Customer Reviews
Financial software with no security! 
2008-07-22
This software is a nice idea, scanning & OCR'ing your receipts, business cards & documents. But it offers not even a tiny bit of security, such as a password. It also took me three hours on the phone with Neat Receipts staff to get it installed.
This software uses a SQL server database to store the data which means the data is on your C drive, regardless what drive you install the software on and cannot be moved to another drive. (Unless you are a SQL wizard & can move the database yourself.) That means anyone you let use your computer can get into this program. It also means unless your C drive is encrypted (IE Truecrypt), anyone who steals your computer will have access to the information in the database. As of this writing (7/22/08), per the message board on their website, the issue of security is not something the Neat Receipts staff addresses. Several users have repeatedly brought the issue of security to their attention over the past several months. The Neat Receipts response is either ("yes, that's a concern") or ignoring the posts.
So if security is something you're not concerned with, you should be. If it is something you're concerned with, I'd suggest other scanning software (IE Paperport) that allow you to store your electronic documents on encrypted drives or folders (IE Axcrypt).
Here's the review I posted back in January for the original version of this software:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R24ES2XE5I594W/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
It Does What It Says It Will Do! 
2008-07-22
Neat Receipts is amazing. It actually does as it is advertised to do. It has saved us many hours of hand entering receipts, and we have an electronic copy. NeatReceipts also sells a business card scanner program. I thought you needed both, but Neat Receipts does it all. I would recommend this product.
Horrible product and even worse support 2008-07-18
This product would never install properly on my PC and in fact caused my PC to slow to a snails pace. The technical support was the worst I have ever experienced for any product. In fact, they make MicroSoft support seem overly competent. Don't waste your money or your time on this product.
good Idea, Overall Product below Expectations 2008-06-22
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... 
2008-06-21
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 2008-06-21
NeatReceipts helps you get rid of paper by scanning and organizing everything in a database on your computer. NeatReceipts is committed to helping you stay organized without the paper mess at work, at home and on the go. From receipts and expense reports to business documents and business cards, you can now manage your paperwork with ease. Keep organized, digital files in a database on your PC by simply sending documents through the scanner and the software will automatically handle the rest, ensuring you have ideal image scans. The lightweight, portable scanner weighs less than one pound, measures only 10.8 x 1.6 x 1.3 and powered by a single USB cord. It conveniently fits into your briefcase or laptop carrying case. Using advanced Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software, NEAT Receipts extracts key information from your receipts and business cards and inserts it into corresponding fields on a spreadsheet, filling in the information so you don't have to. Your receipts will be easy to find because NEAT Receipts keeps track of purchases by vendor, date, expense category and even recognizes the last 4 digits of credit cards. Simplifies tax preparation for home with digital images of all your receipts, organized by their appropriate tax form and schedules. Streamline tax prep with NEAT Receipts Professional. You can scan your tax-related receipts into your computer and organize them by their appropriate IRS categories. Perfect for the road warrior to quickly prepare expense reports that include copies of your receipts. Clear off your desk and electronically manage documents such as meeting notes, invoices, contracts, and faxes. Now you scan and organize contracts, medical forms, financial statements, warranties, letters, articles, and recipes. NEAT Receipts helps you organize information with customizable fields - expense category, vendor, client, date range, and payment type Designed for Microsoft Vista, Windows XP and 2
Works well - considering the challenges 
2008-06-04
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 2008-05-27
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!
Mediocre at best:: Great at some things, Horrible at others 2008-05-27
After reading these reviews, I decided to take a chance on this little machine. I understand why there are so many great reviews and so many warnings. It does what it says it does but I experienced most of the problems that someone else had.
My system is a Windows XP system. My first installation of Neat Receipts went well and the software and scanner worked. I scanned in about 80 receipts within an hour. However, the images were out of proportion and much narrower than they should have been. I never found out why.
I turned on my HP All-In-One and my laptop crashed, the NR database crashed along with it and I lost my data but I had a PDF file, which stopped me from cursing myself for shredding my receipts.
Second installation went well. The image for receipts had the correct proportion. However, my laptop kept showing "New Hardware Found" message for my HP all-in-one. I ignored it for awhile. When I took care of the problem, it took about an hour and a half. It was probably more of a problem with the HP printer than with NR. Afterwards, everything worked well together.
With everything working well, I was able to evaluate NR fully in several areas.
1) Installation is easy and not too slow.
2) The program does waste time. It starts up slowly because everything is done in connection with the database.
3) Scanning was a mixed bag.
3.1) Business cards: The scanner had no trouble with business. The image was straight or re-aligned to be straight by the software. The OCR picked up the name 90% of the time, e-mail 100%, address 99%, phone number 90%, address 95%. It would become confused with multiple names or multiple addresses. The export to Outlook was fast and efficient. You can also scan the back of the card or scan another attachment if necessary. This is great because I sometimes write notes when I met the person. The scanned version looked good and the speed was about 2 business cards per minute.
Business cards: A/A+
3.2) Photos: You can't adjust the dpi on the scanner so I assumed it was scanning at 600 dpi in color. I scanned photos through the Documents tab and the Business Cards tab. Color scans looked grainy and the color matching was never quite right. B&W scans were okay. However, all my scans of photos were twisted even if the photo slid straight through. Half the photo would be straight and half would be crooked or squeezed. I could never fix this problem. My old flatbed gives much better results.
Photos: D+
3.3) Documents: I scanned 8.5 by 11 bank statements, and the scanner handled these well. The documents would mostly come out straight but once in awhile a crease would cause part of the scan to be crooked but usually not by much. The images were good but the saved files were huge. Instead of being 30 KB or less than 100 KB, the PDFs were 1.5 MB. That is a big difference if you e-mail documents. B&W or color didn't seem to make a difference. The files were huge.
Documents: B+
3.4) Receipts: This was the worst feature. The scans were almost always crooked or disjointed. The OCR software never worked properly so I would have had to enter most of the information myself. The scans were always in B&W and the images were good albeit crooked.
Receipts: D
4) The PDFs were much larger than they should have been. The Database itself took up 1 GB or more. Because I re-installed several times to fix the HP problem, the database seemed to grow. I don't know where the database was located but my C drive lost a total of 3 GB after all the installations. That is for an empty database.
5) I was able to use the scanner with ReadIris and Microsoft XP programs without any problems.
6) I was disappointed that there is no scan directly to PDF function. I would have to buy other software for that or always go through NR database which is much slower.
7) I don't use Quicken so I can't comment on that.
8) No PDF importing is a pain but I didn't really need this function.
9) I bought my NR at Costco and its version has the NR carrying case which is great and would fit most portable scanners. In fact, the accessories are great to have for this little machine.
My overall opinion is that it is not what I need right now. If I traveled a lot, I would love the feature of logging my receipts even with the hassle of entering data and bad image(just in case I lose one), the feature of logging business cards with a quick export to Outlook and the ability to scan a document reasonably well. I think that I could put up with the bad quality in that case.
Although I am trying to buy more mobile accessories for my laptop, the quality is just not there to justify the purchase. In most cases, I can wait to scan documents at home and this little machine won't replace my flatbed. I haven't tried any other portable scanner, but I look forward to the next generation of mobile scanners with better software.
Not a good idea, not a good product. 2008-05-20
The idea of a very limited scanner for only receipts is not that great. In anycase in the company I work, one was bought. The software is very big and takes over a lot of resources. It sets up a SQL database just to handle receipts. Using the device was very difficult to scan correctly. Only if the paper goes in a certain way, you can not push it too much but also you can not leave it to take the paper by itself, etc very tricky. The device cannot be connected with 'some' USB hubs (I tried several powered ones (2) and non powered ones (3) and none worked so make sure you have one USB port free right in your PC). And eventually, the computer was shut down, the software stoped functioning and was impossible to uninstall without complete reformat of the PC (System Restore to before installation of the scanner failed). The drastic step of reformat was taken since the software would not allow any other TWAIN source to be installed and when time came to install a REAL scanner the reformat was necessary. Same yourself some trouble. Get a free Print to PDF freeware and a regular scanner and you are done without headaches.
