The iPad continues to beguile both consumers and business users, particularly with the launch of the iPad mini this month. With help from AccountingWEB gadget iPad fans, Rachael Power has put together five of the best accounting apps on the device.
While updating the AccountingWEB Apps Directory v2.0, I wandered across a few new and not-so-new apps that impressed me. Have a look at some of them - or let us know your suggestions for other apps to feature by commenting below.
Accounting: Kashoo
As someone coming from a non-accounting background, I found this app surprisingly easy and even enjoyable to use.
It's free to download and very simple to set up, but comes with a number of optional in-app purchases.
The interface is quite streamlined, simple and straightforward. I was able to set up an account and toy around with charts and invoices quite easily within minutes.
Kashoo creates and sends invoices and allows you to view charts and graphs. It can import accounts and opening balances from QuickBooks, tracks payments against outstanding invoices and bills and doubles up as an expense app by recording expenses as you incur them. You can toggle between multiple accounts and what I found quite handy is it backs your information up to a server, so you can access accounts from any iPad.
To me, it seemed quite a good tool for a small practice or self-employed individual who doesn't want to spend huge amounts of money on accounting software, although it may be too simplistic for many accountants' tastes.
Mind-mapping: iThoughts
This is a great mind-mapping tool for your iPad. It is a bit pricey at £5.49, but the content quality you get for it is quite useful.
iThoughts is a great tool for those who can't keep track of the thousand things they have to do in a day, who are learning or studying, project planning or just want to keep on top of things.
You can create and save maps to your camera roll for easy access, cut and paste between other apps and browsers. The interface allows you to doodle with your fingers - a rather fun element for the more creative minded - and create lots of different flow charts with many different layouts and shapes. The app can import and export to Dropbox, your cloud network and elsewhere.
If you're not prepared to spend over a fiver and still want a useful mind-mapping tool, Simplemind or iMindmap for iPad are both useful tools.
Expenses: Earnest
Earnest is another app aimed towards small businesses. While I only used this free app to calculate my expenses over the course of a few days, it was apparent that this app was made for bigger things than my wallet.
Aimed at small businesses, Earnest can record and track income expenses, get estimates on what tax you owe, receive alerts about important tax dates and capture and store receipts via your iPad's camera. The capability to record CIS deductions would be particularly handy for iPad-toting construction workers.
While the interface does leave a lot to be desired in terms of beauty, the usability and effectiveness of this simple expenses app is worth the sacrifice. It appears to be bug free and updates quite promptly.
I'd definitely recommend this expenses app for those in search of a simple, free and easy way to keep track of incomings and outgoings, even if you have software for that, it's great to have a simple backup.
Green accounting: SuMo
While this app isn't solely accounting-orientated, it looks like a great way at getting employees to participate in sustainability initiatives and reduce your overall carbon footprint.
If you're eco-minded, this free cloud based app basically calculates the travel and energy costs for each employee.
When each employee downloads the app on their device, it encourages them to join in and battle it out to be number one on the leaderboard, gaining badges, upping levels and for the employer to allocate sustainability budgets.
The app's interface is high on design and colour. The 'our buzz' section is a forum for users to make a Tweet-style announcement about what they're going to do to reduce their carbon footprint, make suggestions for the firm or have discussions in general.
Apart from being a useful sustainability app, it can bring employees together socially (or anti-socially, as some people prefer to refer to social media).
Tax: SJD Accountancy
If you're looking for a free limited company company calculator, look no further than this app.
SJD's app is aimed at one-person limited companies or the self-employed and want an indicator of salary and tax due.
Developed by tax specialists at SJD, the app lets users calculate monthly rates, take home amounts, annual invoiced amounts and percentage tax to be paid.
Users can personalise their calculation settings and amend the working hours and weeks accordingly to suit their current or upcoming contract.
In terms of interface, this app is very simple and clear. It feels fluid and simple, but includes a contact page for SJD; so while a useful tool, this app does have a slight bit of an agenda.
What are your favourite accountancy apps?