David McClure Says Retire Your Fax Machine

Over at the CPA Technology Advisor, columnist David McClure argues that it's time for accountants to retire their fax machines. We couldn't agree more.  As he notes, faxes are a relic from the past:

Accountants who have long since given up green eyeshades, pocket calculators and manual ledgers still cling ferociously to their fax machines. Fax machines and fountain pens are, in fact, the only 19th-Century technologies still at use in the typical accounting office (the fax machine was actually patented in 1843).

To help accountants give up their faxes, McClure offers up three common ways to stop using an actual fax machine such as using locked PDFs.  To his list we add a fourth which is to start using an online service such as DocuSign that provides a secure way to send documents around and adds legally binding signatures and a full audit trail.  For accountants, who are under more scrutiny than ever, having a clear record of business activity is a real benefit.

There's no doubt that faxes will one day be as uncommon as horse and buggies.  More and more people in all professions will find that the fax - and reliance on paper-based processes - is holding them back. Don't be left behind and start DocuSigning.