I'm glad you ask Steve, it just shows me I am not alone in my never-ending journey for an effiecient system that truly doesn't cost more time than it saves.
First a couple of websites :
quickbooks and
lowfat if you are considering PDA.
Quickbooks and/or third party vendors have yet to come up with a comprehensive PDA companion (as far I can find). What I do find (thanks even more to Jim M) is that it is handy to have QB contacts with me. Before, I did one sync that was complex and time consuming, that got me most of my contacts over. I was in need of an update, hence this post. But that is the only feature from QB I use with my Pocket PC.
I previewed Lofat's invoicing, and I was impressed, but I wouldn't use that feature often enough to justify me purchasing. It will allow you to enter your invoice data in the field, and then sync it later.
The feature I would love is to be able to enter material purchase receipts (credit card charges) into the Pocket PC real time, catagorize and allocate, and then forget about it. Then have it sync with QB.
I too have considered a laptop. I just have a feeling the boot up time would keep me from really using it in the filed, especially when I'm in a hurry to get to the next job/appointment, which seems to be always. But I could think of many other reasons to still justify the purchase.
Then there is the tablet PC (my little brother has one). the price a laptop, quite a bit smaller (8-1/2 x 11 maybe), kind of a Pocket PC/ laptop hybred. I think QB would run on that too, and it turns on and off almost as quickly as a Pocket PC.
As far as the Pocket PC goes, I find these things handy:
Outlook sync for calender, contacts, tasks etc.
Excel sync. for other stuff.
Avantgo for driving directions (although sometimes it is quicker to just grab a scratch pad)
Advantgo for continously updated weather forcasts.
edit ubb code
[This message has been edited by Jps1006 (edited 10-08-2004).]