There’s no doubt about it: Technology plays a huge role in making our business lives easier. From managing finances to communicating with our co-workers, our companies are running smoother than ever thanks to the helpful tech available to us.

At Acuity, we’ve automated a lot of different areas to keep our professional service clients performing at optimum speed. Here are the ways we’re getting ahead, and the latest tech tools that are getting us there.

1. Team Communication and Project Management

• Slack: This tool is our favorite for internal communication. We love its ability to integrate with other platforms, and it’s constantly evolving tech that allows us to keep our goals and objectives visible and posted for all employees to see.
• Basecamp: Basecamp excels at project management and has helped us bridge the gap between internal and external teams. The best part of the program — how easily we can share documents, assign tasks, and keep everyone in the loop for deadlines and assignments.
• Asana: If you’re looking to kill two birds with one stone when it comes to internal and external communication, consider Asana. With this tool, teams can coordinate, assign tasks, and track projects. Users can even allow Asana to send notifications to Slack!
• Trello: If there’s a need for visual collaboration, give Trello a try. A digital Post-it board, users can build projects and organize cards to customize layouts that best suit their needs and workflow. With over 100 integrations — including Slack and Google Drive — the platform is the kind of one-stop-shop that does it all.

2. Time Tracking

• TSheets: This Quickbooks scheduling app works well as a standalone time tracking system, but we can’t deny how valuable we find it’s ability to be embedded directly into the parent program. Users can quickly track time regardless of location or device, and it handles everything from approving employee time cards to running payroll — without leaving QuickBooks.
• Harvest: Whether you’re freelancing or managing a large team, this cloud-based program is an excellent option for both invoicing and time tracking. You can view reports in real time and easily integrate with over 80 applications, including accounting, team communication, and project management.

3. Practice Management for Law Firms

• Clio:  This cloud-based practice management platform is a powerhouse when it comes to streamlining processes for small to mid-sized law firms. Users can track time, documentation, and manage finances all from one platform. Plus, it integrates seamlessly with accounting systems like QuickBooks and Xero.

4. Accounting/Finance

• FreshBooks: For small service-based businesses, Freshbooks‘ intuitive and straightforward platform is an excellent start to grabbing ahold of the financial reins, and it’s perfect if you’re not planning on expanding your staff or offerings.
• Quickbooks: Looking for a more advanced accounting option for a small business with big growth in its horizon? Quickbooks Online can tackle tax deductions, project tracking, full-service payroll and more as you scale your business in the future. We incorporate this platform (as well as Xero — another excellent choice) into our accounting services, and our clients love it.
• Bill.com: When you use a cloud-based platform like Quickbooks (or Xero), Bill.com is a great add-on to satisfy your bill payment needs. Automating everything from invoicing to the payment process, this is the system we trust to make sure our clients get paid.
• Gusto: We’ve also got to give a shout-out to Gusto, another add-on application that we love to incorporate into our services. It handles payroll with so much ease you’ll forget you even do it. Yeah, it’s that good.

Running a business isn’t easy, but having the right tools under your belt will make the experience better and less stressful. Finding what works best for you may take some trial and error, but we hope these tips will give you a great place to start. And for more tips and tricks, be sure to check out our business resources page.