Now that Apple has given 3rd party developers the go-ahead to write applications for the iPhone and the iPod Touch, consumers literally have the world’s creativity working for them every day to come up with new and innovative apps.

The Apple App store has been opened for over six months now, and it’s true that a good number of apps are throwaway imitations of one another. But there are many jewels to be found. For the busy businessperson looking to optimize, here is a list of 25 of the most useful finance and money apps out there.

25 Personal Finance & Money Management iPhone Applications

ACTCurrency - $0.99
This is a fairly simple currency converter. Easy to use and incredibly handy for when you’re traveling out of the country. At $0.99, it’s an obvious buy.

ACTGratuity - $0.99
Ever wish there was an easier way to figure out the tip when you go out to dine at a nice restaurant? ACTGratuity does just that. The app also lets you split the bill, letting everyone know exactly how much each person is supposed to pay.

Bloomberg – Free
Bloomberg is one of the best financial sites on the web, and now you can instant stock quotes, charts and in depth financial analysis directly on your iPhone with the Bloomberg iPhone application. And the best part: it’s free!

Budget - $4.99
This is an excellent app for keeping track of your personal budget. It has an easy-to-use interface and gives the option of full-color graphs.

Mobile Banking - Free
If you’re a Bank of America customer, this application can be very useful. Keep track of your accounts and instantly find the closest ATM machine. It’s a shame that non-Bank of America customers can’t use it.

Save Benjis - Free
Save Benjis is an app that lets you seach online and find the lowest prices for anything on the market. In tough economic times, saving money is becoming everyone’s priority. If you’re at a store wondering whether you should buy an item or see if it’s cheaper elsewhere, this app can save the day. And it’s free.

eBay Mobile - Free
eBay has gone beyond the call of duty to provide customers with an optimized iPhone version of its website, with its own client and unique, streamlined interface. It works so well, that it can be easier to use the site on your phone than on your home computer.

iCredit Calculator - $0.99
This application lets you estimate your current credit card debt and approximately how long it will take you to pay it off. It is simple and has three different calculation modes. Easy to use and understand.

PortfolioLive - $5.99
Portfolio live provides you with the real-time value of your stock portfolio wherever and whenever you happen to be. This is by far the best portfolio management application available. Get instant quotes and create as many portfolios as you want.

FlightTrack Pro - $9.99
This application is your personal travel assistant. FlightTrack Pro is the most popular travel app, and it comes with TripIt, an online travel organizer. Perfect for busy travelers, it allows you to track cancellations, delays, gate changes and more. You can view your itinerary, local weather and time, all in an easy-to-use interface.

CompareMe - $1.99
Good for the price conscious shopper, CompareMe allows you to check product prices, compare them and convert the prices of items with different size packages. You can calculate discounts and premiums into the equations to see what the best deal truly is.

Mobile News Network - Free
Get the up-to-date news from the Associated Press directly onto your phone. Mobile News Network gives you access to local, national and international news. Great way to get your news on the go and in a compact, user-friendly interface.

iJobs - $0.99
Job hunting? If so, iJobs can come in quite handy. It uses the iPhone’s location services to find job openings near you. It automatically searches through thousands of sources from all over the internet. No matter what gig you’re looking for, iJobs can be an excellent hunting companion.

The Vault - Free
The Vault is a virtual strong box for storing sensitive information. It uses the famous and ultra-secure Blowfish encryption code to protect all your data. Your password is not stored on your iPhone, and none of the information you store goes anywhere.

Blaze Mobile Wallet - $1.99
In addition to letting you purchase products from 8,000 supported companies, this application uses the Blaze Mobile Prepaid MasterCard Paypass Sticker, so that you can simply wave your iPhone over a retailer’s POS supported terminal and the purchase is done. Participating locations include McDonalds, 7-Eleven, CVS Pharmacies, and more.

Sales Report - $19.99
Sales Report downloads the sales trends reports from iTunes Connect and stores them on you iPhone permanently. You can view data on graphs and get email reports that help you see how marketing campaigns are going.

Moneypedia - $0.99
While Moneypedia serves no immediate and practical financial or organizational function, it is a lot of fun. A virtual collection of sample currency from around the world, it has tons of unique images and historical information. It is always good to read up on the different systems of currency around the world.

iOwn - Free
iOwn helps you keep track of the things you own, plain and simple. It has an easy to use and very fast interface. It lets you itemize and keep track of your possessions, in case you ever need to store them for safe keeping or later use. You will never forget where you put something ever again.

ACTPrinter - $0.99
ACTPrinter is not a printer in the technical sense. It simply offers an alternative, as it lets you store and view electronic tickets, boarding passes and other documents that you’d normally have to use paper for. Good for the environment.

TickerPicker - $3.99
This application lets you pull up stock data for technical analysis about any ticker. Just input the stock ticker and you’ll get a price, moving average, volume, RSI and MACD charts, all in the palm of your hand.

iPhones are high-quality, stylish, user-friendly mobile devices that offer a variety of efficient, easy-to-use applications. Business professionals are jumping on the iPhone bandwagon because of the phone’s assortment of valuable business applications.

If you are a business owner and need phones for your business in addition to the iPhone, visit our resource center and compare quotes from phone system providers.

Appealing business iPhone applications can include the capability to accurately monitor income and expenses, effectively organize details, tasks, and contacts, easily convert currency, and more. While there are several business iPhone apps, below is a list of the Top 11 best iPhone applications for businesses.

JustAddMoney Expense Tracker - this business application allows multiple users to track money in real-time. Users can enter receipts, checks, credit card purchases, and cash purchases at the moment of the purchase, customize income and expense categories, transfer money from one account to another, and generate financial reports. Because this is a multi-user application, users can share financial information and get updated instantly upon someone’s tracking entry. This is an ideal solution for businesses requiring constant updating of financial dealings, particularly if colleagues spend from the same account.

Mobile Password Safe – with the advances in technology, it is necessary to have a secure location to store multiple passwords. Mobile Password Safe allows only the user to gain access and passwords are decrypted into the browser, which means they can’t be hacked by third parties. This is the best iPhone application for business professionals with various accounts, codes for computer programs, and other hard to remember passwords. This application keeps passwords organized allowing users to specify labels, categories, and searches. It’s ideal for keeping business passwords separate from personal passwords and it is convenient and secure.

Goal-Tracker is designed to help the business professional reach his or her various goals. This application allows users to enter goals, hold themselves accountable, track progress, and separate and organize personal versus professional goals.

Currency Convert – this iPhone business application offers a quick and easy way to convert amounts of money between 23 currencies. Instant updating with the tap of your finger shows you up-to-date conversion rates on the go. Additionally, you can sort the currencies to keep your most used currencies on top for quick access and convenience.

ACTPrinter – this application is the most innovative and helps save the environment by not wasting paper. It allows a user to “print” any document from a Mac PC to an iPhone or iPod Touch. Essentially, it stores documents electronically so people can take documents with them on their phone and view them easily and conveniently without sorting through a stack of papers.

Timewerks – this is a time-tracking and invoicing application for all types of business professionals. From freelancers to consultants to lawyers to salespeople and contractors, users of this business iPhone application can track billable hours and create invoices. With Timewerks, you can manage and organize the time you spend on various projects and get detailed reports, easily filter through invoices, clients, work items, hours, etc.

iBeam – this application allows you to instantly send items such as contact information and photos directly to another iPhone. iBeam saves time and frustration by allowing iPhone users to instantly “Beam” information to each other as opposed to saying it, repeating it, and typing it into your phone or contact management system.

Ledger – with this, the best iPhone application for businesses seeking a money management application, you can record purchases, money transfers, loans, and receipts. Additionally, you can easily view transactions and details for all accounts, record simple or complex transactions, and edit account and transaction information.

TouchCall - iPhone users can conveniently, easily, and quickly find business information on the go. Say you need the phone number or address for a restaurant you were supposed to be at for a meeting and you’re running late, simply click the easy one-touch buttons on the interface and the information is provided to you.

Task2Gather – this application is ideal for maintaining all your business, personal, and family tasks. You can organize tasks, separate them, and share them with iPhone users and non-iPhone users. Additionally, the tasks are always accessible from your iPhone and your computer. Tasks can be divided into subtasks so you can delegate to colleagues.

Contact Hero – this business iPhone app is more than just a contact manager and online address book. You can collect, merge, organize and manage all your contacts from various contact management systems, such as Outlook, Gmail, or Yahoo!. You can manage your list of calls to make, keep a list of contacts you have made, and keep a detailed list of contact history for each contact. There are various ways to identify your contacts, for example numbers, colorful icons, or country flags. Also, you can schedule email messages to go out to any of your contacts at anytime in the future.