Five must-have apps
The sheer volume and variety of mobile apps for iOS and Android devices can be overwhelming. Our experts look at five apps that will help you survive life in the fast lane.
DocuSign
Being away from the office can make signing documents very difficult. With DocuSign, you can digitally sign documents easily and securely. DocuSign allows you to load documents from services such as Google Drive, Dropbox, email or even the device camera in addition to receiving them directly through the app. There are even ways to easily identify where you need to sign on documents and store the information it needs to insert. The app can track documents and manage the process of getting documents signed.
—Sarah Weller
Uber
In Africa, public transport isn’t great, but mobile is everything. Uber helps connect you with a driver. I recently needed a taxi from a free Wi-Fi zone in Tshwane, South Africa. A few taps on my mobile device and a taxi arrived within half an hour. Uber is available in more than 90 cities in 35 countries worldwide.
—Alan Knott-Craig
Zoom Cloud Meetings
Zoom marries cloud video conferencing, mobile collaboration and online meetings. The simple cloud platform provides video and audio via desktop, laptop, tablet, mobile phone and traditional room systems. Zoom’s free service allows unlimited one-to-one meetings and group meetings up to 40 minutes. Paid versions remove the time limitation and allow up to 100 video participants.
—Greg LaFollette
ExpenseCloud
ExpenseCloud combines your smartphone camera with background linkages to your credit card and accounting system. Let’s use a business meal as an example: The bill arrives. I add a tip and notation regarding attendees and purpose and then snap a photo. ExpenseCloud pushes the photo to the cloud. In the background, ExpenseCloud is polling my credit card company and pulls transactions as they are posted. When I prepare my expense report, I drag and drop the pushed receipt to the pulled transaction. Since the credit card metadata has already populated the vendor, date, etc., and the accounting system integration means ExpenseCloud “knows” the proper expense category, I’m done! One more click submits my report, with linked receipts, to our accounting system. ExpenseCloud is being rebranded as TriNet Expense.
—Greg LaFollette
Air Display
Air Display is a clever way of helping you see and do more. The app turns your iOS or Android device into an additional display for your PC. It connects via Wi-Fi, so you can start dualscreening wherever you are. There is also a presentation mode for showing content to a coworker or client, letting you control the experience from your computer.
—Sarah Weller
Sarah Weller is managing director of Mubaloo, a UK-based enterprise and consumer mobile app development company. Alan Knott-Craig is CEO of Project Isizwe, a South African not-for-profit organisation that aims to bring the internet to people across Africa. Greg LaFollette, CPA/CITP, CGMA, is a strategic adviser with CPA.com, a commercial subsidiary of the American Institute of CPAs.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY MICHAEL SCHAD JOHNSTONE/AICPA; PHONE IMAGE BY BLANK SLATE MEDIA/ISTOCK/THINKSTOCK