Traveling can be an important part of business, whether you are just starting your company, or are part of a well-developed one. No matter what, you will probably have to go on a business trip or two. For many companies and their employees, putting together an itinerary, booking all of the reservations, and tracking expenses can be a big hassle. However, there are plenty of smartphone apps that help you and your business get the most out of a business trip. By using your smartphone, or apps, it is easy to have stress free business trips.
When you are traveling it can be frustrating not having access to your document back in the office. Your phone can help bridge the gap with apps like DropBox. This app makes it easy to share files with co-workers, and have access to your documents back in the office. It’s easy for you to write some notes and upload them to the cloud servers. This will give you access to them back at your computer, office, or device that has the app installed. DropBox is free and available for iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, Android, and KindleFire. ReaddleDocs is also a helpful app that works with DropBox and lets you view files from Microsoft Office, like word and Excel, as well as edit them. Currently, ReaddleDocs is only available through iTunes and costs $4.99.
Keeping track of business expenses while traveling can become difficult at times. However, there is an app for that. Expensify is an app that is compatible with several different phones and helps you record purchases and track receipts. You scan receipts with your phones camera, and create an instant report. This report can be sent to your boss for approval, and then sent to accounting by uploading it to QuickBooks. You can also sync up your credit card so you can receive electronic receipts, or match up your card purchases with scanned receipts. This app keeps everything organized so when the time comes to make the expense report, all the user has to do is email the report as a PDF.
Planning your business trip can make it hard to stay organized, but TripIt is the perfect app to keep your travel information in one place. TripIt lets you track which employees are traveling, their itineraries, and the expense budget. It is easy to change itineraries, meeting times, flights, and reservations from the office and the person traveling will instantly get the new information on their phone. TripIt can recognize reservations for over 3,000 booking sites; simply make the reservation, send the confirmation to TripIt’s plan email address, and it will set it up in your calendar. You won’t miss a meeting while using this app either. TripIt lets you set alerts and reminders for appointments and reservations.
There are times when traveling that you won’t have access to pen and paper, but if you have a smartphone you won’t need any. With a phone that has handwriting to text capabilities; it’s easy to take notes on the fly. If you have an iPhone or a Samsung Galaxy Note that has handwriting to text capabilities, it’s easy to take notes on the fly. Writing notes is easy to do on these phones by using a stylus or iPhone pen. Apps like WritePad through iTunes, or Antipaper Notes through Google Play let you write notes in your handwriting, highlight points, and even draw graphs. Many of these types of apps let you email your handwritten notes, letting you stay connected with your business colleagues, even while you are traveling.
If you have business overseas, one of the main problems people run into is foreign languages. Language barriers shouldn’t be a problem for your employees when they are traveling to seal a business deal. One option companies have is to use an interpreter. This can get expensive, and can sometimes have miss communication between the interpreter and the traveler, which could cost you from making the deal. However, using your smartphone to help you translate is cost effective and helps making business travel and deals stress free. Triplingo is an app that can give you personalized phrases you need for your trip. You can also change the language from formal speech to slang. This app costs $9.99 and is available on several types of smartphones. There are other language translator apps available on the market that can help you do business in a different country.
Business trips can be stressful at times, but there are ways to make them simple and easy. By using your phone throughout the trip to either book hotels and flight, talk to foreign business partners, or even take notes and share them with the office, you can make your trip simple and easy. There are many apps on the market that can help you get the most from your trip and save money. If you are going on a business trip, you can use some of these apps to make your trip run smoothly.
