This month, Sage Software, which provides business accounting software solutions under monikers such as Sage One and Sage 50, announced the release of a mobile app designed to accompany its existing Sage One desktop applications. The mobile app will allow Sage One users to issue invoices to clients, review the status of existing invoices and recognize payments. While the app will initially be available only on the Apple iPhone, Android users finding themselves drooling at the idea of debiting cash and crediting accounts receivable from their driver’s seat during rush hour will be relieved to know that the app will be available on additional platforms in the future.
The release of a Sage mobile app is certainly no surprise; popular accounting software QuickBooks already offers similar functionality on smartphones and tablets, and mobile app stores are practically overflowing with lesser-known standalone mobile accounting applications. Considering the extent to which the day-to-day activities of our personal lives have migrated to our mobile devices—the fact that our phones are employed for everything from sending messages to turning off the porch light and from unlocking our cars to paying for a latte—similar developments in the sphere of business are surely inevitable.
And yet, while the concept of mobile accounting barrels forward without pause, fueled by executives’ visions of flawlessly prompt customer service and ceiling-shattering productivity, personally, I cannot help but wonder just how slippery this slope might be as it relates to the perennial struggle for a desirable work-life balance. In a country where this balance is already infamously and almost comically out of whack, the cause for Life’s half of the scale is bound to be dealt a significant blow by our ability to not just monitor e-mail but post journal entries from our phones. Sage, however, does not seem to be particularly concerned by the potential of this issue. The Company’s website highlights the fact that the mobile app will allow users to work “where and when [they] need to—while on vacation at the beach, at [their] daughter’s recital, and everywhere in between.” Needless to say, while news of the Sage One mobile app may be music to the ears of existing Sage users, the 12-and-Under response is sure to be decidedly less enthusiastic when children nationwide discover their parents tuning out their renditions of Rachmaninoff in favor of reviewing accounts payable aging schedules.
