Are you a budding entrepreneur looking to start your own business? Are you running a small business and need help better organizing your day-to-day activities? If so, it’s essential that you have the right tools to support your endeavors. Fortunately, the mobile apps market has created a wide variety of powerful, cost-effective alternatives to help small businesses get the job done.
Developers have been busy creating apps for businesses, including word processing, presentation, spreadsheet, customer management, scanning, expense tracking and invoicing, to name just a few. In this slideshow, we’ve featured 18 highly rated iOS apps that may give your SMB the advantage it needs to succeed.
All apps are available via the iTunes store.
Apps to Start Your Business
Click through for 18 highly rated iOS business apps that can help your SMB get the job done. All apps are available through the iTunes App Store.
Pages
Pages is a word processing program that will help you create reports and other document in minutes. Pages has been designed exclusively for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, with support for multi-touch gestures and smart zoom. Over 60 Apple-designed are templates available, so you can hit the ground running. Additionally, you can create your own design using text, shapes and more.
Cost: $9.99
Requires: iOS 8.0 or later
Compatibility: iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch
Numbers
Numbers is a spreadsheet app that will help you keep track of budgets, invoices, checklists and more. Over 250 functions and 30 Apple-designed templates are available. The app supports multi-touch gestures and smart zoom. Tap to add tables, charts, text, and images anywhere on a free-form canvas. Touch and drag your finger to reorder columns and rows and resize tables. Double-tap a cell to bring up the intelligent keyboard that helps you enter text, formulas, dates and times, or duration.
Cost: $9.99
Requires: iOS 8.0 or later
Compatibility: iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch
Keynote
Keynote is a powerful presentation app designed for mobile devices. Built from the ground up for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, it makes creating world-class presentations – complete with animated charts and transitions – as simple as touching and tapping. A number of Apple-designed themes are available to help you begin – just add text, images, tables and shapes to highlight your data. You can show your presentation right on your mobile device or use video mirroring to present on an HDTV. With iCloud built in, your presentations are kept up to date across all your devices.
Cost: $9.99
Requires: iOS 8.0 or later
Compatibility: iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch
Microsoft Word
Prefer an industry standard for word processing? You can now download the real Microsoft Word for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. When you edit or create documents, you can be confident they will look how you want them to look across PC, Mac, tablet or phone. Word has the familiar Office look and feel, along with an intuitive touch experience. The core Word experience is free, including viewing, creating and editing documents. You can unlock the full Word experience with a qualifying Office 365 subscription.
Cost: Varies, in-app purchases
Requires: iOS 7.1 or later
Compatibility: iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel is also now available for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Excel spreadsheets help provide insight with formulas, tables, charts, comments, PivotTables, sparklines and conditional formatting. The core Excel experience is free, including viewing, creating and editing documents. You can unlock the full Excel experience with a qualifying Office 365 subscription.
Cost: Varies, in-app purchases
Requires: iOS 7.1 or later
Compatibility: iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft PowerPoint can help you present a clear and consistent message across all your devices. Use images, tables, charts, SmartArt, transitions and animations to highlight your pitch and close the sale. When presenting, see your speaker notes and use the built-in laser pointer, pens or highlighters to get your point across. The core PowerPoint experience is free, including viewing, creating and editing documents. You can unlock the full PowerPoint experience with a qualifying Office 365 subscription.
Cost: Varies, in-app purchases
Requires: iOS 7.1 or later
Compatibility: iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch
Contacts Journal CRM
Contacts Journal CRM is a powerful tool that will help you track customer and client relationships, save notes from important meetings, set follow ups, and attach important documents to each of your contacts.
Cost: $9.99
Requires: iOS 8.0 or later
Compatibility: iPad
Prizmo
Prizmo is a universal photo-based scanner app that lets you scan and recognize text documents, business card and images, and then export them as PDF/text, vCard or JPEG/PNG. Prizmo relies on state-of-the-art technologies such as a highly accurate OCR, real-time page detection and image cleanup. Using iCloud, you can even shoot the picture on your iPhone and finish editing on your iPad or Mac. The app is fully compatible with VoiceOver and provides voice guidance to help you position your iPhone when taking document pictures.
Cost: $9.99
Requires: iOS 8.0 or later
Compatibility: iPhone, iPad (must have at least a 5 MP camera)
CudaSign
Need to sign a document? Need to get someone’s signature on a document? CudaSign (formerly SignNow) makes it easy to do both for free, and forget about printing, scanning or faxing. Simply upload any PDF, Word or rich text document from your email, Dropbox, or camera and sign realistically with your finger. You can then email the signed document to anyone or save to a free CudaSign account.
Cost: Varies with usage – as low as free / in-app purchases available
Requires: iOS 7.0 or later
Compatibility: iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch
OmniPlan 2
OmniPlan is designed to help you visualize, maintain and simplify your projects. You can break down tasks, optimize resources, and monitor your entire plan at a glance. The app also allows you to collaborate with colleagues, share project details and update calendar entries. OmniPlan provides features such as Gantt charts, schedules, summaries and milestones.
Cost: $49.99 / in-app purchases available
Requires: iOS 8.1 or later
Compatibility: iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch
Credit Card Terminal
Use the Credit Card Terminal app to accept credit card payments anywhere you do business. With Credit Card Terminal, you can swipe or key in credit cards, accept tips, capture signatures, collect sales tax and print receipts – even send PDF receipts with a map showing the transaction location. Get a free credit card reader accessory when you create your new account.
Cost: Free
Requires: iOS 7.1 or later
Compatibility: iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch
DocuSign
DocuSign provides a simple and secure way to electronically sign documents and collect signatures from others. The app eliminates the hassles, costs and lack of security in printing, faxing, scanning and overnighting documents for signature.
Cost: Free / offers in-app purchases
Requires: iOS 7.1 or later
Compatibility: iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch
QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks Online allows you to run your business online from anywhere through the cloud. You can create and send professional invoices and estimates, get paid faster by credit card or bank transfer, and receive overdue notifications so you know who owes you money. You can also manage expenses and sales and develop critical business reports.
Cost: Free 30-day trial / offers in-app purchases
Requires: iOS 8.0 or later
Compatibility: iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch
Skype
Traveling to meet customers or business partners can be time consuming and expensive. Skype allows you to have online, face-to-face conversations with key personnel in your business and supply chain, as well as current and potential customers.
Cost: Free / offers in-app purchases
Requires: iOS 5.0 or later
Compatibility: iPad
OfficeTime
OfficeTime is an intuitive time tracker that allows you to easily track exactly what you do each day. It’s also now compatible with the Apple Watch. Easily capture your hours and expenses, track project time and wirelessly synch with Mac or PC (sold separately) for easy invoicing.
Cost: $7.99
Requires: iOS 7.0 or later
Compatibility: iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch
ShopKeep
Use ShopKeep to turn your iPad into a robust point-of-sale system for your business. Designed by an experienced small business owner, ShopKeep is simple to set up and easy to use. The system delivers powerful analytics, intelligent inventory management tools and much more.
Cost: Free
Requires: iOS 7.0 or later
Compatibility: iPad
Intuit Online Payroll
Intuit’s Online Payroll app allows you to update payroll on the go and automatically sync with your Intuit Payroll account. You can create accurate paychecks for employees and contractors, e-pay taxes and e-file business forms in all states.
Cost: Free (requires Intuit Payroll subscription)
Requires: iOS 7.0 or later
Compatibility: iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch
Xpense Tracker
Xpense Tracker is a comprehensive expense tracking and reporting application for anyone wishing to track their expenses and mileage. Its ease of use, full features and interface make it an essential tool for every iPhone and iPad user. Its power extends to the desktop by allowing emailing and exporting of the expense files and accompanying photo receipts.
Cost: $4.99
Requires: iOS 6.1 or later
Compatibility: iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch
