Macworld Gets NeatWorks and the ScanSnap to Behave

Many people have heard of the portable document scanner called NeatReceipts. NeatReceipts comes with a piece of scanning software called NeatWorks.

What happens if you want to use the NeatWorks software but don’t need the scanner part? Will NeatWorks play nicely with the Fujitsu ScanSnap?

If you have the newest version of NeatWorks, it will. From the software, you can choose to scan from the ScanSnap. If you have an older version, Ted Landau from MacWorld found out what you need to do:

As it turned out, to get things working, I had to select NeatWorks from ScanSnap Manager’s Application pop-up menu rather than go the other direction (selecting ScanSnap from NeatWorks, as I had been trying to do thus far). I now know this because, after contacting NeatWorks technical support, they directed me to a PDF document that explains it all in detail. After doing this, the pairing worked!

Do any of you use NeatWorks with the ScanSnap? Or do you like the NeatReceipts scanner better? Leave a comment and let us know what you think.

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About the Author

Brooks Duncan helps individuals and small businesses go paperless. He's been an accountant, a software developer, a manager in a very large corporation, and has run DocumentSnap since 2008. You can find Brooks on Twitter at @documentsnap or @brooksduncan. Thanks for stopping by.

Leave a Reply 7 comments

Jack Of All Trades - January 9, 2011 Reply

Well it is actually the most buggy software ever. I have to finish my year of scanning 2010 into neatworks. For 2011 I will be using Paperless. I downloaded the trial. It scanned 150% faster than neat receipts, was better at placing the info in the correct fields, and didn't hang up at all! I litterally have sent Neat Co at least 100 emails showing them what happened. I am tired. I have spent more time editing information and scanning and debugging more than actually scanning and using the software. It is the most unstable software I have used yet. I think times are hard and they fired there lead developer so noone is working on it now. I say that because I get the same genereated response from them when I send them emails. Uninstall, reinstall, uninstall, reinstall. ENOUGH!!!! FIX IT!!!!! I want to stick with them but just can't justify it right now.

Brooks Duncan - January 9, 2011 Reply

Yikes Jack, I hope it gets worked out for you. Let us know your results with Paperless and how it works out for you.

GeorgeC - April 7, 2012 Reply

If you Google the reviews on Neatworks there are a lot of people with Jacks problem, whis is one reason why I stayed away from it even tho I wasn't aware the software could be bought separately. I too have Evernote and DevonThink Pro Office. Will probably use the Finder until I find something I can work with. My accountant is using the ScanSnap 1500, but I didn't ask what software he was using other than Adobe that comes with it.

MIke - May 8, 2009 Reply

Neatworks is nice software, like iTunes for your receipts. HOWEVER…. it's buggy. It hangs on me all the time. It's frustrating. Since you can search from Spotlight and find your PDFs its not like youre afraid of losing data, but it's annoying because you do not want to lose your tags on your documents and receipts.

As far as workflow, I'd recommend scanning from Snapscan straight into a folder, and then using Acrobat directly to do the OCR as a batch, and then drag the OCR-ified PDFs into Neatworks to tag them. I think the hanging comes when Neatworks tries to communicate with Acrobat on the OCR and hits a snag.

That said, I'm sticking with the software for a few more months hoping they fix it, because it's REALLY well organized. I wish the Finder had the neatworks organizational ability built into the OS! That would ROCK.

Brooks Duncan - May 8, 2009 Reply

Thanks for the comment Mike. I'm actually getting a review copy of NeatWorks soon so I look forward to putting it through it's paces.

Corey - May 7, 2009 Reply

The ScanSnap is a great scanner. It is important to remember that it works a bit differently with software packages than other scanners. the scanSnap pushes documents at the applications rather thatn the applications pulling the documents from the ScanSnap. Rather than Neat Receipts, another option is the forthcoming Paperless (formerly ReceiptWallet) by Mariner Software. I work at Mariner and was browsing around and saw this thread. You may want to check it out.

http://www.marinersoftware.com

sarah Banko - March 13, 2009 Reply

I am wondering the same thing. Has anyone used this? The videos on their website sure make it sound like organizational bliss! Does one need different software packages to handle different types of paper? The ability to handle receipts effectively for tax time is a huge turn on, but then again, ReceiptWallet appears to do the same thing. I just got my ScanSnap and am trying to figure out my workflow and software. I already have DevonThinkPro Office and Evernote Premium, but am not sure if either does receipts. Help!