NeatReceipts Scanalizer Professional 2.5 Mobile Scanner and Software

The NeatReceipts product is useful, labor saving and fun to use. I bought it to clear a large backlog of unfiled trip expenses - it was neat to join forces with my 6 year old kid who found it amusing to scan receipts into the scanalizer, while I quickly validated, corrected and/or refiled missing numbers. The job felt like it took shorter than it would have, otherwise. But be warned of software glitches: 1. Always check the Vendor, date and amount. Dont trust the software implicitly; it has a hit-or-miss rate of about 50%. 2. There was some kind of software memory leak bug that just wiped out 150 receipts that Id entered!! A good 4+ hours of work just disappeared. That Im still using the product (exiting and restarting after every 10 receipts) is a testament to the value of the product. So use it -- but dont trust it.

I am a very heavy and long term user of scanners of all kinds as part of my quest to have a completely digital (paperless) life. Before buying this portable, I had used Visioneer scanners for many years and many models (each of which got more limited and less reliable over time). Thus, I switched to Neat Receipts about two years ago. This scanner and similar models are exactly what the name implies. For small receipts that need to be organized. It is NOT a high volume machine but is one that fits perfectly on the desktop between the keyboard and the moniter where it is easily and immediately available. I do not use the Neat Receipts software as I find PaperPort is a stonger program for sorting, creating files, and reading/converting formats from PDF, TIFF, JPEG and its own proprietary format. However, the Neat Receipt scanner captures a great image directly into the PaperPort problem, so my unhappiness with the Visioneer scanners was solved. The weakness with the current portable scanners (all of them!) is that they no longer have their own power supplies. Rather, they rely on the USB power and TWAIN interface to operate. This leaves the user with much fewer choices about how they want to scan. For example, Neat Receipts cannot scan an 8-1/2 x l4 inch page (as far as I can see). Other than that, it is super easy to use. I have recommended it to my clients. And, I am on my seond scanner -- whenever a (*&(*^%@@ dust particle gets caught in the mechanism it leaves a line down the entire scan; and, it is next to impossible to get that particle out. I have tried the cleaing paper that comes with the scanner, sticky paper, q-tips and in the end, I just pony up for a new scanner and give the old one to someone just starting out...... I like my images to be PERFECT! Anyway, a solid product. And I will continue to use it for the forseeable future in connection with my other (flatbed) scanners.

Covienent size. Scans ok. Software ok. Had problem scanning an orange receipt. Poor support. Answer was will not scan orange and could not manually enter data.

I purchased this scanner several years ago. I intended to use it instead of a flatbed scanner to scan my household paper documents. The major drawback of using this scanner is the included software. Using an application to organize documents is alright as long as the application always works. When you cant get the application to run, you have no way of accessing your documents. Such is the case with me when I upgraded to Windows 7. The Neat Receipts application will not open the database, so I have no access to my documents saved using Neat Receipts Professional software. Luckily, I only save documents for about a year several years ago. As time goes by, there is less and less chance that I will need the documents I cant access using Neat Receipts software. Early on, I started searching for a software alternative to use with this scanner. Basically, all I need is software that allows me to save documents in PDF format. I am quite capable of storing individual PDF documents in directories that allow me to locate anything I am looking for quickly. If I need a hard copy of a document, it is easy to print a PDF document. The software I found that works great for this purpose is JGS-Scan ([...] With the Neat Receipts Twain driver, the scanner works great using JGS-Scan. It allows scanning of multiple pages into 1 PDF document and I am not limited to using a program to look at my documents. As a portable scanner, I think this scanner deserves 4 stars. The only problem with the scanner itself is the difficulty in feeding documents into the scanner that are not free of creases. Documents with previous folds have to be watched closely to make sure they feed properly. The software deserves 1 star, in my opinion, which is why I gave this review 2 stars.

The scanner here is worth about $120; so youre paying about $35 for the NeatReceipts software. Thats probably the upper limit of what its worth right now. It claims to be version 2.5, but feels more like an early beta - slow to load, frequent crashes, poor search function. This is potentially a useful package for compulsive record keepers. Scanner works fine, but software needs more development.

When I first got it I loaded the software, and then tried the scanner. It did not work and I had got the receipt face down. I reloaded the software and downloaded the latest update and the scanner worked. I found that it does not support foreign currencies and usually got the date and the amount wrong (the former was partly because my computer comes from Switzerland. And I was in the USA at the time so my receipts were all American. What I did like was that I can scan all my receipts and export them as a pdf file which I can use to back up my expenses. It also does not import pdf files so that if I save my internet receipt in pdf format, I cannot import it and I have to print it out and rescan it, which seems to defeat the purpose of the paperless office. However, it also offers a business card scanner and it works as a general purpose scanner which is useful when I have to send an electronic scan back to the office. For those based solely in the USA this should do the trick but for those travelling overseas you will still have to do the currency conversion at the next level.

It is compact, I can take it with me <fits in my laptop case> Very simple to use. The installation was quick. I also save recipes, now I can scan it and the picture, without having to type so much. It will scan and store 2 sides in color or black & white. For a small business that has alot of receipts to keep or someone who wants to store business cards <not have to keep in a folder & try to remember where it is>. I always have my laptop so my info is immediately stored. Great product. BB

I did all kinds of research online for a compact portable scanner to help me with document reduction. I finally decided to go with the Neatreciepts scanner after considerable research across all kinds of sites including watching the downloadable Martha Stewart review from their web site. My overall impression is that its a great concept but the way the product delivers is less than perfect. The Scanner: The one thing I will say about this product is that its compact. Its very small, much smaller than other desktop models Ive seen and it draws all of its power from the USB cable making it truely convienient. However, my big problem was with getting it to grab and scan the document. When you feed a sheet into the scanner, it prefeeds the document a slight amount to prepare for the scan. However, once you push the scan button (either on the scanner or in the software) it rarely pulled the sheet through without me needing to give it a push. I tested this with an 8.5 X 11 document and it only grabbed the sheet correctly 20% of the time. The Software: This is where I was most dissapointed. On their website the software was billed as a being able to categorize and database reciepts, documents, tax forms, business cards, etc. In reality this tool was built to categorize reciepts effectively and do other documents as an afterthought. This is most evident in the softwares single-minded focus on trying to categorize everything you scan as a reciept. I scanned in my paycheck and it categorized ny employer as a vendor and my salary as an expense. I had the same problem with scanning in documents. The categorization had to conform to the types of categories used for reciepts. Not good. You can turn off the OCR and manually categorize your information, but you still need to classify all documents as some kind of reciept. I saw this problem on the Martha Stewart clip where her recipe cards were classified as reciepts where the vendor was the name of the recipe - I should have realized then how big the problem is. Okay aside from the categorization issue the biggest problem was that many of the documents I scanned were returning errors when they were scanned into the system. This supposedly was with their most recent version of the software. The verdict: If youre looking for a scanner to scan only reciepts then this may be the product for you. Otherwise Id suggest you keep looking.

This was a older modle of the NetReceipts and I hand to call and get a download before it would work. I find it hard to use.I guess you could say I am not very happy with it...

As a road warrior, managing my travel expenses has always been a time-consuming chore. And the occasional lost receipt as well as non-billable expenses incurred while traveling (which are nevertheless tax-deductible)have probably cost me hundreds of dollars each year. I wondered whether this device would really be more effective than a regular photocopier/scanner and the answer has been a resounding YES. The software is very intuitive and it is now a snap to process all my receipts and develop my monthly expense reports. The software is very well designed and allows you to split receipts, drag and drop from one expense report to another and indicate whether an expense is personal or billable (which means I am now capturing ALL my travel expenses.) My only criticism is that there isnt a way to just manually enter expenses for tips. I work around that by creating a hand-written receipt for tips for each trip. Hopefully theyll address this in a future software update. I am recommending this to all the other consultants in my company -- after all, if you save one potentailly billable hour of time, it has more than paid for itself!