Stuff that doesn’t work – that’s what most technology is. Printers that stop printing. Applications that don’t do what they promised. Computers that freeze up. Thank God Microsoft doesn’t build airplanes or we’d have 747’s dropping out of the sky like flies. Unfortunately, when a relied-on piece of technology, either software or hardware, goes bad it can cripple a small business and cost you a lot of unnecessary money. A good penny pincher will ask himself some hard questions before buying any new technology. Here are few….

You can run, you can hide. However, if you are willing, you andanyone else can discover where you are at any time. You can see this capability in action on any episode of the multicity hits like CSI and NCIS.Just to be clear, to be located requires your GPS device to be on and within range of a cellular or wireless signal. When you want to really hide, turn off the device or leave home without it. You can also give your device to someone else, so when the CSI investigator locates the device, it will not be you that has been located.

The current storehouse of iPhone Apps is climbing past 225,000. Mix in the Android and Microsoft Windows platforms and the Apps numbers will grow exponentially for a very long time. My previous article identified categories of applications that are being used and will be used by the accounting community. In this article, the application focus is SEARCH.  There may be a few cave dwellers somewhere that have not used search to discover a word definition, a restaurant, or some federal or state law statutory requirements. Readers of The Progressive Accountant know that search is an integrated feature of the publication. TPA provides search to locate an article by title, by a specific category, or by a specific writer. Read more...

Multi-function devices that can scan in color are great. But a tip to firms that use them: do yourself a favor and turn off the color when you scan. That's the advice of Howard Brown, chief technology officer of Doc-it, a document management software company, as he covered a number of tips regarding the topic of best practices in scanning documents.