NeatReceipts Scanalizer Professional 2.5 Mobile Scanner and Software

OK, I read all the reviews on this product and still purchased one. Here is my scoop: This product fills a great little niche for those of us with home businesses that need some help keeping track of our expenses and contacts. But dont expect the world from this product. First, it hasnt been out that long, so yes, there is definate room for improvement. The scans sometimes dont work, and yes, the software does hangup sometimes. But considering what this product does for me, I can live with that. Also, the real beauty of this is the software it comes with that has some great reporting functions. You will be able to hand your tax preparer all your expenses in a tidy report. The reports alone will save me a ton of time. And I love the business card scanning. Im one of those who just came back from a week long conference with a ton of cards I normally would have just pitched after awhile, even though it will definately be an asset to my business to be able to contact these people. I was able to scan them in and export them easily into Outlook in a short amount of time. SWEET! Now, to address some other peoples concerns I saw in other reviews: First, I have no idea what they meant about having to reboot the system 3 times. Mine didnt need to reboot at all, although it did inform me that a reboot may be needed in a couple of spots. And the software was a breeze to install. I have also seen no affect on the performance of my machine, and I run a TON of software and hardware. This may be because I have an up to date system with plenty of memory. Second, the software does hangup sometimes and lose all your data since your last save if you scan too many times in a row. Just save your data by doing a backup every few scans - it only takes a few seconds. Also, you will be prompted during the setup to be part of a test group that can provide feedback on the product - join it. This is a relatively new product that is a real timesaver - help the company fix the bugs in the product instead of just complaining about them. Third, make sure you perform all the upgrades it prompts you for, before you actually start scanning anything. This alone will save you a ton of headaches. And dont forget to do the calibration. While were on the subject, the program will start a little tutorial program after you install it - take a few minutes to go through it and you will save yourself a lot of headaches. Fourth, the accuracy of the scans is completely related to how good your original is. I scanned business cards with dark type on either a dark or light background and got 100% accuracy. The accuracy rate dropped to about 90% if the card or receipt had light print or any damage to it. Did I have to do some typing - yes, but not a lot. And hey, each field it fills in is one I dont have to type myself. Fifth, yes - you do have to give the receipt or card a little push most times to get it to start the scan. HELLO - this is a sheetfed scanner! If you can show me another sheetfed scanner where this doesnt happen, Id be very surprised. The software easily uses any scanner on your system (I have 3) so just use another scanner if a particular reciept or business card gives you trouble. I would not recommend buying this as the sole scanner for your system - sheetfed scanners do have limited abilities. In short folks, this is a great little product, but it isnt perfect yet. I am computer savvy and able to deal with the little hiccups it throws my way without any trouble. If you are one of those people challenged using scanners or computers in general, then this product is not for you. But if you have no trouble in these areas, then this baby can save you a ton of time and you can then throw away those shoeboxes of receipts and business cards you have.

I would have liked it a lot except that the product I recieved does not scan properly. Half of the scanner does not scan color images and when using black and white documents half the document is darker than the other half. This is right down the middle of the page from top to bottom. I will not be ordering anything from that seller again.

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.

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...

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.

The product did not live up to my expectations after a strong plug by a QuickBooks Proadvisor. I found the folder storage awkward and inadequate. The scanner did not read the amounts accurately. It didnt learn by reading the same type of receipt multiple times. There was too much data entry to do after the receipt was scanned which completely defeated the entire purpose for me purchasing the machine: cut down data entry time of receipts into QuickBooks. The product was very easy to link to QuickBooks and export but it exported the entries as general journals which is not an acceptable quality of bookkeeping for me. There are precious few user instructions, as well. My conclusion is that it is completely inadequate from a professional standpoint. It might have some value to an individual who wants to replace their paper receipts with electronic copies. But thats about it.

I purchased Neat Receipts after reading mostly positive reviews here and elsewhere but have been disappointed. At least 75% of receipts scanned are not read completely or improperly, and I end up manually typing everything into the program. Many businesses now use the carbonless receipts and the customer copy is a light yellow with faint imprinting. Neat Receipts will not recognize these types of receipts - I realize they are difficult but are also a large percentage of what I have to work with. Right now it is gathering dust on the shelf as receipts go into a shoe box, just like before. Can you say EBay?

I was very excited about this scanner. I purchased from Amazon because it was cheaper. The disk that came with the scanner did not work with my Mac, even though I purchased the Mac version. I tried to download software directly from Neat.com, but the product key on the disk I purchased from Amazon did not work with the Neat website. Neat wont provide service since I did not buy it from them. I dont have the box as I am traveling and had to discard, so now I cant return it. Waste of time and money.

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.

As other reviews have said it is slow to load, and as with all OCR programs it is slow to process, but the quality of the final product is worth the wait. Nice little scanner, even if you don use the software, but wish it was a little easier to export selective information and that there were keyboard shortcuts for most of the actions. Really does a nice job of scanning receipts after some experince and quality improves if they are scanned sideways whenever possible. I am sure Ill get more adept and as nice as the tech support people are, I am sure they will continue to improve on the product. (Only 4 stars because nothing is perfect, and there is always a little room for improvement)