Wootalyzer's Pricing Post! - The price of today's woot item is saved here for future reference
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NeatDesk Desktop Scanner
$249.99 + $5 Standard Shipping
Condition: Refurbished

*DISCLAIMER* Wootalyzer! is in no way affiliated with Woot!, and this post may not always be here!

The files takes up a lot a space. I scanned a couple months worth of documents (about 75 single pages per month) and it took up nearly 30 GBs.

So much for synchronizing my scanned files with all my computers via Dropbox.

Previous woot sold out, it looks like:
http://www.woot.com/forums/viewpost.aspx?postid=5004489

also $249.99

If you're using this to do your taxes for your business you should be able to write it off as a business expense right?

IL is up on the board buying 3. Someone wants to scan those very flammable receipts before is too late.

What? too soon?

This is one of Oprah's "Favorite Things" or so says the commercial.

Happy 4th of July, remember to thank a Revolutionary War Veteran today!

Amazon reviews 2.8/5 stars. 368 reviews. $379 with free shipping.

http://www.amazon.com/NeatDesk-Desktop-Scanner-Digital-Filing/dp/B001CQ8ER2

I researched the Neatbox scanner and found the software unloved by many users. I ended up purchasing a Doxie scanner instead with an eye-fi chip. I love the little thing but my paperwork procrastination has not improved...

haloman800 wrote:The files takes up a lot a space. I scanned a couple months worth of documents (about 75 single pages per month) and it took up nearly 30 GBs.

So much for synchronizing my scanned files with all my computers via Dropbox.

I have the opposite experience. I scan about 10 pages a day every day and they are all in my Dropbox.

I just looked and I have 391 full-sheet files and it only takes up 67.2 MB (for all of the 391 files).

I wonder why you and I have such vastly different results?

How many doctor's offices or businesses use this Neat thingy? 0

How many use Fujitsu scanners? All (well, some Canons, but mostly Fujitsu).

What does this mean? Avoid this junk and pay a little more for a Fujitsu.

I have two ScanSnaps and they are awesome. Really awesome. Had the Neat portable scanner and it sucked real hard. Slow, bad quality and always fed crooked.

Just my two cents.

CowboyDann wrote:If you're using this to do your taxes for your business you should be able to write it off as a business expense right?

Yepper! I imagine the most common first thing scanned is the receipt for this sucker, because it's a business write-off (and you need the receipt for warranty).

One of the "tips" that pops up when starting the software is that this can be a write-off.

Woot, I must say that I think that's one of the most cleaver write ups you've ever done. Well done!

diannevan wrote:Yepper! I imagine the most common first thing scanned is the receipt for this sucker, because it's a business write-off (and you need the receipt for warranty).

One of the "tips" that pops up when starting the software is that this can be a write-off.

Nice!

Here is the Neat website

Here is the support page There are so many videos and manuals I'm not going to take the time to link every single one of them.

Judging from all the support I'd say they really want to make you happy with your purchase.

Edit: I'll link the manuals for you though.
Manual For Windows
Manual For Mac
Oh man I just noticed all the links in the PDFs. I'm almost speechless to how easy they seem to make everything.

My NeatDesk refurb from woot didn't last very long. Will not autofeed more than 1 sheet now and out of warranty. Wrinkles pages too. Great.

haloman800 wrote:The files takes up a lot a space. I scanned a couple months worth of documents (about 75 single pages per month) and it took up nearly 30 GBs.

Does it let you configure the file format? Scanned documents are pixels like photos, so a simple text document that would take up little space as a text file takes up much more space as a scan. But proper compression can crunch them down quite a bit.

The same 8.5x11 document can take up:
(at 300dpi uncompressed)
- 48 MB as a 16-bit RGB TIFF file
- 24 MB as an 8-bit RGB TIFF file
- 8 MB as an 8-bit grayscale TIFF file
(at 300dpi compressed)
- 12.6 MB as an 8-bit RGB TIFF ZIP- compressed file
- 1.2 MB as an 8-bit RGB JPEG 60 file
- 0.3 MB as an 8-bit RGB JPEG 10 file
(at 150dpi uncompressed)
- 6.6 MB as an 8-bit RGB file
- 2.2 MB as an 8-bit grayscale file
(at 150dpi compressed)
- 4.3 MB as an 8-bit RGB TIFF ZIP-compressed file
- 0.4 MB as an 8-bit RGB JPEG 60 file
- 0.1 MB as an 8-bit RGB JPEG 10 file

How does NeatDesk let you control the resolution and compression? Obviously you could see huge differences in disk space consumption depending on your settings.

30GB for a couple months of paperwork seems excessive, as if common office documents were being saved at too high a resolution, or with no compression, or black-and-white documents saved as color data unnecessarily, etc.

I picked this up from Woot three months ago. I went back and dug up the post I made about it after I used it for a while. Here's my thoughts:

Overall, I'm happy with my purchase. I already had the mobile scanner version of it, and I also have the acclaimed Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500. I will be using all three. It may seem redundant, but they each have their own strengths, and I'm more than willing to drop the money if it helps to keep me organized and de-cluttered. And so far, it does help.

Pro-tip: it appears that you can download the newest version of Neat (version 5) for FREE on their website. Just say that you were a previous user of Neat, and they take you through a couple of screens and give you a download link and a software key. Easy peasy. So if you lost your disc or didn't get one, use this.

I did have one issue, at first. When I set up my Neat database "filing cabinet", I put it on my secondary hard drive. After I spent 4 hours scanning a box of receipts, I closed the program and re-opened it later. It said that my database was corrupt and no longer able to open. What Tiny Flowers?!

Well, it looks like it "forgot" where I had put the database and looked to its default location. When it didn't find it, it freaked out and said it was "corrupt". Yet the database was just fine. So, I simply moved the entire database from my original location to where Neat defaults to and it worked fine. Not an issue since. Strange, but I'll live with it.

Once again, happy with my purchase. If you have the money and the need for something like this, you will be too. Thanks, Woot!

Update: it's still alive and kicking. No issues (besides the weird software hiccup mentioned above).

PS: Regarding the negative reviews on Amazon, it's worth noting that a lot of bad reviews I've seen in the past was regarding the software (usually 4.0). The new software (5.0) fixes a lot of the issues and bugs from before. It's not perfect, but it's come a LONG way. The hardware itself is solid, so the software finally caught up.

Ridiculously overpriced especially for a refurb.

I have one of these scanners and have been using it for several years now. I have a policy of scanning all my documents then shreding them.

First, let me tell you that I love the dual sided scanning feature. It's so easy to put a 10 page double sided document in the scanner and then press one button to create a PDF of it.

Previous scanners that could do two sides required two passes. This does it with one.

I'm impressed with how long of a receipt this can handle. I go to BJ's and buy a couple things and the receipt seems to be a mile long. I've never reached the scanning limit due to the length of a receipt.

Although you see the commercials about having all sorts of different paper sizes in it at once, that's not really practical. You really can scan all the different sizes like they say but you pay want each of them to be their own PDF or go into separate folders so I usually scan them separately anyway.

There is an option to scan each page as it's own PDF or combine all pages into one PDF. So, if I have several receipts from the same store, I put them in the scanner all at once and that saves me time.

The scanner gets a "highly recommend" from me. Now, the software on the other hand.... It's great but it seems to crash/lockup a lot. Some claim it's due to an intermittent connection in the USB cable and that might be true; however, it is my position that a program should stop gracefully when there is a connection problem instead of locking up or crashing.

diannevan wrote:I have the opposite experience. I scan about 10 pages a day every day and they are all in my Dropbox.

I just looked and I have 391 full-sheet files and it only takes up 67.2 MB (for all of the 391 files).

I wonder why you and I have such vastly different results?

I just looked at mine and it's 19.1 Gigs and I have scanned 4,452 individual documents. Some of those are single page and some are multi page. Some are single sided, some are double. Some are color, some are black and white.

I do agree that an individual double sided color document can appear larger than it should. I have to send a PDF of a receipt to my boss for reimbursement and it's too large for the website to handle. I then open it with Acrobat and use the Optimize feature. It drops the filesize tremendously. Although there is a loss in quality doing this, it's minor.

Disk space is cheap so I will continue to scan my documents at high quality mode.

have the portable from woot over 2 years ago. Still going and I love it. The software is free to upgrade evidently forever. Started with 3 now have v5. Did not take long to master the feed, long reciepts are no problem just keep an eye on them when feeding. File size is not an issue, don't take up much space. I have thousands of receipts over 100 full sheets. If I had the $ I would be in for 1

Also, the neat company is very responsive to suggestions in their software. I discovered a bug once. If you selected the "Remove Blank Pages" option, then the documents did not crop correctly. A small business card came up as a full page document with a huge black background.

I contacted Neat about this and at first they tried to talk me into admitting I was doing something wrong. When I sent them examples and was able to prove it was doing what I said, they came back to me a couple days later and said their tech team has just confirmed it is a defect in the product. They then said that they will work on a fix and have it ready for the next update.

anthonyg wrote:Ridiculously overpriced especially for a refurb.

50% off is a great price. I have the portable scanner and I love Neat Receipts, it is easy to use just read the directions and go forward.

anthonyg wrote:Ridiculously overpriced especially for a refurb.

Then show us another company that sells a double sided scanner for a better price.

zikzak wrote:How does NeatDesk let you control the resolution and compression? Obviously you could see huge differences in disk space consumption depending on your settings.

30GB for a couple months of paperwork seems excessive, as if common office documents were being saved at too high a resolution, or with no compression, or black-and-white documents saved as color data unnecessarily, etc.

There is an "Image Optimization" slider control that has to the left "Smaller Files" and to the right, "Better Quality." You get to pick anywhere between the two extremes. Also, when scanning, you have the option of "Black and White (Text)," "Black and White (Image)," or "Color." So, like you stated, if you are scanning just text, that file size is significantly smaller using one bit per pixel.

haloman800 wrote:The files takes up a lot a space. I scanned a couple months worth of documents (about 75 single pages per month) and it took up nearly 30 GBs.

So much for synchronizing my scanned files with all my computers via Dropbox.

Maybe instead of Dropbox you should use TappIn?

Then you can have those files on your phone, iPad, tablet, Home PC, Laptop, Work Computer, without any space restrictions, and you don't have to take the time to upload them, you can get to any of them from any device on demand.
http://www.tappin.com/

Well that is how I do it anyways.

Jason

CowboyDann wrote:If you're using this to do your taxes for your business you should be able to write it off as a business expense right?

Yes you can. The files with the new version are considerably smaller but this is normal for this type of storage. I also have an enormous datafile but it contains a enormous amount of data.

Alysa

CowboyDann wrote:If you're using this to do your taxes for your business you should be able to write it off as a business expense right?

Yes you can. To answer CowboyDann, The files with the new version are considerably smaller but this is normal for this type of storage and can be adjusted in v5. I also have an enormous datafile but it contains a enormous amount of data.

Alysa

My boss, the editor of a paper, loves his. But I do think you need an "organizational" mindset to make best use of it.

It's kind of like a spreadsheet. Either you use one or you don't.

Bandrik wrote:I picked this up from Woot three months ago. I went back and dug up the post I made about it after I used it for a while. Here's my thoughts:

Overall, I'm happy with my purchase. I already had the mobile scanner version of it, and I also have the acclaimed Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500. I will be using all three. It may seem redundant, but they each have their own strengths, and I'm more than willing to drop the money if it helps to keep me organized and de-cluttered. And so far, it does help.

Pro-tip: it appears that you can download the newest version of Neat (version 5) for FREE on their website. Just say that you were a previous user of Neat, and they take you through a couple of screens and give you a download link and a software key. Easy peasy. So if you lost your disc or didn't get one, use this.

I did have one issue, at first. When I set up my Neat database "filing cabinet", I put it on my secondary hard drive. After I spent 4 hours scanning a box of receipts, I closed the program and re-opened it later. It said that my database was corrupt and no longer able to open. What Tiny Flowers?!

Well, it looks like it "forgot" where I had put the database and looked to its default location. When it didn't find it, it freaked out and said it was "corrupt". Yet the database was just fine. So, I simply moved the entire database from my original location to where Neat defaults to and it worked fine. Not an issue since. Strange, but I'll live with it.

Once again, happy with my purchase. If you have the money and the need for something like this, you will be too. Thanks, Woot!

Update: it's still alive and kicking. No issues (besides the weird software hiccup mentioned above).

PS: Regarding the negative reviews on Amazon, it's worth noting that a lot of bad reviews I've seen in the past was regarding the software (usually 4.0). The new software (5.0) fixes a lot of the issues and bugs from before. It's not perfect, but it's come a LONG way. The hardware itself is solid, so the software finally caught up.

Yeah one of my few complaints about Neat is the inability to have the database in an alternate drive and the inability to save the backup to a share. But they are just annoyances since I keep everything on share and away from anything at all possible to do w/ Windows. Windows is used for as few things as possible. Neat, Quicken and some conferencing software I need for work. I like my scanner and overall the software too. I have the mobile version and each time this comes up I think about buying it to replace my other brand scanner I have integrated that takes me an extra step to funnel the scans into Neat. I just don't think its worth $249 to me, my personal limit is closer to $200 for a refurb considering the other one I already own.

Good luck all

cengland0 wrote:I just looked at mine and it's 19.1 Gigs and I have scanned 4,452 individual documents. Some of those are single page and some are multi page. Some are single sided, some are double. Some are color, some are black and white.

I do agree that an individual double sided color document can appear larger than it should. I have to send a PDF of a receipt to my boss for reimbursement and it's too large for the website to handle. I then open it with Acrobat and use the Optimize feature. It drops the filesize tremendously. Although there is a loss in quality doing this, it's minor.

Disk space is cheap so I will continue to scan my documents at high quality mode.

My files are never that large. I scan my receipts in and my expense report file, join everything together and then export it to a pdf that I need for work. The file is small enough for our crazy system to handle and we have a lot of people that complain that they have problems with other programs creating their pdfs. I have done it the other ways and Neat does it real easy.

I don't think my datafile is that outlandish for what I have scanned also though I think mine is half the size of yours currently, but I have a large folder that needs to be imported in. I use my other scanner a lot now to dump full pages in that I can use the sheet feed with. Small receipts I still use my mobile Neat for. I looked at that Fujitsu that everyone raved about while it had some features that were nicer overall it wasn't a better deal. The storage program was not impressive and required too much hand holding. The software is the best thing about Neat. Its Windows fault that one cannot integrate other companies scanners since you can do this on Mac. Hmm I have a thought maybe one could use a Mac VM for this since you can buy the Mac software separately and it integrates with other scanners like the Fujitsu. I have to look and see how workable this would be. Anyone out there use Neat with a Mac VM?

32% bought THREE? Really? Two to give away?

Seems a little steep for an impulse buy to give to all of your friends! I mean, I did that with Mr. Beer, but that was 20 bucks!

This deal is about as sexy as Bea Arthur from golden girls. It gives a Roomba a run for the money.

Bandrik wrote:I picked this up from Woot three months ago. I went back and dug up the post I made about it after I used it for a while. Here's my thoughts:

Overall, I'm happy with my purchase. I already had the mobile scanner version of it, and I also have the acclaimed Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500. I will be using all three. It may seem redundant, but they each have their own strengths, and I'm more than willing to drop the money if it helps to keep me organized and de-cluttered. And so far, it does help.

Pro-tip: it appears that you can download the newest version of Neat (version 5) for FREE on their website. Just say that you were a previous user of Neat, and they take you through a couple of screens and give you a download link and a software key. Easy peasy. So if you lost your disc or didn't get one, use this.

I did have one issue, at first. When I set up my Neat database "filing cabinet", I put it on my secondary hard drive. After I spent 4 hours scanning a box of receipts, I closed the program and re-opened it later. It said that my database was corrupt and no longer able to open. What Tiny Flowers?!

Well, it looks like it "forgot" where I had put the database and looked to its default location. When it didn't find it, it freaked out and said it was "corrupt". Yet the database was just fine. So, I simply moved the entire database from my original location to where Neat defaults to and it worked fine. Not an issue since. Strange, but I'll live with it.

Once again, happy with my purchase. If you have the money and the need for something like this, you will be too. Thanks, Woot!

Update: it's still alive and kicking. No issues (besides the weird software hiccup mentioned above).

PS: Regarding the negative reviews on Amazon, it's worth noting that a lot of bad reviews I've seen in the past was regarding the software (usually 4.0). The new software (5.0) fixes a lot of the issues and bugs from before. It's not perfect, but it's come a LONG way. The hardware itself is solid, so the software finally caught up.

Could you please elaborate a little more as to how and why you use the three different scanners?

I bought the portable edition of this scanner when it was recently sold here on woot. However, it arrived while my husband was in the hospital/ICU, so I haven't had time to start using it. I think I read in comments and reviews that the portable didn't come with the full edition of software (or perhaps it's a different software?) as the desktop. Is that true? I'm wondering if I buy the desktop will the software be compatabile between the two so I'll have the upgraded software for both. My husband used to handle the finances for both of us. Mine are simple but his were complicated so it looks like I'll be scanning in a lot of documents from the past year(s) so I know what to expect for the rest of this year and next. It seems like I can use the portable at the hospital (just not in ICU) for current bills, but need something heavier duty for the backlog. I was waiting for HoverCam's portable book scanner (that was such a hit at this year's CES) to come out of Beta to finish digitizing my extensive sheet music collection, but now they've moved that release date from April of this year to sometime in 2013. I'm wondering if this desktop edition scans good enough copies in PDF so I can successfully tranfer them to other digital music formats. Any thoughts on that from you or anyone else?

Possibly stupid question, but if you get the Mac version, can you easily switch to using it on a Windows machine, or are you locked into whatever version you choose?

CelticHarp wrote:Could you please elaborate a little more as to how and why you use the three different scanners?

I bought the portable edition of this scanner when it was recently sold here on woot. However, it arrived while my husband was in the hospital/ICU, so I haven't had time to start using it. I think I read in comments and reviews that the portable didn't come with the full edition of software (or perhaps it's a different software?) as the desktop. Is that true? I'm wondering if I buy the desktop will the software be compatabile between the two so I'll have the upgraded software for both. My husband used to handle the finances for both of us. Mine are simple but his were complicated so it looks like I'll be scanning in a lot of documents from the past year(s) so I know what to expect for the rest of this year and next. It seems like I can use the portable at the hospital (just not in ICU) for current bills, but need something heavier duty for the backlog. I was waiting for HoverCam's portable book scanner (that was such a hit at this year's CES) to come out of Beta to finish digitizing my extensive sheet music collection, but now they've moved that release date from April of this year to sometime in 2013. I'm wondering if this desktop edition scans good enough copies in PDF so I can successfully tranfer them to other digital music formats. Any thoughts on that from you or anyone else?

I also use the mobile one and keep it in my laptop bag for when I am away from the office and need to scan. Works great if I am at the courthouse and need to scan something for a file.

I use the Neat Desk model at home to organize my personal documents.

The Fujitsu ScanSnap is a work horse I use at the office because it is much faster than Neat Desk and has replaced my copier and using myfax.com, my fax machine, and it scans to file when I want to close out a file and burn it to disc for storage.

Each scanner has a place and I couldn't live without all Three.

CowboyDann wrote:If you're using this to do your taxes for your business you should be able to write it off as a business expense right?

Theoretically, you can write off anything you deem to be usable in a business (Schedule C Expense Item), but in reality, you will have to have justification to show the IRS (when they audit you) that equipment you buy was used for your business. Therein lies the rub: even with justification to the IRS they can disallow your use of it for business purposes if they don't think you used the scanner for business.

... then there is the tax courts you can appeal to.

LOL, and good luck BTW.

Has anyone used this to scan photos? I need a scanner for the sole purpose of scanning printed photos, to save to disks/flash drives/etc., but my copier/printer/scanner all in one device, takes FOEVER to scan EACH photo, and you have to open it cover, place it carefully, close the cover (without it moving around,) click to scan it, click to save it, and then take it out and do it all over for each one. . I'd LOVE to have a device you could put pictures into a tray, and that would automatically pull in each one, scan it, save it, and go to the next one, but I've never seen "pictures" in the description of things it scans. (Like documents, receipts, etc.) so...if anyone has tried this, or knows of a device that would do this for pictures, I'd love to hear from you. Thanks!

CelticHarp wrote:Could you please elaborate a little more as to how and why you use the three different scanners?

I bought the portable edition of this scanner when it was recently sold here on woot. However, it arrived while my husband was in the hospital/ICU, so I haven't had time to start using it. I think I read in comments and reviews that the portable didn't come with the full edition of software (or perhaps it's a different software?) as the desktop. Is that true? I'm wondering if I buy the desktop will the software be compatabile between the two so I'll have the upgraded software for both. My husband used to handle the finances for both of us. Mine are simple but his were complicated so it looks like I'll be scanning in a lot of documents from the past year(s) so I know what to expect for the rest of this year and next. It seems like I can use the portable at the hospital (just not in ICU) for current bills, but need something heavier duty for the backlog. I was waiting for HoverCam's portable book scanner (that was such a hit at this year's CES) to come out of Beta to finish digitizing my extensive sheet music collection, but now they've moved that release date from April of this year to sometime in 2013. I'm wondering if this desktop edition scans good enough copies in PDF so I can successfully tranfer them to other digital music formats. Any thoughts on that from you or anyone else?

I use the portable ("NeatReceipts") and it is the identical software, just different hardware. Mine came with version 5, though when I did the update, I saw that there was no differentiation between the software for the biggie or the portable scanner.

There was a lot I liked about the big one (faster, automatically feeds multiple pages, automatic double-side), but I decided on the portable simply because it is so small that I can take it with me when I go somewhere and it takes up virtually no room on my desk (when not in use, it sits in my keyboard drawer next to my keyboard and mouse).

amydlong wrote:I also use the mobile one and keep it in my laptop bag for when I am away from the office and need to scan. Works great if I am at the courthouse and need to scan something for a file.

I use the Neat Desk model at home to organize my personal documents.

The Fujitsu ScanSnap is a work horse I use at the office because it is much faster than Neat Desk and has replaced my copier and using myfax.com, my fax machine, and it scans to file when I want to close out a file and burn it to disc for storage.

Each scanner has a place and I couldn't live without all Three.

Thank you!