What are your favorite sites, software and apps for managing your business?

Administrator_JSVN

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So most of you guys are pretty tech savvy. Right?  [huh]

I thought it would be cool to have a thread with a list of your favorite smartphone apps, software and website-based apps that you use for quoting jobs, mocking up projects, maybe collecting credit card payment on your phone, scheduling, etc.

Anyone who uses their tools to make money should find this to be a great resource. I know there are threads from time to time with tidbits of this info, but it would be good to have it all in one place.

So... what are you favorites?

Shane
 
I'd like to think I'm fairly tech savvy!  I use the Construction Master app, Spotify & Pandora for my music, Notes for general quick noting, YP Yellow Pages for local info, 1Password for my various passwords & login info, Tapatalk 2 for my forums, the iPhoto app for little photo tweaks & enhancements, Facebook & Twitter for social networking.

That's a short list of my common apps. I find myself trying other apps, use them once and they sit there!  If I only had that list on my phone, I'd do just fine!

I look forward to what others find useful!

Bob
 
builderbob said:
I'd like to think I'm fairly tech savvy!  I use the Construction Master app, Spotify & Pandora for my music, Notes for general quick noting, YP Yellow Pages for local info, 1Password for my various passwords & login info, Tapatalk 2 for my forums, the iPhoto app for little photo tweaks & enhancements, Facebook & Twitter for social networking.

That's a short list of my common apps. I find myself trying other apps, use them once and they sit there!  If I only had that list on my phone, I'd do just fine!

I look forward to what others find useful!

Bob

Don't forget the "phone" app, Bob :)
 
That's not a phone Paul, it's just made to emulate one!  But I did forget the Text Message app!  Duh on me! ;)

Bob
 
Photo Measure, it lets you add measurements and notes to photographs.
Time Stamp, automatically puts location and time/date on photos.
I also use the camera to take pictures of all my receipts immediately after a work related purchase.
I've tried/ looked at a few of the punch list apps, but didn't really click with any of them.
 
I quite like My Measure Pro for iPhone. Its a photo annotation app for adding dimensions to pictures of the location and you can handily reference the pics by your computer when working on the SketchUp model without running back and fort to double check this or that.
 
Reiska said:
I quite like My Measure Pro for iPhone. Its a photo annotation app for adding dimensions to pictures of the location and you can handily reference the pics by your computer when working on the SketchUp model without running back and fort to double check this or that.

Good call Reiska!  I forgot that one as well. I use that quite often. I got angry at it because it cleared all my saved photos in the app during one of its app updates. I had saved a few to my camera roll. Now it has iCloud saving, a bit better!

Bob
 
Beyond mentioned apps I currently use a Samsung galaxy note 2 which is a large screen phone that uses a pressure sensitive stylus. I use a note taking/drawing application on it called papyrus. It gives me an infinite canvas to draw and take notes on and can be set to graph paper of differing grid spacing, lined paper or blank. It's good for quick light sketching and hand written notes say for quick cut lists. The s note app included with the phone works off a confined canvas but allows you to add photos, voice recording, video and Web links but I haven't found much call for that yet and prefer the infinite canvas.

Cam scanner I've use fairly often to copy drafted drawings by snapping a photo of the drawing which the program then optimizes for legibility.

There's a few time tracking apps out there that allow you to "punch in and punch out" of a job recording the time you've put in on them, pretty handy for private gigs.

That's all Phone stuff though, as for pc software, I haven't been playing with much new as my comp is on its last legs but sketch up obviously, been interested in 123d by auto desk random cad stuff and good old spreadsheets for number crunching.
 
I have enough apps to do almost anything, but recently I downloaded Converter+ app.  It will convert anything, but the more I use festool and metric, it quickly turns imperial measurements to metric.
 
I do all my invoices on Google drive, which means I can check stuff and make simple changes from phone or pad and email straight out for any of my services, film, carpentry, or rigging. Making a copy of a similar invoice saves a lot of time setting up the next one. I haven't accepted payment with paypal here yet, but I'm planning on it for one-off stuff if people want to pay immediately. I sometimes use one called Measures on the iphone for adding measurement and notes to a drawing. Sometimes Jotnot, evernote, camcard I use tomtom every day, mostly to avoid speeding cameras. I make all the scheduling and appts in ical on the phone and use icloud to update the other devices. I'm not 100% happy with it, but I'm hoping it gets better. LinkedIn. I use the camera to send a photo via SMS quite a bit, to say to someone that something's done or check placement etc, when they can't be in the same place.
 
I also use photo measure on my android pad. It allows me to immediately send info to the designer or architect.  Huge time saver.
 
Wooden Skye said:
I have enough apps to do almost anything, but recently I downloaded Converter+ app.  It will convert anything, but the more I use festool and metric, it quickly turns imperial measurements to metric.

Keep using Festool enough and you'll be converting metric to imperial or not converting at all.  [big grin] [big grin]

Peter
 
Peter,

I find that metric is starting to become easier, but when I am sketching stuff or kicking around ideas, I still use imperial.  You think I would learn after my many mistakes by being an 1/8 off or 1/4 at times.
 
GhostFist said:
Beyond mentioned apps I currently use a Samsung galaxy note 2 which is a large screen phone that uses a pressure sensitive stylus. I use a note taking/drawing application on it called papyrus. It gives me an infinite canvas to draw and take notes on and can be set to graph paper of differing grid spacing, lined paper or blank. It's good for quick light sketching and hand written notes say for quick cut lists. The s note app included with the phone works off a confined canvas but allows you to add photos, voice recording, video and Web links but I haven't found much call for that yet and prefer the infinite canvas.

Same here...

I use S note for just about all the projects I look at. It was especially useful when pricing out a 30 item list for a job that was two hrs away. I took pictures of the rooms, drew dimensions, notes etc and it was so easy to look back when biding the work. Also now that I am at the house doing work (a vacation house) the client will ask me for dimensions of areas and I can do the same thing and send it to them as a PDF.

I also use Logmein to access our server and all of our bids, estimates, photos from anywhere.

360 is a good app for ipad, iPhones. It takes a 360 degree picture of rooms. I can't tell you how many times I have taken pictures of jobs to bid and it never fails that I need to see what something looks like and it is between two pictures.
 
This is a great post. I love my android phone and can't imagine life without it.
I had a 20 minute conversation today about how very cool the Google apps are.
I live and die by their calendar, Gmail, Google voice and Google maps. I would be lost with out Google maps.
I take pictures of jobs and they get automatically uploaded to Google +, I then put them in a different folder in Google + any they populate a picture gallery on my web-site.

I also use Quickbooks online service and the app. It's a little pricey like Festool, and like Festool it is better and easier.
I can do estimates, invoice clients, and receive payment for anywhere. I also have a complete client contact list. While working on a large job last week with a number of changes and payments the client asked me what their balance was. In 20 seconds I had an exact figure.

I am completely blown away by these pocket PCs. Its right up their with my truck as one of my most important tools.
 
+1 on My Measures Pro for my Ipad.  Between that and my Leica distance measurer, I can take all the measurements I need on first meeting with client in next to no time.  I can always reference it on the tablet.

I have been fairly satisfied with Penultimate for combining drawn notes and photos - I can take a photo of something, use my stylus to draw a couple of solutions, and email the whole page to the architect or client for a decision.  All the notes are organized into different job notebooks.
I would love it if I could also type text instead of writing it out.

I have been using Officetime on my ipad for time tracking, and would be interested in others' experience using full version on a regular computer.

Honestly, the best trick for me is Dropbox.
I keep all my job information and proposals in it (instead of in my computer's regular Documents folder.)  My QB estimates/invoices are saved as pdfs, so I can easily pull up all of it on my phone, tablet, or on my wife's computer at home. I also keep frequently referenced catalogs/material in it. Occasionally someone has told me that they didn't get a particular document; I can immediately create a custom link for them to the document in my Dropbox, and send it via email or text message.
 
Too many to mention, but here are a few:
Dropbox: File manager for IOS, which lacks one unified file manager, also a cloud backup.
Awesome Note for iPad & iPhone: All job contact info, scheduling, notes, needs, etc.
OneNote: All job contact info, scheduling, notes, needs, etc.
BizXpensTrkr for iPad & iPhone: Mileage, Time, Expenses, & Income.
Pages: Word processor.
Pinterest Business Account: Display project photos & info.
Multitude of calculators: Everything from site work to trim & Cabinetwork.
Many others.
 
I have been using one called "woodworking calculators" for my Android,it has some handy features.
 
I love Evernote.  I create a folder for every project and upload before pics, pics of notes, emails to & from client, receipts, web pages of special materials/suppliers, etc, etc.  Also can share the folder link or note link with client or others for collaboration.  Also is huge help during tax time.

I also keep a simple blog through GoDaddy ( Quick blog cast I think) that is really just an online portfolio of my work that has been really useful to show prospective clients examples of my work.
 
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