yourself just by setting up your bank accounts differently. It has been a huge help to me and my business.Reddit commenter

  • The 99U Book Series — Jocelyn K. Glei
  • E Myth — Michael Gerber
  • Small Time Operator — Bernard B. Kamoroff
  • The 80/20 Principle — Richard Koch
  • The SBA Business Plan Builder
  • How to Win Friends and Influence People — Dale Carnegie
  • The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People — Stephen R. Covey
  • The 4-Hour WorkWeek — Timothy Ferris
  • Start Your Own Business: The Only Startup Book You’ll Ever Need — Inc.

A Startup Crash Course

I had absolutely no knowledge of business or how businesses work but after purchasing this book [Start Your Own Business—The Only Startup Book You’ll Ever Need]  I can say it really opened my eyes as to what is involved in starting and running a business. I feel this book is a crash course that covers everything in business and will also be used as a reference when needed and where to find even more info.Amazon review

Many high-profile business greats recommend novels and self-help books for business guidance. For example, Jeff Bezos’ favorite book is The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Let’s look at top picks from some other notable business minds.

Oprah Winfrey: 10 Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read

  • Behold the Dreamers — Imbolo Mbue
  • The Seat of the Soul — Gary Zukav
  • Behave — Robert M. Sapolsky
  • The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom —Don Miguel Ruiz
  • A Return to Love — Marianne Williamson
  • The Power of Now — Eckhart Tolle
  • Tuesdays with Morrie — Mitch Albom
  • The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want By Being Present To The Life You Have — Mark Nepo
  • Present over Perfect — Shauna Nieguist
  • Love Warrior — Glennon Doyle Melton
  • Broken Open — Elizabeth Lesser

Source: Entrepreneur

Bill Gates’ & Warren Buffet’s Favorite Business Book

In 1991, Bill Gates asked Warren Buffet what he believed was the best book on business. Buffet told him Business Adventures by John Brooks. Buffet then sent him his copy. After reading it, Gates began singing its praises as well. In 2014, Gates affirmed that it was still his favorite business book.

Chapter 3. The Do’s and Don’ts of Starting A Small Business Partnership (Mostly Don’ts)

Starting a small business is not easy and you might think it makes sense to enter into a partnership. However, you should go into it with eyes wide open.

Unfortunately, the numbers aren’t encouraging. In fact, estimates of failure rates for partnerships are as high as 80 percent. Despite this, thousands of entrepreneurs enter into partnerships every year.

Let’s look at the pros and cons. For our purposes here, we are mainly talking about a two-person general partnership in a small business. However, some of the issues are universally applicable.

Advantages of Taking on a Small Business Partner

Shared Startup Costs

Pooling your resources lessens the financial burden of launching your venture.

More Borrowing Power

Along the same lines, you may not be able to borrow the capital necessary on your own. Because of this, a partner may tip the scales in your favor.

Shared Debt Liability

Once you’ve secured your loan, now you’re on the hook for payments. Certainly, many business owners want someone else to share that responsibility.

NOTE: Shared debt liability can be a disadvantage as well.

Possible Tax Benefits

General partnerships, limited partnerships, and limited liability partnerships are pass-through entities. As such, the business doesn’t pay business income taxes. Each partner includes their portion of the income/losses on their personal returns. They pay the individual rate as if it was personal income. Pass-through entities avoid the double taxation that occurs with a S- and C-corporations.

Increased Knowledge and Experience

A broad range of skills might be necessary. Few people are good at everything. Some entrepreneurs don’t believe they can manage a business on their own.

Small Business Partnerships are Easier to Set Up

A partnership can usually be launched more quickly than an S-corporation or C-corporation. For example, you don’t have to create and file articles of incorporation.

Fewer Regulations

Partnerships avoid much of the regulation that a corporation is subject to. That said, make sure you have counsel to guide you on your legal responsibilities.

The Disadvantages of a Business Partnership

Shared Financial and Legal Liability

Shared liability. Think about that. You are liable not only for debts. Each partner is an ‘agent’ of the business. That means each is liable for the actions of the other. What if the business becomes insolvent due solely to the actions of your partner? Your personal assets could be at risk. You could have legal exposure if your partner does something shady.

Difficulty in Defining Roles

Who’s responsible for what? Disagreements about the division of duties have doomed many partnerships. When one partner feels like s/he is doing more than the other, resentment sets in. This spreads like a cancer in the relationship. Business partners who were friends in the beginning become enemies. Not a recipe for success.

Small Business Partnerships are Less Secure

Life happens. When a partner dies, retires, or quits for other reasons, the partnership dissolves. An unexpected turn of events can threaten the business’ survival. A corporation is more stable in this respect. The stakeholders must take formal actions to dissolve the entity. Partnerships that grow large and profitable should consider restructuring. At that point, there are many reasons to form a corporation.

Do You Really Need a Partner?

If you are only considering a partner because you can’t start a business on your own, take this as a red flag. There are other ways to get startup capital. A sole proprietorship also has tax advantages. You can hire people with the expertise you need.

Do you want to be your own boss? A partnership isn’t the way to go.

Do you lack the confidence to do it on your own? This isn’t reason enough to take on a partner.

I’m Already in a Small Business Partnership and it’s Going Bad!

Get out now. Importantly, if you don’t have a competent acquisitions attorney, get one. Hopefully, you started with a contract that anticipated this possibility. (More on that below.)

Moreover, you may have to buy out your partner or set up a royalty schedule. Because this is complicated, seek competent counsel and do what it takes.

Starting a Partnership Anyway?

Perhaps you’ve considered everything we’ve discussed by you trust your partner implicitly and want to proceed. Certainly, your shared passion might be fueling your confidence.

Nevertheless, protect yourself. Create a legal, highly-detailed partnership agreement. In the document, outline your goals and expectations and make sure they align. In addition, thoroughly define your roles. Above all, get everything in writing!

Furthermore, once you’ve set up your business, communicate constantly. That way, you can solve little problems before they become big problems. We wish you success!

Simplify HR management today.

Simplify HR management today.

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