Top 9 Apps for Independent Contractors
Whether you are jet setting on a tropical vacation or just don’t want to get up from the couch, being able to check your email and do some work from your phone is a godsend. And no one feels that harder than independent contractors!
Gone are the days of needing to drag your laptop to every business meeting. The modern boss-babe entrepreneur doesn’t have time to mess around with clunky software. Time management, admin work, e-commerce, marketing, even accounting --- there’s an app for that!
In this article, we go over the top 9 apps for independent contractors. All the featured apps are available at both the Apple Store and Google Play Store. These are the crème de la crème of the App Store that you should be using if you are the owner of your own small business.
Time Management
Toggl Track
What it’s all about: Toggl is a time tracking software and app. You can use it as a punch clock to track how many hours you spend on a project or client. Knowing how much time you are allocating to a product or service can tell you how profitable your freelancer business is. Toggle makes this very easy to do as it includes reporting capabilities in its app.
Price: Free! They offer $9 to $18/month tiers for larger organizations, too.
MileIQ
What it’s all about: This is for the lady on the go! If you have a service-based business that relies heavily on driving, MileIQ is for you. Using your phone’s GPS, it tracks your mileage as you drive and gives you detailed reports handy for calculating self-employment tax deductions.
Price: $60/year, but they offer 40 free drives to start you off.
Forest
What it’s all about: This cute app is all about productivity. You start by planting a tiny virtual seed and setting a timer. If you manage to not leave the app during that time, your seed grows into a tree! The more focused work you accomplish without tapping away to check your Insta, the larger your forest grows. It’s all about building your ability for intentional focus.
Price: Free to $3.99, depending on if you want to upgrade some features.
Administrative
Docusign
What it’s all about: Send your client's signable contracts straight to their emails. Their comments and signatures are saved to the document, providing you backup in case of client disputes. Service-based small business owners know this is essential. Plus, you can build and save templates within the app --- a total time saver if you are a hustling female entrepreneur who sends out lots of forms and contracts.
Price: $10/month plus a 30-day free trial.
ClickUp
What it’s all about: This is a project management app that is firing on all cylinders. In ClickUp, you can break projects into tasks with assignable roles and due dates. Notifications and goals features keep you on track. Chat rooms and whiteboards are great to use when collaborating with partners or clients.
Price: Free for personal use and then starting at $5/month.
MailChimp
What it’s all about: This is your marketing-go-to. The most popular use for MailChimp is email campaign marketing, but it offers many other features to boost your online presence: online store hosting, website building, and domain registration to name a few. They also have a pretty in-depth insights & analytics feature to see how all your hard marketing work is paying off.
Price: Free for basic email campaigns, with more features starting at $11/month.
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Accounting
QuickBooks
What it’s all about: QuickBooks is a tried-and-true accounting software used by small businesses all over the world to manage their finances. We recommend their base package as it has most things you could want out of a bookkeeping app.
Price: Starts at $15/month.
FreshBooks
What it’s all about: A lot like QuickBooks, FreshBooks is an accounting software used to keep track of all of your income and expenses. However, they deliver a much less intimidating platform. More intuitive but fewer features, FreshBooks is for the hands-off self-employed freelancer that wants a simple interface for their AP & AR work.
Price: Starts at $6/month.
Foreceipt
What it’s all about: A little different than your typical accounting app, Foreceipt is an expense-focused receipt scanner, organizer, and analyzer. Snap a pic of your receipt and the app reads it, allowing you to then go in and assign categories to your expenses. If you’ve ever scanned anything in by hand, you know this is a game changer.
Price: Free!
Check out our other articles for more recommendations for apps for independent contractors!
5 Apps to Help You Track Inventory
4 Payment Processing Providers We Recommend
I also offer individual training & consulting services if you want a little help coming up with a gameplan on how to integrate your apps to get them working best for your business.
