Organization can easily slip through the cracks when you’re running a busy factoring business. Perhaps you’ve forgotten to email information to a recent prospect or you’ve missed an important conference call because you lost track of time. If you’ve ever found yourself sitting through piles of paperwork to locate a phone number or accidently throwing away something valuable, you’re not alone. Keeping your documents and to-dos organized may seem like a full-time job on its own, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Why? Because there’s an app for that.
An endless variety of mobile apps are available to keep factoring brokers organized. From smartphone apps for note-taking to contact management and mileage tracking, there is bound to be a handful that will dramatically improve your organization efforts—and ultimately your productivity. Here’s a short list of smartphone apps for organization to get you started.
Top Smartphone Applications for Factoring Business Organization
1. Trello
The Trello app is an excellent project management tool to monitor client progress, track employee tasks and manage your ongoing projects. Create Trello “boards” based on your to-do list and check off items once they are completed. Add your employees to a board and they’ll be able to incorporate notes, questions and check off completed tasks.
2. FullContact
You meet tons of people every day and FullContact is a fantastic app that keeps all of the business cards you collect in one place. FullContact scans business cards into your phone contacts, as well as other apps like Google and LinkedIn. The faster you can pull up someone’s contact information, the faster you can close the deal.
3. Shoeboxed
Shoeboxed tracks receipts, expenses and mileage on-the-go. With this app, you’ll no longer have to keep tons of receipts or worry about losing them. Once you get a receipt, input it into your Shoeboxed app and you won’t have to hold onto it. You can even automatically archive receipts from Gmail. If you use a different email platform, just send the receipts to your Shoeboxed email address.
Another feature that is included with the Shoeboxed app is expense tracking. Your employees can send expense reports from anywhere and at any time. When running a factoring business, you often want your employee’s expense reports right away when they return from a trip. Instead of collecting dozens of receipts and adding up the totals, Shoeboxed makes it easy to digitally create an expense report at the end of a business outing.
Shoeboxed tracks mileage through your phone’s built-in GPS system. To use the mileage tracking feature simply open the app and select ‘start mileage tracking’ and drop a pin on your starting point and your final destination. When you’re done tracking your mileage, select ‘end mileage tracking’ and the tracked miles will automatically appear in your receipts section.
4. Evernote
Evernote is an app designed for note taking, note saving and organizing. Evernote features an assortment of note-taking tactics. Save hand-written notes, document uploads, photos and even voice memos. Once you create a note, it’s instantly available on all of your devices. Finding an old note is easily done by a word-for-word search for notes you may have taken months ago. Evernote also allows you to share notes with co-workers for collaboration and organization.
5. SecureSafe
When you write down a password on a sticky note or in a notebook, it can easily get lost or stolen. SecureSafe is an app that collects and stores your passwords and any other secure information all in one place. This password app requires a passcode or fingerprint for access for added security. Everyone has written a password down in a notebook and lost it, or maybe you saved your passwords on your computer and accidently erased your browser history. With SecureSafe, you’ll have all of your important passwords in one location and you will know they’re safe.
6. Pocket
Do you come across tons of articles you’d like to read every day, but don’t have the time? Pocket saves your favorite articles and videos from Facebook, Twitter or any browser, to view at a later date. Pocket also suggests content for each user based on their interests and reading style.
If you prefer audio formats, you’re in luck. Pocket can read your saved articles aloud to you upon request. Pocket also has the ability to function offline, so whether you’re on an airplane or taking a cross-country bus ride, you’ll have access to your content.
7. Remember the Milk
Create smart to-do lists and prioritize by due date and importance with Remember the Milk. Business owners use Remember the Milk for meeting reminders, client follow-ups, employee tasks, or even to remember to buy milk on the way home from the office.
Your reminders can be synced across all your devices and integrated with Gmail, Twitter, Google Calendar and Evernote. To help employees stay organized, use Remember the Milk, to create tasks and assign them to your team.
8. Google Calendar
Google Calendar is an app or desktop calendar that stores important information, keeps track of upcoming events and sets reminders for you. There are tons of different ways to set up and view your calendar whether that is by month, week, day or every three-days.
Google calendar also has a “goals” feature where users can add goals into their days and Google will send prompts and notifications to help make sure your goals are completed.
9. Slack
Slack is a team communication app that factoring businesses can use for employee chat rooms, voice and video calls and direct messages. You’re able to share any types of files such as images, PDFs, documents and spreadsheets. Slack integrates with other apps and platforms such as Google Drive and Dropbox, so your documents will quickly sync.
10. My Minutes
Do you struggle with time management? My Minutes sets goals to effectively manage your time and assists with task completion. Track your progress and never forget a task! My Minutes sends reminders about weekly repetitive tasks that are not annoying because they only prompt you when due.
This is a small sample of the endless tools available to keep your factoring business on track and boost your productivity. The apps work for mobile, tablets and desktop devices. Not to mention, they are inexpensive to purchase (often free of charge). Consider how much time you spend scrambling to find memos, locate contact information and remember meeting times. In the time wasted trying to find notes from a recent meeting with a prospect, you could have spent it closing another deal.
About the Author: Factor Finders specializes in finding factoring companies that can fund difficult-to-place deals. Our services help other factoring brokers capitalize on commissions that might otherwise be lost.
If you have a prospective transaction that you cannot find a funder then contact us at FactorFinders.com. We’ll find the factor for you and split commissions 50-50.