There comes a time in every startup’s lifecycle when spreadsheet wizardry and documents no longer cut it.
As the business expands, logging activities like ongoing projects, billable hours and customer invoices requires hours of manual work at best. At worst, it can lead to unwieldy spreadsheets that quickly get out of sync, causing missed deadlines, late invoices and poor customer experiences.
Enter business management software. These are tools designed to help companies automate and manage their core business processes, such as accounting, HR, project management, sales, marketing and supply chain management.
Top Business Management Software
- Asana
- Avaza
- HoneyBook
- Monday.com
- NetSuite
- Odoo
- QuickBooks
- Zoho
Some tools specialize in one of those core areas and often integrate with other platforms. This allows users to add to their suite of business management tools over time and address specific needs.
Then there are enterprise resource planning tools, which encompass all the services in one offering. These reduce the need to maintain multiple subscriptions and train users on different interfaces, but they can also be complex to maintain.
To help you figure out which tools are right for your company, we compiled a list of some of the top business management software available.
Top Business Management Software
AWeber
AWeber is an email marketing firm that offers its small business clients tools to support their marketing campaigns. It provides its customers with landing pages, behavioral tagging, push notifications, automated email campaigns and e-commerce tools. The company brings automation to the marketing process with its generative AI writing assistant, email marketing templates and email list process guides.
Deputy
Deputy offers workforce management solutions to help shift-based businesses simplify timesheets, scheduling and communications. The company also provides its client companies with software to streamline leave requests, payroll and document management.
Fulcrum GT
Fulcrum GT offers its users digital business solutions and frameworks to help digitize and commercialize processes in legal and professional services markets. The cloud-based software solutions aim to help law firms simplify digital oversight and efficiently manage spending. The company says its goal is to bring “leading-edge technology, tools and people together to create strategic, measurable results.”
Order.co
Order.co aims to help businesses place and track purchases to control their spending and allow them make informed decisions and payments on a consolidated bill. It tailors purchase recommendations and insights, while using software to manage corporate budgets. The company advises clients through its spend efficiency platform.
Frontsteps
Frontsteps offers a software platform that allows communication between community residents and their security companies, project management consultants, homeowners associations and builders. The company aims to help community management companies to worry less about day-to-day issues through its automation processes.
Close
Sales teams use Close’s CRM software to manage pipelines, communicate with leads and streamline the entire sales process without the hassle of manual data entry or complex UI. The company’s goal is to double the productivity of every sales rep. Close is a fully remote company, with employees working all across the world.
Medtelligent
Medtelligent specializes in business management software for senior living communities. Facilities can use the software to improve operational efficiency, enhance resident care management and streamline communications. It also allows for managing compliance across state lines, eMAR management, integrated assessments and family engagement.
LeafLink
E-commerce company LeafLink provides a platform for cannabis brands, distributors and retailers across North America to help them accelerate growth and manage their businesses. Platform users can streamline ordering, payments and logistics like shipping, payment processing and order tracking.
Lusha
Lusha’s contact and company information platform helps sales, marketing and recruitment professionals find accurate profiles and contact information for leads, prospects and candidates. Lusha’s database is globally compliant and includes over 200 million entries spanning both enterprise and SMB business profiles, as well as direct contacts in both North America and Europe.
LoanStreet
LoanStreet helps lenders and investors automate their loan management. More than 1,300 banks and financial institutions use its turnkey online platform to access a network of lenders and investors, track their loan portfolios’ performance and diversify their balance sheets. LoanStreet was founded in 2013 and has its headquarters in New York, New York.
Invoice Home
Small businesses and freelancers use Invoice Home’s management services to streamline their billing and invoicing processes. The company’s simple tools and services include over 100 customizable templates that are accessible on both desktop and mobile apps. Founded in 2011, Invoice Home is based in Austin, Texas.
Nowsta
Nowsta makes a human resources management platform for the events industry, where companies can hire hourly workers on-demand. The platform handles everything from staff and venue scheduling, to time tracking, payroll, analytics and tax reporting. It works with several hundred staffing partners to keep high quality team members available at all times.
InterSystems
InterSystems, the maker of a suite of cloud-based database management software, offers its TotalView for Asset Management software for firms that handle assets on behalf of clients. TotalView, which boasts optimized investment returns and reduced complexity for users, uses data aggregation and analytics to make data access swift and smooth, allowing its financial firm clients to make compliant, data-driven decisions with a single comprehensive view of the truth.
Tarro
The restaurant management platform provided by Tarro is made for smaller, independent establishments, which can use the software to supplement their staff’s existing capabilities. It comes with payroll processing, marketing, phone and online order management and staffing support to help restaurants stay within budget and be profitable.
Asana
As your company grows, keeping track of ongoing projects and staying on top of deadlines only becomes more complicated. Asana is a business management software that specializes in helping managers keep each project and task organized. To do so, the platform allows users to organize projects by stage, assign tasks to different team members and aggregate all important project details onto one page. Users can also create rules to automate common tasks like work assignment, build projects from pre-designed templates and approve next steps with a click of a button. Asana also integrates with more than 200 platforms — including Slack, Google Drive and Jira — making it a flexible software in your business management suite.
Avaza
Another project management software, Avaza’s platform covers everything from project planning and execution to time tracking and invoicing. Users can track their current projects via a color-coded dashboard that’s divided up into ongoing stages. From there, they can see each person’s schedule and time spent on each project, track billable time and send customer quotes and invoices upon execution. Users can also run reports on staff performance, project profitability and uninvoiced time and expenses. Avaza connects with more than 500 applications, including Slack, DropBox and Google Drive, and offers scaled pricing based on team size, starting with a free version for small teams.
Bitrix24
If you’re looking for a one-stop shop for all your business management needs, Bitrix24 might be the tool for you. The platform comes with a suite of tools that cover collaboration, project management, customer relationship management, social media and website development. Its collaboration and task tools are designed with remote teams in mind, offering chat and video conferencing tools to make it easier for employees to coordinate on an assignment. Its website builder is also designed to be simple to use, providing drag and drop tools that allow users to create a company landing page without any coding experience. Bitrix24 offers a free tool to start and then increases in pricing based on user and company needs.
BQE Core
BQE Core is a business management software best suited for firms that deliver projects for other companies, including architecture firms, engineers and consulting groups. Its tool suite covers everything from project execution to time tracking to billing and internal HR. On the business side, users can manage multiple contracts by type (like hourly, fixed fee, unit cost and so on), automate billing and set up recurring invoices. The platform allows users to manage and optimize their employee benefits, get real-time monitoring of project activities and costs, and set pre-populated time sheets to reduce the manual load of time entries.
HoneyBook
HoneyBook is another platform that comes equipped with all the features a small business founder needs to run their company. Those include project management, invoicing, online payment portals and scheduling tools with a focus on helping managers take a project from inquiry to payment. To that end, users can track projects based on the stage of partnership, with categories like inquiry, meeting, proposal signed and retainer paid. Each project includes a homepage where users can access all relevant documents from contracts to client communication to invoices. Managers can use templates to create custom invoices in seconds, add line items with a click and set up automatic discounts and tax calculation. HoneyBook also offers product tutorials for new users and advanced training to make its platform more accessible.
Monday.com
Another work management platform, Monday.com stands out for giving users the ability to organize and structure tasks based on different departments. Since each profession has different workflows in how it delivers projects, users can select templates for roles like HR, sales or software development to organize their work. Software engineers, for example, can organize tasks via a project roadmap chart, spring retrospective page or features, and release roadmaps. An HR team can build recruitment pipelines, employee engagement surveys and onboarding processes via Monday.com. There are also opportunities to organize workflows around different industries and business sizes. Finally, users can set automation rules — like, “When a person is assigned a task, notify me” — to streamline processes and make sure nothing slips through the cracks.
NetSuite
NetSuite is a cloud-based business management platform that covers a wide range of services from accounting to customer relationships to project management, to name a few. Its accounting software allows users to automate invoicing, process payments and manage their taxes. Its customer relationship management app suite includes the ability to calculate pricing quotes and integrate sales, and its project management suite enables users to track project statuses, manage resources and calculate expenses. Users can tap into individual features or sign up for all of them via its enterprise resource planning platform. NetSuite also allows users to configure the platform to suit their company’s needs, automate processes and download additional applications from NetSuite’s in-house app marketplace.
Odoo
Odoo stands out from other business management software solutions for its suite of apps that allows users to customize the platform to their needs. Instead of offering set features in one platform, Odoo operates like an app marketplace and hub. Users can choose among dozens of apps that all integrate with one another to build their own platform. Options range from a customer relationship management and point of sale app to inventory tracking and invoicing apps. Users can also develop their own app with its Odoo Studio tool, making it a flexible platform for all businesses.
ProofHub
ProofHub is a project management tool that is noted in product reviews for its simplicity and ease of use. Rather than providing a wide range of accounting features to go along with its project management tools, the focus here is on helping managers stay organized and on top of deadlines. Users can create custom workflows to fit each team’s needs, assign tasks and log time spent on a project. It also provides tools like discussion boards, chat rooms and digital project approval to facilitate remote teams. Employees can also filter data to view their tasks, milestones and project details. While ProofHub may not have as many features as other tools, it does integrate with major apps like Quickbooks, Slack and Google Drive.
QuickBooks
QuickBooks is an accounting software developed by Intuit that specializes in helping SMBs manage payroll and get paid for their work. Its core services allows users to track billable hours, send invoices and run reports to view company financials. But it also offers a streamlined version of its platform to help new businesses get started and access to a bookkeeper for instant assistance. Self-employed freelancers can take advantage of its GPS tracking to calculate mileage. It also offers tools to help users organize receipts and make the daunting process of filing business taxes simpler.
Trello
Project management and task automation are the calling cards for this business management software. Similar to other productivity tools, users can track the status of ongoing projects via a calendar, timeline or table view, assign tasks and click on each card to view all feedback and communication. Trello also offers a no-code automation tool called Butler, which allows users to automate actions like moving lists, create custom buttons to streamline processes, schedule assignments and reveal upcoming deadlines. The software also integrates with productivity tools like Confluence, Slack and Google Drive.
Zoho
Whatever your business management needs are, Zoho likely has you covered. The company offers six different platforms that include customer relationship management, finance, workplace productivity, HR, IT and marketing. Each one hosts a suite of applications customers can choose from. The CRM platform, for instance, includes a sales intelligence app, marketing automation and commerce tracking. Its IT platform has a password vault, a ticketing app and a domain toolkit. And its productivity platform contains meeting tools, scheduling calendar, a sprint app and more. Customers can select any number of product suites and apps to run their business, making it a useful platform for any company looking to reduce its reliance on multiple, third-party applications to manage their business.
MaestroQA provides teams with management software to improve its client companies’ customer service interactions, including automation of repetitive tasks, identification of training gaps and training employees. Managers can gain insight on quality assurance practices by monitoring their customer service agents.
Hivebrite
Hivebrite is a community engagement platform that has solutions for groups that include clubs, professional associations, educational institutions, commercial enterprises and nonprofit groups. It has features such as member management, brand identity and viewing metrics to inform engagement initiatives. The company serves customer organizations in over two dozen countries.
CSC
CSC offers services to companies that need support with tax solutions including cloud computing services, data analytics and cybersecurity. It provides financial services like domain name system management, capital markets transactions, administrative alternative asset management and business administration. The company says it's committed to cutting-edge technology and efficiency.
Jobba Trade Technologies
Jobba Trade Technologies has a portfolio of cloud-based software solutions that commercial and residential roofing contractors can rely on to manage various aspects of their businesses, including bidding, inspections, invoicing and scheduling. Jobba says its products “are proven to increase profitability and efficiency for roofing companies of any size.”
Ingage
Ingage offers cloud-based presentation software designed for more engaging sales presentations. It includes interactive content for virtual or in-person pitches, with the ability to embed research documents and design-forward UX. The company boasts that its platform is used to produce thousands of sales presentations every month.
