I’ve heard of the Neat Receipts scanner before, but never really gave it much thought until I joined Endorse, and my sister pointed out how helpful it would be.

What surprised me most about the scanner itself was just how small it is.  I’m sure I’ve seen dimensions listed somewhere before, but that somehow just doesn’t translate to real-life.  I can’t picture the numbers.  When I think “scanner,”  I automatically picture a pretty good-sized machine.  You could probably fit three or four of these into the same space as a Subway foot-long.  (I don’t recommend eating it, though.)

The other thing that surprised me was that it scans more than just receipts.  Again, I had probably technically heard this, but it just hadn’t “clicked.”  It scans receipts, business cards (which also turned out to be really helpful for me!), and documents.

It isn’t hard to set up.  The instructions are good, and the quick-start information is very clear.  There are a couple of things in the package – cleaning paper and calibration paper – that I still am not sure how to use.  But, as they didn’t appear in the setup instructions, I assume they aren’t strictly necessary when getting started.  During installation, the software instructs you to hook up the scanner.  At that point, you plug it into your USB drive with the included cable, and you’re ready to go!

Scanning could not be easier.  Insert your item in the scanner – a little icon on the machine helps you remember where, and which direction – push the “scan” button, and off it goes.  The software automatically determines whether you have just scanned a receipt, business card, or document, and drops it into the appropriate column in the  “inbox.”  (This is the main page of the software.)  If it goofed up, no biggie.  Just drag it to the proper column.  A couple of the business cards I scanned confused it, but otherwise it did a great job categorizing things.

I found the basic features of the software impressively simple, easy, and intuitive to use.  Once your items are in the inbox, a button appears below each one, which you can click to file the item.  The item then pops up in its own window, where certain information has been pre-filled.  A receipt, for instance, has places for category, amount, etc.  A business card has name, address, email address, etc.  You can edit this information as necessary, then choose or create a category at the bottom of the window, and click  “file.”  The item leaves the inbox at that point and goes into the receipt, document, or business card organizer in whatever folder you chose to put it in.

It did an excellent job on all of my receipts.  (Now if they’d integrate a price book for grocery shopping, that would be awesome!)

It did well with most of my business cards, but I thought it fell a little short in this area.  It was nice to be able to come home from Relevant and pop through all of my business cards in just about – I don’t know, maybe 20 minutes or so – and then be able to toss the physical cards.  (I still have a stack around here somewhere from last year.)  It had trouble with cards that had dark backgrounds, though.  It’s the actual information filing where I felt it could use a little help, though.  In this social media-driven age, there were not places for Twitter tags, Facebook pages, etc.  And there isn’t a field where you can leave notes.  So if you made a note on someone’s card to help you remember who it was, why you had the card, etc., there isn’t anywhere to put that.  And (as far as I know), you can’t connect a  “front”  and “back” scan to the same entry, so it doesn’t handle two-sided business cards well.  Even with all that said, though, it still made life much easier.

I have not scanned any true “documents”  yet.  It seems, though, that this could be a really handy way to keep track of which epatterns or ebooks (the pdf kind) I have on my computer.  (You can import files that already exist in your computer.)  Because they’re searchable, it would be just like databasing them.

There are definite advantages to this, especially if you’re using something like Endorse, where you have to send in original receipts, but you want to have a record.

Disclosure: The manufacturer provided me with a Neat Receipts scanner to facilitate this review.  As always, all opinions are 100% my own.