Q. How exactly does the "cross-platform" capability work?

There's no difference in the Clients & Profits application itself; the same application can be used on both Macs and PCs. Only the Clients & Profits Players are different. There's a different C&P Player for each computer "platform." There are two platforms: Mac OS X, and Windows XP/Vista. Each C&P Player is tailored for its specific platform, taking advantage of its performance characteristics.

Q. Can we switch Mac users to Windows users later if we buy more PCs?

Yes. Macs and Windows share the same serial number, so you can switch back and fourth as long as you stay under your purchased concurrent users.

Q. Are there any special installation steps needed to set up a cross-platform Clients & Profits system?

There are two important steps:

1) First, you'll need to create a folder on your file server that allows access from both Macintosh and Windows users (that's the hardest part). Otherwise, the database can be named in any way as long as it ends in .DF1. This extension is recognized by the C&P Player as a Clients & Profits X database on any Mac or Windows computer.

2) Second, set up the access privileges for the shared C&P folder. Anyone who will be accessing the Clients & Profits X database needs to have read/write access to the shared folder on the Windows server. If not, they won't be able to mount the volume and open the database like everyone else. Also, if both Mac and Windows users will be accessing the Windows 2003 server, you'll need to configure the server to allow Mac access. You'll find more information here.

Q. What's faster: Macintosh or Windows?

It's close. With computers these days, it's impossible to buy a slow one! In bench testing Clients & Profits, Windows XP-based Core 2 Duo systems are quite comparable to Mac OS X based Core 2 Duo. The combination of the new Core 2 Duos, Mac OS X, and Mac OS X Server make for an exceptionally fast network -- that's much easier for ordinary people to manage.