Essential Online Tools for Work from Home Employee

The ability to work-at-home is fantastic, but before you start there are a few essential tools that must be at your disposal to make your job easier.  Without these tools you will face more time looking for solutions than working, and chances are this isn’t going to make the job very fun.

There are a number of online tools available and you should have many of them to make your job easier. Take a look at these 5 must-have tools that every employing working at home should have.

High-Speed Internet Service

High-speed Internet service from a quality internet service provider is a must if you plan to work online for any period of time.

Without it you risk downtime, possible missed time from work and quality control issues, among others.

In most areas high speed internet is available at reasonable costs, making it more than affordable. And, it may even be a tax write-off and we can all enjoy a few of those from time to time!

Online Backup

It could take one power outage or one wrong key; a virus or a malfunction and all of your files, the important files, are gone, never ever to be found again –without online backup.

As with Internet service online backup can be purchased affordably, alleviating those worries and enabling quick access to all of your files from any location.

Many online backup solutions are available. Do not wait to get one.  One of our favorites is Carbonite, which allows you to automate your backups and push them over to the cloud with worry free effort.

VOIP Phone

Skype now works with any home phone. Adapter allows you to sneak VoIP into the home of any Luddite–provided they have broadband.

A voice over IP phone allows employers and employees the flexibility and cost savings to both move voice communications to any location with Internet connection, and save money on calls with unlimited calling plans.

Technologies such as Skype and Google Hangouts enable employers and employees collaboration tools necessary to do free conference and video calling anywhere in the world.

There’s no faster way to communicate with clients and others who you need to talk to than Skype, and it also happens to be quite affordable.

Video calls are available for locations throughout the united states and around the world.

For more information, check out our post on Skype Voice and Video Chat Alternatives.

Office Software on the Cloud

An office software program, such as Microsoft word, is an essential item that you will use quite often no matter what type of business you operate.

From creating customer invoices to fliers and everything in between, this software is an absolute must if you want to make business life easier on you.  Don’t forget those important and critical integrated tools like the mighty spellchecker in your word processor app, or built in formulas in your spreadsheets.  This ensures professionalism and accuracy, two very important things that all home workers need.  These now come standard in any professional office software available on the market.

Both free and paid versions of the various office software programs (including Microsoft) are available.  Microsoft now offers Office 365, their cloud based Office version, which allows users the flexibility to use their Office software on any device, while syncing all their files and data through the cloud.

Another cloud office software available through Google docs.  Google Docs brings your documents to life with smart editing and styling tools to help you easily format text and paragraphs. Choose from hundreds of fonts, add links, images, and drawings.

These technologies are all available online and offer centralized storage on the cloud for you to keep your documents.

Remote Helpdesk Software

Often, a remote employee may require assistance from their company’s helpdesk or support team. Remote assistance software like Team Viewer, LogMeIn, Go to Assist, Chrome Remote Desktop, and many more can help connect users to their IT department, or the IT department to company servers.

The Top Online Tools

Although there are many other online tools that are required in any type of work from home job, the technologies listed above are some essential items that you cannot live without.

These items, when readily available, ensure that you can get the job done to the best of your ability in the shortest time frame possible.

Don’t make things harder on yourself, and instead sit back and enjoy the multitude of benefits offered with these tools in place.

What other tools do you use to work from home?  We’d love to hear from you in the comments below.

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