A friend is drowning in receipts, and like everyone else has seen the TV ads for the Neat Scanner. Anyone have experience with this, or less heavily advertised competitors? She’d like to do less re-entry of data and wind up with an Excel file if at all possible.
$350 for a desktop scanner? In 2013? Did I just wake up on Mars?
Yeah, it seems to be 90% advertising and 10% product - and that there is a space for a much more reasonably priced competitor.
I think part of the 90% is also the magic software that automatically creates files, expense reports, spreadsheets and things (according to the ad). I think that would be worth maybe $100 if you had a lot of receipts. Otherwise, all scanning does is get the papers off your desk, but it doesn’t organize anything.
I have a lot of receipts from a couple of home remodeling projects that I’d like to organize, but it’s not worth that much money (even too much trouble to get the free trial). So I just put them away in a large box in case I ever need them.
Roddy
I’m highly skeptical that the IRS will accept scanned receipts as evidence, should they decide to look at your tax returns. If I’m wrong about that, I’d love to hear it.
Which means that you still need to keep, organize and maintain your receipts on paper, PLUS scan them. I can’t see how this does anything but increase your workload.
You only need to keep them. Organizing can come later, if and when audited.
The friend I’m asking for is the accountant for a company, and she has to deal with a lot of receipts for various people for various projects. She’s looking for something to make plowing through a huge pile of paper easier.
Is this one of those areas that is so small and specific that one terrible company can offer one mediocre product and nobody can or will compete with them? (I’m glaring at you Intuit!)