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Holistic Guidance - NeatReceipts Professional Mobile Receipt and Document Scanner and Software Combination Version 3.0
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List Price: $249.95
Our Price: $169.39
Your Save: $ 80.56 ( 32% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: NeatReceipts
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Batteries Included: 0
Binding: Electronics
Brand: NeatReceipts
EAN: 0899061000162
Feature: Portable scanner can scan receipts, documents, and business cards
Is Autographed: 0
Is Memorabilia: 0
Label: NeatReceipts
Legal Disclaimer: Warranty does not cover misuse of product.
Manufacturer: NeatReceipts
Model: 00162
Publisher: NeatReceipts
Special Features: nv:Scanner Type^Sheetfed|Optical Resolution^600 dpi|Maximum Document Size^8.5 x 14 (Sheetfed)|Color Depth^48-bit|Gray Scale Depth^16-bit|Interface Connectivity^USB|Power Source^USB Powered
Studio: NeatReceipts
Warranty: 12 months parts and labor
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Features
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Portable scanner can scan receipts, documents, and business cards
Automatically extracts key information from scanned receipts; can export to Excel, Quickbooks, TaxCut, and more
Scans are IRS-accepted digital copies, making tax preparation a snap
USB interface also provides power so no AC adapter needed
Device measures 10.8 x 1.6 x 1.3 inches (WxHxD)
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Editorial Reviews:
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NeatReceipts helps you get rid of paper by scanning and organizing everything in a database on your computer. NeatReceipts is committed to helping you stay organized without the paper mess at work, at home and on the go. From receipts and expense reports to business documents and business cards, you can now manage your paperwork with ease. Keep organized, digital files in a database on your PC by simply sending documents through the scanner and the software will automatically handle the rest, ensuring you have ideal image scans. The lightweight, portable scanner weighs less than one pound, measures only 10.8 x 1.6 x 1.3 and powered by a single USB cord. It conveniently fits into your briefcase or laptop carrying case. Using advanced Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software, NEAT Receipts extracts key information from your receipts and business cards and inserts it into corresponding fields on a spreadsheet, filling in the information so you don't have to. Your receipts will be easy to find because NEAT Receipts keeps track of purchases by vendor, date, expense category and even recognizes the last 4 digits of credit cards. Simplifies tax preparation for home with digital images of all your receipts, organized by their appropriate tax form and schedules. Streamline tax prep with NEAT Receipts Professional. You can scan your tax-related receipts into your computer and organize them by their appropriate IRS categories. Perfect for the road warrior to quickly prepare expense reports that include copies of your receipts. Clear off your desk and electronically manage documents such as meeting notes, invoices, contracts, and faxes. Now you scan and organize contracts, medical forms, financial statements, warranties, letters, articles, and recipes. NEAT Receipts helps you organize information with customizable fields - expense category, vendor, client, date range, and payment type Designed for Microsoft Vista, Windows XP and 2
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Great hardware bundled with a software abomination!
Comment: I've been very pleased with the quality of the scanner itself. Just a couple of years ago I purchased a similar type portable scanner for over twice the price but was never happy with it. Documents would always get skewed going through the scanner due to a weak feed system. It is for this reason that I still give this scanner props in spite of what others have said.
I think I would have been far more upset had I purchased NeatReceipts for the entire package and the promise of a system that is supposed to help me organize my documents and keep track of all my receipts with ease. I think the makers of this product had a good idea -- I only wish they would have put a little more research and testing into the software portion of the product. The user interface is confusing, and it lacks the kinds of configuration options that most users would expect to find in a software package that promises so much. I had to search through the entire menu three times before I could believe that there is no way to configure common scanning options I've grown accustomed to seeing in other scanning software. You can't choose your scan resolution, there is no option for scanning in black and white (as opposed to grayscale) and when in "receipt" scanning mode you don't even have the option to scan in color. When exporting to graphic formats (bmp, gif, jpg, png, tif) there are no configuration options for any of the formats. For example, when exporting to jpeg format you might expect to be given the option to choose the degree of compression vs quality depending on whether you want a clean, printable image or you would rather have a small file size. The software makes all those choices for you, and you may not like the results.
There are other quirks as well, which I find inexcusable. For instance, when scanning receipts the software will fill in the merchant name if the first few letters you type match a name you have entered previously -- a nice feature that can turn on you. If you happen to be entering the name of another merchant that just happens to have the first few letters in its name as one previously entered you can typically continue typing the name and the suggestion will disappear, but I have begun having problems with the software not allowing me to modify the suggested names, and there is no option in the software to make modifications to the lists it creates in its database like I've become accustomed to doing in Quickbooks.
Another annoying quirk is when exporting to pdf format -- possibly one of the potentially most useful features of the software in my opinion -- the resulting pdf documents are always blurry. Again, there are no options allowing one to adjust the quality of exports -- a BIG disappointment.
Finally, the software is incredibly bloated. There is no quick-loading streamlined app for quickly scanning a few documents, which really would be nice seeing as how it takes 56 seconds for NeatReceipts Professional to load on my T5470 (Intel Core 2 Duo) system. I also noticed that NeatReceipts.exe and associated processes tip the system memory scales at over 130MB -- nearly twice the memory footprint of programs like Adobe Photoshop and iTunes!! Fortunately if you're running Windows XP you have the option to use Windows XP's scan wizard and avoid the NeatReceipts software entirely (my recommendation).
Customer Rating:
Summary: Used it for years; can't live without it.
Comment: I really can't understand the real negative reviews some have given -- makes me wonder about their depth of computer acumen. I've used this product for years and have recommended it to fellow road warriors who also love it. It saves my neck being able to find receipts that I might need to get a refund or print up to get expenses reimbursed. Its OCR is as good as any -- especially considering the state of some of my receipts. I often have to adjust the image and have it reanalyze for some of the receipts that have faded too much. But it does a good job of this.
But there are some reasons I can't give it 5 stars. They need to improve the reporting engine so you can ask it to find all receipts with multiple criteria and have it search through the whole database instead of just selected folders. This functionality shouldn't be too hard.
But you have to give the company credit. They are currently (as of July 2008) have a beta project running to scan directly in to MS-Office applicaitons. And they often ask for you to send receipts that didn't scan well to them so they can improve their OCR (at least once / year). So this is a company continually improving their product.
In fact, I've just about stopped using Scansoft Paperport from Nuance because this program is more convenient. Just make sure to schedule database backups to happen automatically.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Comment: Ok..I was as skeptical as the rest of you regarding horrible reviews. However, I chose to try it anyway, and I'm so glad I did. I received the items yesterday. Read the instructions and downloaded the software. I have Windows XP and the company website states there is a new upgrade (3.1) that handles service packs with XP and their related problems. I was careful and did everything as the instructions stated. I had to calibrate the scanner twice, but low and behold, this thing is AWESOME. I did over 60 receipts in less than an hour, with my kid feeding them through the scanner. Highly recommend.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Does not install on Windows Vista 64-bit!
Comment: I purchased this last month and was able to install on my old PC with Windows XP. Now I bought a new PC with Windows Vista 64-bit OS. When I try to install NeatReceipt software, it says that it is not compatible with this version of Operating System.
I contacted customer support and they told me that they do not expect to support Windows Vista 64bit until 2009.
That's a shame! I'm giving it 1 star for this reason. I'm going to have to keep my old XP computer just for this software.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Financial software with no security!
Comment: This software is a nice idea, scanning & OCR'ing your receipts, business cards & documents. But it offers not even a tiny bit of security, such as a password. It also took me three hours on the phone with Neat Receipts staff to get it installed.
This software uses a SQL server database to store the data which means the data is on your C drive, regardless what drive you install the software on and cannot be moved to another drive. (Unless you are a SQL wizard & can move the database yourself.) That means anyone you let use your computer can get into this program. It also means unless your C drive is encrypted (IE Truecrypt), anyone who steals your computer will have access to the information in the database. As of this writing (7/22/08), per the message board on their website, the issue of security is not something the Neat Receipts staff addresses. Several users have repeatedly brought the issue of security to their attention over the past several months. The Neat Receipts response is either ("yes, that's a concern") or ignoring the posts.
So if security is something you're not concerned with, you should be. If it is something you're concerned with, I'd suggest other scanning software (IE Paperport) that allow you to store your electronic documents on encrypted drives or folders (IE Axcrypt).
Here's the review I posted back in January for the original version of this software:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R24ES2XE5I594W/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
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