Top 7 Tools for Business Growth

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Business success is the perfect mixture of consistency, efficiency and the ability to learn and grow in a dynamic industry. There is no room for stagnation or the competition outsmarts you, especially if you are a startup or a growing small business.

In order to stay competitive, businesses need to step up their accounting, marketing and operational game. For this reason, our accountants have curated a list of powerful tools for business growth which if used properly can help you blaze your growth to stay ahead of the competition.

Accounting tools

Financial management is the backbone of every business. Consequently, it is crucial that you choose accounting software to help you manage your finances efficiently. 

Fortunately, there is a multitude of software that will help you do just that. Here are our top three picks. 

Xero

Xero offers a somewhat unique approach to accounting for small businesses. It is a cloud-based software and is a highly recommended tool for business growth, especially for small businesses. Xero provides businesses with real-time access to their cash flow, which enables them to make their bill payments quicker. 

Xero also provides expense management, inventory management and bank reconciliation features. Moreover, it provides a simple and manageable platform to work out your invoices and may even support you in fulfilling your payroll obligations.

Pricing:

You can subscribe to any of the following monthly pricing plans offered by Xero.

1. Starter Plan: 

The subscription for this plan will cost £10 monthly.  

With the Starter Plan, you can: 

• Enter five bills
• Reconcile up to twenty bank transactions
• Send up to five invoices and quotes

2. Standard Plan: 

The subscription for this plan will cost £24 monthly.

With the Standard Plan, you can: 

• Enter unlimited bills
• Reconcile up to unlimited bank transactions
• Send unlimited invoices and quotes.

3. Premium Plan: 

The subscription for this plan will cost £30 monthly.

With the Premium plan, you can: 

• Enter unlimited bills
• Reconcile up to unlimited bank transactions
• Send unlimited invoices and quotes
• Handle multiple currencies

Xero also offers a wide variety of app integrations that you can add to your account, like Shopify for E-commerce, GoCardless for direct debit, iZettle for cashless payments, Approvalmax for effective approval workflows, or Harvest for time tracking. Speak to a startup accountant to help you add maximum value to your business by helping you to utilize the extra features and integrations available for your business. 

Why should you use Xero?

We recommend Xero to small businesses for the following reasons:

1. Xero uses a cutting edge document collection and management software, saving you time and money. 
2. The software has over 800 apps available that can help you do anything from inventory management to time tracking and much more. 
3. Xero is remarkably secure and available to the user 24/7 as it uses multiple redundancy proof technologies for its infrastructure.  

Related: Xero is one of the many cloud-accounting software that can be a great fit for your business needs. Learn more about other cloud-accounting software by reading our guide.

Wave Apps

Wave is another great option that small businesses can use to meet their accounting needs. The best part about Wave is that, it not only adds significant value to your bookkeeping process but that you can use it for free. 

Wave offers multiple useful built-in features, through which you can:

• Connect your bank accounts and credit cards 
• Run multiple businesses in one account
• Accept payments in a foreign currency
• Calculate exchange rates automatically 
• Create unlimited invoices

Pricing:

Wave Apps is free for all your accounting needs. 

If you would like to connect your software to an online credit card processing application then the charges are: 

• European Issued cards: 1.4% + 20p per transaction.
• Non- European Issued cards:2.9% + 20p per transaction.

The money transfers to your account in 7 business days and there are no monthly or hidden fees. 

Why should you use Wave Apps?

We recommend Wave to small businesses for the following reasons:

1. Wave Apps is free. For software that you can use free, this comes with a host of features that businesses that are starting out can take advantage of.
2. Wave Apps is easy to use. 
3. Wave Apps gives you unlimited accounting and invoicing. 

ZipBooks:

Another great alternative for accounting software is Zipbooks. Especially for new or smaller businesses, as starter packages are free to use and provide plenty of features that offer considerable value. 

Pricing: 

You can subscribe to any of the following monthly pricing plans offered by Zipbooks.

1. Starter Plan: 

The subscription for this plan is $ 0.  

With the Starter Plan, you can: 

• Send unlimited invoices
• Manage unlimited vendors & customers
• Accept digital payments (Square or PayPal)
• Connect 1 bank account

2. Smarter Plan: 

The subscription for this plan will cost $ 15 monthly.

With the Smarter Plan, you can: 

• Schedule recurring invoices with auto-bill
• Automate reminders
• Connect multiple bank accounts
• Track time
• Connect multiple bank accounts

3. Sophisticated Plan: 

The subscription for this plan will cost $ 35 monthly.

With the Sophisticated plan, you can: 

• Organize books using smart tagging (automated through location, project, and custom)
• Lock completed books
• Share documents securely
• Invite unlimited users

Why should you use Zipbooks?

We recommend Zipbooks to small businesses for the following reasons: 

1. Zipbooks offers a payment processing solution 
2. The software provides bank integration to your account
3. Zipbooks features a project management tool, which allows users to:
   1. Create and assign tasks
   2. Track performance with a built-in time recorder
   3. Text clients directly from the app 

Let the specialists in our accounting firm help you select the best tools tailored to the needs of your business. 

Video: Why are Accounting Software important in a Business?

Using accounting software helps companies to use the resources in their business efficiently, and can reduce costly bookkeeping mistakes. Watch the video to learn more.

Marketing tools:

Digital marketing is the future. Not only does digital marketing help businesses raise brand awareness, but it also allows them to reach a wider audience. That’s why our marketing accountants have worked hard with our marketing partners to curate a list of tools like Ahrefs and Hootsuite, which will help you with your most urgent digital marketing needs. 

Ahrefs:

Ahrefs is an SEO tool that keeps you updated and ahead of the competition by providing insights on the activities of your primary and secondary competitors. Once you have enough information on your competitors, you can then follow the tips and tricks suggested by Ahrefs to get ahead in the competition.

Pricing: 

You can subscribe to any of the following monthly pricing plans offered by Ahrefs. 

1. Lite: $99/month
2. Standard: $179/month
3. Advanced: $399/month
4. Agency: $999/month

Why should you use Ahrefs?

We recommend Ahrefs to small businesses for the following reasons: 

1. Ahrefs provides a comprehensive backlink analysis report 
2. The software Ahrefs helps you identify content gaps between you and your competitors
3. Ahrefs helps you pinpoint click distributions for individual keywords

Hootsuite

Maintaining your presence on social media has become a primary method for businesses to stay competitive in the market. In order to stay relevant online, businesses need a social media management system, like Hootsuite. 

Hootsuite helps businesses to cut down their time-consuming practices by providing a central management platform designed for a range of social media channels. This platform lets you schedule your social media posts in advance which can then help businesses get their weekly, monthly or quarterly content up and ready in one go.

Hootsuite also offers multiple advanced reporting tools for business growth which provide a dashboard to let marketers know more about their high and low-yielding social media campaigns. Based on this information, businesses can then calculate their ROI for each social media campaign.  Our guide to marketing ROI can help businesses and marketing specialists design effective reporting for their marketing campaigns. If you are a beginner you might want to start with an overview of marketing metrics.

Pricing:

You can subscribe to any of the following pricing tiers offered by Hootsuite.

1. Professional: $19/month
2. Team: $ 99/month
3. Business: $599/month
4. Enterprise: Custom solutions

Why should you use Hootsuite?

We recommend Hootsuite to small businesses for the following reasons: 

1. Hootsuite offers an incredible team management function, which includes team assignments and content approvals.  
2. The software has a powerful scheduling feature. 
3. Hootsuite has an impressive reporting tool which businesses can customize with over 200 metrics that measure the impact of your social media content. 

Project management tools

Every business needs an effective project management tool to help them plan, carry out and control all aspects of their operations. That is why it is imperative to use a good tool that will help them ensure each task is on track. 

Asana: 

Asana is one of the best project management tools for business growth. It has a user-friendly interface and its basic package is free. Asana is an excellent task and project management software, as it allows users to organize, plan and execute their work. It also enables teams to collaborate on projects.  

Pricing:

You can subscribe to any of the following pricing tiers offered by Asana. 

1. Basic: Free package
2. Premium: $10.99/user/ month billed annually or $13.49/user when billed monthly
3. Business: $24.99/user/month billed annually or $30.49/user  when billed monthly
4. Enterprise: Custom pricing

Why should you use Asana?

We recommend Asana to small businesses for the following reasons: 

1. Asana provides an extensive number of app integrations in its software, like Slack for effective communication or Google Calendar to manage your schedule. 
2. The software has a very user-friendly interface which also provides you with a customizable dashboard to give you a bird’s eye view of different stages of your projects. 
3. Asana allows you to email tasks directly to projects, which you can assign to individual team members. 

Related: Your business team is the key to your business success. Learn how an efficient business team can create a difference for your startup by reading our blog.

All-in-one tool

G-Suite:

Google’s G-suite is the all and one tool that every business should utilize. G-suite is all-inclusive for all your business needs, including but not limited to communication tools, emails, cloud storage, Google Docs, just to name a few. 

Pricing:

You can subscribe to any of the following pricing tiers offered by Google’s G-Suite.

• Basic: $6/month
• Business: $12/month
• Enterprise: $25/month

Why should you use GSuite?

We recommend G-Suite to small businesses for the following reasons: 

1. G- Suite offers the largest app integration for all your business needs 
2. G-Suite is a part of Google and offers unprecedented customer service 
3. G-Suite is fully cloud-based, so it synchronizes your data across all of your devices in real-time. 

Being an entrepreneur can feel like wearing a crown of thorns. You have multiple aspects of your business, like finance, marketing, tax, HR and logistics, to manage together under severe time constraints. We advise you to speak to our business accountants to help you stay productive, our accounting services combined with our excellent partner network and growth tools can be a boon for any growing business.

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