With piles of documents, receipts and whatnots filling up my poor old black file folder and wallet, plus the threat of natural disasters like the recent Ondoy flooding made me realize that it’s better to have a backup “digitize” copies of important paper works and stuff.
NeatReceipts is a portable scanner and software which can digitize, file and archive information from receipts, business cards and documents. Read my quick review after the jump.
Neatworks is very useful in filing receipts, docs and business cards. The software even auto-detects the content via OCR and files them accordingly.
I tried filing my old Shakey’s worn-out receipt and the software automatically categorized the data printed. It detected the date, order total, company name and files them accordingly. If you’re in the US it even computes your tax info for quick printing and filing.
It does the same for scanned business cards. It detects which info is the name, position, company, email and contact numbers. I’m really impressed with the accuracy. It can also scan in full color at 600dpi max (with easy PDF export) for those important letter documents.
I got the PC version back then when I didn’t know I’ll be getting a Mac so I contacted the support service of Neat Company and asked them the difference between the NeatReceipts for Mac and PC. I thought it was a software issue only that can be remedied by downloading a Mac software but they answered:
If the serial number begins with 574P, you will be able to use the scanner on both Mac and PC. If the Serial Number starts with CN, the scanner is PC only.
Unfortunately for me, I have the CN version. Meaning I can only use this on Windows-based computers. If I use this on a mac, I’d have to reboot and run windows via bootcamp.
Pros
- Good all-around scanner (only for letter-size docs)
- Good software OCR recognition, even on faded-out receipts
- Will make you an organized person
- Free hard carrying case
- Small and portable USB-powered.
Cons
- Be sure to know what you would get. PC or Mac.
- Can’t fit papers larger than it’s slot. (though you can scan long papers since its a feed system.)
- I didn’t notice any international currency, files in US$ symbol.
- Software update is not free for new versions (3.0 to 4.0)
See NeatReceipts