Entries Tagged 'Productivity' ↓

Having insight into your business finances can be a key component to your success. We’ve already discussed efficient invoicing using FreshBooks but that is just part of keeping a watchful eye on your financial picture.

Microsoft makes an Express Version of their Small Business Accounting package available for free, and it does an outstanding job of helping to keep all of your books balanced. With eBay, PayPal and great Office integration, this is a great choice for those looking to try a dedicated accounting package.

After trying-out a number of virtual desktops for Windows and being disappointed by their instability, I finally landed on a version that seems to be much more stable than other free versions. Virtual Dimension, recommended by my good friend Mike Scott over at Port16.com met my expectations. For all of you Linux users, go ahead and smirk, yeah you’ve had this function for years. Virtual desktops allow you to have multiple desktops running on the same machine. It’s a nifty way to break-up your computing functions into different screens based on purpose without using multiple monitors.

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Are you an avid Jing user? Do you use print-screen on a constant basis? Then I’ve got some news that you are going to love. Microsoft has a great set of utilities called PowerToys for Windows XP. There are some interesting and cool utilities available, but my favorite by far, hands-down is the Image Resizer plug-in. It ads the functionality to Right-click in Windows where you can resize the image without launching a secondary photo editor. If you need an image resized within a certain height and width (like for posting to a blog) then enter those parameters and say OK. Also, to keep the clutter down, check “Resize the original pictures” and the image saved will be replaced.

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One of the biggest challenges a small business, freelancer, or consultant typically faces is accurately tracking their time and billing. FreshBooks offers a painless way to manage this process from your initial estimate on through to accepting your payment. With a thoughtful interface and rich feature set, FreshBooks tracks your time, sends and manages invoices (by mail or email), tracks payments, sends out late notices, and much more.

As unlikely as you are to need it, FreshBooks also has the best Customer Service team I have ever interacted with. Their phone number is prominently displayed on their home page and they seem genuinely happy when you use it. This is a team that loves their product and wants nothing more than for it to work well for you - and in my experience it will.

Finding the perfect web based task management software has been an elusive goal - that is until I found Toodledo. Organize your tasks by folders, due-dates, priorities, tags and more. If GTD is your thing, support for contexts and other GTD methodologies is superb, but it also works extremely well for those with alternative processes.

Honestly, far too many features and options to mention here. Developer Jake Olefsky updates frequently (Yay for new subfolders and subtasks!!) and is really responsive to user requests. Be sure to head over to the unofficial user forums for help to get you started.

A free package is available but for a very reasonable $14.95 a year, you get PRO and access to some great additional features.