Customer Reviews

NeatReceipts Mobile Scanner and Digital Filing System

5 star:		(77)
4 star:		(46)
3 star:		(21)
2 star:		(26)
1 star:		(86)

 

 

I upgraded from the Neat Receipts 3.0 scanner to the Neat Works 4.0 scanner package recently. I like the Neat Receipts 3.0 scanner, but the upgrade is really worth it.

For starters the quick scan center with the new version takes less system resources and it allows the user to enter receipts in batches, which is efficient. I was able to scan a pile of 277+ receipts in one night, while watching television. Pretty painless and easy to do without requiring a lot of attention, so you can make good use of downtime while you're watching TV / relaxing, etc.

The best part of this is not the physical scanner, it's the software. It allows me to look up previous receipts in a jiffy, and lets me shred / toss old receipts. The physical scanner is nice too though. It's definitely not photo quality, but that's not why I bought this package. The scanner works fairly well / quickly for most receipts, a bit better than the silver version even though they're supposedly the same hardware. I find with the older version the USB would fail to be recognized by Windows XP, but no such problems with the new version.

If you want to organize your receipts and keep good records, I highly recommend this package! It's the one of the few products that actually does what it claims to do. Excellent product.

Future improvement wishes would be speedier scans, but that is limited by the scanning technology and hardware specifications.

FYI - yes it will sometimes have difficulty scanning very light receipts, but that is to be expected with a scanner like this. If one expects photo quality scanner this is not the one to buy. A photo quality scanner will take too long to scan receipts. This scanner captures receipts information pretty well but it does not produce a photo replica of the receipt.

Also, the other reviewer mentioned problems with USB. Quite often that is a problem with Windows, especially on a Windows system that's been run for quite sometime and with a lot of other accessories installed. I installed this on 3 of my windows XP systems and they all worked fine. If I ever have a problem I would reinstall Windows as Windows tends to get cluttered with hardware profiles and have problems with USB devices.

The ratio of bad reviews to good reviews here on this NeatWorks scanner was dubious so though I desperately needed a receipt-scanning solution, I really hadn't taken the plunge until I visited Costco and must've been riding a wave of positive-ness because I walked in, wasn't looking to buy anything, but when I saw only 2 left of this product on the shelf, I took one.

Got home, inserted the set-up CD as instructed and nothing. I'm running a new (1yr old) Dell with very sufficient hardware/memory running WinXP. But I figure sometimes the CD set-up is wonky, so I ejected then reinserted and it worked; brought up the set-up initialization screen. It asked me to check online for a version newer than what was shipped; I did, and there was. So after 10 minutes of downloading a 200mb file, I was done. Clicked the file, set-up was a snap (took 10-12 minutes) and off I went. Connected the scanner by USB cable and everything worked; no crashing.

Tested a batch of 15 receipts to see if it could handle the crinkled, faded, potentially illegible imprints on what seemingly is the standard thermal paper being used by all merchants. Alas, this product worked fine; and it worked as promised. Scanned all receipts, and was able to make not only the correct (99% of the time) OCR function for amounts, dates, retailer, and sales tax, it also was able to be relatively correct in judging which sector of retail (general receipt, food, etc.) it should categorize my purchases.

So the initial test was done; I was pleased. So now I wanted to dig deep and scan roughly 6 weeks of receipts that I'd amassed -- roughly 200 receipts. This would've really been a test, since half of these receipts were nearly 4-6 weeks old, they were crinkled from being shoved into my pocket or folio while on the road, and some were teeny-tiny receipts like taxi receipts from Manhattan.

Result? Got through it all, and except for roughly 5 receipts out of my total 197, the scanner and software were both able to recognize most receipt fields and categorize them correctly. Oddly, and I think this is because of the clarity of the receipt vs. software, some receipts were ported into the "Documents" category vs. "Receipts" area. That was remedied easily by dragging each image from "Documents" to "Receipts."

"Areas," you ask? The software gives you 3 distinct areas that it will move your raw scans into; those are RECEIPTS, DOCUMENTS, and BUSINESS CARDS. I'm guessing the software takes ques from the content plus the size of the scan to determine where images should go. Like I said, the software was mostly correct except for a few faded receipts, but when I moved those stray images from "Documents" to "Receipts," the software kicked-in and was able to read the proper field information (amount, etc.) correctly.

From these areas, you can then file your raw scans into varying folders that you can create, or into document types if you'd like to export as PDF, etc. It's pretty simple, and I have never used a product from NeatWorks, so I have no way to compare previous versions with this 4.5.2 version that I'm using.

I looked at negative reviews and can say that I have neither had the software or hardware cause crashes, reboots, stalls, freezes, or any other degradation of my laptop from working as it normally does.

Also, I had no real OCR problems with the scanner or software recognizing figures or names. In fact, the only constant problem I had was with drugstore chain "Longs Drugs" which uses only a logo and not typewritten version of its name on receipts, so the software took to recognizing the first item in my receipt as the name, so I had numerous prescription receipts filed as "Hallmark" since I had bought cards with those purchases. What amazes me is the software is able to decipher through all the cr*p that's listed on receipts; these days, surveys, serial numbers, and other gobbledy-gook are all listed and yet the software was able to filter through that and report the correct field information.

A couple cautions: 1) Handwritten numbers have never been recognized in any of my scans, 2) Export data to Quicken in groups based on the accounts you use in Quicken.

As to #1 above, those who have a lot of written-in totals at restaurants for tip, etc., will find this problematic. Every receipt I'd gotten for a meal (which were a lot) I had to correct with the tip included vs. the software recognizing only the subtotal before tip.

And as to #2 above, I found that importing into Quicken was a snap (as QIF file), but since Quicken will only dump all data in a QIF file into a single account, you need to filter this BEFORE the export. For example, if you use multiple cards like I do for various clients and you keep track of each account separately in Quicken, then you'd better categorize those purchases in NeatWorks accordingly, and then selectively export those transactions. That way, your import into Quicken is done per account. It's easier that way, than having to use the "Move Transaction" function in Quicken.

I'd say 4 stars because I had no elements of surprise and no hiccups in service. I'd rate it 5 stars after about 3-6 months of ownership if this flawless experience keeps up. I'll be back in September to report.

(NOTE: see my update on NeatWorks ver 5 below)

I have been using NeatReceipts for a couple of years now. I generally like the product, but I am now using BOTH the 'Classic ver 1.5.9" and the new Ver 4.0 software because NeatWorks broke a covenant with its' early adopters. They broke two of the cardinal rules of product development (1) never, ever, under any circumstances forget your early customers and their data and (2) never remove vital features from the product.

First, they "forgot" their "Classic ver 1.5.9" users. Versions of the software from 2.0 up thru the current ver 4.1 cannot recognize or import any of the receipts or documents scanned into the earlier version. I have personally talked to them about this for almost 2 years. At first, in early 2007, they repeatedly stated that they were hard at work on a migration solution. We depended on that statement, telling them how important it was for us to be able to access our archived data - for inventories, insurance and tax records.

But they finally just abandoned this effort and offered everyone a discount to upgrade to a later version. How is that going to help with restoring archived data? The data and file formats for their .elrec and .eldoc seem fairly simple - a scanned image and some recognized text fields. Why can't they import those formats like they allow for jpeg and tiff images?

They offered no acceptable reasons beyond that we are no longer working on that feature and "would you like to upgrade?". They seem oblivious to the frustrations they have caused a large number of their early customers. We even communicated with Rafi Spero, one of the companies owners. If he couldn't make it happen, you know they don't care about you as a customer. BEWARE THIS COMPANY.

Secondly: The "Classic" version allowed users to create folders and subfolders, etc. This was a fantastic way to organize receipts for cash, various credit cards, checks and debits, by year and then by month. Or to organize a copy of receipts for an inventory by broad categories and then further by store, year or vendor. So the initial features of both subfolders and the ability to copy receipts from yearly tax records to inventory folders was extremely useful and helpful in elimnating paperwork clutter.

The new ver 4 software does not support nested folders or copying receipts to other folders. Every time you scan a receipt, it goes into a folder. But all folders are on the same level. You can show and hide folders, but this is an extremely clumsy process and causes users a lot of extra work in trying to organize their invoices and receipts. If you want to copy a receipt, you have to scan it AGAIN. How brain-dead is that?

Bottom Line: This company has proven that, at their convenience, they will ignore or abandon prior versions of the software and remove vital features.

To fix some of their current short-coming, as mentioned above, it would not surprise me to see them create a new version of their software that is incompatible with what they are selling today.

DO NOT TRUST them with any vital data that you may need in the future.

UPDATE: 2-11-2010 - I have been given a preview of the new NeatWorks ver5 software. I don't know when it will be released but it seems to have (finally) added back in some of the features that went missing with ver 2 and onward. Now they also have a chance to allow for importing old receipts (".elrec" files) from their "Classic" users. If they do Import ".elrec" files many Classic users will be happy that their data is no longer "orphaned". I will then change my opinion and rating of NeatWorks and their products because they did admit to these past mistakes, listen and respond to their customers and "the true test of your character is how you respond to those mistakes."

I've eliminated mountains of paper from my desk using this product. After installing the software and calibrating the scanner it took me little time to record and store my documents electronically. The key is to read over the manual to expose the more useful features of this product such as dragging pages of a multi-page document together to form a single document and how to properly edit a reciept after it has been scanned. Also make sure that if/when you backup your database that it goes to an external media such as an external hard drive, flash drive, or cd.

Reading in an arbitrary document and extracting information from it is a DIFFICULT computer science problem (I'm a CS Grad Student) and this program does a pretty good job of pulling info from what are now commonly cluttered receipts. Follow the instructions carefully for setup, watch the video they provide, read over the manual [....], check out the video tutorials [....] and you'll discover just how useful this software can be.

I bought mine from Costco.

I had my frustration with the calibration. But after the 2nd calibration, everything works fine. I figured I didn't push the calibration card all the way in enough on the 1st try.

I didn't have any of the connection problem with the USB port. I immediately scanned in my piles of receipts that I've saved up for a few years, mostly Costco & Home Depot.

It scanned all my Home Depot receipts beautifully, everything was captured. Ironically, the one that has the most problems are the Costco receipts. It won't capture the vendor's name and the date. But it allows you to manually put that in. 90% of the receipts didn't have that problem.

To my surprise, it can scan in any form of receipts, not just the skinny ones. For example, all the 1-page repair receipts from the auto dealership and mechanics, it can scan it with no problem at all.

The best part is - now I have peace of mind, knowing that I can find my receipt when I NEED to. I know I can throw away my Costco receipts since they have very liberal return policy but I'm not sure if I can throw away the Home Depot ones since they are such a pain in the )( to deal with.

The only disappointment I have is that it only captures the total expense and tax, it doesn't give you the break-down.

All in all, it's a very useful product - it does solve one of my headaches in life.

This scanner is very small and does a pretty decent job.

In the box, you find:
- The Scanner
- Cloth bag
- USB cable
- CD manual and install disk
- Various cleaning and calibration materials

Set up:
Put the CD in your computer, run the install program and read the instructions. Takes less than 5 minutes to get up and running. Be sure to calibrate your scanner when the install instructs you to. I have Vista on my PC and the set up went flawlessly.

Note: When you scan, put the documents face down - the scanner is on the bottom.

The good stuff:
- Scanner is very lightweight and easily slips into a laptop bag
- Scans quickly for it's size. First the document is scanned, then it takes another minute to process the data. Still much faster than I expected.
- It actually can accurately read and process the information on scanned receipts, even the beat up, wrinkled receipts that I kept in my pocket for a week before scanning.
- Will also scan and save documents as PDF files.

What could be improved:
- When I scanned color pictures to pdf files, the white areas had a very faint blue and the colors were slightly off.

Overall, this scanner works very well for what it's intended for - receipts. It would be great if the colors were better on picture and document scans.

A lot of the most negative reviews here seem to be based on narrow areas where this product is felt not to be up to snuff. That's certainly legitimate, but coming to the product without any previous experience with receipt/business card type scanners, I am pleasantly surprised by how convenient and capable this scanner is, and how useful its software.

The scanner employs a pretty good algorithm to decipher the basic info on a receipt or business card, and in my limited experience has about an 85 - 90% rate in getting this information right the first time. Sometimes it misinterprets a date, sometimes it can't find the right total, but these are all manually correctable if this information is important.

I am using this scanner primarily to create a record copy of receipts for my own reference so that I can throw away the paper copies. I save receipts mindlessly, even if they have no conceivable future usefulness, so this enables me to indulge that impulse without creating drawers full of crumpled paper. If I were organized enough, and motivated enough, this wouldn't be a bad way to organize tax information, but I doubt I will ever be that disciplined. This will certainly help, though, when I'm trying to find all the deduction receipts I *know* I stashed somewhere!

The scanner is no speed demon, but it's fast enough, and if a receipt goes crooked or sticks on its way through, it's easy enough to rescan it. I have found if calibrated properly (easily accomplished) it captures very accurately even very faint receipts. The pdf conversion function is also very useful, and may turn out to be one of the primary ways in which I use it, rather than cranking up my flatbed every time I need to e-mail a document.

The software is logically organized and drag-and-drop simple.

All in all, an excellent product.

Beware... I used this product happily for years.. I recently upgraded the software -- after being assured by customer support that the upgrade would work with my version -- and have not been able to migrate over 10 years of receipts. The company had the nerve to recommend I reinstall the last version -- print the receipts -- and scan them each in... I estimate that would take me about 60 hours of work. so I'm stuck now -- and have lost a lot of data I spent hours scanning in... I would not trust this company to support you over the long run. And of course, with tax records, that is vital. Let the buyer beware....

I love the idea that this product represents.

I've owned and used this company's products since 2006, gone through problems periodically since then, but always found a way to blame myself for the issues encountered - such as not saving backup files often enough, upgrading to a new version before reading the docs for database conversion, etc. (You should read the other reviews here - plenty of them - to see what I mean). NO LONGER. I have a backup file for almost every day for the last year -- 300+ GB of backup files.

I can only read one of the files from last April.

Now, what to do for tax season? I'm screwed.

DON'T rely on this. It's a nice toy, but if you're doing real business, keep your paper just in case, and export from the Neat company program often (generate the reports and file them every month).

I actually feel bad for the sales and support folks there - they tried to help me, but the program itself is not up to the quality of the other parts of the company, from what I can see. Yes, we went around the block twice with the paid customer support call, with them remoting into my computer to see for themselves, only to tell me 2 hours later "there's nothing we can do" - valiant attempt, but no result.

If you are tempted to buy, I'd STRONGLY recommend you read the other reviews. If you believe me? DON'T BUY.

At the time of this writing, there are 48 five star reviews, and 47 one star reviews. This is a 1-star review, so now it looks like the score is even. Maybe I'll try them again in a decade or two if they are still around. For now, I'm off to buy a Fujitsu and see if it's any better.

There is no way of disabling the ANNOYING system notification process (Neat Works has finished processing yadda....) IT"S 2008!!!!!

Using the Neat Desk scanner: You must hold/guide certain receipts, that are not the exact width of one of the feeder, to make sure it goes through straight, or it will scan at a crooked angle, and you cannot fix with the software. (You can only rotate in 90 degree increments.)

Which means you can forget scanning multiple receipts... (which also means you get the annoying system notification message every time...)

You cannot edit receipt images (especially cropping) once you have filed it. (You must delete and re-scan. Hopefully you kept the receipt...)

Does not remember (or have) default sort orders. You may set your receipts to sort by date (descending) and then by vendor, but if you split a transaction it goes away and you have to redefine it again.

Cannot split transactions duing review & filing process. Very problematic when scanning in multiple receipts as you have to note each one and where it is filed so you can go find and THEN split.

Cannot enter negative amounts when splitting. (required if you return/exchange something from 1 folder but purchased other things from other folders.) You have to generate a 'fake' 0 amont split and then enter negative numbers in that one.

BUT, you must be careful as there is NO way (NONE) to audit split receipts. There is no view, report or anything to show all splits for 1 particular receipt to make sure totlas were correct. (or even to audit sometime down the road.)

When working with split transactions you will need an EXTERNAL calculator (or spreadsheet) to calculate amounts - especially tax amounts as the software does not provide a calculator - or ways of enetering the tax amounts (while splitting - you can afterwards - just not during...)

All reports are designed for business purporses (all based on spending) and there are no reports for personal use - AND - there is no way to design or run reports other than the few that are built in. No way to audit folders or receipts, etc. For instance: a report showing all receipts by folder, or all recipts by date, etc.

I cannot even run a report without the software locking up and having to use task manager to end app. And then when I restart I LOSE ALL DATA FROM THE LAST TIME ENTERED. (Which just happened - and I lost 1.5 hours of work entering2 (yes TWO) receipts.

And, of course, their website has no place for customer feedback... (at least publicly...)