NeatReceipts Scanalizer Professional 2.5 Mobile Scanner and Software

I operate a small business. I purchased this unit to scan credit card sales merchant copies. Pluses: compact. Fits unobtrusively on my desk. USB powered so no bulky transformer. Resolution is high enough to print from. Minuses: I dont need the cloud storage service and it just adds another layer of unnecessary complexity to installing and using the device. My system (Windows 7 Pro) does not always detect the device. I have to unplug and insert plug several times before it appears. The scanner does not do any background removal so the images are gray. The unit has a hard time feeding the thermal paper used on credit card terminals. There is no automatic cropping of the image so if you want to save disk space you have to go in and crop each scan separately.

I have a serious problem with receipts. First of all, I cant throw them out. What if I have to return something?? So, my handbag is full of receipts, old and new. Then, when I need to return something, I cant find the one Im looking for. Never fails. This cool little scanner solves all of my problems. Now, after shopping, I come home, empty my purse, scan my receipts and throw them all out...except for the ones that have a high probability of a return. Those I save until Im sure Im happy with the product. Still, if I ever need to return it or take a look at my receipt, all I have to do is pull it up on Neat Receipts. The scanner works amazingly well on receipts that are faded or wrinkled. A lot of the times the image recognition software doesnt read the information correctly - it doesnt recognize debit payments and always puts them in as cash. Its very easy to correct errors, so its no big deal. I have different folders set up for different stores that I go to a lot. Then I have general folders for food stores, clothing stores, shoe stores, etc. I LOVE THIS PRODUCT!! The other day a friend asked me how much an item cost that I bought at Sams Club. I brought up the program, went to my Sams club folder, and quickly found the receipt. It has a place to check off if its a tax deduction and even asks you the form number. Now all of my receipts are organized and Ill never be fishing through my handbag looking for that one stupid receipt that I cant find. BUY IT!!

Product is listed as scanner and software. NOTE: Product does NOT come with software!!!! Software should not be in the title of this product whatsoever if it does not come with the software.

My disappointment with this product is two-fold: (1) The number of scanning and classification errors it had in my testing were too high. (2) It does not add anything to somebody using Money or Quicken. Ill address the second point first: My main interest in this product was to have my receipt automatically categorized and then have that information transferred into my Money file. However, I found that that the categories it supports are very limited. Secondly the import into Money was very cumbersome: you had to first select the records you wanted to import, save it to a file, then open that file in Money and import the records. Note that these have to be done one account at a time since Money expects that the records you are importing all belong to the same account. The biggest blow was that the importing process did not retain the category selected in NeatReceipts, so the whole exercise was just an elaborate way to get an entry into Money. If your institution supports downloading, that is a much more easier and accurate way to get the records into your Money or Quicken file. You can then categorize them manually (of course both Money and Quicken do a good job auto-categorizing expenses with regular payees). As to the first point (scanning errors), I found that it was unable to pick out the account number in some cases, the date in another case and even the amount in a couple of cases. One of my receipts was for a refund with the - symbol clearly present in front of the amount. It not only categorized that as an debit instead of a credit, it even got the amount totally wrong. On the positive side, it should be useful to somebody who does not use a product such as Money or Quicken - having a digitized, searchable copy of your receipts can be very useful. You will have to correct some errors in the scanning/optical recognition, but using this product will be better than not doing it at all.

It is compact, I can take it with me <fits in my laptop case> Very simple to use. The installation was quick. I also save recipes, now I can scan it and the picture, without having to type so much. It will scan and store 2 sides in color or black & white. For a small business that has alot of receipts to keep or someone who wants to store business cards <not have to keep in a folder & try to remember where it is>. I always have my laptop so my info is immediately stored. Great product. BB

I am a very heavy and long term user of scanners of all kinds as part of my quest to have a completely digital (paperless) life. Before buying this portable, I had used Visioneer scanners for many years and many models (each of which got more limited and less reliable over time). Thus, I switched to Neat Receipts about two years ago. This scanner and similar models are exactly what the name implies. For small receipts that need to be organized. It is NOT a high volume machine but is one that fits perfectly on the desktop between the keyboard and the moniter where it is easily and immediately available. I do not use the Neat Receipts software as I find PaperPort is a stonger program for sorting, creating files, and reading/converting formats from PDF, TIFF, JPEG and its own proprietary format. However, the Neat Receipt scanner captures a great image directly into the PaperPort problem, so my unhappiness with the Visioneer scanners was solved. The weakness with the current portable scanners (all of them!) is that they no longer have their own power supplies. Rather, they rely on the USB power and TWAIN interface to operate. This leaves the user with much fewer choices about how they want to scan. For example, Neat Receipts cannot scan an 8-1/2 x l4 inch page (as far as I can see). Other than that, it is super easy to use. I have recommended it to my clients. And, I am on my seond scanner -- whenever a (*&(*^%@@ dust particle gets caught in the mechanism it leaves a line down the entire scan; and, it is next to impossible to get that particle out. I have tried the cleaing paper that comes with the scanner, sticky paper, q-tips and in the end, I just pony up for a new scanner and give the old one to someone just starting out...... I like my images to be PERFECT! Anyway, a solid product. And I will continue to use it for the forseeable future in connection with my other (flatbed) scanners.

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.

Ive owned this scanner for several months now. With the original software, the system would produce an error and no-scan about 25% of the time. After an hour or so with a very pleasant customer service rep, we gave up to wait for the upgrade. That came last week and now it wont run at all. Much better systems available.

Great device for cutting down on paper clutter. Main uses for me are receipts (I create a PDF of all receipts from a single trip and zip it with the expense report), for business cards which I sync with Outlook and for general notes -- I never have to worry about having the right paper folder along on a trip. Outlook sync for business cards is great but could map more fields or allow user to adjust the maping. For example, would like to map attachments and back of card (particularly Chinese cards) into Outlook.

Great product for reducing the sheer mountain of paper a person collects each day/week/month while being able to maintain needed records for personal/tax purposes. The scanner is a nice compact size and handles most receipts easily on the first try, even the ones that have been folded, scrunched, twisted and then straightened out. The only thing I would like it to do, and I havent figured out how to do it if it can, is maintain the addresses with the vendor names so I dont have to retype in that info each time. The software help menu is okay, but could be a little better.