ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area do any of you use pocket pc?

I am borrowing my little brother's pocket pc with option to buy. I am wondering if any of you use these and what applications you use to be more productive in the field.

I am waitng for my trial version of the the latest version of quickbooks to arrive in the mail (I need the latest version to interface with the pocket pc) . Then I will load the trial version of quickbooks for pocket pc that will allow me to have all my customer contacts with me at all times. the features I look forward to most are the ability to enter recepts as I get them and invoice a job in the truck before I leave the job.

Any of you have experience with these? or can point to previous posts?
thanks!

Just got an HP iPAQ - mostly using it as a scheduler and to record supplies for jobs.

There are at least 2 or 3 threads about this topic. Going w/ the PPC format seems to be preferred due to problems w/Palm OS interfacing w/ Excel, etc.

I guess it's all a matter of preference. I use Palm OS and have never experienced a problem with Excel or Word. I find Palm OS a lot simpler for what I do with the hand held. Materials lists, circuit directories, scheduling, contacts, formulas and tables and memos. I've been using a Palm Zire 71 since last June and don't know what I did without it.

I've been using mine regularly for 3 years now. I'm on my second iPAQ, ran over the first one with my truck

I envy you the Quickbooks interface. Should be ideal. I'm committed to Quicken Home & Business. I wonder if they'll expand the interface my level?

I do a lot of interaction via email, so, automatically having the last 30 days worth in the PPC has been handy.

What surprised me is how I've taken to using the Calendar, Task List and Contacts. I, early on, committed to MS Office, including the full version of Outlook. Until I started using the PPC, I only used Outlook for email and as a record keeper for my contacts, and still had a paper planner. No More!

Phone calls and meetings and the ongoing Task notes (labor & material) all go in, were ever I am. Using the "Reminder" feature in the Calendar has dramatically improved my relationship to upcoming things. . .I am much less prone to double schedule or over commit, and, because I have a automatic heads up a couple days in advance, I am less stressed about the "surprise" of what I've got to do.

The ability of the device to take dictation or record conversations should not be overlooked. A very small use of RAM (when the format is set to 8-bit, Mono) will yield great result.

Al

Thanks for the replies guys. It's helpful to hear about how other people are doing things.

ElectricAL, you made me feel a little bit better about all of the time I've been investing lately into figuring out the best way to use this thing. I looks as if it may pay off after all.(higher productivity). I'll try searching those other threads over the next couple of days.

thanks again!

I use an older model Palm. It's good for reminder alarms,
tracking job hours.

I copied into it some of the useful tables from the Ugly book. Box volume calculations. Conductor resistance.
Stuff like that. I am always worried that it will disappear out of my bag though. I consider that the biggest negative.

I also agree with ElectricAL. I have been using PPC for 3 years using all of the MS Outlook applications. I also created files using Excel. In there I can track my job costs, create invoices, parts list, estimates and so on. I have not perfected the worksheet to my liking yet. I keep changing it.

Blessings, Mark

JP,

Make sure you visit www.handango.com to check out software for your PDA. There are listing for business apps, contracting and engineering etc.

PS, will the pocket quiken intertface with Quickbooks or just Quicken?

Jim,

good site. lots to choose from. The software I found is here: http://www.lowfatsoftware.com/ www.lowfatsoftware.com

Pricy, so it had better do the job well. I'll post here how well it performs, but give me a couple of weeks. I'm STILL waiting for my quickbooks upgrade to arrive. You need 2003 or 2004 pro or higher.

try here for more info too:http://marketplace.intuit.com:80/AppCard/appinfo.asp?AppID=2346&QID=3019544&CatID=204

Thanks for the link to LowFat. Their Quickbooks® invoicing solution looks elegant.

I spent some time searching for a Quicken® invoicing/accounting PocketPC application but came up empty handed