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I had a stroke four years ago - which revealed an hereditary health issue. When I recovered enough to go back to chartered accounting I had a few differences. One was I would only work with clients, who didn't need their accountant to run debtors, payroll, etc.

I made another discovery many of you may be aware of. The world's changed economically. The old ways of attracting clients no longer work. I was thinking about shutting down, when I had an idea: now I am a "virtual" chartered accountant. Adding TeamViewer to my arsenal means I can work with users around the country, as long as they ran a reasonable ledger.

Recently a corollary followed. We (my wife and I) don't need a small office down town. We have one client who lives in our city, and one other who works there. The rest are scattered far and wide. So we've moved our office back home.

And so to our new trick. We were somewhat hesitant but key to our new system is the use of VOIP - voice over internet protocol. We pay $12.50 monthly for each of the two lines. Plus because we wanted to transfer our existing numbers, we had to pay just over $20 per number for them to be transferred. The basic cost also includes messaging, call forwarding, etc - all traditionally extras. We paid about $150 for a device that connects ordinary phones to the system. We haven't yet plugged a fax in - but then we haven't used a fax in a long time. They say most faxes work.

Local calls are free. Toll calls to landlines are 5c / minute - but that's not just to NZ - it's to most commonly called countries. Calls to cell phones are 28c / minute. But there are some "gotchas" to be aware of.

We bought an Uninterrutible Power Supply (UPS) for the internet router and the phone switch. We thought it was a good idea since  VOIP lines don't work in power outages.

We have discovered we are on a home plan - but that doesn't seem to have created any issues. They say if you require more than two lines, then you should probably be on a business plan. Our phone switch only supports two lines and there's only two of us so that's fine.

Finally we upgraded our internet plan. We've stayed on a standard plan because we want to retain our standard home phone, which is done through a different party. You can also replace broadband through the phone line with unbundled broadband. Then all phones would be through this system. We went for unlimited upload to avoid issues. Still only costs $39.95 per month - plus a very small bit (about $5 or so per month) for data. We've been with these people ever since we went to broadband.

So far everything has worked as advised. It seems a really cheap and functional alternative - especially for up to two lines. If you want to check it out from our supplier, it's at WorldExchange (www.xnet.co.nz). Others may provide similar services - but since we were already with them for basic Internet. it made sense just to put the rest with them. I have no personal connection with them - but on the few occasions when I've needed help, have found them very helpful.