When you and your team are out of the office, or if you work as a remote team, it can feel like a challenge to stay connected or get certain tasks done.
Luckily there are so many great tools out there to help you get your job done and stay more connected than ever to your co-workers.
Make your home working life so much easier with these five online tools.
Xero
Xero is a cloud-based accounting software that enables you to create, send and manage digital invoices online. Plus, the Xero marketplace enables you to connect to over 800 integrator apps that offer inventory management, HR services, time tracking, shipping and more.
This is a great tool, not just for the working from home accountants, but for any business that wants a simple way to manage finances from anywhere. Xero can be used on PC, Mac and Smartphone via their app, making it simple for everyone to use.
Xero's features include the ability to: import bank transactions, automate payment reminders, submit VAT to HMRC with digital taxes, automate reports, and handle several currencies.
Slack
A firm favourite amongst many businesses, Slack is an online instant messaging service for professionals. Hailed as the 'smart alternative to email' it is an efficient and easy way to stay in touch with remote teams.
It's a useful way to organise different teams and topics as you can segment chats into channels. Much quicker than sifting through multiple email chains.
To make life even less of a hassle, Slack integrates with tools that your business already uses such as Google Drive, Salesforce and Dropbox, making it simple to share files.
Zoom
If you have been on LinkedIn lately you have probably seen at least one company having a Zoom call. Video conference service, Zoom, is used by businesses globally to hold meetings, webinars, calls, and conferences remotely.
The cloud-based software has an impressive capability of up to 1000 video participants - perfect for large teams!
The basic plan is free and allows web conferencing, video conferencing, group collaboration features and unlimited meetings.
Trello
Trello is a to-do list turned digital. Using this free online productivity tool you can create multiple lists with task cards which show their progress.
Rather than crossing out a task when it's done, users can drag and drop the card into a 'completed' list. So satisfying.
For collaboration purposes you can even create boards for projects and invite team members to keep updated on tasks. Trello can be used to break down larger tasks and make them seem a bit less daunting with a visually interesting dashboard.
Shiptheory
If you run an e-commerce business and you still manually fill in your shipping labels at the post office, Shiptheory is the tool for you.
Shiptheory is a web-based software platform that integrates with popular e-commerce platforms such as Shopify, Etsy, Squarespace and Amazon, and reliable delivery carriers to generate shipping labels automatically.
All you need to do is set up shipping rules based on the type of shipment and delivery service, then these run in the background to select which shipping label to print. Once an order has been confirmed, a pre-filled shipping label is generated and sent instantly to your printer.
Try out Shiptheory today with our 30 day free trial.
Bonus Update!
Since writing this post, we've heard from more of our retailers and tech partners, all of which have adapted to working from home. It seemed only fair to share...
Bonus 1: Time Doctor
Time Doctor records the time you spend working and keeps you focused when working online. Some of our team have used Time Doctor in the past when working out of the office for prolonged amounts of time, it's great for reducing procrastination . You can check out Time Doctor here. They also have some great blog posts, such as this post on how to improve your remote working efficiency.
Bonus 2: ProofHub
ProofHub is a project management tool. No one at Shiptheory has tried ProofHub yet, but a few partners we've spoken to these past weeks mentioned it. ProofHub lets you create projects, provides Kanban boards, manage tasks, that kind of thing. Check it out here.
Using something else? Keep them coming and we'll keep sharing!
