I'd love a simple enhancement for cell phones. Currently my cell phone shows the elapsed time of the last call after I hang up. While the eleapsed time is showing, I want to be able to hit a button on the phone, and add those minutes to one of two running minute counters, one for personal calls, one for business calls. On the last day of the billing cycle just go in to view the counters, write them down and clear them back to zero. The ratio of Personal to Business minutes used would then tell you what % of the bill you can pay and what % the business pays for. Fancier phone could give you the % of each, or allow you to download it right into your computer.
Lest you think this is too much accounting to do, I believe under IRS regulations you are already SUPPOSED to be doing it. Personal minutes you use that the company pays for are actually compensation, and you would be taxed on the benefit as you are on other income. The large company I work for already makes me do this (divide bill into personal/business) and to do It I either have to write them down or go through the detailed billing at the end of the month and mark calls as personal.
Going further (but a much more complex feature), when you mark a call personal maybe the phone company could recieve that code, and when they compile your monthly bill, they would mark or black out the numbers on your personal calls, thus providing a record that you aren't cheating.-- sirching, Mar 26 2004 Maybe it can even bill you and the company electronically for your fair share?-- sirching, Mar 26 2004 since you can get an electronic statement, easen't it easier to cut&paste to a spreadsheet by phone#?-- theircompetitor, Mar 26 2004 While I know most of the personal numbers I call, this does help. It does not help for incoming calls which show no numbers on the bills. Nor do I have a list or care to keep one of all the phones someone might call me from. What I want is immediate categorization of the call after I hang up.-- sirching, Mar 26 2004 random, halfbakery