NeatReceipts Scanalizer Professional 2.5 Mobile Scanner and Software

Great product for reducing the sheer mountain of paper a person collects each day/week/month while being able to maintain needed records for personal/tax purposes. The scanner is a nice compact size and handles most receipts easily on the first try, even the ones that have been folded, scrunched, twisted and then straightened out. The only thing I would like it to do, and I havent figured out how to do it if it can, is maintain the addresses with the vendor names so I dont have to retype in that info each time. The software help menu is okay, but could be a little better.

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.

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.

The software and scanner were 2005 versions that do not work with Windows 64 bit software. I have had to spend much time with tech support. Very cumbersome to uninstall old version before installing the updated version. I had to actually delete files from my system registry AFTER uninstalling through windows. After this was successfully done the scanner still did not work. Contacted tech support again. Had to delete more files in the system registry. Scanner still does not comunicate with the software.

BUYERS BEWARE: I suppose it is slightly my fault for not reading through all of the reviews, but you have to be aware that this product is at least 7 years old. (It only supports Windows 2000, XP, etc [Outdated Operating Systems], minimum requirements were for a Pentium 2, 800 Mhz, as we all know computers are much faster these days). In addition, you get to spend a lot of money (195) for this product, then you need to spend even more money to receive an updated software for the unit. I couldnt even say if this unit would support the newer 64 bit Windows, but when I saw the condtion of the box when I pulled it out of the Amazon box, I knew instantly that I would be returning this product for a refund. I wasnt willing to give it a shot in the least when I saw that the date on the box was 2005 as well as the condition of the box. At the very least, this seller should provide the updated software for the outrageous price of the product, but that is just my opinion. Especially since they are charging the user more for an outdated product when you can get a newer updated product for less. If you want a current up to date unit, I suggest that you purchase the

Before buying a receipt scanner like this, ask yourself how you plan using it. Weve used the Visioneer Paperport Scanner for over 10 years for my wifes tax practice. We scan all documents we get from the clients as backup. The Visioneer performed well for us. It was fast. We never used any character recognition as speed was the key feature we wanted. We had a preXP model so we had to upgrade. This is where we made the mistake of buying the neatreceipts. We thought it was going to be fast as visioneer. Even with the character recognition off, it was damn slow.Completely unacceptable. But in all fairness to neatreceipts, it might be a good scanner for somebody looking for OCR scanner to link to expense reports etc. If you need speed and you have a lot of documents, sad to say this is not the one. FOr a few receipts each time, maybe OK. So it goes back for a return.

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.

Great device for cutting down on paper clutter. Main uses for me are receipts (I create a PDF of all receipts from a single trip and zip it with the expense report), for business cards which I sync with Outlook and for general notes -- I never have to worry about having the right paper folder along on a trip. Outlook sync for business cards is great but could map more fields or allow user to adjust the maping. For example, would like to map attachments and back of card (particularly Chinese cards) into Outlook.

Truthfully, this little scanner and associated software works better than I expected. The scanned images are quite good with good data compresson to conserve space. OCR is reasonable. On the downside, it doesnt total the $s for multiple invoices in the same receipt box. Also, the filing system is only 2 levels deep, folders and receipts, making it harder to manage the same files for multiple years. I manage this for a particular folder, like utilities, by prefacing each of the receipt boxes with the year. So I have a 2006 Verizon receipt box and a 2007 Verizon receipt box. Also the OCR speed is fairly slow on my system. Some receipts can take more than a minute to scan and read.

After over a week of emailing tech support, I gave up and paid a local computer store to install soft ware. Tech tried to be helpful but didnt have any idea how to do it. When I wrote them and told them it cost me $70 to finally get my product to work, Tech support wrote back we are so glad to help they are taking all the credit! ! ! Nothing but trouble.