5 Useful Online Tools for Frequent Business Travelers

If you spend a lot of time traveling for business, you’ve probably already figured out some helpful tips—like how to fold your clothes to maximize suitcase space and minimize wrinkles or which rental car company offers the best rates. To make the most of your time away from the office, it’s also important to know which online tools are the most beneficial for work and travel. As you charge up your tablet before your next flight, add the following tools:

Kayak.com

For business owners and entrepreneurs who travel a lot for work, Kayak.com is an essential tool to have at your disposal. When planning a business trip, simply enter what you need in terms of flights, rental cars and lodging, and the travel search engine will query every travel website you can think of to find thorough results and display them in an organized way. For example, you can filter your results by the flights’ arrival times or which airlines have Wi-Fi. After deciding on your ideal itinerary, Kayak sends you directly to the specific airline, rental car and/or hotel websites to complete your booking.

MozyEnterprise

If you share a lot of documents, files and projects with co-workers and clients, MozyEnterprise can make your life so much easier. Just install the file syncing and sharing program on any computer or tablet, and then easily access everything that you are working on in one place. When you finish up a project at 11 p.m. in your hotel room in Phoenix, you can upload your work to MozyEnterprise so that your client can access it the next morning before your big meeting. All data is stored in the cloud, so if the worst happens and your tablet or laptop goes missing during your business trip, all of your vital data and documents will still be secure and accessible. The entire program is designed to adhere to strict corporate IT policies, which helps ensure that the files you are saving are safe and protected.

SlideRocket

If you make a lot of presentations on business trips, you’ll love SlideRocket. Import your PowerPoint projects to the online tool for universal access from a variety of devices, including tablets and smartphones. SlideRocket also allows you to easily share your presentations with clients. It even comes with professional design tools that you can use to create sleek presentations.

SeatGuru

SeatGuru helps to make the entire business travel experience less stressful by providing you with airline seat maps, seat advice, user comments, photos and a comfort rating system for different flights. The online tool provides information for domestic and international airline seats, and will let you know which seats are close to a bathroom, which ones have power ports and which ones to avoid.

Square

If your business trips involve making sales and accepting payment, Square will help take care of transactions in a secure and organized fashion. The tool, which connects to an iPad or iPhone, allows clients to swipe their credit cards for payment. In addition, Square will also track your transactions and inventory—just sign into the free Square Dashboard from your laptop or tablet to keep tabs on the latest statistics. Square also offers a standalone unit with a card-swiping area built right in, if you want a freestanding alternative to traditional point-of-sale systems.