# Run the business

> Bookkeeping, onboarding and support.

Bookkeeping comes first, because every other tool here ends up feeding it numbers. Pick the accounting software your accountant already works in, then add a support inbox once customer emails start getting lost in your personal mail. Onboarding can begin with a free form builder and a proposal tool. Recruiting software earns its price when you fill several roles a year; for a single hire, a job post and a spreadsheet will do.

## [Does your accountant already have a favourite ledger?](https://suiteintent.com/discover/accounting)

Ask them before you pick. Xero is our overall pick and UK bookkeepers use it widely, so you share live books with them. QuickBooks suits a firm whose accountant prefers it, with payroll and time tracking as add-ons. If you trade in Spain, Holded prepares the official tax forms and handles e-invoicing in the same app.

- **[QuickBooks](https://suiteintent.com/t/quickbooks?m=GB)**: Accounting and invoicing for small businesses. · Best for: Firms whose accountant already uses it · Pricing on request
- **[Chaser](https://suiteintent.com/t/chaser?m=GB)**: Payment reminders that chase unpaid invoices for you. · Best for: Xero or QuickBooks users with slow payers · Pricing on request
- **[Xero](https://suiteintent.com/t/xero?m=GB)**: Cloud accounting for UK small businesses. · Best for: Sharing live books with your accountant · Pricing on request · 30 days
- **[Stripe](https://suiteintent.com/t/stripe?m=GB)**: Online payments, subscriptions and invoices. · Best for: Recurring billing for a SaaS or membership · Free plan
- **[Holded](https://suiteintent.com/t/holded?m=GB)**: Invoicing and accounting software for Spain. · Best for: Spanish SMEs that want one app for everything · Pricing on request

## [Signing up a new client takes five emails?](https://suiteintent.com/discover/client-onboarding)

Dubsado sends questionnaire, proposal, contract and invoice in sequence, then follows up on a schedule, from $35 a month. Agencies sending many quotes may prefer PandaDoc at $19 a month, since it shows you when a client opens the document. Tally costs nothing for the intake form and takes payments too.

- **[PandaDoc](https://suiteintent.com/t/pandadoc?m=GB)**: Proposals, quotes and e-signature. · Best for: Agencies that need quotes signed fast · From $19/mo · 14 days
- **[HoneyBook](https://suiteintent.com/t/honeybook?m=GB)**: Proposals, contracts and invoices for freelancers. · Best for: US creative studios billing clients by project · From $35/mo
- **[Tally](https://suiteintent.com/t/tally?m=GB)**: Form builder with a generous free plan. · Best for: Forms with payments on a zero budget · Free plan · 30%
- **[Dubsado](https://suiteintent.com/t/dubsado?m=GB)**: Client onboarding with forms, contracts and invoices. · Best for: Service businesses onboarding many clients · From $35/mo

## [Customer emails getting lost in your personal inbox?](https://suiteintent.com/discover/customer-support)

Help Scout keeps support in a shared email inbox with a free plan, and its AI drafts replies from your own help articles. Crisp adds website chat and WhatsApp, and it charges per workspace, so a new hire costs no extra seat. A team juggling phone, chat and social with SLA targets will fit Zendesk.

- **[Zendesk](https://suiteintent.com/t/zendesk?m=GB)**: Customer service ticketing for larger support teams. · Best for: Support teams that have outgrown a shared inbox · From $19/mo · 180 days
- **[Intercom](https://suiteintent.com/t/intercom?m=GB)**: Customer service built around an AI agent. · Best for: AI answers drawn from your help centre · From $29/mo · 93%
- **[Help Scout](https://suiteintent.com/t/help-scout?m=GB)**: Help desk built on a shared email inbox. · Best for: Small teams answering support by email · Free plan · 180 days
- **[Crisp](https://suiteintent.com/t/crisp?m=GB)**: Live chat and a shared inbox for small teams. · Best for: Growing teams avoiding per-seat pricing · Free plan · 50%

## [Filling several roles a year?](https://suiteintent.com/discover/hiring)

Workable posts one job to many boards in a click and starts at $299 a month. Recruitee, priced by plan and company size, gives you a careers site and a pipeline where hiring managers comment on applicants. Teams already running HR in Personio can keep recruiting next to absences and employee records.

- **[Ashby](https://suiteintent.com/t/ashby?m=GB)**: Recruiting platform with built-in analytics. · Best for: Companies that hire often and track the data · From $400/mo
- **[Teamtailor](https://suiteintent.com/t/teamtailor?m=GB)**: Career site and applicant tracking from Sweden. · Best for: Growing companies hiring every quarter · Pricing on request
- **[Personio](https://suiteintent.com/t/personio?m=GB)**: HR and payroll prep for European SMEs. · Best for: Growing teams with a dedicated HR person · Pricing on request
- **[Workable](https://suiteintent.com/t/workable?m=GB)**: Applicant tracking with one-click job posting. · Best for: Companies hiring for several roles at once · From $299/mo
- **[Recruitee](https://suiteintent.com/t/recruitee?m=GB)**: Applicant tracking for in-house hiring teams. · Best for: Companies that hire every month in-house · Pricing on request

## [Training staff on a manual nobody reads?](https://suiteintent.com/discover/learning-teaching)

Load the manual into NotebookLM and new starters can ask it questions, with each answer pointing to its source passage. Quizgecko then builds a quiz from the same text to check what stuck. For your own reading, Glasp collects highlights from web pages and YouTube videos in one place.

- **[NotebookLM](https://suiteintent.com/t/notebooklm?m=GB)**: Google's AI notebook for your own sources. · Best for: Understanding your own documents · Free plan
- **[Quizgecko](https://suiteintent.com/t/quizgecko?m=GB)**: Quizzes from text or URLs with AI. · Best for: Testing staff or students on written material · Pricing on request
- **[Tutor AI](https://suiteintent.com/t/tutor-ai?m=GB)**: AI tutor that builds a course on any topic. · Best for: Getting a study plan for an unfamiliar subject · Pricing on request
- **[Glasp](https://suiteintent.com/t/glasp?m=GB)**: Highlights and notes on web pages and videos. · Best for: Students who read and watch a lot online · Pricing on request

## [Billing clients for every hour you work?](https://suiteintent.com/discover/track-time-and-bill-hours)

Toggl Track starts a timer in one click and has a free plan, which suits a freelancer billing a few clients. Harvest turns tracked hours and expenses into an invoice without retyping. German teams that must record staff hours can use clockodo, free for solo users and from €4 per user a month.

- **[Toggl Track](https://suiteintent.com/t/toggl?m=GB)**: One-click time tracking. · Best for: Billing clients by the hour · Free plan · 33%
- **[Clockify](https://suiteintent.com/t/clockify?m=GB)**: Time tracking with a free plan for whole teams. · Best for: Tracking a whole team's hours for free · Free plan
- **[Harvest](https://suiteintent.com/t/harvest?m=GB)**: Time tracking and invoicing. · Best for: Agencies and consultants billing hourly · Free plan
- **[clockodo](https://suiteintent.com/t/clockodo?m=GB)**: Time tracking for German teams, from work hours to projects. · Best for: Recording staff hours the German way · Free plan
- **[Everhour](https://suiteintent.com/t/everhour?m=GB)**: Time tracking inside Asana, ClickUp and more. · Best for: Billable hours without leaving Asana or Jira · Free plan

## [Weekly rotas, shift swaps and clock-ins?](https://suiteintent.com/discover/staff-rotas-and-time-clock)

Deputy and Planday build weekly rotas, let staff clock in and send hours to payroll, from $5 and £2.99 a month. Connecteam is free for up to 10 users who clock in from their phones with GPS. Restaurants that plan from forecast sales can look at 7shifts.

- **[Homebase](https://suiteintent.com/t/homebase?m=GB)**: Staff scheduling and time clock for hourly teams. · Best for: US shops and cafés with hourly staff · Free plan
- **[Deputy](https://suiteintent.com/t/deputy?m=GB)**: Rotas, clock-ins and timesheets for shift teams. · Best for: Rotas that change every week · From $5/mo
- **[Connecteam](https://suiteintent.com/t/connecteam?m=GB)**: Shift scheduling, time clock and team chat for staff on the move. · Best for: Teams that work in shifts or in the field · Free plan
- **[7shifts](https://suiteintent.com/t/7shifts?m=GB)**: Staff scheduling and labour costs for restaurants. · Best for: Matching staff numbers to forecast sales · Free plan
- **[Combo](https://suiteintent.com/t/combo?m=GB)**: Staff rotas, time clock and payroll for French restaurants and shops. · Best for: Restaurants and shops with shift teams in France · From €68/mo

## [Where should your business website live?](https://suiteintent.com/discover/host-your-website)

WordPress.com runs a WordPress site for you with no server work and a free plan to start. Cloudflare and Netlify host static sites for free on a global network. Hetzner rents servers in Germany and Finland from €5.49 a month if you can manage one yourself.

- **[Cloudflare](https://suiteintent.com/t/cloudflare?m=GB)**: DNS, CDN and security for your website. · Best for: Small sites on the free plan · Free plan · 350000
- **[Netlify](https://suiteintent.com/t/netlify?m=GB)**: Hosting that deploys every Git push. · Best for: Front-end sites built from a Git repo · Free plan
- **[Hetzner](https://suiteintent.com/t/hetzner?m=GB)**: Low-cost cloud and dedicated servers. · Best for: Developers hosting in the EU on a budget · From €5/mo
- **[WordPress.com](https://suiteintent.com/t/wordpress?m=GB)**: Hosted WordPress websites and blogs. · Best for: Starting a blog without managing hosting · Free plan
- **[Aruba Hosting](https://suiteintent.com/t/aruba-hosting?m=GB)**: Italian web hosting, domains and email. · Best for: A .it site and email with Italian support · From €10/yr

## Questions

### Accounting, support or hiring: what should a new business set up first?

Accounting, since invoices and bank records need to be right from your first sale. In the UK, Xero and QuickBooks both cover invoicing, bank feeds and reconciliation, and most bookkeepers know at least one of them. A support tool comes next, once more than one person answers customers. Recruiting software can wait until you hire regularly.

### Do I need a help desk, or will a shared inbox do?

A shared inbox covers most small teams. Help Scout has a free plan and keeps replies looking like ordinary email, with a knowledge base alongside. Intercom, from $29 a month, puts its AI agent Fin in front of your team to answer from your support content. Zendesk ($19 a month and up) pulls email, chat, phone and social into one queue with SLA tracking.

### Is there a cheap way to onboard new clients?

Tally's free plan includes unlimited forms and responses, conditional logic and payments, which covers an intake questionnaire. PandaDoc, from $19 a month, adds proposals and contracts that clients sign online. HoneyBook joins proposal, contract, booking and invoice in one flow from $35 a month, but it is built for US service businesses. Outside the US, a form plus a proposal tool gets you most of the way.

### Is recruiting software worth it for a company that hires once or twice a year?

Usually not, because a job post and a tidy spreadsheet handle a couple of hires. Teamtailor pairs a branded careers site with an applicant tracker and GDPR tools, which helps once you hire several roles a year across the EU. Personio, built in Munich, adds employee records, absences and payroll data around recruiting. Ashby starts at $400 a month and suits companies that hire continuously and want funnel analytics.

### Can AI tools help me train staff or pick up a new skill for the business?

NotebookLM answers questions about your own PDFs, websites and Google Docs and cites the passage behind each answer, so staff can query a process manual. Quizgecko turns notes or a web page into a quiz that checks what new hires took in. Tutor AI writes a course with lessons, worked examples and quizzes on any topic you type. NotebookLM has a free plan, which makes it the easy one to try first.