My son has developmental delays, which means he has an IEP for school. That means that a LOT of paperwork comes home. I’m also on the Executive Board for our town’s Special Education PTA, which means more paperwork. Plus I get the normal household’s paperwork. I throw as much of it out as I can but there’s still a lot of things that I’d like to keep in case I need them. The problem is, I just don’t have the room to store it all. Don’t believe me? Look in here.

I’ve got five more file drawers just like that one, so stuffed I can’t fit another piece of paper in there. Even if I had the room to keep it all, paper doesn’t always store and age well. I have been searching for a better way to manage everything for a long time.

This week I was lucky enough to be able to review the NeatReceipts Mobile Scanner. I believe I have found the better way.

Could there really be something that could turn my piles of papers into electronic documents and file them away just like that? The box says there is.

The NeatReceipts Mobile Scanner connects to your computer with the included USB cable and requires no power adapter. You know what I think so far?

The NeatReceipts Mobile Scanner is portable, it’s not much longer than a ruler. It can scan papers up to 14 inches long. It weights a little more than half of a pound. It’s barely bigger than the picture on the outside of the box.

The NeatReceipts Mobile Scanner is very easy to install. After you open the box the first thing you need to do is install the software from the included CD. Then you connect the scanner. As soon as I connected it I got a message in my system tray that a new usb device had been found  and a message within the software that the scanner needed to be calibrated.

I wondered how long this would take and what I’d need to do. Turns out all you need to do to calibrate it is scan a specific piece of paper that is included.

Took about a minute.

That’s it. The scanner was installed and ready to use in less than ten minutes. Scanning is just as quick and easy. All you need to do to scan something is put it into the front of the scanner, text side down, and press scan. The item you’re scanning goes through quickly and surprisingly quietly. See for yourself. This is video of the very first time I scanned a document. It seems longer than it is because I was holding the camera with one hand so I only had one free hand to feed the paper and type.

My first scan with the NeatReceipts Mobile Document Scanner from valmg on Vimeo.

During scanning, the NeatWorks software captures contact information and printed text. I was able to read everything I scanned as well as I could read the originals. When storing the document keywords are included, which you can search by later. You decide where to file the document, and you can export documents and into many file formats including vcard, PDF, Excel, Word, Outlook, Quicken, TurboTax and Quickbooks.

I scanned for about an hour and had no problems. I can’t say enough good things about the NeatReceipts scanner. For those of you wondering, I actually have a multi function Brother printer/fax/scanner. I hate scanning with it. Things don’t always come out clearly, even with OCR. To turn scans into PDFs I have to take extra steps using other software. The documents can only be saved in certain formats and they can be stored anywhere. I think the NeatReceipts Mobile Scanner beats my Brother for scanning hands down in every way. I can carry the scanner and my laptop anywhere and use it, rather than having to wait to get home to scan in my living room. All of the scans are stored in an organized, like manner in the digital storage system. The quality is terrific.

Neat Receipts is made by The Neat Company and is available in both a PC and MAC version. The PC version retails for approximately $229. The Mac version retails for approximately $199. Neat carries another product I’d love called the Neat Scan To Office, which installs a toolbar from which you can scan right into Word, Outlook, Excel and PowerPoint. For anyone wondering, I reviewed the PC version and ran it with no problems on my MacBook Pro using Parallels.

Neat has me on my way to being paper free and a lot more organized. At this rate in a week or so I’ll be able to reclaim a big section of my kitchen countertop! Then I can tackle those other file drawers. And the desk.

Posted in Household, Reviews |

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