Most employees dread having to take their work home with them.

But that was then and this is now.

Telecommuting provides employees with the freedom to get out of the office and take their work home with them, on the road or even conduct business from a restaurant or a coffee shop.

Currently, 23 per cent of Canadian companies offer telecommuting to their employees, with large businesses more likely to offer it than smaller ones.

But do mobile employees actually get the job done?

Well, according to a new poll by BMO Bank of Montreal, 65 per cent of business owners feel that they do.

You can order pizza, shop and do your banking right from the convenience of your home computer.

But what about depositing cheques into your bank account with your mobile device?

Well, select credit unions across Canada are launching a new mobile app that lets you do just that.

All you have to do, they say, is tap, snap and send.

Ever since Facebook, and the Ben Mezrich tome and David Fincher film that came from it, the tale of getting rich quick has gone mainstream.

Never before has there been such a time when all you need is a good idea and the stones to pull it off.

Just take a look at Instagram. Famously, the photo app had 13 employees and only 15 months under its belt back in April. Then, it sold for $1 billion.

But perhaps now we have a new poster child for speedy start-up riches: just two days after launching, a new company has sold for $176 million.

Something many of us don't consider until it happens to us and we're playing catch up is identity theft. And it does happen, as evidenced by this busy guy from Winnipeg.

But such fears are being hyped by marketers to scare consumers into buying costly services that they really don't need, reports Consumers Union.

"More of these pitches are coming from banks, which account for more than half of the $3.5 billion a year spent on ID-theft protection subscriptions."

"In a sense, consumers who buy this protection from their banks are helping to foot the bill for services that financial institutions are obligated to provide by federal law to shield their customers from losses stemming from credit-card and bank-account fraud, says the Consumer Reports Money Adviser.

With daily deals delivered via Twitter feeds and mobile-friendly sale sites, retailing is expanding in directions it would have been difficult to predict even five years ago, says consumer savings expert Andrea Woroch.

While consumers have always looked out for special offers and discounts, new technologies and services mean that 2011 will see even more new ways to help rid yourself of those pesky dollars. 

Among several trends that are quickly changing the way consumers shop, Woroch offers a few highlights ....

1. Daily Deals
With the explosion of limited-time daily deals via group-buying and flash-sale sites like Gilt Group and  Jetsetter.com, other retailers will soon be piling in. Target and Overstock, for instance, already offer Deal-of-the-Day sales with more to come, Woroch predicts.

More and more, banking and personal financial transactions are moving farther from brick, mortar and piles of paper, and closer to being totally digital.

Every day brings a new financial app or program focused on engaging consumers electronically, often through their mobile phones.

Starting next month, anyone applying for U.S. government benefits or pensions will automatically receive their payments electronically, while those already receiving paper cheques will need to switch to direct deposit by 2013.

And the state of Georgia is mailing debit cards instead to tax-refund cheques to select residents under a pilot program.

This is all bad news if you’re the company that prints those paper cheques, however. So, it’s not that surprising that Deluxe Corp, one of the largest cheque manufacturers in North America, is fighting back.

As the filing deadline approaches, most of us are thinking about getting our taxes done quickly and, increasingly, that means going online. 

Not that there are a lot of early adapters when it comes time to settle up.

In fact, only about 56% of tax returns were filed online last year. That leaves close to half of the population either using pen and paper, or the automated telephone method, Telefile.

The CRA would rather you file online than mail in your return because it saves them a fortune in data processing fees. And, if you’re expecting a refund, it will certainly speeds things up.

Nearly everyone has spare change piling up in a jar or piggy bank, or lurking beneath the couch cushions. Now two major banks are starting to fight over those pennies in an effort to get you to switch accounts.

Following the Toronto-Dominion Bank’s installation of automated coin-counting machines at 13 of its Ontario branches, Bank of Montreal is following suit, unveiling a plan to introduce dozens of the machines in new and renovated branches across Canada.

It’s not a new idea, of course. Lots of TD’s U.S. branches have “Penny Arcade” machines located inside bank branches.

The machines are the legacy of TD’s acquisition of Commerce Bancorp, which actually introduced them more than 10 years ago. The machines are quite popular and TD is hoping to replicate that success north of the border.

When it comes to paying and getting paid, cash is no longer king.

More and more Canadians are adopting a digital currency, using a computer or mobile phone to pay for tickets or parking as well as person-to-person transactions like splitting a restaurant bill or sharing costs, says PayPal, the leading online payment service. 

And business is booming.

The majority of us (62 per cent) are regularly transferring money online using our computer – whether it’s through PayPal, newcomers like Popmoney and Venmo, or through our bank account using the Interac network.

According to PayPal’s research, 33 per cent of those who also put their mobile phone to use this way say their use has increased steadily in recent years, and 20 per cent say, if they could, they would use it to pay for everyday purchases like their morning coffee or lunch.

The bandwidth wars are starting to pick up again. Major cable operators are really cracking down on heavy users, either by throttling speed or adding surcharges.

Usage-based pricing forces power users to track their monthly activity more closely, often resulting in their upping their level of service, and subsequently their bill.

What’s worse, a recent ruling by the CRTC now means that smaller, independent ISPs —who provide service atop Bell’s and Rogers’ networks — will soon by expected to enforce the same bandwidth caps on their services.