Owning a smartphone or tablet these days is no longer considered to be a luxury. For the working world, these devices have actually become a necessity. Their ease of use, portability, and multifaceted capabilities have made them essential to any professional; especially to those individuals who provide freelance services, like court reporters.
As a freelance court reporter, you are consistently moving back and forth from location to location. Whether you’re at home working on a transcript or sitting in a conference room at a job, chances are your smartphone or tablet is right there by your side. That little piece of technology provides you with far more than just a way to communicate or a platform to play games. From basic features like making phone calls or sending texts, to online searches, fitness tracking and navigational tools, mobile devices assist us in one way or another all day long. It is like having your own pocket-sized personal assistant.
What makes smartphones and tablets such powerful business tools are the thousands of apps available to download and utilize. Knowing that many freelance professionals have trouble staying organized and mastering the work/life balance, we have put together a list of a few mobile apps we feel are “must haves”, especially for court reporters.
These are just a few of the many mobile apps currently on the market for making your life as a freelance court reporter easier. Are there any apps that you love and are not on the list? Let us know! We would love to hear about what you are using and how it benefits you professionally!
Navigation and Travel |
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WazeWaze is a mapping service that offers voice-guided GPS to and from a location. What makes Waze so great is that not only will it give you turn-by-turn directions, it also gives you real-time traffic and road information and will redirect you if there are any major issues. |
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Best ParkingParking can be a nightmare. Especially in busy cities where street parking has a time cap or is extremely limited. Best Parking allows you to find the cheapest and most convenient parking facilities around your destination. Currently the app has information for 105 cities & 115 airports throughout North America. |
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TripitIf you find yourself traveling out of town quite a bit for depositions and other freelance work, then the Trip It App is for you. Trip It allows you to organize all your travel plans in one place and create a master itinerary so you aren’t stuck searching through all your emails to find all your information. It also keeps your travel plans and calendar in sync. |
Notetaking/ Staying on Task |
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EvernoteEvernote is a tool that allows you to stay organized across all your devices. It allows you to collect notes and ideas, create lists, take screenshots, and even bookmark websites. With Evernote, all of your information is consolidated in one location for reference and can be accessed everywhere. |
Calendar/Time Management |
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SunriseScheduling your time can be a nightmare. With so many different calendaring programs on the market it can be hard to keep track of everything. You might get invited to an event through Facebook, or someone schedules a meeting for you through Google. Each one uses a different calendar, so if you want to know your real schedule you need to log into those platforms separately. The Sunrise app is the solution and syncs all your calendars into one. Never miss a job or important event again! |
File Storage/File Sharing |
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DropboxDropbox is by far the most popular app for file storage and sharing. Dropbox is an online storage locker for all your files, documents, photos and other data. Your documents can be quickly accessed from anywhere and by anyone you give permission to. Many court reporters use this app to share their realtime files with their offsite scopist for quicker transcript editing. |
Accounting |
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FreshBooksFreshbooks is designed with the small freelance professional in mind. It allows you to create professional looking invoices, bill your clients online, and accept credit cards. It will even let you know when your invoice has been viewed. Some of the other features built into FreshBooks are time tracking, expense capture, and import transactions from your bank. According to their website, “FreshBooks saves customers an average of 2 days per month from everyday accounting tasks.” This means you have more time to complete other work that will generate revenue. |
Contact Management |
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FullContactFull Contact keeps you organized and connected with the people in your life who matter the most. Rather than having separate Facebook contact lists, email contact lists, Linkedin contact lists, and personal or professional contact lists, FullContact pulls all your contacts together and places them in one location that can be accessed from your computer or mobile device. It even continuously syncs all the lists and makes any changes to social profiles, photos, email signatures, company information, and more. |
Password Storage |
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KeeperWith so many different apps and social media sites around today, remembering the passwords for all of them can be a nightmare. If you find yourself constantly clicking on the “Forgot Password” link, then Keeper is the app you need. Keeper is a password manager that allows you to store all of your important password and website information in one secure location. You can access your passwords from any device and even generate random passwords. |
Contract Management |
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ShakeShake allows you to create, sign, and send legally binding agreements to your clients in seconds. You can choose from one of the pre-made templates or upload your own agreement. This app strives to combine the simplicity and convenience of a handshake with the protection of a legal document. |
These are just a few of the many mobile apps currently on the market for making your life as a freelance court reporter easier. Are there any apps that you love and are not on the list? Let us know! We would love to hear about what you are using and how it benefits you professionally!