This thing is amazing. In an attempt to become organized I have been trying out new software and methods lately. After some research I decided to give this little gizmo a try. I figured if I hated it I could always return it. No such chance! I'm in love with this thing.
Anyway here it goes.... This thing slices, it dices, it does it all. It's so easy to learn that anyone can get the hang of it.
It has three sections. One for receipts, one for 'documents' and one for business cards. Each section lets me create folders. I created folders like 'Ty's Tax Write-offs' and 'Electronics' and 'Home Improvement' in the receipts section.
I click on a 'Folder' and place the receipt in the scanner and hit scan. It pulls the receipt through. It recognizes over 1500 major retailers like Best Buy, Target, etc. If it doesn't recognize it, you type in the business name. Here's a cool feature; the next time you scan a receipt from that company the thing recognizes the receipt and names it by the correct business.
It picks out the tax, the total amount on the receipt and then reads all the remaining text and it indexes it.
This means that if I bought my ipod and scanned it I can type in 'ipod' or 'apple' and it finds the correct receipt. It's awesome. I have started scanning in all of our receipts past and present. Before we visited our accountant I scanned in all of our tax write-offs and ran a report on numbers.
You can click on a particular receipt and it brings up a copy of it. You can print it, pdf it, etc.
You can search by category, business name, amounts, anything.
The documents section is handy too. I'm scanning in all our loan documents, home documents, legal documents, extended warranty information, etc.
The program is amazing and in my opinion that is really what you're paying for is the program. The scanner is pretty great too though. It pulls through receipts of any size and shape with little problem.
Essentially what you're getting is an amazing high tech filing cabinet for $200.
To those that gave it low ratings... it's technology. No it's not perfect, but it's pretty darned nice for the price. I scanned in probably 60 receipts in the first hour and I was just learning how to use it. I would have spent that much time just filing them in a filing cabinet. I had few problems and overall it recognized probably 85% of the vendors and prices correctly. NeatReceipts Professional Mobile Receipt and Document Scanner and Software Combination Version 3.0
I've had a NeatReceipts machine for awhile, and it has become an office tool I wonder how I lived without for so many years. It's great for tax records, expense reports, all that stuff, but the biggest difference it's made in my life is just GETTING RID OF THE PAPER! I had piles all over my desk for years. Cab receipts, travel receipts, charitable donation receipts, etc. Not just sitting on top of the desk, but in files and folders all over the place. When it came time to do the taxes, or do the accounting, sometimes I could find what I was looking for, sometimes I couldn't. The NeatReceipts changed all that. Now I just scan the piece of paper in, put it in the right file on my computer (or even in a Misc file, because it's easy to search and find later). I back up my computer regularly, so I never worry about losing the important data to back up my financial paperwork. And I've moved from a desk with big file drawers to basically a computer drawer and a couple of shelves.
I upgraded to the new 3.0 NeatReceipts because I figured they've known what they're doing so far, so I tried the new one. My favorite thing about it is the ability to produce pdfs easily. And I can scan in a pdf and edit the text. I was only able to do that previously by taking it to my brother in law and having him scan it and use some utility he bought for his machine. I haven't tried all the new stuff yet because I haven't gone through tax season yet, which is when my NeatReceipts really gets a workout. But the new version is much more searchable - like when I was looking for an Embassy Suites receipt the other day and could search on "Embassy Suites" and find it.
I highly recommend the NeatReceipts, and even more, I recommend enjoying throwing away all that paper.
I have been using the Neat Receipts product since its first release and with each subsequent release I can only say it just keeps getting better. The new scanner hardware is a great improvement on the earlier model and the changes to the database engine has made the day to day performance of the application rock solid. Though the OCR accuracy is not 100% it comes damn close considering the variety of receipt layouts and quality that I feed it. It does a superb job of recognizing and tagging the main data elements in a receipt and ignoring the individual line item amounts and sub-totals. It also does a great job of recognizing the form of payment and allowing the user to tie the receipt to a cash account or a particular credit card.
The software does have occasional difficulty with graphic logos on the receipts but the underlying intelligence will pick up the vendor name if it is somewhere else on the receipt. If there is no alternative to the graphic the field is left blank and highlighted. Since the image of the receipt is right next to the data it is a simple matter of reviewing and updating this field. The Neat Receipts software remembers vendors once they have been entered, so this edit is often as simple as entering the first few characters of the name and Neat Receipts will fill in the rest.
I use the product almost entirely for managing paper receipts for tax purposes. My accountant loves the fact that I no longer hand him a box of loose receipts. I now provide him with a printout of the receipts fully categorized. This alone has been worth the cost of the product many times over.
In addition to receipt scanning the application does a great job of scanning and managing business cards. In this area it is definately on par with other dedicated products that exist and is better than most.
Though document management is available as a feature of the product it is not the primary focus. The dpi quality of the scanner is sufficient to keep usable images of scanned documents and the software does a good job of categorizing and managing them. The dpi is also not so high that it creates a burden on processing overhead and storage that would come with a higher dpi.
I would highly recommend this product. There is nothing else out there that comes close to the features and sophistication of the Neat Receipts application. - Portable Scanner - Business Card Scanner - Scanner - Neat Receipts'
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