When your business is just starting out, keeping costs low by managing things manually, with the aid of a few Excel sheets, is the most straightforward way. However, as your business expands and adds team members, you'll quickly find yourself handling too many things at once. 

There's an array of professional management tools, though, to help you to stay on top of your game.  Each of these tools is designed for distinct business needs - from financial management to team collaboration. 

When you choose the tools to help you manage your business, it will pay off to dig into their exact capabilities, and to find the top tools for each niche. To get you started, here's an overview of the top players in the field - from SMB Salesforce alternatives in the CRM department, to Trello, Basecamp, and Slack for team collaboration and project management. 

Financial Management Platforms 

Financial operations are the heart of any business. That's why picking the right financial management software is crucial 

One of the best tools for invoicing and accounting currently available is FreshBooks. It has a complete suite of accounting features - creating invoices, tracking expenses, estimating costs, and supplying data for accounting reports. You can also use it for time tracking: See how long it takes your team to complete a task - and bill your clients accordingly. 

Another popular solution is QuickBooks. This platform lets you email invoices, accept online payments, and can do your payroll. It also integrates with various third-party apps, such as Square and PayPal, and provides automatic cloud backups as well as audit trails. 

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems 

CRM systems help you take charge of your relationship with every single one of your customers by storing everything relating to them in one place. This data is then instantly available to your marketing, sales, and customer support teams. This streamlines customer experience and increases sales. 

With a market share of more than 20%, the biggest player out there is Salesforce. The platform offers comprehensive CRM capabilities. A huge number of third-party integrations make it easy to connect it to the ecosystem of business management tools you use. However, the platform is geared towards large or quickly expanding businesses and may be too extensive (and expensive) for small to mid-size businesses.

If you're looking for a more lightweight solution in terms of CRM systems for small businesses, HubSpot and ActiveCampaign may be right for you. 

HubSpot is a digital marketing solution that offers core CRM capabilities for free, and can be upgraded with features from its Growth Suite.

ActiveCampaign combines a solid CRM system with an email marketing service - so you can have your needs for email campaigns and newsletters met at the same time.

Team Collaboration and Project Management Tools 

The COVID-19 pandemic has made tools to facilitate team collaboration and project management invaluable. Even after your team returns to the office, these tools can help you keep track of who is working on what, and tell you a project's status at a glance. 

In terms of team communication, Slack is one of the most widely-used solutions. The service provides a messaging platform on which team members can communicate and share files one on one, in different subject groups, and channels. Threads can also be opened on various issues. 

Trello is a virtual whiteboard designed for project management. Each team member can add activities, to-do lists, files, deadlines, and other information to the board to ensure project flow remains smooth. 

A more comprehensive solution is offered by Basecamp. This tool is designed to encompass entire companies, with an account for every team member. Users can be organized both into departments and teams working on specific projects. Messaging, file sharing, assigning tasks, collaborating on to-do lists, and project overview visuals are all part and parcel of Basecamp. 

Asset, Resource, and Inventory Management Systems

Finally, running your business efficiently also means you need to keep track of a lot of data on the assets, resources, and inventory you currently have at your disposal. 

When it comes to inventory management, inFlow is one of the best platforms out there. It helps you manage individual inventory items and works with RFID tags and different bar code styles. Order management is made easier by providing entry, exit, and delivery reports. It's also useful for inventory optimization, and analyses of sales and break-even points. 

On the IT side, Ninja RMM will help you keep on top of your software, hardware, and cloud assets. It can be used to assess storage capacities, monitor networks, automate tasks, and offers tools for remote control, patch management, and reporting.

The Bottom Line 

As businesses grow, most add more tools for professional management to streamline daily operations and let team members focus on what is most important. 

In the long run, your business will profit if you take the time to research your options, see which tools and platforms best fit your needs, and how well they integrate with each other. 

This way, you can build a smoothly working ecosystem of professional business management tools to take your business to the next level.