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

yes you can - the hardware is OS independent. I just got off the phone with Neatco and confirmed. I have used the portable one for the last year and saved over $3,000 on my taxes based on the softwares ability to identify sales tax on a receipt.- well worth the investment!

With that being said - you can get this for mac from Amazon for about the same price that you would pay to do it all separately and get a 1yr warranty.

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?

If you live in a state like Texas where we can deduct sales tax as an income tax deduction, then the software's ability to identify sales tax on receipts is invaluable in my opinion. That is about the only breakthrough functionality - you may even consider some open source document management options or something like paperport if you want to go commercial. Otherwise the software can be a bit of a challenge.

russward wrote:If you live in a state like Texas where we can deduct sales tax as an income tax deduction, then the software's ability to identify sales tax on receipts is invaluable in my opinion. That is about the only breakthrough functionality - you may even consider some open source document management options or something like paperport if you want to go commercial. Otherwise the software can be a bit of a challenge.

The ability to export directly to Quickbooks is also a big plus.

So I checked the product website provided by NightGhost. The software side of this is what interests me. It appears they sell NeatWorks -- software only -- for Mac, but I don't see a Windows equivalent. Am I just missing it?

I already have a scanner with an ADF so I might consider a "software-only" solution. (BTW, what company would offer a software-only *business* solution but only for Mac? That doesn't make any sense, imho.)

efreet69 wrote:So I checked the product website provided by NightGhost. The software side of this is what interests me. It appears they sell NeatWorks -- software only -- for Mac, but I don't see a Windows equivalent. Am I just missing it?

I already have a scanner with an ADF so I might consider a "software-only" solution. (BTW, what company would offer a software-only *business* solution but only for Mac? That doesn't make any sense, imho.)

I don't think a software only solution will work for you b/c I think their software only works with their scanner.

You can import pdfs but that defeats the purpose of the software.

Use the mobile scanner everyday. Gets the job done. Would like NeatDesk...great price...but I'm poor.

LastApeMan wrote: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?

Yeah why don't you do something about it ape!! So tired of people like you complaining about there lot in life while I pay over 55% of my income in taxes. That's really fair? I'm sure you don't pay any tax and get money back. Then complain about the food that was given to you. Ape you are the problem with america.

dopeonplastic wrote:$269 seems a little steep.....

Just 8 years ago, scanners like these were well over $5000. I used to work for a pharmaceutical, and we would scan the data-entry sheets to PDF, and extract the data into a database. I really don't see the home-use for them, but then again, you never know.

First, if you saw my desk, you'd know why I bought into their marketing and bought this product. The idea of scanning everything, reducing it all to digital media, and having a nice clean desk sounded like a great idea.

So I bought this, and took the first stack -- the most modest of my several stacks -- with maybe 40 pages. I figured I'd start with the small stack, and by tomorrow, I'll have a clean desk.

WRONGO! I quit after 17 documents. That took an hour. What's more, the file sizes are HUGE!! We're talking around 1MB per page. I've got TEN YEARS of documents on my hard-drive, and it doesn't even amount to 4 GB. With this scanner, that's only around 5000 pages!! That's just too big for black and white documents.

On a similar note, I was horribly frustrated that the software didn't have a "quick scan" option. I would have loved to use this scanner for sending PDFs of documents as email attachments, but who wants a twenty-page document attached to an email that takes up 15 MB?

So, I've got my Neat Desk in a box behind one of my client chairs. At least that way it is not contributing to the clutter on my desk.

Assassin15 wrote:Is this compatible with Mac?

No, only with windows

Technical Specifications:

System Requirements

Microsoft® Windows® XP, Vista®, or Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit)
Pentium® IV 1.3 GHz or later
1 GB RAM (2 GB highly recommended)
1 GB hard disk space to install
CD-ROM drive
Available USB port

jaycain wrote:First, if you saw my desk, you'd know why I bought into their marketing and bought this product. The idea of scanning everything, reducing it all to digital media, and having a nice clean desk sounded like a great idea.

So I bought this, and took the first stack -- the most modest of my several stacks -- with maybe 40 pages. I figured I'd start with the small stack, and by tomorrow, I'll have a clean desk.

WRONGO! I quit after 17 documents. That took an hour. What's more, the file sizes are HUGE!! We're talking around 1MB per page. I've got TEN YEARS of documents on my hard-drive, and it doesn't even amount to 4 GB. With this scanner, that's only around 5000 pages!! That's just too big for black and white documents.

On a similar note, I was horribly frustrated that the software didn't have a "quick scan" option. I would have loved to use this scanner for sending PDFs of documents as email attachments, but who wants a twenty-page document attached to an email that takes up 15 MB?

So, I've got my Neat Desk in a box behind one of my client chairs. At least that way it is not contributing to the clutter on my desk.

Then your computer is awful. I use the hand feed Neatworks and can do 50 in less then 30 minutes. Most of the time is me hand feeding it. It takes it about 5 - 10 seconds per page.

vash21 wrote:No, only with windows

Technical Specifications:

System Requirements

Microsoft® Windows® XP, Vista®, or Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit)
Pentium® IV 1.3 GHz or later
1 GB RAM (2 GB highly recommended)
1 GB hard disk space to install
CD-ROM drive
Available USB port

Yes, the software works only with windows.
The hardware is Mac compatible but you have to have the Mac software.

Actually had one of these... Truly a piece of dreg... I wonder how many of the folks with positive comments about this work for Amazon (owner of woot!)? So many of these malfunction that the refurb market is probly larger than the "new" business sales. If you already bought this, at least you have a tax write-off.

cslynch22 wrote:Then your computer is awful. I use the hand feed Neatworks and can do 50 in less then 30 minutes. Most of the time is me hand feeding it. It takes it about 5 - 10 seconds per page.

Well, yeah - it scans in 5-10 seconds, but I'm talking about loading all of that crap using their software. Scanning is only half the battle -- you've gotta organize it.

And you shouldn't need a 2 TB harddrive if you're looking to scan 100,000 pages of documents.

ripplefx wrote:Use the mobile scanner everyday. Gets the job done. Would like NeatDesk...great price...but I'm poor.

I believe the poor adjective fits us all. I thought that was why we're all on Woot.

darenokw wrote:does it work with windows 7 and is it twean compadiable

I have no idea regarding twean but the software is running on my new Win7 64bit pc without problem.

jaycain wrote:Well, yeah - it scans in 5-10 seconds, but I'm talking about loading all of that crap using their software. Scanning is only half the battle -- you've gotta organize it.

And you shouldn't need a 2 TB harddrive if you're looking to scan 100,000 pages of documents.

I have had the portable one for over a year and it's seems pretty quick to me-from scan to analyzing to showing up in the receipt box takes about 15-20 secs each, depending of course on how long your receipt is-I started tearing off all the stuff at the ends of some receipts about filling out surveys, etc. just to get them through faster. Software speed probably depends a lot on your computer hardware.
I think this software works pretty well for what it is-an invoice/receipt scanning tool. It wasn't really designed for archiving your hard-copy multi-page documents digitally, although they are trying to extend it for that, which of course brings some challenges.
It works better than anything else I've seen/heard of at receipt scanning, but it does make mistakes sometimes just because of the nature of receipts-they're not all uniform (i.e. sometimes purchase price will come up as where the receipt printed "Your savings today was . . ." instead of the actual price you paid, etc.). Once you get used to "proofing" the receipts, it doesn't take too much extra time to do so.
One thing I did notice is that if it inadvertently puts a receipt in your "documents" box if you are still scanning receipts and move the receipt from the documents to receipts box, you can actually LOSE that receipt instead of it getting re-analyzed. Evidently it doesn't like two items queuing up at the same time. You can avoid this by pre-selecting "receipt" when you are scanning and it will output everything in there. I lost a couple receipts before I noticed this was happening. Also, it doesn't always like those yellow copies with the grey/blue ink-it may treat them as blank pages, so you have to select to NOT automatically discard blanks.
I am wondering if anyone has both the portable and neatdesk and if the neatdesk is significantly faster because you can load a bunch at a time? I'm guessing so, so am tempted to buy.

I was wondering the same thing about the 30 day trial period as well as IS THERE A RETURN POLICY for this item? Seems to be a lot of negative comments and I was JUST about to purchase one. Anyone know anything about a return policy?

I got the portable version when Woot offered it, and am very happy with it. I am the treasurer for a couple of NPOs, and it's much faster for scanning in donation checks than was my all-in-one printer. I tend to scan stuff at one time and "file" it later.

I did run into a problem when I wanted to export a previously-scanned document as a PDF; it came out a weird, unprintable size. It's possible that that was user error, but now if I expect to need to print the doc later, I'll scan it direct to PDF instead. (This works fine but is slower, because you have to go through a Save dialog before the scan happens.)

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

Yes you can.

One more thing, if you are looking at this for receipts-it's a heck of a lot faster to find a receipt on your computer than going through a box/filing folder/etc. for a hard copy, no matter how well organized you are. Think of it as similar to the difference between scrolling/searching through/for email(s) and leafing through a box of envelopes. Works well when auditing those credit card statements.
Now, if you need the original hard copy no matter what because you are looking for the receipt for a store return or something, that's another story.

jaycain wrote:Well, yeah - it scans in 5-10 seconds, but I'm talking about loading all of that crap using their software. Scanning is only half the battle -- you've gotta organize it.

And you shouldn't need a 2 TB harddrive if you're looking to scan 100,000 pages of documents.

Got ya. Yes it tends to be memory/CPU intensive. It runs well on my brand new win 7 64 bit box (as of October) but was a lot slower on my previous machine.

I have found though that since it ques as it goes I just start scanning and don't stop and then it finally catches up.

It is also nice because you can "staple" multiple pages once it is done before actually filing.

I don't really suggest it for a casual user but for someone who HAS to keep everything for business Audit purposes you are going to have to scan it all anyway. May as well let it push it all to Quickbooks for you and save on system input.

As to the TBs... it does take up room but I have so many Tera bytes laying around anyway it isn't a big issues. I have the whole database backed up in multiple computers on my network. You can just never be too careful!

jaycain wrote:Well, yeah - it scans in 5-10 seconds, but I'm talking about loading all of that crap using their software. Scanning is only half the battle -- you've gotta organize it.

And you shouldn't need a 2 TB harddrive if you're looking to scan 100,000 pages of documents.

On other thing I think (I could be wrong) that you can set up the software to save your invoices and receipts as jpeg files rather than pdf. This would great reduce the processing and storage requirements.

I always store as a pdf searchable document because it helps me when I place reorders to be able to search by item number.

Check it out though because I think you can change that to jpeg and probably help with some of your concerns.

If you want to scan photos then stick to Canon or HP. I have both the desktop ADF and the mobile scanner with a Mac and is great for scanning files for PDFs. Software works fine and scanners have never given me any problems over the last year.

hmtusko wrote:I was wondering the same thing about the 30 day trial period as well as IS THERE A RETURN POLICY for this item? Seems to be a lot of negative comments and I was JUST about to purchase one. Anyone know anything about a return policy?

Woot doesn't have a return policy. If an item is outright broken or defective, sometimes (and not always) they'll replace it, if they have any left. Remember, woot wants to sell out each day's item. Otherwise you have to use manufacturer's warranty service.

Woot's official returns policy is on this FAQ page:

http://www.woot.com/WhatIsWoot.aspx

jimbox wrote: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.

Yes I have the Mobile scanner now and have had all the same problems. Nothing scans straight. I have to jump through hoops to have receipts feed properly. If I let go of the receipt no telling where its going.

I have over 2 gigs of data scanned into mine. I am trying to digitize everything and go entirely paperless which is a neverending battle it seems. But yes my backup is dog slow beyond belief. Movement on the system is slow. I do see frequent crashing. I will say the concept is great and my better half had been telling me all day to get this instead of the mobile version; but I am going to pass and wait for something better. I am currently on my second scanner and have the same problem with a streak that doesn't go away. Same problem on the last one but now I have had the scanner too long and they wont replace it. The scanner overall seems good and the software is a neat idea but not the best execution. After reading the reviews I am not entirely thrilled with the Fujitsu Scansnap either. I have a nice Kodak all in one that has a ADF. I have had to use it for the past few days for some contracts and it works well especially that ADF. The software doesn't do any organization but the files come out as great pdfs. Going to make do for the time being and see if someone comes up with a great idea on what to use.

cheers all,

Alysa

cslynch22 wrote:I don't think a software only solution will work for you b/c I think their software only works with their scanner.

You can import pdfs but that defeats the purpose of the software.

You are correct the software only works w/ their scanner. We tried many times and different ways but it just wasn't usable. I think on Mac it does work w/ other scanners though.

Thankfully as long as you get a doc in pdf you can import it into Neatworks. I don't think that defeats the purpose of the software at all. The software is designed to be electronic filing and storage. This part is great and I can find receipts quite easily now for the most part. But the database has gotten a too large to move through or backup in under an hour. I have a new beefy machine and it is faster on this machine than my last. I am hoping that there will be improvements in the software soon.

good luck,

Alysa

So what do you get for having the most "quality" posts? What is that anyway?
Can I make a quality post in my underwear?

aleve wrote:You are correct the software only works w/ their scanner. We tried many times and different ways but it just wasn't usable. I think on Mac it does work w/ other scanners though.

Thankfully as long as you get a doc in pdf you can import it into Neatworks. I don't think that defeats the purpose of the software at all. The software is designed to be electronic filing and storage. This part is great and I can find receipts quite easily now for the most part. But the database has gotten a too large to move through or backup in under an hour. I have a new beefy machine and it is faster on this machine than my last. I am hoping that there will be improvements in the software soon.

good luck,

Alysa

Alysa,

What I do to help maintain my database size is each year I create a new folder for my receipts, invoices, etc. I then take last years folder and export it as an .nrf file.

This actually bundles all the documents in that folder and zips them and removes them from your working database. If at anytime later (i.e. Audit) you need to access them you can import it back to your database and search, etc. on it.

Yah, another kool-aid drinking shill for the Fujitsu ScanSnap series. If you're going to spend more than $100 on any scanner, don't mess around with this crap. Fujitsu is the way to go.

Thought #1: I need a fast duplex scanner for both home and work, and prior to getting a Fujitsu ScanSnap, I had a ~dozen different scanners, varying from mediocre to utter cr4p. Imho, the ScanSnap was the first truly professional-quality scanner for mere mortals (i.e. performs like a slower cousin of the $8000 high-end HP scanners that run 60-80ppm) -- doesn't jam, skip or otherwise screw up. In actual use, the ScanSnap will scan both sides of 15-18 pages per min (30-36 page images/min), and allows you to dial DOWN the quality so that file sizes are sane (I use 100dpi for archival/financial stuff -- good enough for ocr, but only 3-500kb/p). It's easy to service, too: after ~20,000 pages I started having trouble with the paper pickup. I bought a service kit from Fujitsu (new rollers, pickup, cleaning tools), and it's good as new.

Thought #2 - Linux: Fujitsu's Win/Mac ScanSnap software is well reviewed. On Linux, my ScanSnap works perfectly with Simplescan and XSane. (Really easy to scan straight to PDF, tho full ocr is a little weak).

Thought #3 - Warning for Win/Mac users: Don't lose the serial number for activation of the ScanSnap software. Fujitsu wants a *lot* of money for replacement (quoted me $175 iirc).

aleve wrote:Yes I have the Mobile scanner now and have had all the same problems. Nothing scans straight. I have to jump through hoops to have receipts feed properly. If I let go of the receipt no telling where its going.

I have over 2 gigs of data scanned into mine. I am trying to digitize everything and go entirely paperless which is a neverending battle it seems. But yes my backup is dog slow beyond belief. Movement on the system is slow. I do see frequent crashing. I will say the concept is great and my better half had been telling me all day to get this instead of the mobile version; but I am going to pass and wait for something better. I am currently on my second scanner and have the same problem with a streak that doesn't go away. Same problem on the last one but now I have had the scanner too long and they wont replace it. The scanner overall seems good and the software is a neat idea but not the best execution. After reading the reviews I am not entirely thrilled with the Fujitsu Scansnap either. I have a nice Kodak all in one that has a ADF. I have had to use it for the past few days for some contracts and it works well especially that ADF. The software doesn't do any organization but the files come out as great pdfs. Going to make do for the time being and see if someone comes up with a great idea on what to use.

cheers all,

Alysa

I've been using the mobile scanner for about four years now. I have a database over 5 GB and it works just fine. Granted I've kept upgrading my computer, which makes everything about instantaneous. The software is a system resource hog. If something faster than six core 3.33 ghz and 12 gb of ram with an SSD was available, it could probably use it! However, it did work just fine with a run of the mill 2.4 ghz quad core before. Just make sure you have the best hardware you can afford and you'll be pleased with Neatworks for sure.

As far as the search feature, it works just fine for pulling out invoices by purchase order number and simple tasks like that. Data entry is another ball of wax - I have a part timer that comes in once a week and handles 200-300 items out of the inbox for me :-)

I've been using the Xerox DocuMate 3115 for scanning everything. Very satisfied.

http://www.xeroxscanners.com/en/us/products/item.asp?PN=DM3115

You can find them on sale for $350 (regular is around $399). Their software is great. (If you find any bad reviews/complaints about the software crashing/not working in 64 bit Windows, thats been fixed a while ago).

Edit: I guess I should of checked *current* prices on this. Looks like its about $300 now.

Any chance that Woot will sell a Fujitsu desktop scanner? I am devoted to my Fujitsu Scansnap S1500, which is very fast, foolproof, does duplex scanning and comes with Acrobat Standard and some other software. Acrobat is where it's at. The Scansnap will do a stack of mixed size documents with no complaints, and does business cards.

wombatus wrote:I've been using the mobile scanner for about four years now. I have a database over 5 GB and it works just fine. Granted I've kept upgrading my computer, which makes everything about instantaneous. The software is a system resource hog. If something faster than six core 3.33 ghz and 12 gb of ram with an SSD was available, it could probably use it! However, it did work just fine with a run of the mill 2.4 ghz quad core before. Just make sure you have the best hardware you can afford and you'll be pleased with Neatworks for sure.

As far as the search feature, it works just fine for pulling out invoices by purchase order number and simple tasks like that. Data entry is another ball of wax - I have a part timer that comes in once a week and handles 200-300 items out of the inbox for me :-)

I have been researching NeatDesk vs Fujitsu for a week now and after reading all of these helpful reviews, I am more confused than ever.

My computer is about 4 years old and now I question if the Neat software would be too much and I only have 285GB of space left on my hard drive. I'm thinking about trying the NeatReceipts scanner for two weeks and if I don't like it, I can always return it to the store. If I had plenty of money to spend, I'd purchase the Fujitsu, but I'm most intrigued with Neat's ability to organize all my receipts and export them directly into Quickbooks.

I already have two flatbed scanners that are several years old, so I'm wondering if I really need to buy another. Help!