15 Best iPhone Apps for Busy CEOs

After a weeks-long business trip, the last thing you want to do is sit down with a stack of receipts and a confusing expense report form. Why not file expenses as you make them via a simple iPhone app, such as Expensify (free)? The app syncs with credit cards to track purchases in real -time, pulls in electronic receipts, scans paper receipts using the iPhone camera, and produces a PDF report that can be e-mailed to those annoying guys in finance.

Swapping business cards at, say, a conference usually meant a lot of work on the backend inputting the contact information into your address book. With CamCard ($7), it’s never been so easy — and fun! Just snap a picture of the card and you’re done. Sure, some iPhone business reader apps wirelessly link up phones. But that seems a little intimate for someone you just met. Besides, it’s hard to refuse such a request. Just gimme your damn card.

It would be nice if we lived in a completely digital world. Paper is so 2000s. Alas, pulp continues to gum up the workplace. At times (usually critical times), executives will need to capture paper documents to read or refer back to later. Chances are you won’t be lugging around a scanner. But you can easily carry Scanner Pro ($7) on your iPhone. Much more than just snapping a photo of a document with the camera, Scanner Pro lets you scan multiple documents, make PDFs out of them, adjust the image quality, and more.

No one really wants to write Word documents, dig into Spreadsheets or edit PowerPoints on their iPhone. But there will be times when you’ll need to view and maybe work on Microsoft Office files while on the go. Two apps have risen to the top of the App Store: Quickoffice Pro ($15) and Documents To Go Premium ($17). They both are evolving rapidly, overlapping each other’s competitive advantages. Can’t go wrong with either.

Some of the greatest iPhone business apps used around the country never appear on the App Store. They’re built in-house under the iOS Developer Enterprise Program. These apps range from business intelligence to collaboration to HR services and training videos to business process. The only problem may be finding iOS app developers who understand enterprise. They’re in hot demand right now.