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A Review of the NeatReceipts Scanalizer
By JLP | September 7, 2007
Note to my readers: Although I did receive a scanner to review as well as three scanners to give away, I was not paid to do this review.
A few weeks ago, I was contacted by a PR person representing the company that makes a product called NeatReceipts Scanalizer. She asked me if I would be interested in receiving a scanner to review. I told her I would be happy to check it out and that if she wanted, she could send me a couple for a giveaway. Well, about a week later, I received a huge box containg four scanners – one for me and three to give away. More on the giveaway later…
Anyhow, I was swamped when the scanners came in so it took me a few days before I finally tried it out. Here’s my review (keep in mind that this is a review, not a “how to” manual).
First off, here’s a description of what the Scanalizer is (from the NeatReceipts website):
“The NeatReceipts SCANALIZER is a scanner and software solution that helps you organize your paper. Receipts, bills, medical forms, business cards — everything. It scans, analyzes and organizes your papers and stores everything in a database on your PC.”
Sounds pretty cool, doesn’t it?
The box containing the NeatReceipts Scanalizer contained the following:
Scanner (very small and lightweight – can easily be carried in a computer bag)
USB cord
Software CD
Get-started manual
and some other extra items
Setting it up
Before I did anything, I read the brief instruction manual. Although I’m far from being techinically-savvy, I’m not exactly a novice. I had a bit of a problem loading the software although it could have been caused by my firewall and security software (the directions tell you to disable your security software). Eventually I did get everything loaded just fine.
After the software was loaded properly and my computer was rebooted, I opened up the software program to try out the scanner. There seems to be a bit of a lag when booting up the software. It takes A LONG TIME to load, which is a bit frustrating. In order to use the scanner for the first time, I had to calibrate it, using some special calibration paper that came with the scanner. I followed the directions to the letter while calibrating the scanner. I then attempted to scan my first receipt but I got nothing but a blank page. So, I calibrated it again. Still nothing when I scanned in a receipt. It turned out that the calibration instructions were wrong! LOL! Instead of inserting the calibration paper face up, I was supposed to turn it face-down. This make sense because the instructions show scanning receipts face-down. DUH!
Scanning the first receipt
Once I got the scanner calibrated properly, I created the folder where my receipt was to be located. Then I scanned my first receipt, which was receipt for Barnes and Noble. It worked perfectly! The image showed up in the lefthand section of my screen with the data in a spreadsheet format similar to this screenshot. After that success, I tried another receipt.
This time it was a much longer receipt. I didn’t have as much success with this receipt because it seems like the longer the receipt, the more likely it is to shift as the scanner pulls it through, which will mess up the image. And, if the software program can’t read the image, it can’t put that information into the spreadsheet. Yes, it can be manually inserted but that kind of defeats the purpose of scanning the receipts in the first place.
Another frustration I faced was that the software doesn’t recognize every store’s logo, which means that it won’t insert that information into the spreadsheet since it can’t read it. I’m sure this will get better with time, but for right now, it is what it is.
Scanning business cards
Scanning business cards is where I was impressed the most. To try it out, I scanned my friend’s business card and EVERY piece of information was properly placed in the appropriate fields. It was amazing. It didn’t do quite as well with my business card, but it was still impressive. The one drawback is that I can’t figure out how to export that information to Outlook as I can’t imagine using the NeatReceipts software to organize my contacts.
Overall impression
Overall, I think the NeatReceipts Scanalizer is a cool little tool. It’s portable and at the very least makes a nice portable scanner. Is it worth $199? I don’t know but lots of people at Amazon.com
Topics: Budgeting | 9 Comments »
September 7th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
Sounds like an awesome product! My wife and I are trying to go paperless and recycle what junk paper we get in the mail (hopefully a lot less since we signed up with greendimes!). Love the posts by the way. Keep up the good work.
September 9th, 2007 at 10:43 am
Your NeatReceipts Scanalizer sounds lika a very neat / useful item to have when oraginizing receipts for income tax time.
September 9th, 2007 at 10:50 pm
[...] A Review of the NeatReceipts Scanalizer by JLP @ All Financial Matters. JLP reviews a receipts and business cards organizing gadget – it sounds pretty cool. He is giving 3 such scanners away, go ahead and try your luck. Scanning business cards is where I was impressed the most. To try it out, I scanned my friend’s business card and EVERY piece of information was properly placed in the appropriate fields. It was amazing. [...]
September 9th, 2007 at 11:30 pm
Thanks for the informative review
It sounds pretty interesting, but how does it compare to a traditional scanner? Any benefits over it besides its compact size?
September 19th, 2007 at 10:39 am
Fantastic…i love it…
September 25th, 2007 at 2:58 am
Have you a comparison to KeyScan KS810 the integrated color document scanner built in a PC keyboard and it’s default “No Touch” Scan, Copy, Email and Fax applications?
September 26th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
I also bought one. Fantastic. Business cards, documents and receipts are just a breeze. Light weight and reliable. And you can export the business card data straight to Outlook using the export/import data standard CSV or Vcard. Love it to bits!
February 9th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
I got mine earlier this week, Its incredible how this works but it works . one problem I did notice is tht when the leeters on the business cards are really , really small it has a problem scannin ght eccorrect info.. But after a week cant go worng. Got mine on Costco.com for around $170.00 also came with travel case..
August 28th, 2008 at 12:18 am
I just purchased mine. I hate the software, love the scanner. I just want to use it as a portable scanner, no ocr, no sorting, just scan and save to a folder of my choosing on my computer. So, I scan a document and export it, then delete it from the scanner’s software. So far I use it, but I would like to use different software.