Accessories

good Idea, Overall Product below Expectations
If you are a road warrior as I am, (180 days of the year out of the country), the thought of simplifying handling of receipts is fantastic. I kept walking by the Kiosk at the airport and finally purchased the PC version as they did not have the MAC version out yet. My excitement became utter disappointment in the overall lack of functionality the product has, program errors/ bugs, and constant locking up. I finally got the mac version, and the only decent thing is that it is faster than the PC, but has even less functionality.
I finally had to accept that all I can do is just scan my receipts and attach to an email with my company expense report- it's like having a mobile file cabinet, with out carrying all those receipts.
If you are considering this, do not expect allot, and their customer support - whilst nice, are great in providing work-arounds for the lack of functionality the product has - but then, that is not the intent of customer support.

My organization was looking at purchasing one for every consultant - 210 of us, and we decided against it, when I let our finance and colleagues use mine for a bit.
I would recommend that if you are considering this, review the comments, and consider how you really want to use it.
Lastly, the sales people at the airport Kiosk are not well informed, lots of the responses to my questions where "I do not really know", or "I think it can do that"...that should of been a warning sign....

When it works, it's great...
The scanner I ordered worked great for small receipts, but full pages only scanned half the page. I went back and forth with the e-mail customer service, them having me recalibrate and switch cords on and on for a week and a half. Finally I called them and they told me they were going to send me another scanner, but it hasn't arrived yet.

Neat Receipts scanner
Scanner works good - quick and accurate. Software is also user friendly. I would definitely recommend this product. The seller offered a good price and provided quick shipping.

Works well - considering the challenges
I bought one of these and returned it after a day or two of experimentation. Later, I reconsidered. After better understanding the product's capabilities vs my expectations, I repurchased. I think many people misunderstand (as I did) the challenges involved in scanning, analyzing, and parsing receipts. Ever run across a receipt that took you some time to figure out??

This scanner is a compact sheet-fed scanner, and saves images in PDF or JPEG formats. Up to 600 dpi. It's handy, portable (11 ounce) and convenient to keep in a desk drawer, brief case, etc. Being able to scan a document to PDF anywhere (without AC power) can be very useful.

But it's the software component that performs OCR and attempts to decipher the text, graphics, smudges, wrinkles, and other artifacts. Then the program populates a simple database with its best interpretation of the receipt data. No, it is not perfect. But as you correct entries, the software adapts and recognizes the same receipt format.

My only disappointment - which is why I returned the product the first time - is the software will not read and import data from PDF or email receipts. (It does read receipts in graphic formats like JPG, BMP, GIF, etc.) They're working on it... Until then I can only give 4 stars.

My experience with customer support has been extremely positive and productive. Jenn Choi answers emails and user forums promtptly and professionally. She is amazingly considerate, patient, and polite given some of the rather obtuse words and language she receives. From my perspective, the staff was always prompt and forthright with the product's limitations and problems, and offered recommendations. I encourage the marketing department to do a better job of letting people know of the software's limitations ahead of the purchase so they may check their expectations and avoid 'buyer remorse' situations. For example, right on the box it should say "Although the Scanalizer will create PDF output files from scanned documents, at this time we do not support the import of PDF files directly. We are working on it!"

Despite a lot of searching I have not found another product that does what this package does. Even with the low end 70% accuracy rate (mine was always much better), that's still 70% less transcription for me to do. During testing, I scanned receipts on my other scanners and used much more sophisticated (and expensive) OCR programs, but the recognition rate just was not that much better. But none of those programs could also analyze the result and say "Hmmmm... this looks like sales tax, let's put it in the TAX column. And this looks like a store name, so lets put that in the STORE field." Also remember, a graphic image of the receipt is saved and can be printed out if you ever need hard copy. When you highlight an entry in the database, the corresponding image is displayed in a view window. Database backup & restore utility is included so you can protect your work and records. If you forget to backup, the software will provide periodic reminders via pop-up window (you can configure as needed). You can export to many different file formats and financial apps.

As I sit typing this out, I look around my home office and count five (!) scanners. Each has its own strengths and purpose (or else it would be gone). None of the others do what the Scanalizer and its software can do. But I still look forward to being able to have Scanalizer read and interpret all my exisitng PDF and email receipts into its database.

Anyone contemplating purchase: Yes, do read reviews on Amazon.Com, Buy.Com, the magazines, etc. But also go to the company website www.neatreceipts.com and check out the user forums to see if it will meet your expectations.

(No , I do not work for - or have ANY relationship with - NEATRECIEPTS other than the purchase of a Scanalizer.)

I'm impressed
I found the set up easy and was using it to scan documents within an hour. Since I have Vista, I carefully followed instructions and downloaded the latest installation software. The OCR software is impressive. The scanner works better than I expected after reading some of the reviews. My receipts often have ragged tops and bottoms so I scanned them sideways or bottom first depending on which had the best edge. The software almost always turned the receipt the right direction. Corrections to dates and amounts were rarely required but easy to do. It was very satifying to scan documents and then shred them. I no longer feel like I'm drowning in paper!