BizWiz  -  the Business Helper- is  a cell phone application that helps small and micro entrepreneurs keep track of their business expenses and sales more easily, streamline financial information, and analyze it on a more regular basis. BizWiz allows the creation of an immediate record of the transaction as it happens, ensuring that  expenses and  revenues are properly managed.

Most micro and small business owners in developing countries currently lack the financial tools and knowledge to properly manage their businesses. They rely on scant financial records and rarely are able to accurately analyze them and effectively utilize them to make sound business decisions. Business owners frequently don't have access to computers and technology to streamline and keep financial information and such tasks as calculating the operational efficiency of an enterprise can be quite onerous for an entrepreneur with a very limited amount of time and resources.  Micro and small business owners need a simple and easy to use tool to record and analyze financial information in order to make better business decisions and ensure not just a sustenance-level performance, but achieve real growth.

Biz Wiz will be developed by a small team in accordance with the main producers of mobile devices in order to ensure compatibility and high performance. It will be a mobile phone application distributed through telecom providers and service centers and will serve micro and small business owners in both urban and rural areas in developing countries  to help them track their expenditures and their incomes, as well as to forecast their cashflow and predict their needs and constraints. This application is intended to provide entrepreneurs who do not have the proper technology and financial knowledge with an easy and quick way to record transactions and use these records to generate ratios and analyze their business performance, providing them with a more solid backing for making sound business decisions. It will include graphics to mark and illustrate the categories regarding inputs (ex. energy expenses, taxes, labor) and outputs (ex. sales of product). The application will be user-friendly requiring minimal financial and math knowledge, performing most categorization and calculations behind the scene. It will be able to generate a number of important financial ratios and help the entrepreneur interpret their meaning for his/her enterprise. Further, the application will also provide the opportunity to forecast expenditures and incomes in order to help business owners predict their cashflow and business growth.

BizWiz will be first developed in English, and during the second phase will be translated to other languages and include country-specific details (ex. tax %).  

This project is intended to start in May of 2009. The first phase will take about 6 months and the second phase is envisioned to take about 2 years.