More small business professionals are using mobile apps to make work easier and improve profitability. With so many apps to choose from, we narrow the list down to the essential ones that help your company thrive.

New research indicates that small business owners and employees are becoming more dependent on mobile apps. A 2011 AT&T study revealed that 38 percent of small businesses said they “could not survive” without mobile apps, reflecting the major impact that apps have made on corporate culture.

In a 2012 EMPLOYERS Small Business Opinion Poll of 501 small business managers and owners, more than one-third (38 percent) indicated that they use smartphones or tablets to manage their daily business. The most common apps they use are mobile email (93 percent), location-based navigation services (64 percent), apps for Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter (41 percent) and banking (41 percent).

Developers are keeping up with the boom in small business apps by continuously introducing new products to run business more smoothly. Here are a few apps that help keep companies and finances organized, even for the busiest professionals.

Find Funding: SBA Gems

Up-and-coming entrepreneurs can turn to SBA Gems to find federal loans, grants and other perks to help jumpstart their business. The free electronic app was the winner of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s “Apps for Entrepreneurs Challenge,” a call for developers to create useful tools for small business professionals. With this app, tablet and smartphone users can access invaluable tools to grow their biz — including recommended sites, SBA videos and business news.

Manage Tasks: OmniFocus

With so much going on in even a single work day, it’s not always possible to jot down every brilliant business idea that comes to mind. The OmniFocus app acts as a task manager by “capturing” thoughts via its quick entry panel and stores ideas in its easy-to-access system. For those who prefer to follow their agendas on an hourly basis, this app also allows users to assign due dates and times and synchronize the task databases to the cloud via WebDAV or the free Omni Sync Server. Compatible with Mac, iPads and iPhones, the app costs $39.99 — far less than a personal assistant.

Improve Time Management: Twist

For professionals who always seem to be running late, the newly launched Twist app notifies the user’s colleagues about arrival times, eliminating the need for texts and emails. Developed by an engineer and investor who was always occupied with time-consuming meetings, the free app relies on a proprietary GPS that pinpoints the user’s location, calculates arrival time and shares that info, but only with people that the user selects. While the app alerts people about late arrival times, it can also help the busiest professionals get to places on time with calendar reminders.

Track Bills: Expensify

Business expenses can be difficult to track, but Expensify turns a phone or tablet into a receipt scanner. The SmartScan feature captures pictures of receipts and records the merchant, date and amount of transactions so that small business owners don’t have to. To automate an entire expense reporting process, the free app syncs credit cards and bank accounts to keep track of every purchase. App users can then select the expenses that they’d like to add to a report and email a copy to anyone who needs to take a look.

Streamline Employee Pay: ViewMyPaycheck

Managers can show employees the money with ViewMyPaycheck, a free app that gives professionals 24/7 access to their pay stubs and W-2 forms, an efficient way for tracking contractors without the burdensome and unnecessary paperwork. The app by Intuit allows paystub uploads using QuickBooks integration, enabling employees to access recent paychecks and view their YTD totals.