Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread? Nah. EVEN BETTER!!!

I want to be upfront and tell you that I have issues. I have a TON of paper - receipts, bills, insurance claims (think about all of my medical stuff!!!). It just piles up. I'm always thinking that at the beginning of every year, I'm going to get on top of things and not wait until April 14th to start sorting and organizing.

sigh

And that's where my head has been for the past five years.

This year, I did get slightly motivated and I purchased Quicken. As you can imagine, it's difficult to be productive in Quicken especially if you're not in an 'accounting place' in your head.

SO. I thought for sure that this tax season, I would be in the same place again.

And then - as luck would have it - I came across this way cool toy - Neat Receipts Scanalizer. Now that I've had it for two months, I'm not sure how I survived without it.

About the Company
Founded in 2002, by Rafi Spero and Les Spero, NeatReceipts has one main focus: to provide user-friendly scanning solutions that reduce paper clutter and simplify paperwork for both individuals and business. That's it. Their story is very grass roots. The idea for the Scanalizer was born at UPenn - they took their product and started selling it through a kiosk at Philadelphia International Airport and now, they're a full-fledged, private company who was recently named Startup Company of the Year by Eastern Technology Council (December 2006).

What This Is
This is the Neat Receipts Scanalizer! You get a scanner (10.8 x 1.6x 1.3 and weighs less than a pound); a usb cord; a scanner holder (allows you to store it upright); a scanner sleeve; a thick paper which is used to calibrate the scanner; a thin linen-like sheet which you can use to clean out your equipment; and software that analyzes the data you scan in.

The scanner is way cool - not your "traditional" flatbed scanner. It resembles - well - a three hole punch! The scanner sleeve is extremely convenient and well-made. It allows you to easily pack away your scanalizer - in your carry-on, your computer bag, and even your purse.

The Specs
I'm not a girl to usually include these things in a review however, because this product is extremely unique, I just can't take for granted that it's covering what this consumer is looking for.

System Specs
Before you get too excited about this toy, know that it works only with Microsoft Windows 2000 or XP. Like everyone else in the world, they're currently working on making it compatible with the Vista beast.

Other things they list:
Pentium IV 1.3 GHz or later
512 MB RAM (1 GB recommended, 2 GB under Windows Vista)
300MB hard disk space to install (database can scale up to 20GB or approximately 800,000 receipts)
CD-ROM drive
Available USB port
A broadband internet connection is suggested for updates

User Specs
Even if it works well with my laptop, it has to be able to be functional for me as a user. When you think about scanners, what's important (at least to me), is resolution, speed, types of documents you can scan, and surface area you can scan.

Scanner resolution is 600 DPI - which is good and necessary for important things like submitting receipts to the IRS and to my company for reimbursement.

Processes 3-4 receipts per minute.

I have yet to find any receipt that it wouldn't scan in appropriately.

The scan area is 1"x1" to 8.5" x 30" (includes standard & legal documents).

Installation
For those of you who read my reviews, you know that I have a tendency to not read directions. I figure, if it's not intuitive enough to figure out on my own, then it's probably not going to be a product that I'll use consistently.

I did though - for this particular product - take the time to skim the instructions to ensure that at the very least, I didn't end up causing more damage to my laptop (at least more than I could recover from).

I loaded the software that it came with and pushed play. It took about 25 minutes for the installation to occur and when it was completed, I was prompted to go to their web site to both register my product and to see if there were any updates. As luck would have it - I had the latest and greatest version, so all I did was register my scanalizer.

Getting Started
I was giddy with excitement. What would I scan first? What would happen to it once I scanned it? I was definitely in an experimental mood and picked up a receipt from Walgreens.

I slid the receipt to the slide, pressed scan, and it sucked the thin, wispy paper in. Seconds later, it was on my screen, being analyzed and transferred into a table-like spreadsheet. It actually read everything on my receipt - the date, the types of items, the amount, how much was tax, etc....

I have had the most beat-up receipt still scan in through the scanalizer. At times where the software may not be able to read a number (because I've smudged it so badly), you always have the option to correct the information in the spreadsheet before you move on.

AMAZING!!!

As you scan through each receipt, you have SO many options at your fingertips. You can split up the receipt (within the program) so that the costs are accounted towards different categories. This comes in handy when you go on a business trip and everything - personal and work-related - ends up on one receipt. It will split it out for you while still maintaining the relationship to the original receipt.

After playing with this feature for awhile, I skipped over to see how it would handle me scanning in random business and personal documents. I went ahead and scanned in all of our original mortgage paper documents along with the other items I consider "valuable" like proof of insurance, birth certificates, etc...

Resolution was crisp and the interface to organize my paper was addictive.

Analyzing Everything
The reporting feature within this software is something that every numbers freak would love! You literally, can point and click and see where you spent your money, what vendors, how much sales tax, etc...

The Name of the Game - Integration Baby!
The worst thing about the iPod is that it only interfaces with Apple's proprietary software which makes the process of loading, buying, listening, to music - a real pain.

Apple should take a page from NeatReceipts. NeatReceipts recognizes and understands that the power of their product just isn't in its initial use (document storage/recordkeeping) but in its ability to interface with 3 bazillion other, everyday productivity type tools.

For instance - remember that Quicken I purchased? Yep, the stuff I load in through my scanalizer I can easily export to Quicken. I've already customized fields in both and since I've matched them up - SO much less work for me to do within Quicken.

The latest software download - which was free from their website - was especially targeted to those who wanted to interface with TurboTax. It included all of the pertinent, 2006 tax updates so that I did not have to manually intervene when importing and exporting data between the two programs.

For more information on every other integration possibility, visit their website at http://www.neatreceipts.com

The End
Although I've not totally completed my paperless lifestyle, I am on my way to doing so. I highly recommend this toy/productivity tool to very busy people and those who suffer from AD/HD. Its organizational methods are easy and intuitive and you don't have to be a bean counter to understand how the software works.