Note: Since I didn’t get my Feature Friday post finished last week, it’s now been transformed into Mobile Monday.
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While most banks still have a single mobile app, the big players will eventually have a portfolio of apps for their various product lines, business units, and disparate customer segments (note 1).
While technically not a financial institution, Intuit shows why multiple apps are needed. With the launch of MoneyDue (see below), the company now has at least 17 apps available for the iPhone.
Tax-related (7)
• Earned Income Tax Credit calculator
• Intuit Tax Online Accountant
• MyTaxRefund by TurboTax
• TaxCaster by TurboTax
• TurboTax 2011 Tax Preparation
• TurboTax Card Mobile
• TurboTax SnapTax
Payments (2)
• Intuit GoPayment Credit Card Terminal
• MoneyDue (ebilling for small service providers; see below)
Small biz (5)
• Online Payroll
• QuickBooks Mobile
• Small Business Blog
• Snap Payroll California Free Mobile Paycheck Calculator
• Weave (project management)
Consumer (3)
• Quicken Essentials for Mac
• Intuit Health Debit Card
• Mint.com
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MoneyDue: Ebilling app for hourly-based professional services
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For almost 30 years, Intuit has been a key financial services innovator. So I’m always interested in the new services coming out of its R&D area.
Here’s one that seems like a winner, a mobile small biz ebilling app specifically targeted to those that bill their time by the hour (or appointment).
The app integrates with the iPhone calendar and contacts to seamlessly turn appointments into ebills in a 3-step process (see screenshots below):
- Select an existing appointment from iPhone calendar
- Select the corresponding person to bill from the iPhone contact list
- Enter the billing amount and send
It would be especially useful for one-person shops such as lawn care, home improvement, cleaning services, tutors, etc. The main downside is that the appointment and contacts must already be loaded into those iPhone functions. You cannot create a new bill directly from the MoneyDue app if it hasn’t already been scheduled on your calendar (note 2).
The app hit the app store on May 30 and has been a top-150 finance app since for the past few days.
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Intuit’s MoneyDue iPhone app (2 June 2012)
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Notes:
1. See our mobile apps forecast here (April 2010, subscription)
2. The iPhone automatically syncs with your desktop calendar (eg. Google’s Gmail calendar) so you needn’t set up the appointment on your mobile phone.
