Apps that Take my Firm from Office to Poolside

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My Summer Hours: Poolside, by appointment only.

As the weather has been gorgeous lately, I have found myself working from home or other mobile locations (the pool – there’s WiFi!) more often. These are some apps that I use in my daily routine, which allow me to be mobile. My firm is Mac based so all of these are Mac, iPad, or iPhone versions. They are in no particular order, nor am I receiving any compensation from any of them, even though I know many of the account execs or developers…they don’t even know I am writing about them (until after this is published and some bot notifies them that they were mentioned!).

This list is definitely not exhaustive, and does not include native iOS apps.

1. GoodReader 4. GoodReader 4 (not to be confused with previous versions) is a document viewer that I use on my iPad. You can open different types of documents, but I use it mainly for PDF viewing and annotating. I sync it with my Dropbox account, so all the stuff I am working on is available to me on my iPad (outside of the Dropbox app). GoodReader 4 is probably the third party app I use most on my iPad. I use it on the go, at the pool, and at the gym (#multitasking). Download GoodReader 4 here.
2. Fantastical. I strongly dislike the native calendar app in iOS. I stopped using it when they made the list view a pain to get to, and I started using Fantastical instead. I love the way fantastical looks, I love the way it shows me a map if I have input an address, and I love that I can see my reminders (from the native Reminders app) right in the same list as my events, and I can check them off, too! Check out Fantastical here. I use it daily on my phone, and just noticed there’s an iPad version I will be downloading.
3. Clio. I use Clio as my practice management software. It is web based, and also has an app for the iPhone. Admittedly I used it mostly on my computer – not because the app lacks function (it even has a timer so you can bill for your time on the go), but I am on my computer so much that I don’t really find occasion to use the app. I use Clio to manage contacts, matters, billing and invoicing. There’s a secure portal to communicate with clients, it links to Dropbox, and there are about a billion ways to customize your invoices. Check out Clio app here and the website here.
4. Adobe Acrobat Pro and Microsoft Word. I use these on my computer umpteen times a day. I do all my drafting in Word. I view, edit, and create PDFs in Acrobat. I love Acrobat the most for creating fillable forms, which you can do from any existing PDF. So sometimes I will make a document in Word, save it as a PDF, and turn it into a form that I save as a template if it’s something I might use over and over with clients, like an intake form. That way anyone can type right into the form. You can also redact portions of PDFs in Acrobat. See Word here. See Acrobat Pro here (there is a subscription version as well. I use the downloadable, expensive version).
5.  Google Voice. I use Google Voice and a GV phone number as my business line on my iPhone. It forwards to my cell so I can still take calls at my convenience, and I can text from my phone or from the website as well. Google Voice is free and I was able to choose my own number a long time ago. I use the app on my iPhone and I haven’t really had an issue. The only thing to remember is if you are making an outgoing call to someone who only has your GV number, make sure you don’t call them directly from your regular phone app, otherwise you’ve just shot yourself in the foot and revealed your cell number to your client. See it online here. See the GV app here.
6.  MA Divorce App. This is for Massachusetts only but I would imagine other states may have something similar. I use this app to calculate child support, although it also does alimony calculations and has a date calculator. The best part is that you plug in data and it does all the math for you, even taking into account different parenting schedules. You can then export the worksheet right to Dropbox or print! Dare I say it makes it kind of fun to do child support calculations! And it’s totally affordable. See it here.

What apps do you use while sitting poolside, or at the beach or otherwise not in the office?

Featured image: “Swimming pool” from Shutterstock.