My experiences have been mixed Caveat Emptor and all that...
The instructions/help files are a joke. It tells you what any high level cretin can deduce, but there's NO help for details.
Customizing is an absolute nightmare. They advertise that the information can be exported to Excel.
BUT WAIT- THERE's MORE! NOT SO FAST, THERE, SPARKY!
The program is trying to be everything for everyone - store receipts, documents, tax records, business cards, whatever, categorizing and storing the information, making out tax forms, and more.
I've gone through Hell trying to just scan receipts, add data when the OCR can't make out information, and export to my company's Excel report.
I've ended up with an ALMOST usable solution, which means remembering that this or that category is really something else, exporting to an Excel file page, then running a macro on the Excel file to format and place things where they are needed. I just need 6 columns for numeric expense types, a date column, and 4 columns of alpha information like vendor, remarks, location and one more. I now have to enter information in "dollar amount only" categories and reformat the info in the Excel macro. Clumsy at best.
It is almost impossible to set the categories you NEED and delete or hide those you don't, which only serve to clutter up the process.
Thus far, trying to export the scanned receipts in picture form to the page in the Excel sheet has made it with mixed success. Small (like check stubs) receipts end up terribly distorted in the Excel page, but look great in the NEAT program. Whole page receipts (like hotel bills) end up tiny. If you do one receipt per page the file bloats beyond emailability. And the receipt images often end up split between two pages, unless you dork with the Excel page setup each time. now that's a needless chore.
I've spent over 45 man hours trying to make this thing work. Took a while to figure out that when exporting to an Excel file, after you specify what columns and what row to start, the program INSERTS rows beginning at that line, so any references you have elsewhere in the form are screwed up, and your form grows in length by the number of receipts. Anything else I have used to export to Excel puts the data in the spaces provided and doesn't mess with your form. Boy, was that a bad assumption! So I end up exporting to a different page and then copying the data and formatting it with a macro. Kinda like making love wearing a flying suit, mittens and an oxygen mask. Very clumsy and not very satisfying.
The scanner is pretty nifty and is handy to keep in the travel bag for just about any kind of scanning. Works quite well, in fact, in XP, and Vista (shudder). The scanner is worth $80 or so. The package isn't worth $400 IMHO.
I'm dumping VISTA (another story) and loading XP on this machine soon. Alas, there seems to be no way to copy the settings I have made thus far, so it is back to square one, it appears.
Surprisingly, the OCR on the scanned images works better than I have seen elsewhere.
There seems to be no way to keep records in a central database and use the program on two machines - in other words, I have to use my laptop to do the reconciling and report generation, rather than being able to being the data to my desktop at home, with the big screen, printers, etc.
Support? Hmmm... that's a toughie. From time to time NEAT folks will reply on the forum and they DO try to help. But there seems to be a mindset of "that's the way it is, and that's the way it will stay", or "Jeeze, I just don't know..."
If you are cool with using their form and their template as is, and constantly wading through a lot of stuff you don't need and can't hide or delete, then go ahead and buy it. If not, you can find this little scanner elsewhere for a lot less than the package price.
Want to have some fun? Stop by one of the NEAT airport kiosks. Start asking pointed questions on the subjects I have listed above. You see more blank stares and/or tapdancing than a Gregory Hynes revival. To quote the late Jackie Gleason, "ahhh, hummanah hummanah hummanah..." It's quite entertaining although hardly informative.
I don't wish to offend anyone at NEAT, but I'm from farming stock, and if I see horsecrap, I call it horsecrap. You had the opportunity to make a really sterling product here, but dropped the ball as far as I can tell. If the product can do what I have mentioned, then TELL US HOW!!! If I am wrong about anything I have put forth, I WELCOME input from NEAT or anyone else if it helps me make this product work to what I believe are its advertised abilities.
Yours for Better Television,
-- Doc
www.dumont.tv
