Ed, the reason I prefer a stand alone .exe to a COM object is that the stand alone can also be launched on the data server, where it will drastically outperform compared to slinging all the data to the client! From a development point of view, I tend to write the stand alone first anyway, and turn it into a COM later on, when I need to merge the information immediately.

As you say, a property can be polled, but for the newbie, it's a lot easier to write some code like

use orders
count for .not. posted to a
PC_done=INT (a/reccount() X 100)

I am NOT recommending the above code for a finished product, but to get soemthing working the first time, it is quite adequate, and the simple code can be executed ny any user who wants to know the staus of the posting, not just the user who started it!

I've worked in several situations where there were lengthy scheduled tasks, and knowing when the task would complete was importatnt to all staff. ( Polling via MODEM to 400 donut shops comes to mind as a worst case ! )