Great marketing, mediocre scanner, abysmal software.

Any thoughts on using this for 4x6 photographs? I like the ADF feature, but I don't want to mess up my pictures.

Product Website

$269 seems a little steep.....

Will Woot let me try this in my home free for the first 30 days?

Lots of good reviews on Buzzillions.
http://www.buzzillions.com/reviews/neat-company-neatdesk-scanner-reviews

I have the Neat Receipts that woot offered. I use it nearly every day and it has made life much easier. But it was also cheaper and I just needed a receipt organizer.

I own this and I own the portable NeatReceipts system. I have these out of necessity. The software is terrible and you'll waste more time than you'll save. Only get this if you REALLY, really need to scan the images of your documents / receipts. Also, the feeder moves the page 50% of the time no matter how carefully you prep your stuff so your document / receipt will scan crooked.

Resolution for pictures = terrible.

It is extremely useful for scanning a bunch of documents that you need to take the text from. In my case, legal documents that my dad needs typed up so he can type a response.

We sell these at Staples for $299 new, they're tough to sell but seem to do quite well with the scanning and organizing of receipts.

Anyone have experience with the NeatWorks database? Intuitive and user-friendly are the key words I'm looking for...

Works with Mac*



*(eating Mac & cheese as you tediously convert all these things,
only slows the NeatDesk down 83%. Of no use on Apple computers)

drumcat wrote:Great marketing, mediocre scanner, abysmal software.

Pretty sure they won't give you a quality post for this, but I give you a +1 Oz Cookie for a great review!

PCmag review

Video - Scanning With The NeatDesk Scanner

I have the portable version. The scanner itself works well (for the most part) with receipts and business cards. My big complaint with it is that it does a really bad job of organizing my receipts by tax classification.

Example: I go out to eat. I spend 75 dollars. It scans the receipt, knows to classify it as "meals", but puts it in a "non-deductible" category. But my meals ARE tax deductible. Which means that every time I scan a meal receipt, I've got to manually change the bucket the receipt gets dropped into.

Seeing as how I only scan my receipts once every couple of weeks, and I have to manually change buckets every time (via a scroll menu, which takes a bit of time), I end up spending a TON of time just moving the receipts to the correct bucket, because the software just can't learn that the tax deductible bucket is where the receipt should go.

It doesn't bother me that the scanner can't scan the page properly without moving it and causing blur or weird angle scans; the software is actually pretty good at filtering it and cleaning it up, though I would never trust it with a photograph.

$270.00 for what's basically a refurbished scanner???? Uh...no. For $270.00 it better scan, cook my dinner and clean my dishes (and maybe wash my truck).

Sounds like Google, collecting information, waiting to attack one day.

What's up with the Neatworks software roadmap? It's been stuck on version 4 for a while.

Ive been eyeing the portable Neat-receipts system for a while waiting for it to be cheaper but this thing seems a little ridiculous. I'm having a hard seeing why this is any better than a conventional feed scanner.

I own the Neatworks Portable Scanner. I've not had any technical issues with the software, but I do find myself wanting more from it.

I bought this mainly to scan receipts of parts I buy for my customers and keep them on file for warranty issues. I was hoping it would OCR the receipt and let me search for parts in the future. It does not OCR the entire receipt. It tries to find the total price, and tax, along with the store name and make that search-able in its database, but that's about it. You have to manually add memos, or other fields like user, if you want to be able to search for the receipt by anything else. In my case, I manually add the customer name 'user', and then I can search for the customer and bring up all the receipts I've tagged for them, but I still have to manually look through the scanned images to find the correct receipt for the part...

It is a useful system, but I want more out of it.

Just buy a fujitsu scansnap if you need to scan things. It is a million times better.... or ten billion... depending on who you ask. My opinion is that this is a waste of money and that I LOVE my scansnap more than I ever loved my neat receipts. Sorry to be a buzzkill. I usually hate people like me trolling around. but its true!@!112

shadowknight125 wrote:Ive been eyeing the portable Neat-receipts system for a while waiting for it to be cheaper but this thing seems a little ridiculous. I'm having a hard seeing why this is any better than a conventional feed scanner.

Have owned this for 2 years- its FAST @ scanning, can do color or B&W, can scan both sides @ once, automatically OCRs, can keep adding documents as fast as you can name them, and usually runs near $400.00 new. This is a great price for a great scanner. If you are looking for a simple way to auto-file your receipts- forget it. But if you want to be paperless with all your documents and receipts searchable- you can not beat this scanner.

I've been waiting for the day when the NeatReceipts software is updated and no longer has a PDF problem.

Mine just stopped creating PDFs one day. The software would just lockup. The thing I liked about it was it would OCR the documents (pretty well) and would embed this information into the PDFs, so I could upload these PDFs to Google Docs, making all of my receipts only a search away from any computer.

When the software started locking up and stopped writing PDFs, I did a search on the Internet and discovered a lot of people were having this issue. I tried re-installing the software to no avail. So, I installed it on a different machine. Things worked for a while then, wham, it started locking up again and stopped writing PDFs.

When I dug deeper, it appears that it scans each page into a separate PDF file in a temporary folder, then merged these into a single PDF. It's this merging process which is locking up. So, I hoped that maybe I could write a script of my own so I could just use the NeatReceipts software to initiate the scan, then lock up... then my script could combine these individual PDFs into one, which I could upload to Google Docs.

Unfortunately, these "temporary" PDF files didn't have the OCR information embedded into them, so these weren't searchable.

Fortunately, Google Docs has an option to "convert" an uploaded PDF to a searchable document, but it's just not worthwhile in its current state. It seems to just create an image out of the PDF, dumps this image into a Google Docs word processing file, then dumps the OCR output at the end of the file. The OCR just doesn't seem as good on receipts as the NeatReceipts software was.

To make a long story even longer, I'm basically just stuck. The software won't do what I need it to do, there doesn't seem to be a fix in sight, and yet they keep selling these things.

I have used quite a bit of scanners, nothing high end. But I am currently using the Fujitsu SnapScan 1500 and I am very happy with it. It saves me time and that is what I bought it for. Wasn't cheap but if I had to do it all over again, I would probably still buy a SnapScan. I haven't used this NeatDesk, so I can't comment on it. But I did have a NeatReceipt and I returned it at Costco. I don't know if it is the same company.

BTW I scan every day and I know my scanner is not going to break, very well made.

I'll add a vote for the Fujitsu ScanSnap, it's pricey but worth every penny if you have a large stash of document to scan. It will do color or B&W, single or duplex, at a fairly high speed. There's also a version that works with OS X.

Does anyone know if you can get this and then buy the Mac software separately to be compatible?

There seems to be a lot of dislike for the neatdesk software. I already own a decent scanner, is there any software package that will do this "OCR and filing" / "document management" functionality with my existing scanner?

I would recommend the Epson Workforce Pro GT-S50... has twain drivers too.

Beanalby wrote:There seems to be a lot of dislike for the neatdesk software. I already own a decent scanner, is there any software package that will do this "OCR and filing" / "document management" functionality with my existing scanner?

I used to use PaperPort (I think Nuance is running that show now) and really liked it. I haven't seen it in a while, so I can't comment on the current version, but you may want to check it out.

I'm currently using the crapware that came with my HP All-in-one, and much to my surprise, I really like it! It has no bells, whistles or bling, but it will scan both sides of a document (hardware willing), create a SEARCHABLE PDF and put in any directory you choose. I have mine set to go to a folder called "Inbox", then I place it where it should be every time I get a round tuit. Just my $0.02.

got one a lil' over a year ago...

decent scanner w/ crap software. and unfortunately most functions depend on their software.

ocr works well, but simple functions take 3 clicks and its not very intuitive. worst part is the built-in backup function is horrificly slow and does not scale over time. now w/ a years worth of receipts and biz cards a backup is a 45+ min operation that brings my laptop to a creep.

lastly- it lacks an adjustable guide for feeding biz cards/receipts. i have a ton of crookedly scanned biz cards since it doesnt feed them straight.

What version is the software?

I'm like... oh, a scanner that has ADF... whatever, don't need one, have a nice Canon Multifunction printer/scanner

Later I'm looking at my tweet page and see the Woot tweet... reading it as if I had forgot what it was... and then...

We, the Hitchhikers???

TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY NINE DOLLARS???

For a scanner???

Did they mean Pesos?

Anybody else think this might make it to the next Woot-off? Unless they are too embarrassed to show its face again. LOL

C'mon Woot... we love you and all but... really?

Wow!!!!!

Really cool that they have this awesome brand name that everyone knows is to be the most reliable stuff on the market as well. LOL

Flash in Pan, spendy, software nightmare, reviews, refurb, space hog = Umm. NO!

Greshmahg wrote:I have the portable version. The scanner itself works well (for the most part) with receipts and business cards. My big complaint with it is that it does a really bad job of organizing my receipts by tax classification.

Example: I go out to eat. I spend 75 dollars. It scans the receipt, knows to classify it as "meals", but puts it in a "non-deductible" category. But my meals ARE tax deductible. Which means that every time I scan a meal receipt, I've got to manually change the bucket the receipt gets dropped into.

Seeing as how I only scan my receipts once every couple of weeks, and I have to manually change buckets every time (via a scroll menu, which takes a bit of time), I end up spending a TON of time just moving the receipts to the correct bucket, because the software just can't learn that the tax deductible bucket is where the receipt should go.

It doesn't bother me that the scanner can't scan the page properly without moving it and causing blur or weird angle scans; the software is actually pretty good at filtering it and cleaning it up, though I would never trust it with a photograph.

awesome points.

must be nice to be you.

I go out, spend 75.00 on groceries, feed my family for two weeks. - Toss the reciept in a shoe box labled grocery 2011. At the end of the year I end up tossing them all cause standard deductions equal more.

Nice hu?

Okay, Woot, what the hell?!

I check Woot, decide I don't want the product, and then saw TWO commercials for it.

Y'all are starting to mess with my mind, man.

Having bought the Scanner off of Quill.com a year ago, it has given me a new hatred of proprietary software. Nothing from Neat plays nice with any other software, including extensive work with Photoshop, Acrobat, or even cutePDF or other freeware scanning software.

Problems I had included Neat ignoring whatever I would tell it to do.

Le Ugg... pass on this unless you want to work entirely with Neat's software.

gnimble wrote:I would recommend the Epson Workforce Pro GT-S50... has twain drivers too.

The 550 is a GREAT scanner but the software is not very intuitive at all. Any time you want to change a setting, you have to navigate through several obscure menus. But the hardware itself is amazing.

Clovemb wrote:Does anyone know if you can get this and then buy the Mac software separately to be compatible?

Yes but the software is $80 (downloadable... a CD costs $99)... for that, you might as well buy a new one with a full warranty.

LastApeMan wrote:This seems liek something you see on clearance at staples or office max or some place like that.

for around 25.00

In a pile at the end of an isle - Difficult to manuver around with your cart but totally ignorable.

The only relation between the scanners you describe, and this one, is that they both are able to import an image off a piece of paper into a computer. This one has a FEW more bells and whistles than the ones you see on clearance.

However, it sounds like it's not the best-of-breed, so I'll probably pass on this one.

Clovemb wrote:Does anyone know if you can get this and then buy the Mac software separately to be compatible?

This page is about Mac:

http://www.neatco.com/products/neatreceipts-for-mac