It’s that time of year. We just wrapped up the holiday festivities, which were full of buying employee gifts and taking clients out for holiday celebrations. The accounting department wants everyone to submit their expenses before year-end. We can’t procrastinate any longer. Besides, getting our expense reports submitted means some extra money for the holiday season.

But I think we can all agree that expense reports are possibly the last thing any of us want to be doing at this time of year (or any time of year, for that matter).

Luckily, there are plenty of mobile apps that make it easier to track and submit expense reports. Here are seven handy apps specific to the iPhone.

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1. Expensify

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Expensify (free) offers the ability to create photo receipts and iPhone expense reports, and it integrates with Expensify’s website for instant reimbursement. It also can connect with QuickBooks. Great for people who travel and want to record expenses as they are incurred.

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2. Fresh Xpense Capture

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Fresh Xpense Capture (free) allows you to record your expenses (including photo receipts) as they occur. Expenses can be submitted using a variety of different formats such as SMS, IM, Twitter and e-mail. They are stored on the Xpenser website (sign up is free), where they can be imported to Excel, Quicken or MS Money.

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3. Out of Pocket

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Out of Pocket ($1.99) allows you to record your out-of-pocket expenses including photo receipts. Then you can export your expenses to FreeAgent or IRIS OpenBooks (optional). Out of Pocket also provides search capabilities, for those times when you’re trying to remember a date or expense description.

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4. Shoeboxed Receipt Tracker

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After you snap a photo of your receipt, Shoeboxed Receipt Tracker (free) automatically enters the date, total, payment type and category. It generates expense reports that can be sent from your iPhone as well as exported to QuickBooks and Quicken.

Shoeboxed also provides a fee-based service that enables you to mail in receipts (and other documents) to be scanned and uploaded to your online Shoeboxed.com account.

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5. ProOnGo Expense

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ProOnGo Expense (free) allows you to not only track receipt and mileage expenses, but it also enables you to time expenses. This is very useful for consultants or professionals that operate on a billable hour basis. ProOnGo also integrates with Quickbooks. For an extra cost, a receipt reader service is available.

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6. JetSet Expenses

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Another app that offers billable expense recording is JetSet Expenses (currently on sale for $4.99). It allows tracking of billable expenses, reimbursable expenses and non-reimbursable expenses. JetSet focuses on business travelers by offering international settings along with airline, hotel and rental car databases.

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7. iReceipt

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Don’t need a bunch of fancy options? iReceipt ($1.99) provides a simple, basic service. Record your expense details or take a photo of your paper receipt. Then e-mail yourself a text-generated expense report.

Business, expense reports, iPhone, iphone apps, List, Lists, Mobile 2.0, small business, work expenses

Google recently launched its Chrome Webstore for dedicated applications and extensions. Although the store is still in its early stages, there is already a wealth of choice for any small business owner.

This post highlights six noteworthy apps and extensions ranging from note-taking to project management. For small businesses with limited budgets, these resources can aid in productivity and time-management and let you concentrate on the more important aspects of your business.

Let us know in the comments below about any additional Chrome apps or extensions you would recommend.

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1. Google Shortcuts

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This extension brings all the Google services to your browser in a space-saving pop-up next to your address bar. Reach services like Gmail, Google Reader, Google Maps, Google Calendar and many more in just two clicks from your browser. The extension includes more than 140 Google services and websites. Once installed, just open the settings to customize and personalize the extension.

The level of customization is extensive, including sorting and rearranging the order of the buttons, selecting from six different icon sizes (16, 24, 32, 42, 48, and 64 pixels), adding your own custom URL button, integrating the Goo.gl URL shortener and changing the URL and names of services.

The support for Google Apps is what makes this really stand out from the crowd of Google-related extensions. Just scroll to the last section named Custom Domain for Google Apps and type your Google Apps domain name in the place provided. Now select the services of the domain you wish to add as a shortcut.

This is the official port of the well-known Firefox extension called ‘Google Shortcuts.’

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2. Scribble

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Scribble employs an approach that combines the simplicity and flexibility of text files with the order and control of GTD applications. If you have a habit of saving .txt files to your desktop as reminders, notes, thoughts and random ideas, Scribble is for you. You can now manage all those notes in one place, clutter free. It also works offline, which is invaluable, meaning your notes are stored locally. It has an attractive, simple UI, as well.

Perhaps the neatest feature is the letter-by-letter auto-save — there is no save key — because your note gets saved with every keystroke. Other features include the ability to attach reminders to specific notes; drag, drop and arrange the notes however you want; and store to-do lists, grocery items, phone numbers and e-mail templates.

Scribble can become a lifesaver if you have a habit of opening Notepad or TextEdit to jot down notes and reminders; it even gives a desktop pop-up reminder when something is due.

The developer has sync-to-cloud features and keyboard shortcuts planned for future releases.

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3. Vyew

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Vyew is a tool that allows you to meet and share information both in real-time and continuously. Upload images, files, videos and more, and Vyew will store the information in one “Room” that anyone can access and contribute to at any time. You can work independently over periods of time or in groups in real-time. All meeting content is auto-saved in real-time with no worry of losing work, even if a connection is lost.

There are several real-world applications for Vyew, including hosting presentations, reviewing documents, drawing and annotating, tutoring and training, desktop sharing and the ability to publish (read-only) versions of your meetings to a website, blog or through e-mail.

The app also includes a free conference call service, which means you can quickly and easily bring all your collaborators and participants together via telephone for live conferences. You can also use VoIP (up to two users) and webcams (up to five users).

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4. Todo.ly

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Todo.ly is an intuitive and easy-to-use to-do list and task manager to help you stay organized and get things done. Todo.ly was designed to be as simple to use as possible and fit in with your workflow.

It lets you divide your work into projects, which may have sub-projects. A task can also have sub-tasks. Managing “Tasks” and projects is straightforward; using the intuitive drag-and-drop interface, you can simply move your task from one project to another. Tasks will also pop into your “Today” list as due dates approach.

Due dates and filters (Inbox, Today, Next) are supported. The filters are easy to use and have been designed according to the Getting Things Done method. You can right-click tasks to edit them or add new tasks before or after it. The interface has been kept simple and functional and you’ll be up and running quickly. For example, if you want a simple unordered to-do list, you can simply start entering tasks.

While Todo.ly isn’t team-oriented at the moment, it has enough power under the hood and selection of features to be an excellent aid in personal productivity.

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5. Write Space

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Write Space is a customizable full-screen text editor for Chrome that is designed for distraction-free writing. It works offline, saves data locally and persistently backs up your work as each document is automatically saved with every key-press, so there is no worry of losing work. It allows customization to the font, background, width of the editor window and more. The live document statistics mean there’s no need to dig around menus to find the word count.

The standout feature is the ability to make Chrome go full-screen for a truly distraction-free environment. You can also set it to open in full-screen mode automatically by right-clicking on the application icon and selecting ‘Open full screen.’ You can import plain-text files, though if you already have data saved in Write Space, make sure you back it up before importing.

As Google Chrome does not yet support the HTML5 File Writer API, Write Space does not currently have an automated export function. However, you can export your work manually by copying the text in the browser window to another file or location.

Write Space is open source software, so you are free and encouraged to edit the application as you see fit.

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6. Pivotal Tracker

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Pivotal Tracker is a simple, story-based project management tool that allows teams to collaborate and react to feedback in real time. It’s based on agile software methods, but can be employed on a wide range of projects. It can be used on anything that you or your team works on that delivers some value, and that is large enough to benefit from being broken down into small, concrete pieces. It’s commonly used for organizing marketing campaigns or for general productivity management.

Everyone shares the same, up-to-the-minute view of what’s going on with the project and what needs to be done next. It lets project owners know exactly where things are without having to ask, and lets the rest of the team spend time on work, rather than on reporting the work.

You can create a Twitter account for your project, and let followers (team members) see project updates as they occur, as well as being kept up-to-date via Campfire, e-mail or web callbacks.

Iterate also provides a way to access Pivotal Tracker from your iPhone, with the same simple, well-designed UI as Pivotal.

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Bonus Round

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Here is a selection of quick links to six apps and extensions that are also worthy of making it into your Chrome setup:

1. Scratchpad – A simple note-taking app from Google that allows you to take notes offline and optionally sync to the cloud when you’re online.
2. Ge.tt – A real-time file-sharing service that allows you to share any number of files, no matter how large, within seconds.
3. 280 Slides – Create beautiful presentations, access them from anywhere, and share them with the world.
4. Hootsuite – Publish updates, track activity, and analyze results across multiple social networks including Twitter and Facebook.
5. LovelyCharts – Online diagram software to create professional-looking flowcharts, sitemaps, organization charts, wireframes and more.
6. Gpanion – Gpanion is your Google companion and provides a sleek dashboard for working with your Google Apps.

What other noteworthy Google Chrome apps or extensions have you discovered? Be sure to share your picks in the comments below.

[Via Mashable]

Business, chrome, Chrome App Store, Chrome Apps, Chrome Extensions, Google Chrome, List, Lists, small business, Web apps

Traditionally, I didn’t like playing games on my phone. However, with iPhone’s amazing capacitive touchscreen, you can’t resist procrastinating by playing Angry Birds on the iPhone. While the app store is full of colourful and joyous games, we’ve selected the top seven games to save you some time researching.

Angry Birds

Price: $1

Probably the world’s most popular iPhone game, and for good reason. There’s something about launching these different sorts of aviary ammunition into the precarious pig pens that just never gets old. There are always new birds and new stages coming out the pipeline to keep things fresh, too.

The Incident

Price: $2

With excellent pixel art and an admirably morbid sense of humor, twisting your iPhone around to avoid falling objects is way more fun than it sounds. And you have to appreciate anything that makes the apocalypse this enjoyable.

Cut the Rope

Price: $1

Some have called it the heir apparent to Angry Birds for quick, clever, doesn’t-really-ever-get-boring iPhone gameplay—lofty praise, but in many ways deserved! Cutting a rope to swing a candy into a little monsters mouth, avoiding electrical currents and spiders along the way, is quite fun.

Real Racing

Price: $5

It’s just the best racing game out, walking the tightrope between looking highly realistic and being incredibly fun to play. There’s a good selection of cars and tracks and the graphics look wonderful.

Archetype

Price: $1

An exceptionally shiny first person shooter optimized for the iPhone 4, with slick, functional controls. Best of all is the 5 v 5 team deathmatch mode, which is just like the multiplayer action you’re used to on the consoles-including multiple guns, grenades, maps, and medals-except this one you play while you’re sitting on the toilet. $1 (map updates cost extra).

Doodle Jump

Price: $1

You know those people you see standing on the subway or waiting in line at the grocery store clutching their iPhone to their face and tilting their entire body to the side like they’re the leaning tower of Pisa? This is the game they’re playing.

Words With Friends

Free with ads, or $3

Why did we, as an iPhone-wielding society, suddenly decide that push-notified Scrabble (or, more specifically, this knock-off) was the most fun to be had with words since Alphabet Soup? That I don’t know. But it is a hell of a lot of fun trying to slot that Triple Word Score against friends, family, and coworkers.

[Via Gizmodo]

Apple, Gadgets, iPhone, iphone apps, iPhone Games, List, Mobile Phones, Software

Your iPhone is the ultimate entertainment gadget. That is especially true since the app store carries the hippest and most exciting entertainment apps. However, only a handful of those are the ones that could be called the best. We’ve dug deep into the iTunes ocean to come up with top twelve entertainment apps for iPhone.

Netflix

Free

All the joys of Netflix in your pocket, all the time—including the power to battle that always growing Watch Instantly queue. Streaming’s silky smooth over Wi-Fi, less so over 3G, but the app itself is indispensable.

Remote

Free

Apple’s official app for controlling iTunes from wherever your butt might find itself planted is pretty much perfect. Browse your entire library by artist, song, playlist, whatever, pick a tune, and there it is, playing in your iTunes.

Shazam

Price: $6

You know that song you keep hearing everywhere but can’t quite place? Shazam can place it. Like, almost every time. Shazam Encore gets you unlimited tags and a host of other features like charts, recommendations, lyrics, etc.

SoundHound

Price: $5

Like Shazam, SoundHound dabbles in tune recognition (smaller library of songs, snappier tagging), but it also serves as a full replacement for your iPhone’s comparatively barren iPod app. Think lyrics, artist info, YouTube links, etc.

Flixter

Free

While it blows my mind that I can watch movies on my phone, one thing I need it to do, and need it to do well, is find movie times for theaters nearby. Flixter does that and much more, packing box office charts, Rotten Tomatoes reviews, DVD releases and what seems like a thousand other movie-related features in one extremely handy app. Free.

StreamToMe

Price: $3

A lightweight client on your computer catalogues the videos of your choosing, as well as all your iTunes playlists, and then lets you easily stream the files in them easily to the app on your iPhone. The best part: all the transcoding is done on the fly, and pretty much any video format plays back superbly.

Pandora

Free

Pandora. You know the one. The internet radio app that has uplifted a million work hours and scored a million make-outs. It’s simply the best out there, streaming music at home or on the go over Wi-Fi or 3G.

Kindle

Free

Just because you don’t own a Kindle doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be buying Kindle ebooks—especially when Amazon’s iOS app is this good. While it looked for a while like iBooks might come along and disrupt Amazon’s ebooks hegemony, well, that didn’t happen.

CameraBag

Price: $2

Every iPhone photographer needs a catchall filter app for adding some artistic flair to their shots. Hipstamatic can make them look, uh, hip, but CameraBag can make them look like everything else.

Hipstamatic

Price: $2

Why do everyone’s iPhone photos look so damn hip while yours look so, you know, not. Probably cause they’re using Hipstamtic, the preeminent “make my photos look cool” app which lets you mix and match films and lenses (available for in app purchase) to make your iPhone photos look more analog than ever.

Brushes

Price: $6

Even for the artistically disinclined, having a 3.5″ palette and canvas in your pocket can be fun. Brushes is the only one you’ll ever need, easy enough for the uninitiated to jump into and advanced enough to keep real artists happy. Hell, they paint New Yorker covers with this thing.

NPR News

Free

You’ve gotta have a news app on your iPhone, because, you know, news is important. NPR’s happens to be great—you can read NPR’s reliably-interesting stories, download them for offline reading, and, and, listen to NPR radio stations while you’re doing it.

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There’s an ocean of social networking iPhone apps on the app store. However, only a handful of those are the ones that could be called the best. We’ve dug deep to come up with top five free social networking apps for iPhone.

Twitter

Twitter thankfully didn’t make too many changes when they gobbled up the already-great Tweetie 2 from Atebits—same clean interface, same Tweet swiping, and the same it-feels-so-good pull to refresh mechanism.

Facebook

The new, panel-based interface takes a little getting used to, but once you’re acclimated it’s the most effective way to throw yourself, fingers first, into the black hole timesuck that is Facebook.

Fring

Not only a decent multinetwork chat client, Fring also allows for free (or in some certain cases dirt cheap) VoIP calls and, for those with a front facing camera, video calls over WiFi and 3G.

Meebo

Meebo is the king of iPhone messenger apps right now, with support for AIM, Google Talk, Facebook and the like (as well as an impressive list of smaller networks) all packed into a pretty, polished package.

Instagram

Take a photo and dress it up with one of the supplied Hipstamatic-esque filters, Then you share it over the usual suspects—Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, etc —or, and here’s the interesting part, over Instagram’s built-in social networking service. It’s new and ambitious and that’s why we like it.

Apple, Gadgets, iPhone, iphone apps, List, Social Networking, Social Networking apps, Technology

Facebook advertising holds tremendous promise for marketers looking to reach targeted audiences online. Nowhere else do people willingly share such specific information about themselves – enabling marketers to target ads and evaluate performance based on details about consumers such as their age, interests, employers, location and even friends and relationships.

Facebook advertising, however, is still relatively new, and advertisers are only beginning to experiment with Facebook ads. Even digital marketing experts, familiar with advanced targeting techniques in paid search and display advertising, are just now figuring out how to effectively run advertising programs on Facebook.

To get your ads noticed by Facebook users, you’ll need to tailor your ads to work within the Facebook experience. Facebook users spend an inordinate amount of time –- more than any other website — on the social network. They interact with friends, share information and connect with their favorite causes; however, despite all their actions, people aren’t searching for products or services. That’s why carefully selecting images, modifying calls-to-action and subtly changing messaging to reach Facebook users is important for success in this channel.

Here are a few insider tricks you can use to take your Facebook targeting and ad performance to the next level.

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1. Remember the User Experience

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Many marketers dive right into Facebook ads expecting to drive traffic from Facebook directly to their site, just as in paid search. While this may work for some, tailoring the experience to Facebook users typically delivers better results. Using Custom Pages or Applications on Facebook to capture traffic allows you to keep users within Facebook for a consistent browsing experience, resulting in lower bounce rates. Custom Pages, as part of your Facebook Page, make it easy for consumers to “Like” your product or brand. For every user who Likes your page, you can remarket to them over time with status updates about deals or upcoming events.

Facebook Apps, on the other hand, provide the marketer with more control over the user experience, as well as the ability to gather detailed demographic data from user profiles. If converting traffic outside of Facebook is a requirement for you, consider tailoring your landing pages to social users. This could include writing different ad copy, the inclusion of Like and sharing buttons on your site and presenting user-generated content such as videos or reviews, as opposed to product information, for Facebook users arriving at your landing page.

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2. Use Root Analysis to Expand Targeting

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Facebook users can list any terms they want to define their likes and interests, so in order to target a full audience of potential customers, you may have to do some investigating for those terms and phrases that go beyond your general keyword search. For example, using the targeting parameter “camping,” your ad will not reach users who have listed “camping in the mountains” or “tent camping” on their profile.

Root analysis is a useful way to discover people’s likes and interests on Facebook to expand your audience and drive more conversions. Simply start with a root word and expand your targeting to include related interests. You can do this by typing the root word into Facebook’s “Likes & Interests” targeting settings and then typing a single letter to find related terms. Using the camping example, entering “camping i” results in a list that includes “camping in California” and “I love camping.” Adding these unique terms to your targeting criteria expands your audience, helping to discover additional valuable consumers and improve ROI.

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3. Segment Your Ads

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With 500 million users on Facebook, there are probably plenty of consumers that you want to reach with your ads. However, not all Facebook users are created equal. Breaking out your audiences to understand the value of each segment, and then adjusting your bids accordingly, will help you optimize your Facebook budget.

Dividing audiences by age, location, and gender should help you find the segments most likely to convert, making each segment more valuable to you. As you measure the performance variance between your segmented advertisements, you can adjust your bids to improve the overall ROI for your Facebook ad campaigns.

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4. Prevent Ad Blindness

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People use Facebook to interact with friends, share their photos and play games, not to look for products and services. Your ads need to grab their attention. Facebook users are inundated with content and typically scan images and text quickly, but there are tricks to modify creative to minimize ad blindness and increase click-through rates. The most successful ads include colorful, engaging images — and of course, a compelling and relevant offer. Adding borders to your photos in colors like orange or yellow, which contrast with the blue and white Facebook interface, is a simple way to pull the user’s eyes in your ad’s direction.

Make sure to test early and often here, as the results will surprise you. The most-clicked ads are not necessarily the most aesthetically pleasing; they are often the ones that stand out on the page. Also, because ads can be served to the same users multiple times, it doesn’t take long for users to completely tune out repeat ads, so you have to keep your approach creative and fresh. Rotating images and headline copy as performance drops over time can help boost click-through rates.

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Conclusion

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By using the tips above to target and optimize your advertisements, you should have a head start in Facebook marketing. More importantly, by building competencies in this new channel, you can build sustainable advantage over the competition through superior targeting and optimization.

Taking a wait-and-see approach may be the safe route, but now is the time to begin. The Facebook advertiser base is still relatively small in comparison to the Facebook audience. As a result, costs-per-click rates remain lower than paid search and other channels. As advertisers continue to shift dollars to Facebook, costs will rise, and advertisers that have managed to build a fan base early will be better positioned to reap dividends from their investment.

What tips can you offer? What has worked with your own advertising experience on Facebook? Do you also zone out uninspired ads? Let us know in the comments below.

[Via Mashable]

Ad, Advertising, Business, Facebook, List, Lists, Marketing, ROI, small business, social media marketing, Tips

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