november2021 - 19

By Gail Perry, CPA, Editor-in-Chief
APPS WE LOVE
Lifestyle Apps
THERE'S NO DOUBT COVID-19 has changed both our work and personal lives
in myriad ways. As I reflect on how I have altered my day-to-day existence
in the past year and a half, I find there are apps I have incorporated into
my daily life that I didn't even know I needed prior to 2020! Apps can
help us stay in shape, stay in touch with distant friends and family, do
our work, manage our to-do lists, guide us to entertainment, order our
groceries, continue our education, monitor our health, plan for the future,
care for our children and our pets - the list is almost endless.We did some
investigation into this area of Lifestyle apps, sought some input from a few
members of the CPA Practice Advisor community, and here is a sample
of what we found.
Michelle Golden River, CPF, president of Fore
LLP, recommends:
* Anylist - for groceries or anything... family
members can see shared lists
* AgeBreakdown - super helpful to plug family (and
pets) into so I can keep track of birthdates and
current ages (this gets harder to keep in my head as
I get older). I wish it had reminders but it does not
* Big Red Clock - turns my cell phone into a
perfectly readable clock while I'm teaching or
speaking
* Stylebook - because I'm a huge geek... it took a
bit of a time investment but I loaded in my entire
wardrobe (I could write a whole post about tips
to get that done with as little pain as possible). I
use the app for many things. You can put together
outfits with the app and save them, or you can
even use a random outfit generator and I've come
up with some really creative combos that way
that I'd never have thought of on my own. I love
that I can decide what to pack for a trip from the
couch (awesome for road warriors!) and pack
super efficiently, and I can check if I already have
something similar at home before I make a hasty
spontaneous purchase. More importantly, I wish
I had this as a young professional because I've
made a lot of unwise clothing purchases over the
years... it makes you smarter because it calculates
cost per wear which is a smart way to think of
something. It teaches better buying habits... when
you realize that 4 year old sweater you just gave
to charity literally cost you $8 every time
you wore it, you think twice before buying
something at a high price point that you
won't wear a lot. I use it to evaluate what
to pare down out of my closet-super
helpful if one aspires to be a minimalist.
* Flightview and Flightboard are huge for
travelers, as is TripIt.
* Hiya to end spam calls or trace who a number
belongs to
* Paprika for recipes - I love that I can export my
whole recipe file for my kids!
David Cieslak, CPA.CITP, CGMA, GSEC, executive
vice president and chief cloud officer at RKS
eSolutions LLC, shared us these lifestyle apps:
* Stitcher (Podcast player) - I'm a podcast junkie,
and I'd be oh so marooned without this product!
It's my every-day, go-to!
* Amazon Alexa - while I verbally converse with
my Amazon Echo's throughout the day, the smart
mobile app sees a lot of use as well (adding/
updating items on lists, turning devices on and
off, etc.). Who knew?
* Flipboard (news aggregator) - Stay connected
to your favorite publications and topics with
Flipboard.
Caleb Jenkins, EA, CQP, RLJ Financial, uses
these lifestyle apps:
* Stay in Touch: WhatsApp Groups - I'm part of
various WhatsApp groups w/ family & friends to
stay in touch
* Do our Work: Liscio - This helps us stay in contact
securely & effectively with our clients and request
documents and information from our clients in a
mobile first world.
* Manage our To-Do Lists: Microsoft To-Do's - This
allows me to convert an email into a To-Do which
is helpful if I'm not able to do that item right away.
* Continue our Education: Twitter - This helps me
stay abreast of conferences & events that I want
to attend to further develop my education.
* Monitor my Health: Forward - I joined a medical
membership platform that is mobile first and has
some powerful monitoring capabilities, chat w/
doctor, medical records, etc.
We'll wrap up the year next month with apps
related to helping those in need. If you have any
apps in this category you would like to share,
please email gperry@cpapracticeadvisor.com
describing the app and including a sentence or
two about why you think it's great. ■
NOVEMBER 2021 ■ www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com
19
http://www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com
november2021

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