iTunes has more than 700 apps in the finance category. We’ve whittled the list down to 20 of the best, covering a variety of money matters — from following stocks to accepting credit cards. All of the small business apps in our roundup have at least a three-star or higher average user rating. (In iTunes, 5 stars is the highest rating.) We list the apps in alphabetical order.
Big Calculator Free
Cost: free. Average rating for the current version: 4 stars.
There are plenty of iPad calculators — some free, others a buck or two. This one is not hugely better than the others. It’s simply a good-looking calculator with big buttons that also gives you a “paper tape” view of your previous calculations, which you can copy or email.
Car Calc Pro
Cost: $1.99. Average rating for all versions: 4 stars (not enough reviews yet for the current version).
Eyeballing a new Prius? This handy app will help you quickly calculate the monthly loan payment, compare two loans side-by-side, decide if it’s better to buy or lease, and figure out the car’s total cost (including insurance).
CNBC Real-Time for iPad
Cost: free. Average rating for the current version: 3.5 stars.
The makers of this app, NBC Universal, claim it’s the only free app that gives you “live, streaming real-time” stock quotes “before, during and after market hours,” direct from the NYSE and NASDAQ exchanges. The app is chock-full of features, including breaking business news, videos, profiles and the ability to create and track company stocks. This is one app bound to make day traders delirious with joy.
Compoundee HD
Cost: $2.99. Average rating for the current version: 4 stars.
Finances can be complicated, but this app helps you make some sense of it all. It’s a compound interest calculator designed to tackle complex equations, so you can quickly see how much a potential investment would be worth over a specific period of time. You can also factor in such things as taxes and inflation to get a realistic picture of the cost of your investment.
Converter Plus for iPad
Cost: $1.99. Average rating for the current version: 5 stars.
Convert practically anything — area, weight, currencies, temperature, bits, bytes and so on — with this helpful app. It also includes loan, tip, mortgage, and other calculators.
Debt Payoff Pro
Cost: $.99. Average rating for all versions: 4.5 stars (not enough reviews yet for the current version).
Many small business owners juggle multiple lines of credit. This handy app helps you manage your credit using the “snowball” method. You make the minimum payments on your various debts until the first is paid off; then you use the money you’d have paid on that debt to starting paying down another debt, and so on. There are similar debt management iPad apps, but this is one of the highest rated.
Easy Books
Cost: free. Average rating for the current version: 4 stars.
This money management app for small businesses lets you track your accounts, sales, expenses, invoices, and assets all in one place. You can generate invoices in PDF format and track your time. Worth noting: While the app is free, certain features such as time tracking ($16.99) are “in-app purchases.”
eBay & PayPal Fee Calculator
Cost: $1.99. Average rating for all versions: 4.5 stars (not enough reviews yet for the current version).
If you’ve sold on eBay, you’ve probably been frustrated by the inability to easily see exactly how much each sale will cost you in fees. This iPad app helps by taking some of the mystery out of eBay, and PayPal, fees.
Economy for iPad
Cost: $3.99. Average rating for the current version: 4.5 stars.
Want the big picture on the U.S. economic situation? This is your app. It provides the latest info and graphics on key economic indicators, such as employment, housing, GDP and the trade deficit; graphs for tracking indicators across time periods; and information on state-specific economic indicators for all 50 states and Washington, D.C.
Expensify
Cost: free. Average rating for current version: 4.5 stars.
Expense reports are tedious but necessary, and this free app makes the process a bit less tiresome. The app imports your credit card purchase transactions and automatically creates receipts for most expenses less than $75. You can also track mileage, quickly generate reports with attached receipts, and submit them directly from your iPad.
iDonatedIt
Cost: $2.99. Average rating for the current version: 3.5 stars.
When it’s time to upgrade to new tech toys, do you donate the old ones? If so, there’s an app for that: iDonatedIt. The app, one of CNN Money’s top tax apps in 2011, creates lists of donated items, letting you easily keep records for tax purposes. You can attach a photo to your donation record and email a donation report to your accountant (or anyone else).
Mortgage Calculator – The Amortizer
Cost: $1.99. Average rating for all versions: 4.5 stars (not enough reviews yet for the current version).
There are a number of iPad mortgage calculators, but this is one of the highest rated. Mortgage Calculator – The Amortizer does the math for real estate agents, homebuyers and homeowners looking to refi. It will calculate cost per square foot; break down total interest, total payments, and total cost; show you how much of each payment goes towards interest, principal and remaining balance; and more.
Numbers
Cost: $9.99. Average rating for the current version: 3.5 stars.
The iPad version of Apple’s spreadsheet program includes useful templates with built-in formulas and designs, including a mortgage calculator, expense report, travel planner, invoice, personal savings, car log and loan comparison. You can export your documents to Excel or PDF, too.
Pageonce Pro
Cost: $12.99. Average rating for the current version: 4.5 stars.
As of this writing, there’s not yet a Mint.com iPad app. The next best thing is Pageonce Pro, which, like Mint.com, downloads your bank and credit card transactions and provides an at-a-glance view of where your money is going. While there’s a free Pageonce version, it includes ads — not the kind of thing you want to see when you’re in money management mode.
RetirePlan
Cost: free. Average rating for the current version: 4.5 stars.
RetirePlan is a free app that helps you figure out when you can retire, how much dough you’ll need, and how long your money will last (hint: not as long as you thought). As you enter data, the graph changes accordingly, giving you a quick view of your nest egg.
Square
Cost: free. Average rating for the current version: 4 stars.
Do you sell at flea markets? Operate a gourmet taco truck? If so, you can easily accept credit cards with a Square free card reader (with connects to your iPad’s microphone jack), a free Square account, and the free Square iPad app (also available for iPhone and Android). After everything’s set up, it’s super easy to transact business with a quick credit card swipe. And Square’s take is reasonable: the company gets 2.75 percent of every transaction, but there’s no fee on top of that and no contract.
StockMap
Cost: $0.99. Average rating for all versions: 3.5 stars (not enough reviews yet for the current version).
When your stocks are hot, they’re really hot, thanks to this graphical app. StockMap displays your stocks, mutual funds and other investments on a “heatmap” — a cool way to provide an at-a-glance overview of your investments. The color of each investment “block” changes based on how hot or cold that particular investment is at the moment. Market data is automatically updated every 10 seconds when the app is active.
Time Master + Billing
Cost: $9.99. Average rating for all versions: 4 stars (not enough reviews yet for the current version).
Independent contractors need a reliable tool for tracking time and generating invoices, and this is their go-to iPad app. You can record time entries using a stopwatch or by entering the time manually; run multiple timers at once (and they keep running even when you’re not using the app); track expenses; export your time entries to QuickBooks; and more.
Toss-Up Free – 3D Coin Flipping
Cost: free. Average rating for all versions: 3 stars (not enough reviews yet for the current version).
As we move closer to a cashless society, how on Earth will we make decisions? By using a coin toss iPad app, naturally. This free app provides a 3D simulation of a quarter, which you can toss with the flick of a finger. Heads, you’ll love this silly little app; tails, you won’t.
Zinio
Cost: free. Average rating for the current version: 4 stars.
Zinio is essentially a digital magazine rack for your iPad. Through this app, you can buy subscriptions to, or single issues of, a variety of magazines in digital format — including The Economist ($126.99 for 51 issues), Harvard Business Review ($79 for 10 issues), and Bloomsberg BusinessWeek (51 issues $46). The issues are essentially digital copies of the print versions without interactivity or social sharing functions, but it beats carrying a bunch of paper magazines on a trip.