High Tech for the Small Office: Hardware and Software to Improve Your Efficiency

Just a few years ago it was relatively easy to select the electronic equipment for a small office. All you needed was a computer, a printer, a phone and a fax machine. But today's technology offers a bewildering choice of options--from local and wide area networks (LANs and WANs) to Internet connections, and from wireless and cell phones to computer telephony. Adding to that complexity is the growing number of CPAs who opt to forgo the conventional four-wall office and conduct their business wherever they happen to be--at home, in an airplane or car or at a client's facility. So whether you work in a fixed location or out of a virtual office, read on for advice on the technology best suited to make you more efficient and comfortable at work. No matter what your office setup, you should not suffer the inconvenience of having to work on two computers--a desktop in the office and a laptop when you're on the road. Such a setup burdens you with the need to keep the data on both machines synchronized. Although you can store all your data on a special storage network, that's an added complexity and expense and there may be times when the network is not available. And while there's also software to sync the data, that's just one more thing you must remember to do each time you switch machines--and one more thing that can go wrong. As a result, a growing number of accountants--even those who travel only occasionally to visit a client--opt to use just one computer that serves their needs both in and out of the office. The obvious choice is a laptop. Today's laptops, as small and portable as they are, rival larger desktops in power and speed. In choosing a laptop, look for one that is light enough to carry conveniently, but also fast and powerful enough to handle big jobs. Laptops come in four basic sizes or styles: ultralight, tablet, normal and wide-screen. As the name implies, the ultralights weigh about two pounds and generally have only 12- to 14-inch screens. Unless you're willing to pay a premium price, those superlight computers are relatively slow and suffer from mediocre performance. The tablet computer, the newest laptop design, can operate like a conventional laptop or can be configured to resemble a tablet--a great convenience for some users. While it has a built-in keyboard, the screen can be twisted to lie flat on the base to convert it into a tablet so you can write and draw on it with a stylus. Because tablet PCs are relatively new and perform demanding chores (recognizing handwriting and drawings, for example), they tend to be relatively heavy and still exhibit some technical annoyances, such as being slower than similarly priced normal laptops. The wide-screen laptop sports the biggest screen, is the heaviest (five to nine pounds) and tends to be the most powerful of the four. However, slogging a nine-pounder through an airport will make you an instant convert to a lighter model. So which to choose? While it's a compromise between size/weight and speed/power, most mobile users find the normal-size laptop, weighing between four and five pounds with a 14-or 15-inch screen, serves their needs well. When buying any laptop, be sure it has a built in DVD+RW (read/write) drive, is set up for wireless reception and contains several Universal Serial Bus (USB) ports, which have become the default connection for all sorts of peripherals: scanners, printers, card readers and those handy memory sticks. The laptop also should contain Ethernet network ports so you can hook up if a facility you're visiting has a network. Most laptops have a battery life of three to four hours-hardly enough for most users. So it's a good idea to order an extra battery, which doubles the computer's operating life. Some models let you remove the DVD drive and plug the second battery into that slot so you don't have to stop work and replace a fading battery. If you buy two extra batteries, you always can have one charged up and ready to install without interruption. …

Field of study: Business