Essential smartphone, tablet apps for busy professionals

Inky is an alternative inbox organizer, and the main strength of the app is the option to use hashtags to emails. It might sound like an odd idea, but by personalizing emails in this way, you have more control over how you can organize your work life. For example, you can tag messages from colleagues to land in a particular inbox, while other attributes -- such as unread or attachment -- can also be used when you search for a particular message.

The app is free for Gmail, iCloud and Outlook accounts, but you will have to upgrade for Microsoft Exchange, Office 365, Google Apps and other IMAP-based email accounts.

Alternatively, give Google Inbox for Android a whirl.

Price: $Free trial | Subscription

Operating system: iOS

While you're on the move, whether it be business cards, receipts or paperwork, sometimes you may need to scan and save a copy for later without any fuss. CamScanner is a handy app to have in such a situation, and makes sharing these scans a simple and seamless process. You can also edit any scans you take to improve and enhance images before saving and storing them.

Price: $Free | In-app purchases

Operating system: Android | iOS

Busy professionals need to keep things organized, and this goes for work trips, too. TripIt is a useful app which allows you to link and stash all of your travel bookings and create an itinerary quickly, share it with colleagues and pull maps and directions to help you on the way.

If you're willing to bump up to premium, you can also use TripIt's flight tracking, airplane seat selection and point trackers.

Price: $Free | Subscription available

Operating system: Android | iOS

Urbanspoon is a relatively new mobile app which allows you to find the best nearby restaurants without any fuss. Whether you need a quick lunch or somewhere to take a client, you can use the app to find recommendations for places to eat based on distance and popularity, view menus, and book tables quickly in the US, Canada, Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

Price: $Free

Operating system: Android | iOS

Another booking application which is handy for the busy professional is Hotel Tonight, a great place to start if you need a last-minute hotel room. Users can search for a room and find last-minute deals on empty rooms based on their preference of hotel type, book, and get their heads down quickly -- and hopefully having saved a few dollars at the same time.

Price: $Free

Operating system: Android | iOS

Mint is a very well thought out and clean app which can be used not only to help take control of personal finance, but to keep expenses, budgets, payments and savings in order. You can use the app to save time, keep an eye on accounts, track spending and check bill reminders to lower the stress of accounting and reduce the amount of time you need to spend keeping on top of things.

The money management app also gives iPad users the option to view graphs and charts for a visual representation of your spending.

Price: $Free

Operating system: Android | iOS

Certify is a mobile app which can prove to be useful to busy professionals in roles where expenses come into play. The app can be used to capture receipts and expenses, submit expense reports and customer invoices electronically, removing the need to spend time with stacks of paper and streamlining the whole expenses process.

Price: $Free

Operating system: Android | iOS

Tempo is a handy tracker and smart calendar app which integrates with a number of different services including email and social media accounts.

The main strength of this app is that users are given updates on any important changes to their schedule or contacts, as well as upcoming birthdays and weather forecasts -- giving them the chance to keep on top of changes as well as respond to event invitations and view worklogs.

Price: $Free

Operating system: iOS

While Tempo is unfortunately only available for the iPhone, the Sunrise calendar has far wider compatibility. The free calendar app focuses on Microsoft Exchange, Google Calendar and iCloud accounts, compiling user events and dates together with events pulled from apps including Facebook, Evernote, Foursquare and TripIt.

This app is beautifully designed and seamlessly pulls this information into one calendar which gives users a full overview at every event coming up.

Price: $Free

Operating system: Android | iOS

To round up, the Any.do task list management app is a good option for keeping daily, weekly or monthly tasks organized. The app can be used for anything from quick shopping lists to collaborating with colleagues on work projects, and users can also set reoccurring tasks, schedule items, and also use voice entries for to-do lists.

A key strength of the mobile app is the ability to use gestures -- such as swipes and shakes -- to quickly edit lists, including setting tasks to 'completed' or to delete entries altogether.

Price: $Free | In-app purchases

Operating system: Android | iOS