First things first. I’m not a geek. I don’t do gadgets for the sake of it. But I do love a bit of cool tech that is useful to me and makes my life easier.
This Blog Post is about the Apps/Software that make my Working life so easy. I’ve broken it into 2 parts.
I’m a Windows user, I have a Win 7 lappy, a Win 8 Tablet…but I also have an iPhone 6+ which, if you are in Business…is THE coolest, most productive phone you could ever own. I have them all talking to each other seamlessly. Which means, no matter where I am, or what gadget I have with me, I always have my “office” close to hand. Whether that’s today while I’m typing this in Starbucks, or like yesterday while I was at home catching up with X Factor and Casualty!
Office 365 (Windows)
My whole business is run from O365. Everything! Emails, Calendar, Events, Meetings, Tasks, To Do Lists, Contacts etc etc are managed in Outlook. All my design work is done in Publisher, which I LOVE. I’ve been using that since the old days in 2003..if not earlier! I also do use Excel and Word a little bit, but Outlook and Publisher I couldn’t live without.
Hot tip for Outlook. If you find yourself typing the same types of emails over and over again, save the text as AutoText. I have 17 different ones set up…inc 3 different signatures. Yes there’s a separate Signature option, but Autotext is way quicker!! My Email writing time has been cut by probably 4/5 hours per week. Maybe more! Even from when I was Cut and Pasting from a previous email/word doc. Thank you to Liz Dolman from Double Click Training for this hot tip.
Outlook (iPhone)
I love my iPhone 6+. I don’t like Android and Windows phones are behind the times app wise still. So my emails were okay while on the move using Apples native Mail app, but they still lacked in the attachment department. Then I found Outlook for the iPhone probably about a year ago. It syncs perfectly with O365. But the best it is being able to attach Dropbox/One Drive files so easily. I can send quotes, Cocktail Lists etc etc while on the move, even during an event! Being quick off the mark gives me such an advantage. Outlook for iPhone is a million miles better than Apples Mail app in my opinion. Give it a go for 2 weeks…see how you get on. It is different to manage, but once you’ve mastered it, you’ll love it I’m sure.
TaskTask (iPhone)
For such a long time, Outlook Tasks caused me such a headache. Something so useful on Windows, was a real nightmare on the iPhone…or just being on the move! The native Reminders app, quite frankly is a pile of pooh. There was nothing that synced with Outlook. I didn’t want to migrate everything from Microsoft to Google…as I just don’t like Google Docs/Calender etc. I did play about with ToDoist for a bit…but it just creates a load of extra unnecessary work. I even tried using Evernote as a Task List and Event Note taker. That works for a bit, but no where near as good as Outlook and again creates extra work. Outlook Tasks ROCK.
Then came along my saviour. TaskTask. Every little tiny detail from Outlook Tasks (even the flags, categories (and colours!), reminder times, work completed and importance level) sync perfectly. As in absolutely perfectly. Every single little note about an event or enquiry is to hand, no matter where I am – without creating any extra work at all. No flicking between Evernote and Outlook emails, its all right there. TaskTask is my favvy app for work on my iPhone.
Xero (Windows & iPhone)
Xero has completely transformed my business. I can see my P&L instantly. I can see where I need to cut costs or how much I’ve spent on Coffee in a given month. It’s also enabled me to go 100% Paperless. As all my invoices and receipts are sent and stored in the cloud. (more about that in the next app). and my PayPal Card Reader also syncs. Yes there is Sage and numerous other bookkeeping software, but they are nothing like Xero. Nothing! Even my Epos all links in. So many other business programs link in to Xero too.
For more info; contact Nikki Butlin at Athena Business Services. She’ll have you looked up in no time.
TinyScan Pro
I use Tinyscan everyday! It takes a piccy of receipts and invoices and saves them as PDFs before automatically syncing them to a Dropbox folder, or emailed directly into Xero awaiting reconciliation. Yes there’s Receipt Bank that does the same job (ish) but from my experience you still have to reconcile transactions and wait 2/3 days for receipts to be processed. Plus there’s a subscription fee based on usage…my level would be circa £20 a month). TinyScan Pro for a one off £3.99 eliminates all that faff. Take a pic of a receipt, 5 seconds later you can reconcile the transaction in Xero and bin the receipt! Job Done.
IFTTT
I mentioned IFTTT two blog’s ago. In truth, I’m still learning all its capabilities for new recipes, but the amazing thing for me at the moment is to have all my Email Notifications turned off, but so I don’t miss a new enquiry, IFTTT texts me the moment an enquiry form drops into my Outlook inbox, so even during an event…if I get 5 mins…I can send a quote with attachments from Outlook on my Phone! (I don’t even have to type the quote out, as I have a standard Autotext options set up on the iPhone). Other uses for IFTTT have been Emailing Tweets I’ve favourited to myself to remind me of things. There are literally 1000s of useful productive things that IFTTT can do. It links to every major Platform/App/Service you could think of!
That’s enough for Part 1, I’ll have Part 2 with you by the end of the week with even more cool Apps that I use on a daily basis.
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