Interesting. $5 more than when I got mine, but perhaps the extra $5 means that you will actually get the dust cover we were promised but never received.

Here it was over at sellout... wait a second, you guys didn't sell out?

I've had mine a few years now. I don't use it as much as I thought I would or probably should. The software years ago was a bit contrived but it has become much better as they did a major software overhaul in recent versions and you are entitled to free software updates.

If you ever have a problem with it their support is pretty top notch.

Our office purchased a few of these for us, as we're always on the road. It's a great mobile scanner for business cards, receipts, and shorter documents, but I wouldn't get one for daily home use if you plan on scanning more than a few pages a day.

Definitely a good price, though!

I still consider NeatReceipts in Beta phase. When they have wireless devices I will be more interested.

I use mine everyday but do NOT use their database - Database was way too slow and bulky for my older pc. Database got HUGE fast. I use what they call "Scan center", a smaller program included that is quick and dirty way to create PDF's for quick filing on your harddrive.

Scan center was taken out of a later release (I think it was V5). People were really angry. I contacted them and they sent software to "back" grade to previous version with "Scan center". Very happy with just the scanner and scan center.

My opinion hasn't changed from when I posted this last woot, except fallen further behind in scanning (and everything):

whatsamattaU wrote:Finally, something I can comment on based on experience. Need a little bit of care putting small receipts in. Most receipts scan well except faint ones--software may have trouble reading the price, date, company, etc. Software not the fastest, don't expect 10 second scans. Organization with software helps a lot, just think of categories in advance. I haven't tried the newest software--supposedly a lot better, and I haven't tried scanning to PDF (option if you're worried about proprietary software). I wouldn't try photos, based on previous comments (others can find previous woot). Scanner is light but feels decently made. I have to go back to work, but I like what I have so far--one of my better woot purchases, just need time to scan rest. Have not tried business cards, but see no reason why it wouldn't go ok. Bye.

that's all I can do. gotta go.

edit: one last comment. I spent $84.99 three years ago, 10 dollars more.

I bought this a few years back and it shipped without any software. I emailed Neat 6-7 times over a month or so period and never got a single reply from them.

The only way I was able to get the product to work was to install a trial version of the Neat software which happened (at the time) to install drivers so I could then use the scanner with other programs, but I was never able to use the Neat software because I didn't have a real license cause it never shipped with any.

The product works fine as a normal usage scanner, but because of their complete and utter lack of support I will never buy another Neat product again.

I purchased one of these new about 4 years ago. At the time my hubby had a job and was going to use it for business trips. We never got to use it.His company went bankrupt and so the job went out the window. Then our computer died (we had a fun year!) and could not get XP, so had to buy one with Vista (big yuck). within the first year (still under warranty) I finally opened the neat receipt scanner only to find it would not work with Vista. I contacted the company and was told I had to buy a disc with the driver! $35 bucks more! Are you kidding me???? I still have not used it and would love it for archiving all my tax papers but honestly, I am not paying this horrible company another penny. At the same time I was being denied use of my scanner without doling out more cash, the scanners were on the shelf with software for Vista! If my package had been marked only XP would work (not until you opened it, did it state this). I would never have purchased.

Purchases limited to (1) unit? Is that a mistake?

I'm torn on this one... I've wanted a scanner to digitize more of paper trash, but really a full sheet-fed scanner would be better--but those are pricy! The small size of this one is great, but having to feed documents by hand might mean that I wouldn't use it as much.

ThunderThighs wrote:Nope, that's correct. Asking that you share the Neat this time.

Wow, the button really means I WANT ONE this time...

undave wrote:I bought this a few years back and it shipped without any software. I emailed Neat 6-7 times over a month or so period and never got a single reply from them.

The only way I was able to get the product to work was to install a trial version of the Neat software which happened (at the time) to install drivers so I could then use the scanner with other programs, but I was never able to use the Neat software because I didn't have a real license cause it never shipped with any.

The product works fine as a normal usage scanner, but because of their complete and utter lack of support I will never buy another Neat product again.

Click here http://www.neat.com/neat5softwareupgrade and then follow the instructions and then you will have your software my friend!

I have the Desktop version (same software, though). I've used it thus far to scan the forms for our scout troop. My comments are based on that, not on using for receipts/tax:

1) The database seemed clunky to me. Also, it did not seem to do much OCR on the full document, so searching by keywords found in the document might not be as effective (e.g. I had to fill out titles by hand, I was originally hoping that it would try to do that for me -- since it is doing OCR anyway).

2) Installing the PDF software caused my XP machine to shut down completely, unexpectedly, whenever I launched the software. After uninstalling the PDF software, the behaviour hasn't gone away.

3) I haven't tried their customer support yet.

Vivek

zacanderson45 wrote:I still consider NeatReceipts in Beta phase. When they have wireless devices I will be more interested.

There's actually a Neat app in the iPhone app store (probably an Android version as well) - free for "Neat Cloud" account holders - you can use your phone to scan in receipts and business cards, etc and sync to outlook, etc.

I've wanted to get one of these for a long time. Very nice price. People are selling these used on Ebay for more than $80

Any chance the desktop version will appear on woot again?

ThunderThighs wrote:Whoops. Did you contact Neat to see if they could send you one? They would have the parts (hopefully) to do so.

TT, I got mine March 25 over at Sellout.woot. That offering is now missing the discussion; I suppose that was a result of The Troubles. But, from the discussion then, it was pretty obvious that nobody got the promised dust cover, and nobody was getting any satisfaction contacting the manufacturer.

Turns out I got a dud then; the first scan worked, but no others. I contacted the manufacturer, who initially did not read my trouble ticket and sent debugging instructions using the previous version of the software (which I did not have). Once I called them, they finally figured out what I already knew: the lamp had died. To their credit, they quickly mailed out a replacement (refurbed, of course) which I'm still using. Still didn't get a dust cover then.

Lack of a dust cover ultimately didn't matter; I bought a hard-shell case for the scanner that also holds the cables. I take it with me when I travel, to scan receipts for my expense reports. I never use the Neat database; I always scan to .pdf.

I'm considering buying one and was wondering if it would be useful in the following situation:

I'm a math teacher, and a couple of days before I give my students a test, I give them a practice test. I also print out the practice test, write out full solutions, scan in the solutions, and upload them to my website as PDFs. Unfortunately, the scanner in the computer lab is often broken, and so it would be nice to have a smaller scanner to use in my office.

Would the Neat scanner be good for this? My only real desire is to be able to scan in four pages and make a PDF document out of them. And since I do it infrequently, it doesn't have to be that fast. I just want to be able to do this quickly and easily.

It is a great product. I just scan docs and throw the original in a box. We'll gather our year end reports for IRS in about 1/10 the time. The more you use the more tricks you'll find out.

My only complaint is the time it takes for a scanned image to appear for review. The software updates are a little slow also but I'd buy another.

emengee wrote:I'm considering buying one and was wondering if it would be useful in the following situation:

I'm a math teacher, and a couple of days before I give my students a test, I give them a practice test. I also print out the practice test, write out full solutions, scan in the solutions, and upload them to my website as PDFs. Unfortunately, the scanner in the computer lab is often broken, and so it would be nice to have a smaller scanner to use in my office.

Would the Neat scanner be good for this? My only real desire is to be able to scan in four pages and make a PDF document out of them. And since I do it infrequently, it doesn't have to be that fast. I just want to be able to do this quickly and easily.

I'm also a math teacher and have wanted a document scanner so I could do the same thing. What i really want though is a scanner with a document feeder so I can scan all my students' work and have digital copies of everything they've done.

Overall has been a good product and this is a great price. BUT (and I capitalize that for a reason) their latest software has been a disaster for some people. After installing v5.1 I could no longer open the database, and ended up having to install it on another PC. Their tech support was good but they eventually told me I had a .NET Framework problem on my laptop (I think that's BS). Check out their support forums and make your own decision.

emengee wrote:I'm considering buying one and was wondering if it would be useful in the following situation:

I'm a math teacher, and a couple of days before I give my students a test, I give them a practice test. I also print out the practice test, write out full solutions, scan in the solutions, and upload them to my website as PDFs. Unfortunately, the scanner in the computer lab is often broken, and so it would be nice to have a smaller scanner to use in my office.

Would the Neat scanner be good for this? My only real desire is to be able to scan in four pages and make a PDF document out of them. And since I do it infrequently, it doesn't have to be that fast. I just want to be able to do this quickly and easily.

Neat has a bigger one with a document feeder. According to their website the portable scanner will only do one at a time. I'm pretty sure that the software functions the same though.

emengee wrote:I'm considering buying one and was wondering if it would be useful in the following situation:

I'm a math teacher, and a couple of days before I give my students a test, I give them a practice test. I also print out the practice test, write out full solutions, scan in the solutions, and upload them to my website as PDFs. Unfortunately, the scanner in the computer lab is often broken, and so it would be nice to have a smaller scanner to use in my office.

Would the Neat scanner be good for this? My only real desire is to be able to scan in four pages and make a PDF document out of them. And since I do it infrequently, it doesn't have to be that fast. I just want to be able to do this quickly and easily.

I can help! I have this scanner, so I tried it out to confirm if it's suitable for your needs. Good news: it is.

The scanner has a dedicated PDF button on it, and in the official Neat 5 software you can choose "Combine pages into a single item" under Settings, and you can then click Scan > to PDF (or just press the button, which is much easier). A little window pops up after each page that asks if you have more pages. Just keep feeding it pages, then click "done". Your PDF file is saved, and opens after a second or two for you to review it. Easy.

I believe this scanner also has TWAIN drivers that let you use the scanner with any 3rd party program that accepts TWAIN-style scans. For example, Adobe Acrobat Pro, or even PhotoShop.

This thing's perfect for you. It's relatively small (fits in your desk drawer) and is powered by USB so no power cable to worry about, and it isn't terribly slow either.

dumyfou wrote:I'm also a math teacher and have wanted a document scanner so I could do the same thing. What i really want though is a scanner with a document feeder so I can scan all my students' work and have digital copies of everything they've done.

This scanner would work (see my answer above), but for your ideal solution... you'd want something faster and more automated. The Neat Desktop scanner does that, and does duplex (double-sided) scanning. And if you're REALLY dreaming big, get a Fujitsu ScanSnap. There's a few different models and price points, but the S1500 is the most popular and about $400 on Amazon. I have both, either would work for you.

Overall for your needs I'd suggest waiting until Woot has the Neat Desktop scanner. With some vigilance in your woot-checking, you'll probably see it in a month or two, especially during a woot-off.

Bandrik wrote:I can help! I have this scanner, so I tried it out to confirm if it's suitable for your needs. Good news: it is.

The scanner has a dedicated PDF button on it, and in the official Neat 5 software you can choose "Combine pages into a single item" under Settings, and you can then click Scan > to PDF (or just press the button, which is much easier). A little window pops up after each page that asks if you have more pages. Just keep feeding it pages, then click "done". Your PDF file is saved, and opens after a second or two for you to review it. Easy.

I believe this scanner also has TWAIN drivers that let you use the scanner with any 3rd party program that accepts TWAIN-style scans. For example, Adobe Acrobat Pro, or even PhotoShop.

This thing's perfect for you. It's relatively small (fits in your desk drawer) and is powered by USB so no power cable to worry about, and it isn't terribly slow either.

Thanks so much for taking the time to check that out for me! I really appreciate your advice and decided to buy one!

I have a scanner with a document feeder. I looked into Neat Receipts in the past as a more convenient way to scan receipts and letters that come in the mail so I can put the paper version in the trash. Neat scanners are not fast enough to be convenient for this purpose. And, I found out that there is a great utility in iPhone called Genius Scan which will take photos of documents correct for the angle, clean contrast and make into pdf. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id377672876
Sure enough there is an Android version too. I am pretty sure there are other apps that do the task quite as well.

emengee wrote:I'm considering buying one and was wondering if it would be useful in the following situation:

I'm a math teacher, and a couple of days before I give my students a test, I give them a practice test. I also print out the practice test, write out full solutions, scan in the solutions, and upload them to my website as PDFs. Unfortunately, the scanner in the computer lab is often broken, and so it would be nice to have a smaller scanner to use in my office.

Would the Neat scanner be good for this? My only real desire is to be able to scan in four pages and make a PDF document out of them. And since I do it infrequently, it doesn't have to be that fast. I just want to be able to do this quickly and easily.

See my post above...----

Database was way too slow. I use what they call "Scan center", a smaller program included that is quick and dirty way to create PDF's for quick filing on your harddrive.

Scan center was taken out of a later release (I think it was V5). People were really angry. I contacted them and they sent software to "back" grade to previous version with "Scan center". Very happy with just the scanner and scan center.

emengee wrote:Thanks so much for taking the time to check that out for me! I really appreciate your advice and decided to buy one!

Sweet! And you're quite welcome. Since it's for your students, it was totally worth it to me to take the time writing all that. I'm just glad you read it in time to make a decision.

If you could, please consider re-visiting this page in a couple of weeks and posting about how it worked out for you. I'm interested to hear your take on it! =D

mschmaltz wrote:See my post above...----

Database was way too slow. I use what they call "Scan center", a smaller program included that is quick and dirty way to create PDF's for quick filing on your harddrive.

This is a moot point for emengee's needs. Saving the files as PDFs, even when using the included Neat 5 software, totally bypasses using their database structure. The PDF files live happily in whatever folder you put them in.

I have one of these which I bought refurbished directly from Neat.

I LOVE it!

It's great for mobile office use, and because I'm lazy, it often gets used at home, too.

The software is...uh...clunky. I haven't upgraded to the newest version, though. I don't plan on it until I'm sure I can keep my direct to PDF capability. Still, I make good use of the database, and let it add up all of my receipts for me. I do NOT rely on it to read receipts properly, so I enter all of the pertinent info by hand. I deem this only a minor inconvenience, however, because without it, I would have to hand-enter all of that info into my accounting program anyway. But, if I did that, I wouldn't have digital copies that I can search, sort, and create reports out of.

Obviously, this scanner isn't the solution for everything. I pull out my fancy flatbed scanner for photos. I stick with my all-in-one for many office uses. The portable Neat scanner, however, goes EVERYWHERE I go.

I've even accidentally impressed people by having it on hand during a "crisis" when someone REALLY needed a copy of something and our location had a printer, but no copier or scanner.

I whipped that sucker out of my computer bag like some fancy bit of Batman gadgetry, and saved the day like a true superhero.

I bought one of these a few years ago from Neat. It was a refurb, but I've never had any problems with it. I also didn't have any of the issues I've read that I couldn't get the software since it came directly from Neat.

With that said, I love this thing. I actually like the portable one over then desktop one because I can use it anywhere, including the desktop. I've never had a problem with a paper jam, or a paper twisting. My scans have been remarkably clear.

The only drawback between this and and the desktop is, of course, the issue of only being able to scan one document at a time. Still, I think the price of the desktop which doesn't have the mobility of this one kills any benefit of the feeding only one page in a time into the portable one.

I think you will be pleased with it. I have been.

I bought one of these off eBay in mid 2011. I didn't make much use of it until this April when I had my assistant scan in ~2 years worth of receipts... ~1500 of them (bless her soul).

Scanning itself is somewhat slow, because it's a portable scanner, so I didn't expect much. Neat V5 software is much better than V4, but it seems like the removed or changed around features that I expected so it made it a little bit harder to use.

But the biggest problem I have, is the software. A somewhat frequent problem I've read about is database corruption. If you've got any kind of worthwhile data, backup the database (you can do it from the program).

TWICE, our database has corrupted itself randomly, and becomes completely unusable. There is no way to recover unless you had done a proper backup from the program (my fault I know, but the database corruption is inexcusable). The drive the files are on is backed up, but you have to use the program's backup feature to make it useful. Google it, and you'll read some about it.

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any other solution that will scan, OCR, and file your receipts. If you're using this just to do any kind of frequent scanning (without using the neat software), I think you can do better. Neat still has more work to do on their software (and I know I'm not the only one complaining). I haven't tried their desktop version but based on the software side, I'm leery of it.

5 days later and the status is still "Awaiting Shipping".

Has anyone had theirs shipped yet?

Just got mine and it won't scan anything! I put the paper in (have tried a receipt, a biz card, a piece of paper, the calibration strip) and it buzzes and won't take up the paper.

egigi wrote:Just got mine and it won't scan anything! I put the paper in (have tried a receipt, a biz card, a piece of paper, the calibration strip) and it buzzes and won't take up the paper.

Have you contacted the manufacturer? If they can't help you, please contact service@woot.com for help.

iteststuff wrote:5 days later and the status is still "Awaiting Shipping".

Has anyone had theirs shipped yet?

Not me. Still waiting.