NeatReceipts Professional Mobile Receipt and Document Scanner and Software Combination Version 3.0 by NeatReceipts
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Digital camera reviews of NeatReceipts Professional Mobile Receipt and Document Scanner and Software Combination Version 3.0
Digital camera Review: Great hardware bundled with a software abomination!
Summary: 3 Stars
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).
Digital camera Review: Great product
Summary: 4 Stars
Neat Receipts is a super tool for scanning receipts into my computer and then downloading to Quicken. It makes my online submission of travel reimbursement for work so much easier now (no more faxing!). I also use it for scanning scrapbook documents, tax letters, and other items that used to take up space in my file cabinet. I greatly recommend it.Digital camera Review: Great promise, but lots of headaches
Summary: 2 Stars
I purchased 3.0 - the latest version at this time. (I did have to download a subsequent service pack.) The scanner software is supposed to link with Quicken, but to do so takes several extra steps. Basically this scanner is intended to work with NeatReceipts database software. Scanning takes forever in pdf format and frequently locks up with an 8x10 page during transfers to Quicken. I don't have a minute plus for each receipt that I want to add to Quicken and I don't want to duplicate receipts with NeatReceipts database. Tech support via email was less than helpful. A phone call re Quicken resulted in instructions to view a video on NeatReceipts' website. I'm seriously considering returning the NeatReceipts scanner and buying Visioneer's RoadWarrior. A review on Amazon states it works well with the latest version of Quicken.Digital camera Review: Great scanner...look forward to new software version
Summary: 4 Stars
My neat receipts scanner really helped organize our monthly bills. We put most of our monthly purchases on a credit card that we pay in full at the end of the month. I used to manually type each receipt into an excel spreadsheet. With Neat Receipts, I can scan all of the receipts for our purchases and export the data. It is so much easier.
The scanner does a good job of recognizing almost any receipt that I scan in, unless it is somewhere local. If it doesn't automatically recognize a store, it is very easy to enter the name and the next time you scan a receipt from that store, it will be recognized.
There is a small problem with scanning of restaurant receipts if you enter a tip and update the total by hand. The amount recognized by the software will be the amount before the tip. This isn't a big deal. It is very easy to change the amount.
The only real negative that I have encountered is the Software version 3.0. It is pretty slow to open at times and seems to use a lot of system resources. Version 4.0 is coming out soon and is supposed to be much improved in performance. I look forward to updating.
I would definitely recommend Neat Receipts to anyone trying to get organized.
Digital camera Review: Great tool for business expenses
Summary: 4 Stars
NEAT Receipts Professional Mobile is a great tool for organizing and submitting reimbursable expenses. The only two negatives:
1)The PDF export tool (to create an expense report) does not include a space for Employee signature/Manager approval which is too bad, because otherwise it creates a nice clean report.
2) Exporting to Excel will create an expense report with the proper signature fields, unfortunately, the excel export oftentimes does not pick up your self defined expense categories and defaults to the original software categories.