NeatReceipts Mobile Scanner and Digital Filing System for Mac
by The Neat Company
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List Price: Our Price: $169.98 You Save: $60.01 (26%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $119.00 (click here) Category: Office Product See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
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for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of NeatReceipts Mobile Scanner and Digital Filing System for Mac
Customer Review: Software is now fantastic--hardware, not so much
Summary: 4 Stars
I have had this system for nearly a year now and stopped using the Neat Scanner just a few months after buying it. This unit is simply a waste of money; it scans single-side pages (which usually need to be held manually as it goes through so it doesn't twist) at a very slow, inefficient speed. For those considering Neat's hardware, look to their upper-end unit.
Later I bought the vastly more efficient Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500M, which is light years ahead of NeatCo's equipment (even their "higher-end" NeatDesk model which I've also used at a colleague's. Highly recommended instead of this brand.)
The software is useful, but as others have pointed out there are limitations (See later UPDATE below). One of the most troubling is that, according to NeatCo Tech Support themselves, their software only supports FIVE scanners! Let's face it, scanning isn't rocket science, and OCR has been around for a long while. How hard can it be to at least try to adapt to the most popular scanners? This company seems to put very little effort into Quality, and far more into Marketing.
While Fujitsu's software leaves much to be desired, their hardware is the real choice if you want to track receipts and such. Sadly no software out there yet matches the potential usefulness of Neat's. If only the two could play well together...
UPDATE MARCH 2011:
Neat just released a vastly improved software update and it is now nearly perfect. They really listened to users. The low-end scanner review, and my recommendation for Fujitsu's in its place, still stands.
Customer Review: Great for archiving and organizing receipts / business cards
Summary: 4 Stars
I upgraded from the Neat Receipts 3.0 scanner to the Neat Works 4.0 scanner package recently. I like the Neat Receipts 3.0 scanner, but the upgrade is really worth it.
For starters the quick scan center with the new version takes less system resources and it allows the user to enter receipts in batches, which is efficient. I was able to scan a pile of 277+ receipts in one night, while watching television. Pretty painless and easy to do without requiring a lot of attention, so you can make good use of downtime while you're watching TV / relaxing, etc.
The best part of this is not the physical scanner, it's the software. It allows me to look up previous receipts in a jiffy, and lets me shred / toss old receipts. The physical scanner is nice too though. It's definitely not photo quality, but that's not why I bought this package. The scanner works fairly well / quickly for most receipts, a bit better than the silver version even though they're supposedly the same hardware. I find with the older version the USB would fail to be recognized by Windows XP, but no such problems with the new version.
If you want to organize your receipts and keep good records, I highly recommend this package! It's the one of the few products that actually does what it claims to do. Excellent product.
Future improvement wishes would be speedier scans, but that is limited by the scanning technology and hardware specifications.
Customer Review: Great concept but still room for improvement
Summary: 4 Stars
I must say that I love the idea of this scanner because I travel so much. I also have too many receipts to count and I am looking forward to throwing them all away as I scan them.
I just received this yesterday and I began setting things up with the software for Mac that was provided. Unfortunately, no go. I tried everything and finally I remembered that when I opened the program it asked if I wanted to install the updated version of the software. When I updated the software then the scanner worked perfectly. It is quiet and steady. It is not extremely fast but not very slow either. I scanned both a full sheet and a small receipt (face down) and the results were very acceptable for me.
The program that comes with it is also handy although this is the area that needs help. It doesn't do a great job of reading details. I noticed it picked out some details but then it put gibberish in other places. That doesn't really matter to me as I can correct and add the important details. I am just happy to use the system, though it would be nice if I could simply scan the receipts and be done with it as advertised. Even so, I am still giving it 4 stars because for the price I don't think there is a better package out there of software and scanner.
Customer Review: Get Organized!
Summary: 4 Stars
Setup is fast and easy. It consists of a software package and a simple stick-scanner. The software is what you're really buying here, the scanner is competent but it's a bit quirky. It scans your receipts and creates one of three files: contact, document or a receipt. If it gets it wrong you simply select the field and change it to what class it fits in. It gets it right most of the time. The scanner is a little slow but that's also because each scan is processed for OCR, and rotated or straightened. If the receipt goes in really crooked you will have to rescan it, which happens about 25% of the time, however it's not a deal breaker. If you're a Mac user and are trying to clean up your paper clutter this thing is great.
Pros: Inexpensive, cleans up stacks of paperwork, calculates receipt totals, makes you feel like you're in control.
Cons: Can't dump a box of wrinkled receipts into a big hopper and just walk away, you have to scan them one at a time.
Caution: It stores all of your receipts in a database file. Databases are notorious for corrupting, so to be safe, do a manual backup of the database every now and then, in addition to the Time-machine backup. You wouldn't want to invest your time to be organized and then loose it all.
Customer Review: Sturdy Workhorse, gets things done!
Summary: 4 Stars
This is my first product experience with receipt scanners. I found it very easy to use and intuitive. Works seamlessly with Mac. Although the OCR doesn't pick up everything all the time, it picks up most of it and changing/editing items is a no-brainer. I am very happy with this portable, little scanner. Takes up little to no space; is very compact and also creates PDFs for my text documents.
The whole point of getting it for me was to lessen the number of receipt boxes and folders I have running amok in my house. So far, it's worked brilliantly. I scan in my receipts about once a week to keep up with what I have for this year. I love that it doesn't need a power cord and uses a mini usb cord instead. The software allows you to create your own libraries of receipts in order to group them according to your needs.
I have my own business at home and this seems to be doing the trick. Rather pleased. Gave it 4 stars because it doesn't recognize all the info off the receipts sometimes. Would buy again, knowing what I know now.