The ultimate app stack for SMEs in SA

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“As a small business owner you’ve got to be firing in 100 directions at the same time – always watching your back and trying to make the most of new opportunities too. It can get exhausting,” says Bernard Bravenboer, CEO and founder of hellohr, an HR tech startup.

“What you want,” says Bravenboer, is “a collection of modern, easy-to-use tools that work well together and will avoid any data silos or duplication of efforts.” A team of financial and business experts worked together to create the ideal app stack for South African SMEs.

The team included Louw Barnardt, director and CA of Outsourced CFO; Peter Magner, director and CA at Iridium Business Solutions; Kenneth Coetzer, digital accounting narrator, and Willem Haarhoff, digital accounting revolutionist, both from DoughGetters; Irene Olwoch, CA and founder at Remote Controller and Jonathan Botha, director and CA at JSB Consult.

These experts all consult and help implement solutions for businesses of all sizes and have the experience to find the right tools to meet their clients’ modern needs.

“The question was simple,” says Bravenboer. “We asked them: ‘How do you create the perfect suite of tools for a small business in 2021? And what is your ideal small business app stack for 2021?’”

The Ultimate Small Business App Stack for 2021

1. Receipt Bank

Best for: quick data capturing.

Receipt Bank allows you to scan receipts, bills or any other source documents. Receipt Bank will automatically capture the data. All that’s left to do is to review and publish the data and finally, integrate it into your Xero accounting software.

2. Practice Ignition

Best for: practise management and enhancing the way you communicate and interact with clients.

Practice Ignition allows users to send electronic proposals, contracts and engagement letters. It helps you access all client information in one place, manage billing and payments and set recurring billing.

Practice Ignition is user-friendly client management software that combines proposal, contract and client payment into one document

3. Syft Analytics

Best for: easy, fast reporting

Syft Analytics helps you to create meaningful reports, view interactive graphs, compile financial statements and forecast the future. It will allow you to keep leading the market by benchmarking your performance against industry competitors.

4. hellohr

Best for: painless payroll

With hellohr, you can run payroll, manage leave, provide employee self-service options, and post to Xero. Users also have the ability to manage multiple companies and assign ‘manager’ status to certain employees.

5. Asana

Best for: task management

Asana helps you to plan, track and manage tasks and customise work flows to suit your business. This project management tool improves communication and collaboration in your team and helps achieve desired results in the most timely way.

6. Xero

Best for: accounting software

Xero is a cloud-based app that allows users to access their business finances any time, anywhere. Whether you need to invoice clients, track purchases and orders, pay bills or reconcile the bank, Xero offers these features.