Tools that I use in our Businesses – Virtual and Brick & Mortar

This is going to be a short post, it is something that I have been meaning to put up for awhile. I get at least a dozen questions a week either via email, twitter, phone call or another form of communication – with people asking me “What do you use for invoicing?”, “What do you use for project management?”, What do you use for X, Y, Z”. So, I wanted to take a minute and list the things that I myself use, or I have my staff at IAC Professionals, IAC-EZ or IAC University using.

FreshBooks: FreshBooks is an online invoicing and time tracking tool. Don’t be confused, it is not an accounting application – it handles billable time, billable expenses, invoicing, support tickets and document transmission. We use FreshBooks as our ‘main frame’ for client interaction. We log time to our project management system, import it into FreshBooks and bill with FreshBooks (we could log time directly into FreshBooks but our other system works a bit better for us due to our large team).

Zoho Creator: We use Zoho Creator as our centralized Database for various aspects of our companies. We use it as a CRM to keep track of leads and customers. We also track our employees, contractors, manuals, employee performance reviews, customer service surveys and more. You build your own application (or purchase one available) and it is completely custom to your needs.

Aweber Autoresponders: We use Aweber for our Ezines, Newsletters, Autoresponders and Mass Email Communication.

QuickBooks: We use QuickBooks Premium to maintain one of our businesses’ accounting, we use QuickBooks Online to maintain another and we use QuickBooks for Mac to maintain another. All around we are definitely a QuickBooks powered enterprise.

Custom Built Project Management System: No we do not use Basecamp or similar, we had a custom built project management system with FreshBooks API integration built by Becker Web Solutions, They are offering our system for resale ($2,500.00) and are more than willing to show you a demo account. Tell them that Heather Villa sent you and receive a 10% discount.

‘GoTo’ Products: We love GoToMeeting and GoToMyPC. We use GoToMeeting for online training, troubleshooting, teleconferences and staff meetings – all very important in the virtual world. We use GoToMyPC for our virtual employees to access our in-house servers (since we do not let client data leave our premises). Use any of the links above (no they are not affiliate links) for GoTo products and receive a 45 day free trial for either.

The list could go on and on – but here are some brief highlights of our other tools:

We utilize Wordpress for all of our blogs; HelpDeskPilot for our IAC-EZ Support Desk and KnowledgeBase; Pivotal Tracker for Road Mapping for IAC-EZ; Brosix for our Corporate Messenger; Spry, Joyent and Sliqua for our Hosting and Content Delivery Network; DNSMadeEasy for DNS, and Mailtrust for Email Server.

A couple of other services we use rarely or have just begun using are Egnyte for Back Ups and Unfuddle for something to do with our IAC-EZ tech/deployment department.

I know that recommendations are hard to ‘believe’ in a blog post, so let me say this – with the exception of FreshBooks, QuickBooks and Aweber – nothing listed is an affiliate link – and as for the three with affiliate link – I am a fanatic of all three and have nothing but excellent things to say.

Let me know what services you use and who has worked out well for you.

Best,

Heather

Related posts:

1. Heather Podcasts: Managing a Virtual Team, Advice by Deb Walker – Virtual Team Manager (Episode 5)
2. The Advantage of Virtual
3. Being Personal while being Virtual…
4. “What Should I Do?” – Advertising
5. Find the Real Tools and Reduce Your High Tech Costs