Three technology must-haves for your small business

I am a gadget geek. I love technology and am always willing to try something new. But you don't have to be totally into gadgets to love these three items. These are absolute must-haves for your small business.

Dual monitors. I know, I know. You wonder why in the world you would ever want two monitors sitting on top of your desk. Well I wondered too until I did it. It is so convenient. I like to call it my double-wide, because that's exactly what it is.... a setup that gets you twice the width of the screen . Why is this important? All day long I am comparing documents. Looking at something in my internet browser and typing up a Word document. Looking at a QuickBooks file and putting numbers into a spreadsheet. I can have one program open on one screen and one open on the other screen. I no longer have to flip back and forth between programs on one screen!!!

A printer that gives you documents that look professionally printed. I have a Xerox Phaser, which uses waxy ink sticks to transfer the print to the page. When I print off graphs and charts in color, they look like they came straight from a print shop. This is one of the best investments I've ever made. The print quality is amazing and has been invaluable when putting together client proposals and reports.

You can't go without a digital organizer anymore. I don't care if you get a Palm, a Pocket PC, a Blackberry, or some other brand. Get one! You can set it up to synchronize with your calendar and contact manager on your computer. If you sync regularly, you will always have the most up-to-date contact and calendar information. And if something ever happens to either one, you've got a current backup of the data on the other one.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.