How far have we come?
As things all around us develop we remember some of the financial tools that have moved with the times or have now become destined to the past. So, let’s take a quick look at some of the tools that may not be around now. How many do you remember?
Book keeping systems
If you think you have a hard time entering transactions into software, businesses used to keep track by old-fashioned pen and paper in the form of ledger books. This would mean that business owners would spend time (and many late evenings) writing out every transaction by hand. Imagine that! That automated bit of bookkeeping software doesn’t seem so bad now does it?
Calculators with print function!
Now calculators are even built into your mobile phone but imagine having the above sat on your desk. Many hours were spent inputting totals into the giant calculator hearing the mechanical basic print function attempting to keep up. Experienced users would be able to input figures so quickly that come the end the machine would continue to print in an attempt to catch up. There was a sense of pride if you managed this!
Old style card payment
Now when you purchase something it can be done in a matter of seconds and the processing is automatic… but imagine having to use one of the above to gain the customer’s card details so you could process the transaction… even after this, the amount and a customer signature, was still required!!!
Computers
I know that computers are still a major part of our everyday life… in fact, it is sometimes hard to imagine life before. Computers were not always as user-friendly as in their current form. In the early days laptops were not easily portable due to size and weight and had as much computing power as your current mobile phone!
The scientific calculator
The above used to be one of the most impressive tools sitting on your desk. Everyone had one, normally with a fair number of impressive-looking buttons… but how many of the functions did you actually use or even understand?
The Cheque
I know that these are still around and many people still use them. We have included these in our list as cheques are more and more looking like a thing of the past every day… call it a future prediction entry. With modern card systems that take seconds and the increased e-commerce world cheques can be seen as a dying payment tool… after all, you will have to roll one thin to push it down a telephone line!
The first calculator
Ok, be honest how many of you have ever used, or even seen one? This basic tool was used for basic maths and believe it or not in some parts of the world is still used today!
