Neat Receipt Desktop Scanner & Cloud Management
January 2013 – The new Neat Receipt Desktop Scanner is a joy to work with. Installation of the software and familiarizing myself with the scanner itself was easy, but the speed of the scanner and companion software was remarkable.
Neat desktop scanner
I am the type who has typically followed the “shove it a box until later” method of filing receipts, which tended to lead to a pile of papers that were crumpled and faded. The Neat Receipt scanner made reclaiming the information quick and efficient. Some receipts that I could barely make out with my eyes, when scanned were transformed through their software into readable and usable data. One thing that made the new software stand out over previous versions was the “auto-correct” feature that optimized the brightness and contrast. If, however, I was not satisfied with the result, I could manually adjust the settings to achieve what I felt was a better result, and the software would save both copies.
Neat Recepit Scanning
The software uses an advanced OCR method to capture the information and extracts key data and then organized into a digital filing system, and as you use the system more it “recognizes and learns”. In other words, if you have a number of receipts that you process from your local grocery store, it will pull out the information and populate the database with store name, date, amount and will later recognize similar receipts.
Neat Dashboard – PC Windows
Although the OCR is not perfect at times, it is the best I have seen.
The software can save images as .pdf, .jpg and more.
The software is organized into 4 sections:
- Business Cards and Contacts
- Documents
- Receipts Organizer
- Tax Organizer
Like on the receipts, the Neat Software recognition system, also makes quick work of colored business cards or documents, pulling out the correct key information and enterring it into the correct fields.
Document management is easier with the software due to ability to find text in the scans of the searchable pdf files it creates.
Neat PC Platform Report Wizard
The cloud enabled option supports both scanning directly and storing the content in the cloud, and hand entry / correction in the database that is stored in the cloud. The key point is the multi-device accessibility of the cloud database through the common browser interface. This is a provisionable activity, that allows for full access, read only, report only, and access to certain branches and categories of information only.
The cloud access enables and person to acan and control his receipts and then have his employer access only the reimbursable items for work from this database without having to create paper reports. Additionally, for e-commerce activities, an email account for the user can be created, so emailed receipts from on-line and electronically enabled POS terminals can directly email the receipt tot he database and eliminate clutter from the standard correspondence email.
Pros
Fast, accurate scans. Ability to take crumpled faded receipts and pull out necessary data
Creates searchable pdf files. Able to export data to Outlook, Quicken, Quickbooks and tax software
Cons
Large file size. Inability to save backup in another format.
Overall,
I like the scanner and the software, it is fast, reliable, and performs above the specifications. Updates I would recommend would be to somehow reduce the size of data file & scans or allow some type of alternate backup system files to prevent losing data. This is an issue when using the cloud enabled storage option. While keeping the files accessible from multiple devices and locations, the large file sizes impose some limitations on what the minimum bandwidth is that is required to connect the home/office computers to the cloud. In many cases, this file transfer & backup can be a significant “pause” in the daily workflow, if the internet bandwidth is consumed with streaming video or video conference traffic.
