Total +1

Fujitsu scanner just rock. 50 pages, double sided in less than 2 minutes. Plus it came with a full version of Acrobat for under $500.

I no longer file anything: open mail, highlight anything important, scan it, throw in box. When bock fills, seal and date box, get new box. At the end of the day, OCR all scans, then send OCRed pdf files to cloud...

It's a piece of crap.

Software slow, utterly convoluted too.

Do not buy if you'll be scanning more than 10-15 pages at a time.

Do you get tech support with this refurbished product?

I too went for the Fujitsu ScanSnap and have not looked back. The ScanSnap rocks with double sided scanning (huge feature if you have to scan a ton of documents and some of the pages are double sided and some of the pages are single sided. ScanSnap recognizes a blank backside and does not waste space saving it). Yes its like $500, but what is your time worth? Pass on this cheap wannabe if you need it for serious business. Grab the Woot if you're looking to scan one or two docs a day for your home finances.

ThunderThighs wrote:I'm really hoping you forgot your sarcasm codes because otherwise...

I was actually thinking how cool it would be if this was wireless and I could put it by the front door next to my shredder bin. I open the front door, scan the good stuff, shred the rest and walk to my desk. By the time I get to my desk, everything is in the system and I save the files to a few places as backup and it's over with.

In a sad, sad world... I continue as I have... Paper pile on the end of the couch... Constantly searching for certain documents... Always wasting time... Always having awesome burn parties!!

I too tried this unit on a Mac. Not happy, took it back for a snapscan. Loved the snapscan, but did not like the proprietary software restrictions so I took it back and bought the Epson s-50. Haven't looked back. Just as fast and reliable as the snapscan, but can work with any software that supports twain, unlike the snapscan.

The Neat hardware was nice, fast enough for most people. It is the software that stinks. Save your money and buy a better scanner if you own a mac. I cannot speak for the PC software, but there are enough people on here happy with the PC versions.

woolygums wrote:Anyone using the Scansnap with other software to search? I have heard that Adobe Bridge or Nuance Pperport can really help find information.

I have the Scansnap and it will easily, quickly and reliably scan to pdf and then ocr the images. Yet when I try to find key words, it comes up empty.

I had hoped I could scan real estate documents, insurance, leases, deeds, receipts, etc. Then do a search "insurance 123 Anywhere street" and it would find relevant docs. But can't, yet, make this happen.

I do this today. If you're using windows 7 64-bit make sure you install the Adobe filter. http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4025. Then make sure the proper folders are indexed in your Windows indexing settings, and delete and rebuilt your indexes (I don't know if the last step is absolutely necessary).

It's great, my wife needed a random medical document printed 5 mins before she ran out the door, and I saved the day by instantly searching and printing it out. Would have taken me hours to find the sheet before I scanned them all.

I also ended up getting the Fujitsu Scansnap 1500. I really like its build quality and I was able to find it for around $429. I like the ways you can customize the scan settings in different profiles on the Scansnap for different types of scanning jobs. It's a sleak little machine and even looks nicer in person (aprox. the same footprint as the Neatdesk). VERY FAST scan speeds. It sucks that neither the Scansnap or the Neatdesk are compatable with Twain drivers which I seem to find are the most universal drivers for compatability with some other programs like Quicken. I do still scan receipts into the bundled organizer file cabinet software and then associate that pdf with each transaction I do in quicken. One extra step but no big deal. Go with the Scansnap.

As someone who works with commercial OCR software everyday, these thing make me laugh.

I have the smaller version of this and love it. (bought on Woot several years ago)My son has a business and I do his bookkeeping and this works great. I scan his receipts then run a monthly report by expense category for his P & L. At the end of the year I am able to run a yearly report that gives me expenses by category and also a copy of each receipt that I export to excel and save on CD to give to the accountant. Before Neatwork I made copies of every receipt,because they fade so quickly, and had to manually sort and add totals. I'd love to have the bigger version. I highly recommend this!

This is a nice unit, but will it a replace a good ripe banana?

I am surprised to see a product like this being sold via Woot (Amazon). I would think that a large number of users here are tech-savy enough to not need/use a device like this. That, combined with the price and the fact that it is refurbed makes me wonder ...

tmb931 wrote:As someone who works with commercial OCR software everyday, these thing make me laugh.

Really, why? As someone w/ a Scansnap who also works with OCR software pretty regularly, I've been extremely impressed with its quality. If a large company needs 99.999% accuracy and a home user needs 95% accuracy, I strongly suspect the home user is more often getting their needs met than the company.

What's with the missing links (Mortimer & Monte) in today's Woot daily email?

Oh yeah, I am in for one...

I have the portable version and it does what it says. You do have to double check and be sure the amounts of receipts were recognized correctly, but the amount of time these save it is a minor issue.

The only reason I am getting this one also is the scanning speed. It is much faster than the portable version that I have and I do want the faster scanner.

“I can’t get this blasted thing to work !”
“Really? What’s the problem?”
“This thing is a piece of crap !”
“Tell me your troubles..”
“Well, I purchased this refurbished NeatDesk Desktop Scanner and Digital Filing System.”
“Yes, go on...”
“And it was lunch time and I was really hungry...”
“I see....”
“And I only had one peanut butter and banana sandwich on pumpernickel...”
“Oh really?”
“Yes, really. And so I got this sweet scanner and so I figured...”
“You didn’t?”
“I did....and now I can’t get this piece of crap to work properly...”
“Well, the refurbished NeatDesk Desktop Scanner and Digital Filing System is perfect for organizing paper into digital files to keep the clutter down. It even creates exports for QuickBooks, TurboTax, and Outlook to make filing easy. “
“Do you think it might have been the pumpernickel?”

gak0090 wrote:Camcard, camscanner, lemon receipts, etc all free apps on Android that can pretty much mimic all the functionality of this device. I'm sure the Apple store has similar apps. I rarely use my scanner anymore, and if I do it is for pictures. This device is old technology, with newer more convenient ways to do the same thing using a smart phone. I'm not impressed really at any price,let alone a refurb for $250. PAAAASSSSSSSS

I never thought about using my little Iphone for this! Thanks!! now you have me heading to the app store before I shell out 250 bucks.. (or 2 pairs of shoes!) Thanks again!

The NY Times Tech column just last week recommended the Snapscan but I didn't want to spend the $400+ for it. So I was delighted when I was this woot offer. I was about to purchase the scanner for Mac, then read all the comments... I didn't realize that with all these "fast" scanners you have to use their software (my Canon printer/scanner goet directly into PDF or jpg format, but it's slow). I called Neat Receipts sales dept. and the salesperson confirmed to me that you cannot scan directly to PDF format; that you must use their proprietary software. How are people saving to PDF format using this?

Too bad, because I really could use something like this at this price point.

Any other suggestions? I'll check out the Epson s-50.

This seems terribly expensive. For a less price I bought a Brother MFC-J6710DW, a wireless color duplex printer/copier/fax/scanner with a autosheet feeder, which handles up to 11x17 documents. It came with both Brother scanning/printing/fax software, and a "special edition" of PaperPort 12 all with OCR.

And it uses either Twain or WIA drivers.

The scanner has transformed how I organize my documents, and its kinda neat how I can scatter a dozen business cards on the table and it will generate individual files (pdf, jpg, tiff, etc...) automagically.

Oh yea... it's compatible with Windows PCs and those fruity "computers", and if you contact Brother, Linux drivers can be found (contact their tech support before buying to confirm).

Just saying'... there are better ways to spend your cashola.

The software is pretty crappy IMO for filing receipts and such -- but it's a great document scanner.

Grabbing another for the office.

I definitely recommend this system. I use it on Linux through a VirtualBox VM with the output files dumped into a shared folder on my host, and it works great.

lexian wrote:does it work on linux?

Maybe when using wine?

woottoady wrote:Oh yea... it's compatible with Windows PCs and those fruity "computers",

Wow, you must have some pretty severe self esteem problems.

In terms of converting receipts to electronic files, does anyone know if they are as good as the original? Do companies honor 'copies' of receipts when it comes to warranty service?

I guess I'm really trying to figure out if you still have to keep all of your 'product' receipts.

Anyone know the 'legal ramifications' of digitizing all your receipts? I.E. not having originals to give to your accountant, utilities company in a bill dispute, a store return, etc? This seems absolutely fantastic until you have to produce an original receipt (that you theoretically threw out because it is now digitized).

efooter wrote:Well, next time I'll ask with a serious face.


Oh, and what about Palm, NextStep, OS/2 and Amiga?

Me Efooter. Me list a few operating systems that most people haven't heard of. Me thinks me is cool. ROAR.

brooohaha wrote:In terms of converting receipts to electronic files, does anyone know if they are as good as the original? Do companies honor 'copies' of receipts when it comes to warranty service?

I guess I'm really trying to figure out if you still have to keep all of your 'product' receipts.

I have not had a problem with any companies accepting copies. Also, the IRS accepts the scanned copies. If you have an audit and your receipts have faded you’re out of luck.

sausage041 wrote:Anyone know the 'legal ramifications' of digitizing all your receipts? I.E. not having originals to give to your accountant, utilities company in a bill dispute, a store return, etc? This seems absolutely fantastic until you have to produce an original receipt (that you theoretically threw out because it is now digitized).

Excellent point -like if you were audited on your taxes - I'd like to know this too. It is why I still make companies send me paper bills - I don't want to have to print all of them if I was audited. So yeah, would the IRS accept these digitized copies?

Ah - I see the post above me just answered this. Thanks -

Careful with this one. I bought one last time it was listed on woot and just today got a replacement unit from Neat. I could never get the first one to install properly and after 4 hours of talking to three different NEAT reps they decided at "level 3" service to replace the unit because of "software failures" in the scanner. I'm not saying the product is a bad idea but when my average wait time for customer service was 45 minutes, I'm saying that if you buy this product be prepared to long service wait times from NEAT.

If I scan a receipt and email it to my HR manager, is AM/PM going to change me with illegal file sharing and have the FBI lock me up?

sausage041 wrote:Anyone know the 'legal ramifications' of digitizing all your receipts? I.E. not having originals to give to your accountant, utilities company in a bill dispute, a store return, etc? This seems absolutely fantastic until you have to produce an original receipt (that you theoretically threw out because it is now digitized).

I don’t know about the legal ramifications but I do know that my accountant and the IRS accept the copies.

b4k4 wrote:The overwhelming amount of 1 star reviews on Amazon and horror stories of losing documents forever due to software issues makes me extremely wary of this product.

It may be useful for organizing and sorting documents so they are more easily searchable/accessible, but I certainly wouldn't dispose of any scanned hard copies

Anyone who doesn't make regular backups of important data on their computer deserves to lose everything on their computer!
Neat Receipts is nothing more than an OCR that dumps into a Microsoft SQL database. A simple database backup is all that is needed to retain a copy of all documents that are scanned by this device.

Airkat wrote:The software is pretty crappy IMO for filing receipts and such -- but it's a great document scanner.

Grabbing another for the office.

Kinda expensive for just a Scanner! Especially when you can pick up all manner of AIO printers that have built-in document feed scanners! I picked up a Dell V515W for $35. Don't use the printer much, but for a document feed scanner, it can't be beat! Plus, it came with an OCR app that converts scanned documents to PDF. I coupled this with a local installation of SharePoint 2007 and now I have a searchable document storage system that only cost me $35!

I have one of these. They DO NOT allow you to search on your own comments! Future possible enhancement they told me. The software is hard to use. Nice concept. I don't like it.

Bought 2 (brand new) - each died at the 13 mos (first feeding jammed, 2nd power - seems like high hardware failure for a high priced scanner.

From a volume point of view - was traveling overseas much of it - 70 items scanned on the 2nd scanner.

I'd suggest look at the Fujitsu models.

I bought one of these last time they were on Woot. I called NeatDesk and they gave me the same price on their mac-compatible version. I love it. To all those who say they have proprietary software and it doesn't work with anything else and you could lose everything forever - maybe I'm paranoid, but when it comes to important things, I never keep just one copy on one computer. You can export your stuff out of NeatDesk as a pdf (or other file type). Then you back your entire computer up to the cloud. I love this scanner and use it for work and personal all the time

Thanks for that info. I'm thinking about getting a scanner for storing paper docs and I use Mac computers so compatibility and function is important to me. I'll check out that Epson.

wrk24wheel wrote:I too tried this unit on a Mac. Not happy, took it back for a snapscan. Loved the snapscan, but did not like the proprietary software restrictions so I took it back and bought the Epson s-50. Haven't looked back. Just as fast and reliable as the snapscan, but can work with any software that supports twain, unlike the snapscan.

The Neat hardware was nice, fast enough for most people. It is the software that stinks. Save your money and buy a better scanner if you own a mac. I cannot speak for the PC software, but there are enough people on here happy with the PC versions.

BTW, what Mac software do you use with this Epson scanner?

What I was always told by Employers the original reciept was required by the IRS.

Do you know:
Will the NeatDesk Business Card software allow me to transfer this info directly to an iPhone or BlackBerry?

thanks!