 GREAT Product if you READ THE MANUAL! |
| Review Date: February 4, 2009 |
| Reviewer: David R. Cheeseman, |
I've eliminated mountains of paper from my desk using this product. After installing the software and calibrating the scanner it took me little time to record and store my documents electronically. The key is to read over the manual to expose the more useful features of this product such as dragging pages of a multi-page document together to form a single document and how to properly edit a reciept after it has been scanned. Also make sure that if/when you backup your database that it goes to an external media such as an external hard drive, flash drive, or cd.
Reading in an arbitrary document and extracting information from it is a DIFFICULT computer science problem (I'm a CS Grad Student) and this program does a pretty good job of pulling info from what are now commonly cluttered receipts. Follow the instructions carefully for setup, watch the video they provide, read over the manual [....], check out the video tutorials [....] and you'll discover just how useful this software can be. |
Nice for the Price and Portable too!
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| Review Date: June 11, 2009 |
| Reviewer: anon_2003, usa |
This scanner is very small and does a pretty decent job.
In the box, you find:
- The Scanner
- Cloth bag
- USB cable
- CD manual and install disk
- Various cleaning and calibration materials
Set up:
Put the CD in your computer, run the install program and read the instructions. Takes less than 5 minutes to get up and running. Be sure to calibrate your scanner when the install instructs you to. I have Vista on my PC and the set up went flawlessly.
Note: When you scan, put the documents face down - the scanner is on the bottom.
The good stuff:
- Scanner is very lightweight and easily slips into a laptop bag
- Scans quickly for it's size. First the document is scanned, then it takes another minute to process the data. Still much faster than I expected.
- It actually can accurately read and process the information on scanned receipts, even the beat up, wrinkled receipts that I kept in my pocket for a week before scanning.
- Will also scan and save documents as PDF files.
What could be improved:
- When I scanned color pictures to pdf files, the white areas had a very faint blue and the colors were slightly off.
Overall, this scanner works very well for what it's intended for - receipts. It would be great if the colors were better on picture and document scans. |
Very capable for the price
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| Review Date: June 5, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Robert Holland, Decatur, GA USA |
A lot of the most negative reviews here seem to be based on narrow areas where this product is felt not to be up to snuff. That's certainly legitimate, but coming to the product without any previous experience with receipt/business card type scanners, I am pleasantly surprised by how convenient and capable this scanner is, and how useful its software.
The scanner employs a pretty good algorithm to decipher the basic info on a receipt or business card, and in my limited experience has about an 85 - 90% rate in getting this information right the first time. Sometimes it misinterprets a date, sometimes it can't find the right total, but these are all manually correctable if this information is important.
I am using this scanner primarily to create a record copy of receipts for my own reference so that I can throw away the paper copies. I save receipts mindlessly, even if they have no conceivable future usefulness, so this enables me to indulge that impulse without creating drawers full of crumpled paper. If I were organized enough, and motivated enough, this wouldn't be a bad way to organize tax information, but I doubt I will ever be that disciplined. This will certainly help, though, when I'm trying to find all the deduction receipts I *know* I stashed somewhere!
The scanner is no speed demon, but it's fast enough, and if a receipt goes crooked or sticks on its way through, it's easy enough to rescan it. I have found if calibrated properly (easily accomplished) it captures very accurately even very faint receipts. The pdf conversion function is also very useful, and may turn out to be one of the primary ways in which I use it, rather than cranking up my flatbed every time I need to e-mail a document.
The software is logically organized and drag-and-drop simple.
All in all, an excellent product.
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Neat, compact, efficient and handy.
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| Review Date: July 23, 2009 |
| Reviewer: John Williamson, Bucks County, PA USA |
First became aware of the NeatReceipts Mobile Scanner and Digital Filing System a number of months ago when a colleague showed me his new NeatReceipts Neat Business Cards Mobile Full Color Card Reader/Scanner. He was intrigued with his new gadget and how well it scanned and organized business cards into Outlook and ACT!, and did so without any third party application needed.
Was impressed, but felt that a business card scanner, though handy, was too limiting for my personal needs, so I took a further look that the products from The Neat Company, and the NeatReceipts Mobile Scanner is one of the models that I found. Like my colleague's new tech gadget, I can scan business cards, but with this model I can scan receipts and documents. Have found that this mobile scanner does a good job scanning even wrinkled receipts that can be exported into Excel and Quicken, and scanning documents that can be exported into searchable PDF files is easy with the supplied NeatWorks 4.0 software.
Pros:
* Lightweight and compact, weighs less than a pound.
* Fits easily into a notebook or laptop computer case.
* Scans and exports documents into searchable PDF files.
* No external power needed, powered by USB cable (included).
* Performs its scans quickly.
Cons:
* No cons found so far.
As an added bonus, found that images can be saved in JPG format, which is a handy plus point for this reviewer, especially when going through old family photos. It also does a good job scanning old magazine advertisements into PDF and JPG formats.
Also available for as an option for this scanner is a well-made Travel Case for NeatCo Mobile Scanners in black. It's worth considering if you want to keep your scanner and USB cable in a convenient place in about any notebook computer case.
Have barely scratched the surface regarding the capabilities of this very handy mobile scanner, and am impressed so far by the capabilities of the NeatWorks 4.0 software. This product isn't one that might appeal to all, but if you're looking for a functional and highly versatile computer accessory that's a time-saving device when it comes to dealing with getting loose receipts scanned into Excel, TurboTax, Quicken or QuickBooks, then this is well worth considering. Highly recommended. |
Neat Receipts Scanner is Like Having a Robotic Assistant
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| Review Date: June 5, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Bob Feeser, Springfield, PA USA |
Many of us are feeding the ink cartridge God in order to keep our printer scanners in working order, while maintaining the ability to make copies at will. The ink cartridges dry out and need to be replaced annually, whether we use them or not, not to mention the expense and frustration experienced with a dry cartridge that barely got used. Along come inexpensive laser printers that use dry toner instead of wet ink. Brother HL-2140 Personal Laser Printer If you don't use it much, ten years from now you can still be running on the original cartridge. Even when we have a laser printer, we still keep feeding the ink cartridge monster so we may have scanning, printing, and copying capabilities. This monster ink eater also takes up a lot of space, so we have a separate area for it.
Then along comes the Neat Receipts mobile scanner and filing system. It is slim, taking up virtually no desk space, yet it is always at the ready, and wide enough to scan an 8 1/2 by 11 or 14 sheet, on down to your tiniest receipt. It measures just 10.8" wide x 1.6" deep x 1.3" high. Although a flat bed photographic scanner can be had inexpensively, they are by no means mobile, and they take photographic images of the sheet, often taking up large amounts of hard drive space with large files, as well as taking a long time to do a scan. Neat Receipts can do approximately 3 or 4 sheets per minute.
Now onto the really cool stuff. Forget the old ink tank scanner printer. If you have a laser printer, combine that with the Neat Receipts mobile scanner and that is all you need. You can scan and then make copies on the inexpensive laser printer. If you need to scan something, it is amazing the clarity you can achieve in such a short bed. My receipts are coming up crystal clear, and no wavering of the image. Just insert the aligning template to calibrate the scanner before you use it, and once in a blue moon after that, and it does a great job from there. I had no such problems with the alignment procedure that some others have reported. Just take the alignment short sheet, place it in the scanner as per the instructions, and in less than 30 seconds you are done. (I'm using it on an XP machine) It is easy to take only a mini-moment to present your document evenly along the in feed roller to get accurate results every time. Even with a 2" wide receipt I got a clear copy scan with even tracking. I can't tell you how many times I scan a document with a copier, or standard scanner, and one corner is off, or the document is not centered; not with Neat Receipts.
So what is this stuff about a robot? This is where it gets tricky. Ok, Ok, it comes with Optical Character Recognition software (OCR) built in, but this goes way beyond that. If you put in a receipt, and I was blown away the first time this happened, it not only creates an image of the receipt, it also has, in a separate accounting box, the name of the vendor, the total amount of the sale price, the sales tax, even what the tax deductible expense category it belongs into. I put an Amazon receipt in, and yes even the new smaller receipts, and it had all of that already, including the business expense category of computer hardware/software. I said to myself, "How did it know that?" If you have a vendor that is a small vendor, you tell it the first time what the category is and the next time you scan a receipt from the same vendor, it automatically has the category listed. So not only does it think, it learns. Ok so that is cool enough, then it takes that information, and will automatically at your command, imports it into QuickBooks, or Tax Cut etc.
The nitty gritty of how it functions is fantastic also. Instead of feeling like, "Look I don't have time to fiddle with all of my receipts on a regular basis" you don't have to. You can jam a bunch of receipts in there, and it patiently records them in the included NeatWorks 4.0 application's inbox. It also automatically files them in the documents window, which is one of three windows that go widescreen for you. If it is a receipt instead of a document, just click and drag/drop them into the receipts window, and the robot goes to thinking, automatically grabbing totals, and doing the accounting for you. With a quick glance you know instantly whether it got it right. The center window is reserved for business cards, the right window is for general documents, and the one on the left is for receipts.
You click on "Review & File" button on every receipt, and that enables you to see the receipt copy, and decide which folder, whether old or new, you wish to file it in. The filing system, which is something you can develop over time, is another flexible part of the system. NeatWorks enables you to create files for each of your expense categories, or sub folders of each. You can push and pull your records at any time, any way you wish. After a while if you need a copy of something, you'll know right where to find it. I know that maturing this aspect of the new toy will evolve over time. I'm looking forward to finally being able to standardize my accounting procedures so it doesn't become the usual end of year chore, one week before the tax deadline.
One consideration is to pick up a copy of McAfee Anti-Theft 2009 1-User to have a safe place to park your files. If you scan credit card statements, and bank statements, or even your tax forms, they all have account numbers, and in the case of your Turbo Tax for example forms, they include your social security number. With Anti-Theft you have as many vaults as you want to store files that are automatically encrypted, and password protected. So if a hack invades your domain, you can rest assured that they will not be able to access your personal information. It makes a natural partner to the Neat Receipts scanner.
I don't think I will throw out my hard copies of receipts just yet though, but I will gladly toss them after years end, when I have backup copies of my NeatWorks receipts on a good CD or two. I no longer will be storing boxes into ad infinitum. I'm even considering going back into recent years... by the way is it 6 years or 3 that we are supposed to keep receipts, but then again, if the moon is in a different position it needs to be 10 years... you get my drift.
This is an advanced system that is designed to streamline your record keeping, almost like having a robotic employee to clean up the clutter. It also doubles as a scanner, enabling you to make copies, ready to send in an email, or print them on your networked laser printer that are clean, accurate, and quick. I'm impressed with the accuracy on full sheet scans. I wish I could get these kinds of results from my fax machine, or flat bed scanner. I kind of hoped that they would include faxing software; I wouldn't mind installing one of my old 56K fax modems into my computer, to accept the incoming faxes, especially since I get so much, in the way of junk faxes, that eat up my paper. Then if I wanted to send a fax, I could use the Neat Receipts scanner, either mobile on the move, or on my desktop, and know what the final copy is going to look like before it is sent.
By the way, this toy also comes bundled, for free, with the full Pro version, not the trial version of ABBYY PDF Transformer 2.0 Pro which is an expensive application, that is superb in working with PDF files. It even unlocks frozen PDF files, converting them into Word documents for example, and enables you to edit them, as well as the other way around, converting your Microsoft Office files into the PDF format. That is a great way to send documents that everyone is able to read, and be sure they look the same when they are received, as when you created them.
I was impressed with the Neat Receipts device as soon as I opened the box, and now that I am getting a chance to use it, I have come to realize the more that I use it, the more I love it. This is a keeper, and I highly recommend it to those who want to streamline their record keeping.
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February 8th, 2010 | 
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