Top Apps for Loss Prevention Professionals

A slew of mobile apps are making the day-to-day lives of loss prevention professionals everywhere a little bit easier. The very best business and travel apps improve productivity and efficiency for busy LP pros who are always on the go. With the thousands of options available, however, it’s sometimes difficult to decide which apps are worth your while and which are a waste of time. The LPM team, with some valuable input from LP professionals like yourself, created this list to get you started. This list is far from comprehensive. We want to hear from you, too! What apps do you find most useful? Send your suggestions to ShareYourToys(at)lpportal.com.

Dark Sky

This popular weather app offers hyper-localized, precise weather forecasts that provide up-to-the-minute information on impending rain or potentially dangerous storms. The app is customizable—you can set your own weather alerts for anywhere in the world to be delivered to your device as a push notification. Sophisticated, well-designed maps offer a contextual view of storm patterns that you can manipulate to view over a given time period.

CamScanner

This app functions as a mobile PDF creator for scanning any and all documents. Users can conveniently digitize and share travel receipts with colleagues via email or save business cards to their smartphones. Enhanced features allow users to extract text from images for editing and annotating purposes. The app also includes collaboration and security tools, such as document password encryption, for added functionality.

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Concur

LP professionals tend to travel a lot. Concur for Mobile allows users to manage travel itineraries and expense reports from their mobile devices. Executives can approve or reject expense reports submitted by their team members, and the app can even be used to import credit card activity data, add event attendees, book suggested hotels, and keep track of car mileage.

Yelp / Open Table / TripAdvisor

All essentials for traveling professionals, these apps are great for finding restaurants and other businesses in nearly any city in the world. Looking for a great sushi spot for lunch with a store manager, these apps locate restaurants by categories and give you distance as well as crowd-sourced reviews. Whether you’re traveling for business or pleasure, these apps are must-haves.

Facebook / LinkedIn / Twitter

Social media apps get a bad reputation for being time-wasting distractions, but for the loss prevention executive, they’re a must. Not only do they allow you to keep in touch with family and colleagues while you’re on the road, but they serve the important function of being an investigative loss prevention tool. People (including criminals) often publicly post where they are and what they’re doing on social media. Use this information to your advantage.

Burner

This app has also proven to be valuable to professionals during the course of their investigations. It permits users to create and dispose of phone numbers for any situation that might require disposable contact information. The average smartphone owner may use a Burner-generated phone number for online sales transactions (Craigslist, eBay). An LP pro may want it for online fraud investigations and controlled buys.

My TSA

This app from the Transportation Security Administration gives travelers easy access to frequently sought information, such as which items can pass through security checkpoints, which airports support TSA PreCheck, and what the weather conditions are at any airport. Users can also check approximate wait times for security checkpoints and share their own wait time to help others.

Xe

This app lets you convert any currency into any other currency. If you are visiting stores in Mexico, you will want to know what Mexican pesos converts to US dollars. In this example, you’ll be happy to find that the $100 MXN hamburger is about $5 USD. And that $10 CAD drink in Toronto is about $8 USD.

AnyList

This handy app lets you do exactly what the name implies, create a list for just about any purpose that you can share easily with family and friends. The best example is the grocery list you share with your significant other or roommate. Anyone can add to the list and whoever goes to the grocery store can check the items off as they go. Visiting stores in another city, make a list of places to go. Camping with a buddy, make a list of what to take so you don’t forget your sleeping bag.

LP Portal

No “Top Apps for LP” list would be complete without the inclusion of the recently released LP Portal app that is designed to connect the entire loss prevention and asset protection community. The app includes channels like current news, industry events, associations, podcasts, webinars, certificate and certification programs, solution providers, and much more. Plus, we’ve included links for shopping, supporting your favorite charities, even recommendations on what too read, binge watch, listen to, recipes, and more. There are channels to link to many of your favorite industry initiatives and organizations. And we are only just getting started. Download it today for free.

This list is far from comprehensive. We want to hear from you, too! What apps do you find most useful? Send your suggestions to ShareYourToys(at)lpportal.com.

This post was originally published in 2017 and was updated in 2021. 

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