Should you buy the Neat Receipts scanner?

I have to admit being intrigued by the Neat Receipts folks, which I first began noticing whenever I was connecting through major hub airports.  Their scanners typically sell for about $200, and they pitch their product in a way that has to resonate with the average business traveller.  If you're on the road constantly then you probably have lots of paperwork to fill out, mostly receipts.  The idea of having a scanner that would easily capture those little pieces of paper, and then populate your expense reports seems too good to be true.

I would have been tempted to buy one, but they didn't have a Mac version when I first encountered them.  By the time they did come out with a Mac version, I had enough time to come to my senses.  Even if the scanner worked flawlessly, I already have a Fujitsu ScanSnap M1500 (and I've used the Windows version).  The ScanSnap has a very small footprint and can be used to scan large batches of documents, as well as small scraps of paper like business cards and receipts.  It's only $200 more and it comes with a full version of Acrobat (normally a $299 purchase).  True, the ScanSnap has to be powered on its own, and its not something you'd toss in a travel bag.  But, seriously, can't you just wait til you get home and scan all your receipts?  Do you really need to carry around a slick little tech toy just to have immediate scanning gratification?

A few months ago I learned that the Neat Company was making its 'receipt organizing' software available for Mac users as a standalone product.  Even though they sell the scanners, they were willing to let Mac users try their software if they had a ScanSnap (there is no software-only deal for Windows users).  I plunked down the $79 and downloaded the software and set it up with my ScanSnap.  It worked okay, but it often made mistakes in reading the numeric values on the receipts.  If I was ever in a position to need automatic calculation of receipts maybe I'd be more inclined to put up with the hiccups.  But, for me, the only thing I need to do with receipts is scan them so if I need to prove I bought something later on I can.  I've had no problem using my scans to do this.

I had dismissed the idea of the Neat Receipts scanner completely until I read this review yesterday by David Pogue, the technology columnist for the New York Times.  I have a great deal of respect for Pogue, and almost always agree with him.  This time I'm not sure.  Maybe he's right and the Neat Receipt scanner really is a wonderful piece of magic for folks who have lots of receipts.  I gather he's using the Windows version, which the Amazon reviews suggest (to me, at least) is better than the Mac version (not surprising since the Windows version has been out longer).

But, then again, I wonder if Pogue knows about the ScanSnap.  I bet if he did then his enthusiasm for the Neat Receipts scanner might be diluted a bit.  I have been using ScanSnaps since they came out.  I had been looking for a basic scanner that was reliable and would allow me to scan batches of documents easily.  Every ScanSnap I've had has been a workhorse.  I consider the ScanSnap to be ridiculously cheap considering how powerful, reliable and flexible it is.  The fact that it comes with a full version of Adobe Acrobat makes it a steal.

I understand that some people are always looking for some 'holy grail' technology and certainly the Neat Receipts scanner will seem like that to most people.  And maybe it is a great tool.  If you are only going to scan receipts and you have a Windows computer then you might love it as much as David Pogue does.  Not everyone loves their Neat Receipts scanner, but you'd be hard pressed to find people that don't absolutely adore their ScanSnap (just check the Amazon comments if you need confirmation).  Windows version, or Mac version.  They both rock!!!

Article Links: Fujitsu Scanap 1500 (Mac version)

          Fujitsu ScanSnap 1500 (Windows version)

          Neat Receipts (Mac version)

          Neat Receipts (Windows version)

Update: After I posted this I got a message from someone alerting me to a service called Expensify, which is a new company that came in 2nd in the TechCrunch Demo contest.  It's free to try, and seems pretty cool as a really convenient and simple way to keep track of lots of expense reports.  If I travelled a lot and needed to do expense reports I'd try this before I bought a specialty scanner.  In fact, I might try this anyway.  If anyone else has tried it I'd love to hear their comments.  You gotta love their slogan: "Expensify - Expense reports that don't suck!"

Another Update: Sam Glover at Lawyerist has a great review of the Neat Receipts scanner. Bottom line: it's not as configurable as the ScanSnap and not as useful if you're serious about being paperless.

Comments

[Dana Stripling]

The "Holy Grail" search is always an endless endeavor...and makes for a very cluttered office and computer. I, too, was tempted by the Neat Receipts scanner despite having a swift, flawless ScanSnap M1500 and the portable ScanSnap S300M. The portable ScanSnap is USB powered and works almost as fast and just as flawless as its bigger sibling. While evaluating the Neat Receipts, a simple google moment led me to "Paperless" application by Mariner. I picked it up on a promo for less, but the $45 price tag for a complete filing system seemed hard to beat. Absolutely love it. Easy, all Mac, stores receipts, the tons of user manuals I have, even client files. Thanks for your reasoned eval.

[Steve "@PodcastSteve" Lubetkin]

We first wrote about Neat Company's NeatReceipts scanner in 2006 (review and audio podcast interview with inventor Rafi Spero at http://www.compuschmooze.com/2006/06/compuschmooze-podcast-15-interview.html) and we just reviewed their newest product, NeatDesk the week before Pogue's review appeared, (www.jewishvoicesnj.org/news/2009/0812/columns/040.html, and a video podcast demonstration of the product at http://www.compuschmooze.com/2009/08/compuschmooze-video-podcast-3.html) so we were rather surprised to see Pogue just now reviewing the older product.

We like them both, although for large quantities of receipts the NeatWorks workflow is much more efficient because you get all the paper scanned first. NeatReceipts requires you to enter one receipt at a time into the scanner, and the tendency is to then try to categorize each receipt as you scan it. Much better to get it all scanned and get rid of the paper on the desk, then work exclusively with the images, which is the way NeatDesk wants you to work.

Check out our reviews and let me know what you think!

Steve "PodcastSteve" Lubetkin
Compuschmooze Technology Columnist
Jewish Community Voice of Southern NJ
steve@compuschmooze.com

[Greg Jaeger]

I note that in addition to the Scansnap 1500, there is a Scansnap 1500 Deluxe Bundle. The extra seems to be the Rack2 Filer software. Is this software usable in the law office? Is it worth the extra money? I will be starting the paperless office from square one.
Thanks for any help you can give me.

[Jenn Choi]

Hello,
My name is Jenn Choi and I'm an employee of The Neat Company.

I wanted to provide some additional information regarding our offerings and who they're best suited for. We make one software application, NeatWorks (PC and Mac versions), that powers two scanners. The mobile solution (NeatReceipts) is great for users who need portability or have space constraints. The auto-document feed scanner (NeatDesk) is best suited for users who need high-speed, batch style scanning.

Fujitsu makes great scanners, however, our software is what truly differentiates us from others in the market. Our products are designed to scan, read and organize multiple paper types (receipts, business cards and documents). Our goal is to not only digitize paper or create PDFs, but to allow users to easily use and find the information in scanned items. For example, receipts can quickly be turned into expense reports, business cards into Outlook (or Address Book) contacts, and documents into PDFs. Additionally, data can be exported to a number of applications, such as Quicken.

David Pogue is using NeatReceipts for Mac (not the PC version). I'm sorry you didn't have a positive experience with the product, however, I'd like to encourage you to give it another try. I'd be happy to answer any questions and also would appreciate any feedback or suggestions you may have.

Sincerely,
Jenn Choi
jchoi@neatco.com

[Neat Receipts NR-030108]

I love neat receipts. Saved my life once. Sort of.

[Roch]

I purchased the Neat Receipts Scanalizer in late 2006 thinking it would solve many of my expense reporting problems. Much to my dismay, I could never get the software to work on my Medion laptop. Many emails and log files back and forth and no luck. 2 and a half years later, I'm stuck with the slick non-working wand - I still have the original box and equipment if Jenn is willing to refund my money!
I bought the neat receipts solution for portability and effectiveness. Of course if it doesn't work with my portable solution what good is it? I ended up with an HP 8250 from eBay for $80 and absolutely love it! Combined with Google Desktop search, it provides everything you would ever want. At 25 pages per minute and duplex functionality scanning into searchable (OCR'd) PDFs you can't beat it! Heed the author's advice and save your receipts until you get home. So, Jenn if you feel like refunding my money - let me know - it's like brand new in the box! I'm still getting the MSDE 1603 error and it irritates me every time I see one the "personal" posts from a scanalizer "employee" touting their products.

[Dennis]

There is software out there for the mac that uses OCR to read receipts and file them on your machine. if you have other scanning to do and do not need to carry one around with you, a larger, faster, higher quality scanner would be best for you in my opinion.

[George]

I too am an exNeatReceipts user. I had used it successfully w/ a PC however when I switched to a Mac I had to wait @ least 2 yrs before a Mac product became available. Last year I upgraded to the latest version and found a) my scanner no longer worked properly and b) all the papers I had scanned the day before "disappeared" although I had backed up the file and already shredded the papers. I do miss the ability to move files into Quicken and to make reports but I now use DEVONthink ProOffice with a ScanSnap and am rapidly getting rid of my paper backlog.

[Allen]

I use a ScanSnap S300, the portable version. It's very nice. My main complaint is that it doesn't work in Linux, but we Linux users are used to that. I occasionally have to use Windows programs, and for that I keep a VirtualBox installation of Windows on my Linux box. The scanner works just fine with the virtual Windows.

[Sell Strucutred Settlement]

I had a NeatReciepts Mobile Scanner that I recently sold on e-Bay. I have to admit that it was very handy to have, but the quality and speed at which it processed documents sometimes gave me headaches.

[Bill Williams]

NeatReceipts Scanalizer Professional 2.5 is Simple, intuitive software interface; can export files to Excel, Quicken, Acrobat, and more; helpful, well-written documentation and user tutorials.but,software doesn't recognize handwritten or faded receipts; more expensive than a basic flatbed scanner; which shuns Mac users.all over, This compact, intelligently designed sheet-fed scanner almost makes it a pleasure to generate expense reports and calculate itemized income tax deductions.
it's good that pdfforlawyers.com posted this article so that we could know more about the product.pdfforlawyers.com is a great website.i like the interface of site.it's very easy to use & very user-friendly.
i highly recommend this site!!!

---------------------------------

Bill Williams

"http://www.legalx.net" "dofollow">attorney<

[David Barrett]

Hi! I'm David from Expensify. We've received a *ton* of users from this post. It sounds like Expensify really hits a need for lawyers; come check us out!

[RHONDA]

Just purchased neat rec. and only purchased it because they said they have phone support. And my friend said they also did , but when we now call the number it's all computer and you have to ask for a ticket to be opened . They say they will get back to you , they don't ask for you phone# but your e mail.
I really want to use this but If i can'T get the phone support that I PURCHASED i WILL BE SENDING IT BACK IN A COUPLE OF DAYS. SO THEY ADVERTISE ON THERE FRONT PAGE AND ALSO COMFIRM IT IN THE SALE PITCH BUT HAVE MADE CHANGES .
GETTING SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO TIRED OF EVERYTHING ON COMPUTER AND LETTING COMPANIES NOT LIVE UP TO WHAT THEY SAY THEY ARE SELLING.

[MIke]

I purchased a Neat Receipt mobile scanner a couple of years ago for my Mac.

I only use it sparingly to keep track of business expenses and unreimbursed items for tax purposes. I don't use it regularly, but
do intensely during "tax season".

Unfortuntely, I had some problems with the program and contacted the NeatCo. for assistance. It appears that they have moved away from assisting people on the phone and have gone exclusively with email correspondence.

I had an emergency problem and it took them 2 days to respond. When they finally responded, it was more questions regarding my problem and more delays.

Had I known that their "Support" was going to email only, I would not have purchased the item. I've had too many problems with the machine. Early on, when I contacted the Support for the Neat Co.,
they were solving issues over the phone and I found them very helpful and educational. Shame on you, Neat Co. for going to an email only support program. Your delays have cause me to abandon sharing anything good about the product.

[Dave]

So I am considering either a NeatDesk or SnapScan to solve my scanning issues or somehow fix what I am doing.

Current setup:
- Cannon MX310 multifunction scanner connected to a PC (was super cheap and I only use it as a scanner)
- Adobe Acrobat Pro v9
- Windows XP
- Quicken 2009
- Google Contacts

I want a setup where I can just drop things in and let them scan. The software will then orient, crop (adobe "remove white margins doesn't actually remove anything), OCR and reduce the file size. It will do the whole batch while I'm out of the room. I can then
- send receipts to quicken (quicken stores receipts as attachments to expense records)
- send business cards to google contacts (I may be able to live with them just storing as a vcard or maybe using outlook if I really had to as an intermediary.
- store the remains as PDFs in a folder

A big thing is that the setup's (including any scanner driver it must use) will truely operate in the background of the computer. I.e., it won't keep popping up after each page is scanned. Dell's scanner driver does this which drove me nuts. I would be typing something and half the time accidentally cancel a long scan since the cancel button popped up randomly on my screen.

It must be very resistant to jamming.

[Vickie]

The Neat Company will not work with you if you get a defective product. Beware the customer service is terrible.

[CMG]

Dumb me: I bought this about a year ago. To scan receipts and documents and get rid of the paper. It is not easy to use and not easy to learn to use. Especially if one wants to put a single year's receipt images in one folder -- it doesn't like that. The scanner did, however, work for awhile. Now I get an error message: the scanner will not grasp the paper and that's pretty obvious from the fact that it doesn't grasp the paper and move it through the stick. Rang up Neat on the phone, went through all of the prompts to select tech support for scanner problems. Put on hold -- of course I mean what would customer service be without putting the customer on hold awhile and provide little music for one's listening pleasure!!! -- and eventually Neat disconnected the call. If anyone is thinking of buying the hardware and the software and is laboring under the mistaken impression from Neat that the company will stand behind the product or provide technical support or is the least bit interested in customer loyalty or customer service, don't be fooled by the ads or the endorsements on TV. I just learned a very expensive lesson so the hardware is headed for the rubbish tip and I am headed out to find something which will actually work for more than a month or two. Don't have a single good word to say about the product and even less good to say about the service or the company. If I had known support would be by Email only -- which means pretty much that the customer is on his own -- I would not have made the purchase.