Sure, we are all sick of paper receipts cluttering our wallets, purses and pockets…but a new study shows that the receipts themselves may actually be making us sick!

A recent article in Science News reveals that a thin layer of the chemical bisphenol-A can be found on many credit card and cash register receipts. This same chemical found in baby bottles and plastic water bottles has been linked to diabetes, liver toxicity, heart disease, and birth defects.

While the study has not yet been published or peer-reviewed, it seems a good way to reduce any risk of exposure is to either refuse paper receipts, or handle them as little as possible. Of course, getting them out of your pockets and scanning them into a digital filing system works, too.

Read the article here.

As part of National Preparedness Month, The Neat Company wanted to share some ideas on how digital document management can actually help to keep you and your family safe in the event of an emergency.

One of the most crucial aspects of preparation for an emergency is having the right supplies. The Ready America website encourages everyone to prepare an emergency survival kit with basics such as fresh water, food, a dust mask, and medical supplies. Also included on the survival kit checklist is a collection of important documents such as copies of insurance policies, personal identification, and bank account records. In the event of an emergency or natural disaster, would you be able to quickly locate and pack all of these documents without putting yourself or your family at greater risk?

That’s where The Neat Company comes in: in addition to having all of your paper documents stored in a safe place, you could also have a portable, digital library of your family’s important information, in the event of an emergency such as a fire or flood. With NeatWorks scanning and digital filing software, your entire family’s birth certificates, medical records, insurance policies, and financial information can all be archived onto a tiny portable USB drive, packed in your Survival Kit and ready to go at a moment’s notice.

Learn more about how Neat’s scanner and software solutions can help you be ready for an emergency.

For the past several weeks we’ve been running a Back-to-School sale, and offered lots of tips to parents and teachers for keeping school-related paperwork organized all year long.

Recently, we’ve also heard from several college students who have taken our NeatReceipts portable scanner with them to school, and have found a great new way to stay organized and on top of their school-related paperwork.

“An organized college student!?”, you say? Well, it’s true! Here are just a few ways smart students everywhere are using Neat to get to the top of the class:

We’re even hearing about students who use Neat to scan paper documents that they can access with other applications like Evernote.

If you’re the parent of a college-bound student, you may find some peace of mind knowing that your little valedictorian has the best tools to help him or her stay organized without you there to help them! You may even convince them to scan all their receipts so you can see where they’re spending all that money they made during summer break. (Well, that might be pushing it.)

For a limited time, you can pick up the NeatReceipts portable scanner and software combination for just $199.95. It also comes with a FREE travel case, to protect it from…well, from whatever happens in those college dorms.

Check out the sale today! (Offer expires 9/13/09)

Our NeatWorks for Mac developers have been hard at work these last few weeks, making sure the new update would be ready in time for the release of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.

So we are very happy to announce that NeatWorks 2.1.7 is now available, and fully compatible with Snow Leopard! With this latest release, we’re now focusing on taking advantage of the more advanced capabilities of the OS X 10.6 operating system. The next major release of NeatWorks, slated for the fall of 2009, will deliver new features that utilize technologies such as Quick Look, Core Image, and Image Capture that Apple introduced in OS X 10.5 and improved in OS X 10.6.

Congrats to the Mac dev team for gettin’ er done!