PDA - Blackberry - Mobile Phone Advice?

04/21/2006 09:36:52 AM · #1

Canadian income tax deadline is the end of this month, and of course I haven't even started organizing the drawers full of crap I have to go through. Every year, tax time ruins one entire weekend for me as I have to tally up all my expenses. It also makes me an angry person for weeks prior as I procrastinate from doing my taxes. I have such an aversion to doing taxes, it might even be a syndrome. And there's no way I'm handing all my receipts and miscellaneous mess over to a tax service. The last time I had to do that they wanted me to tally everything up for them and all they did was pump my work into a tax program, which is what I do anyway.

I'm thinking this morning that if I were just on top of things all year I wouldn't have to go through all of this hell. Why am I not on top of things? Because when expenses arise I just stuff the receipts into my wallet & empty my wallet into a drawer when it starts to overflow. How might I solve this?

Maybe if I had a PDA where I could enter expenses? I've never used a PDA before, so I have no idea what they can or can't do, so I'm looking to the DPC braintrust for any advice or experience.

Say, if I fill up with gas, I hit an expenses icon -> travel -> gas -> and I enter the dollars and maybe have space for a note such as mileage. The PDA could automatically tag the date or give me an option to change the date. Similar other categories for expenses, even better if I can create the categories. Works in conjunction with tax software?

Typically we get all sorts of important crap in the mail that gets misplaced & I have to hunt it down on my tax-weekend-from-hell, such as car insurance premiums, house insurance, mortgage, land tax and the list drags on and on. If I could whip out a PDA and enter this stuff as it arrives my life might be improved.

I've seen people using these things as cell phones, which I'd definitely want to do because I always have my cell phone with me and I could just substitute a PDA for it. I don't want to haul around an extra crap. I've seen them used for email, which I wouldn't care for.

What's your experience, DPCers? Any folks in the Toronto area?

Help Slippy improve his life and the life of his children, who know to stay well away from me on tax weekend.

Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS USM

04/21/2006 09:43:07 AM · #2

Oh ya, something with a cover so I don't phone people from my pocket. That's why I always have clamshell cell phones.

cpanaioti

Canon EOS-40D

04/21/2006 09:43:49 AM · #3

Slippy, though I haven't used a PDA, some software comes in PDA versions. Look for software that allows you to track expenses like MS Money.

David.C

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D

04/21/2006 10:08:59 AM · #4

I'm sorry to say this but in the same way a new camera will not make a person a better photographer, a new gadget will not make a person more organized -- only discipline can do that.

Looking at it another way, a PDA that you are constantly entering information into will make you less efficient. Take email as an example, the quickest way to kill productivity is to leave the email client active and be notified when each new message arrives. It breaks the day up into lots of little chunks. The most effective way to handle email is to turn off the notification and set a specific time to handle all the email at once. The same is true of receipts and such. Adding them to your PDA as they occur may sound like a time saving solution, but in the long run it will eat much more of your time. Also, it requires much more discipline to consistently record transactions as they occur than it does to sit aside a specific time to record all of them at once (like when you empty your wallet).

On the subject of having someone else do the work for you -- that's what accountants are for. I don't mean a tax preparer that sits up shop on the corner for a few months out of the year. I mean an honest to goodness professional. Someone that will not shirk the work of putting it all together and who will be there working with you for the rest of the year so they don't have the same mess to deal with next tax season.

Hope you find a solution to your concerns.

David

Apple iPhone

Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX Aspherical DF for Nikon

04/21/2006 10:12:03 AM · #5

A blackberry (rogers has em .. dunno about who else) would work...rogers ahs an hp ipaq too... combo phone and pda you can do a bit of web search... plus you can get your email you can sync then with your work computer and home computer and keep all of em utd with what you're doing and when. Plus you can enter your information such as receipt info and it will sync to tall three computers..

Message edited by author 2006-04-21 10:16:44.

notonline

Canon EOS-350D Rebel XT

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

04/21/2006 10:14:58 AM · #6

I find the blackberry to be a tad bad a finding cell spots in different places around the GTA. However it does have a fun poker game on it and all the extra features are extras you'll probably end up paying for. For a basic phone why get more then you need unless you want the extras??? PDA's are useless as well mind you unless you need to remember a lot of appointments etc. When I put things into my PDA I usually forget even tho I alarm them to ring on that date I seem to always forget still. If you use a PDA then I'd get the blackberry but if not just make sure your phone comes with a cool shoulder strap. :)

joebok

Fujifilm X100F

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom Nikkor 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED

04/21/2006 10:19:43 AM · #7

I have had many many PDAs over the years - a recent one, Samsung i700 - Pocket PC/Phone - is highly recommended. Not that great as a phone, but it was nice to be able to tap into the net via the moblie network.

Both major platforms, Palm or Pocket PC, will have software to use for budget stuff. But as David says above - the coolest device in the world will not change your behavior - if you don't keep track now, you never will be able to. That is certainly my case. The most I've been able to improve is to have a box and a trashcan by the front door so when I come home I empty my pockets and sort the mail - receipts & statements go in the box, other goes in the trash.

The only new technology that I have been able to successfully employ is a bigger box when necessary. But I can email people from the bus!

tjmueller

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

04/21/2006 10:20:12 AM · #8

I have used both the blackberry 7200 series and the palm treo 650. Both unites have their strong side and weaknesses. As far as what you are looking for the treo may be better, because of huge amount of aftermarket software avalible for the Plam operating system. Also if a verizon treo 700 is avalible in canada you may want to choose that one because of it's mobile windows operating system. I have used a program called expensable for my lap top and pda in the past and it works well.
But remember it is only as good as the information that you put in (my problem) :)

Message edited by author 2006-04-21 10:21:11.

kirbic

Canon EOS R5

Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8 L IS

04/21/2006 10:20:33 AM · #9

I agree with David, you'll actually spend less time on the task if you do it on a regular but not-too-frequent basis. Do it frequently enough that you'll remember what receipts are for, but infrequently enough that you've got enough receipts to make it worthwhile sitting down to do. Entering the data into a program like Quicken and categorizing it as you enter it should allow you to import the expenses into your tax software with very little effort.
One thing you should also do is label a file folder or a box with "2006 tax" and make it a habit of tossing all tax-related documents in there during the year. It's amazing how this helps.

awpollard

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

04/21/2006 10:24:27 AM · #10

My company is going to the Treo's (way kick the blackberries az) Palm Treo 700 for verizon, not a flip phone but one heck of an organizer.

With the recent settlement down here in the states RIM is going to want to make up a lot of money somehow...I have to believe that will get passed on to the user in the near future...

Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM II

04/21/2006 10:35:10 AM · #11

Damn, it sounds like some behaviour modification is what I really need.
:-(

colyla

Canon EOS-50D

04/21/2006 10:42:21 AM · #12

Originally posted by Strikeslip:

Damn, it sounds like some behaviour modification is what I really need.
:-(

Does your wife work outside the home? If she doesn't, how about her doing the bookkeeping? (my mom did it for my dad & brother's business)

joebok

Fujifilm X100F

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom Nikkor 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED

04/21/2006 10:54:18 AM · #13

Originally posted by Strikeslip:

Damn, it sounds like some behaviour modification is what I really need.
:-(

Have you considered this?

eschelar

Canon EOS-7D

Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM

04/21/2006 11:05:05 AM · #14

Originally posted by Strikeslip:

Damn, it sounds like some behaviour modification is what I really need.
:-(

Are there any PDA's that feature Electro Shock Therapy?

You know, maybe a couple of wireless Bluetooth modules that slippy can attach to his nipples or something that will remind him, electrically, to be more organized whenever he thinks of putting a receipt into his wallet or drawer...?

On a serious note though, If I were you, I would steer clear of convergence PDA/phones for now.

WM5 is a serious dog of an OS and is notoriously poor for the phone side of things, so that rules out a lot of newer devices (which are also generally a fair bit more expensive than the models they have replaced, yet have less functionality).

If I were you, I would look around for a 2nd hand Windows Mobile 2003 SE device on Ebay. You should be able to find something for around 150 dollars or less. (note, watch out for cracked screens!!!)

I would say that a great place to start would be the HP 2210/2215, the Acer n50, possibly the hp 2750 if you can find a good price, the Dell Axim x50v (NOT WM5!!!!!!!!!!! the WM5 for this machine is a firmware update and is one of the worst software releases in the history of PDA's, a recent poll found 8% satisfaction with it and more than 60% extremely disappointed) or the Fantastic Fujitsu Siemens Pocket Loox 720/718 (being the absolute best choice - bar none - for PDA functions).

None of these devices feature phone compatibility, but all (except the HP 2210) feature BT which can sync with a BT equipped phone to use as a modem.

Using a dedicated phone for your phone is still the best thing going.

Symbian software is great for phones and while it has significantly less available apps, many of them work better than do the Pocket PC Windows versions.

I currently am MORE than happy with my FJS Loox 720 and will later purchase a BT equipped phone for GPRS.

Oh and I have never found a need for GPS myself. I have been perfectly happy with paper maps which cost $2.95, even when traveling in Asian countries where I may or may not speak the language. If you consider a device with GPS functionality built in, a strong word of caution is given there.

If you have any more questions, feel free to PM me. I'm a bit of a PDA nut (as you may have guessed).

Incidentally, I have 2 photo editing programs on my PDA, one of which is slow, but supports layers, and I can easily swap my SD card from my S2 or my CF card from my 30D and play with photos on my totally gorgeous 222.2 DPI screen...

I'm with David C on the behavior thing though. I've never found PDA's helped me to be more organized and I've never used any form of organizer (calendar, datebook, electronic organizer...) although I've owned expensive versions of each.

Elvis_L

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

04/21/2006 11:10:33 AM · #15

I am a district manager of a cell phone company here in the states and have used several pda phones including a couple of blackberrys a treo 650 and the UT starcom 6700 which I am posting this from right now. for a beginner I would recommend the treo 650 or 700 if available. as mentioned there is a lot of software for both. I would agree that you habits need to change too. but as I said not only can you do productive things you can do counterproductive things like post on DPC like me.

OdysseyF22

Panasonic DC-G9

Olympus 12-45mm f/4.0 Pro

04/21/2006 11:13:02 AM · #16

As far as I'm concerned, Blackberrys are evil, wicked machines. I find their interface a pain to use, as everything is done with a roll-toggle and button on the side - no touch-screen feature.

On the other hand, there are a lot of new cellphone/PDA combos that are pretty good. My dad uses the Treo with the Palm software and likes it, but is thinking of upgrading to the new version that has Windows PocketMobile so that it will talk to his laptop easier, and he won't have to convert files (Word, Excel, etc) when he transfers them.

I have a Dell Axim PDA, which I love. While it doesn't have a cell phone, it has Excel, and you can get almost any porgram at this point, so it makes keeping track of these things easier - but as other have said, only if you make a point to sit down and do it on a schedule. (I update mine at the end of the day)

eschelar

Canon EOS-7D

Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM

04/21/2006 12:00:25 PM · #17

Palm OS is not doing too well, and has been languishing recently in the 3rd party software development field. Symbian is a great alternative if you don't want to go with Windows.

I have used them all as well and I found Palm OS to be very cumbersome. The file explorer is horrendous. As far as I was able to find out, there simply isn't one built in. ACK!

Regarding Excel and Word, the built in applications in WM 2003 (both editions) as well as the current WM5 (which in some important areas seems to have actually become LESS useful - it's quite a WM5 trend actually) are just a little more than the absolute least that could be done in this area.

Check out Textmaker (word) and Planmaker (excel). Both will allow you to work on documents common to your PC just by a direct copy to your memory card. They will not affect any of your formatting or distort your savefile in any way.

They work basically as the PC apps do, just a tiny bit slower. BT keyboards ROCK for heavy use in these areas. Quite a number of people that I know use them to write lengthy articles and blogs with ease.

Incidentally, if you buy a Fujitsu Pocket LOOX new (check Clove Electronics for the best pricing, service and availability), you get a voucher which will allow you to get the full version of either of those programs for free with voucher points to spare. They cost 60 bucks retail apeice. You can get them both for around an extra 10 bucks or something...

dpdave

Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

04/21/2006 01:16:17 PM · #18

Hey Slippy; I recently moved to this, and have been very satisfied. It runs on Windows Mobile, and you should be able to set up a spreadsheet on excel for expense tracking...

I looked, (briefly), but didn't see anything offered for tracking like that. Maybe you can write it and be rich and famous?

edit; I looked a bit more, and found it here.

Message edited by author 2006-04-21 13:22:11.

davidcara

04/21/2006 01:42:32 PM · #19

Here is what I use.

//www.t-mobile.com/shop/phones/detail.aspx?device=8802ddeb-1ee4-477a-9608-d9cd1e2a903f

It is smaller than the average PDA. It has a great keyboard that makes it easy to use and it runs on Windows Mobile 5.0.

I use Quickbooks in the office and quickbooks mobile on my pda. It is easy to sync data between my PDA and desktop to keep everything up to date.

I don't find it too much effort to enter my expenses as I go. In addition, it works well as a modem for my laptop while on the go.

$299.00 isn't a bad price either.

Message edited by author 2006-04-21 13:43:46.

Apple iPhone

Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 EX Aspherical DF for Nikon

04/21/2006 02:05:48 PM · #20

Slippy... check out the web site for rogers adn bell and see what they have thats available. I know that the trio, ipaq, blackberry will all be useful for you... you just have to decide which you like best