Small business owners face an overwhelming amount of mobile apps which claim to save time, money and stress.

Digital marketing expert Brian Hughes lends his advice to these people through his own experiences as a small business owner. He has tested hundreds of apps geared towards subjects like time tracking, accounting, and project management.

“The best apps combine intuitive visual design with robust back-end functionality that streamlines workflow, automates redundant tasks and simplifies communication,” Hughes says.

Hughes gives these six indispensable tools for small business owners in 2016.

  • Insightly: “Don’t let the simple interface fool you: Insightly’s feature-rich CRM is ideal for small businesses. Manage leads, contacts, organizations, partners, vendors and suppliers.”
  • BigTime: “Time is (literally) money with BigTime, the top-rated online time and billing software for small businesses.”
  • Zoho Projects: “Assign tasks, share project files and track deliverable completion.”
  • Asana: Create tasks, organize tasks into projects and get instant status updates with the app’s high-level project overviews.
  • Due: "Welcome to simple online invoicing and time tracking, all in one place."
  • Wave: "More than one billion business owners trust Wave to track more than $60 billion in income and expenditures– and the app doesn’t cost these owners a dime."