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What Is the Best Small Business Software For Management?

We’ve braved the Internet to find the five best small business management software, so you don’t have to. Keep reading to find out what they are.

Managing your small business efficiently and cost-effectively must be top of mind when considering how to make your company financially sustainable. 

Business management software is crucial to executing your business plan and is a key tool for communicating with your employees, setting expectations, and maintaining functionality in the workplace. 

With so many different project management platforms out there, it can be difficult to navigate which one is best for you. Stick with us, and here’s what you’ll find:

  • The five best software management platform options for your small business
  • The best pricing plans for each 
  • The pros and cons of all five platforms

The Top Small Business Management Software

  • Wrike
  • Asana
  • Quickbooks
  • Google Workspace
  • Airtable

Wrike

Wrike is a cloud-based platform that prides itself on tailoring its functions to your needs. The software offers various solutions. Wrike’s goal is to help small businesses operate efficiently, collaboratively, and transparently. A few of Wrike’s best features include shared calendars, customizable dashboards, and dynamic reports. Let’s breakdown the financials:

The Wrike Free Plan

This option is meant to accommodate businesses with one to five users looking to centralize their task management. 

At $0 per user/month, it features web, desktop, and mobile apps with personalized experiences, along with 2 GB of storage space per account with cloud storage integration. 

The Wrike Professional Plan

To access the professional version of Wrike, which is suitable for 5-200 users, you’ll be on the hook for $9.80 per user/month. 

This option provides more flexibility, as you can customize the platform for any team and many uses, such as project planning and team collaboration. It includes all of the Free plan’s features plus shareable dashboards, interactive Gantt charts, and productivity integrations. 

What Users Say About Wrike

People’s favorite aspects are the customization features and the allowance for collaboration. On the negative side, some users report poor customer service and onboarding assistance. 

Asana

Asana is built for efficiency. With Asana, you can improve your small business’s synchronicity and inspire your team to achieve their goals with clarity. Whether you run an in-person business or your employees work from home, this company prides itself on allowing you to have real-time insight into your team’s progress through its user-friendly layouts.

The Asana Basic Plan

This is Asana’s complimentary plan that is perfect if it’s you and a small team running your business. The plan offers many unlimited features, such as the ability to create tasks, consolidate projects, send/receive messages, and file storage. It is compatible with iOS and Android mobile apps with many layouts to best serve your team’s needs.

The Asana Premium Plan

If you are looking to level up your team’s project management abilities, then this could be right for you. At $10.99 per user/month, you can confidently and effectively track your team projects with unlimited dashboards, reporting, and free guests, as well as task templates, private teams and projects, and an admin console. 

What Users Say About Asana

Small business owners love Asana’s user-friendly software interface that is easy to navigate and helps them achieve their goals. Consumers have also communicated that one of Asana’s top benefits is that it serves as a full-service shop instead of having to bounce back and forth between apps and other platforms. 

However, users have reported that the Basic plan can be limiting, and there is often a learning curve for new users. 

Quickbooks

Quickbooks by Intuit is a web-based platform that focuses on financial management for businesses of all sizes. Its goal is to help businesses maintain accurate and timely bookkeeping practices to promote ownership and autonomy with its accounting software. 

Quickbooks accepts all credit cards and bank transfers and offers many automated services, like tracking and payment reminders.

The Quickbooks Simple Start Plan

At $12.50/month, this plan provides the basic necessities for your small business. You can customize estimates, accept mobile signatures, and take pictures of your receipts. This plan is great for tracking your small business’s income and expenses, invoices and payments, as well as sales and sales tax. 

Quickbooks Essentials Plan

You need to allocate $25/month to enroll in this plan. You will have access to increased add-ons, like bill management and time tracking for three users. The Essentials plan allows you to automate this part of your business so you can shift your focus to other matters. 

What Users Say About Quickbooks

Consumers love the ease of use that Quickbooks offers. They also appreciate that Quickbooks is a lower cost than keeping an accountant on the payroll

Some reviews communicate that because of the array of tools Quickbooks provides; it can be overwhelming to get started on the program. Luckily, users also report timely and helpful customer service from the company.

Google Workspace

Formerly known as G Suite, Google Workspace is a cloud-based platform that offers innovative collaboration tools. Google’s software supplies various methods of organization and prioritizes security and privacy measures. Google Workspace wants to help your business look professional by providing you with a customizable domain. Your small business can use all of the Google features you know and love for free, or you can adopt one of Google’s business-specific plans.

Google Workspace Business Starter

This plan is $6 per user/month and provides secure business management controls and email, 100 participant video meetings, and 30 GB of cloud storage per user. 

Google Workspace Business Standard

The next step up is $12 per user/month and offers the Business Starter features plus 2 TB cloud storage per user, as well as 150 participant video meetings with recording abilities.

What Users Say About Google Workspace

Users love the document shareability that Google Workspace offers because Google Drive makes it incredibly simple to allow access to desired users. One feature that users want is the ability to access files offline because Drive’s online nature does not account for unexpected outages.

Airtable

Airtable was built for small businesses and small teams within larger businesses.

They offer a customizable interface so you can your team in the best way you see fit.

The Airtable Free Plan

If it’s you and a small team who are just getting started, this is a great way to get acquainted with the interface. This option allows one app, 1,200 records, and 2GB of attachments per base. 

Airtable Plus

This plan is also meant for small teams, but it offers more at $12 per person/month. It bumps up to three apps, 5,000 records, and 5 GB of attachments per base, along with automatic table syncing and snapshot history. 

What Users Say About Airtable

Users report that Airtable’s software is a great organizational and communication tool once you get the hang of it. However, many relate that the interface can be tricky to navigate and takes some time to learn. 

What To Do Next

Now that you’ve got the rundown from Hoist, it’s time to choose what’s best for you. Whether you’re located in a small town or a big city, as a small business owner, you must consider pricing, features, and the vision you have for your business. 

Part of being an entrepreneur is developing impeccable project management skills and making dynamic decisions, so get out there and be a boss!

Sources:

Calculate Your Startup Costs ⎸ U.S. Small Business Administration

10 Essential Project Management Skills ⎸ Forbes Advisor

Should I Do My Own Taxes or Hire a Pro? Here's How to Decide ⎸ Business Insider

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