I got myself one of those Neat Receipts Scanners and I am having a heck of a time getting it to work. I am running OpenSuse 12.3 with kernel 3.3.10-1.16-desktop (output of uname -r) The scanner is detected by the computer but I can't use it, I don't have a driver. I can only use sane-find-scanner with sudo and this is the output: eric@linux-qa4t:~> sudo sane-find-scanner root's password: # sane-find-scanner will now attempt to detect your scanner. If the # result is different from what you expected, first make sure your # scanner is powered up and properly connected to your computer. # No SCSI scanners found. If you expected something different, make sure that # you have loaded a kernel SCSI driver for your SCSI adapter. found USB scanner (vendor=0x1f44 [The Neat Company ], product=0x0001 [Neat Mobile Scanner]) at libusb:001:026 could not fetch string descriptor: Pipe error could not fetch string descriptor: Pipe error # Your USB scanner was (probably) detected. It may or may not be supported by # SANE. Try scanimage -L and read the backend's manpage. # Not checking for parallel port scanners. # Most Scanners connected to the parallel port or other proprietary ports # can't be detected by this program. Here is the output for scanimage -L: eric@linux-qa4t:~> scanimage -L No scanners were identified. If you were expecting something different, check that the scanner is plugged in, turned on and detected by the sane-find-scanner tool (if appropriate). Please read the documentation which came with this software (README, FAQ, manpages). I was able to get my hands on the firmware which is a file called cism216.fw and I have that in the gt68xx folder. I tried editing the gt68xx.conf file. Though I could only do that logged in as root, there has to be a better way. I'm at my wit's end. Does anyone know someone who has a brother who has this thing working? Or is it a lost cause?
Wayne of Plover, WI Verified Reviewer Verified Buyer
Nov 2, 2016 - Neat is getting out of the desktop software game, and that seems to have many. Neat stopped their Legacy desktop support early this year. Hey – I purchased a old MAC and loaded to old version of NeatDesk and it works.
Original review: Jan. 31, 2019
Thus far, I've scanned a lot of invoices for one of my clients with my NeatDesk. It has been fantastic because it categorizes everything. I'm the one doing the financials on a monthly basis for clients for clients. I can get those all together for year-end when it comes to doing their taxes. Also, another client of mine has a computer in the Neat Cloud which he can tap into. With it, he can see all the invoices he needs to and review them to see if there are any strange things popping up.
A lot of times, we're looking for an invoice and I say that what is on the Neat Cloud are all the invoices that are scanned. Thereafter, we take it to another level wherein the client has these businesses wherein when the people there go to pay for something, they charge and charge it. So, I see all the invoices come through and the client will look through his charge receipts to make sure that the invoices I have on my end match out. If they don't, the Neat Cloud is gonna throw a flag and say that we're missing an invoice. So, the system will go back to the person who bought whatever and say that it's critical that if they buy something, they should throw the invoice in an envelope that has each of the locations. That envelope would then go to me so I can scan the invoice and categorize it.
The system is interesting. It's a good way to keep track of your invoices. I've been an accountant for 30 years now, whatever, and there's a lot of people that are so worried about the IRS or the state taxes. This way, clients have evidence right here. If ever they get audited, they can print out those invoices. Moreover, it's an audit trail and the client even pays some of his guys' bonuses on that too. If he has all the invoices, those guys will get a bonus too. Though scanning all the invoices takes a bit of time, the Neat System has been fantastic overall.
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The Neat Company response
Wayne,
Thank you so much for taking the time out to write a review! We are glad to hear that you have enjoyed you NeatDesk scanner and the software. It is not to hear that you are able to stay completely organized and easily have important documents readily available for usage at any time. Thank you so much for the kind words and thank you for choosing Neat!
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Brian of El Dorado, OK Verified Reviewer Verified Buyer
Original review: Jan. 2, 2019
I started using Neat on January 1 of 2012 and I have used it ever since. I scan every receipt from personal to non-personal. I have the setup in categories just like my tax forms. I can also look back at an instant and tell what I paid for gasoline and how many gallons. Also, I can tell at what convenient store in 2013 and on any given day. It is very simple to do a search and to find any information that I saved. I can categorize things as simple or as complex as I care to do so.
But, I spent a few years trying to decide whether to go from the Legacy up to the Neat Cloud. I read many negatives but very few positive feedback. I decided that with my experience that I’ve had Legacy for six years, I felt it was worth the chance. So, I took the opportunity and purchased the Neat Cloud on January 1 of this year. I have learned how things were gonna be a little different between the Legacy versus Neat Cloud and I also wanted to have access to customer service. I have used them quite a bit since the 1st of January and they have answered every question completely. They have been very good at it.
Moreover, I like the mobile scan feature of it over the Legacy. It is very simple and I can take a picture of the receipt wherever I am at and it is uploaded to the cloud. And whenever I get a chance to sit down to the computer, it is there. I can make sure it is categorized correctly in the system. I like that I can have receipts and documents emailed directly to Neat versus having it emailed to my regular email which I import over into Neat. I also like that I can email directly from Neat which also saves a step. As of today, I do not think that I’ll ever look back. It was a good step to move to Neat Cloud and it’s just perfect. That aside, I have told my friends that they could not go wrong by choosing Neat to do their stuff.
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The Neat Company response
Brian,
We greatly appreciate the time that you have taken out to write a review. We are very glad that you have liked the transition from the Legacy software over to the Neat cloud based software. We are still improving the product and hope that you enjoyed the many new features that are on the way. The mobile scan feature is definitely very convenient when on the go. It is a feature that makes it easy to scan receipts when you are not by your scanner. Thank you so much for choosing Neat!
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Michael of Nederland, TX Verified Reviewer Verified Buyer
Original review: Nov. 24, 2018
I knew I needed the NeatDesk when I saw the commercial advertising them and saw how they worked. I saw how they record things for your programs, download stuff for your business and kinda keeping track of everything. Those are basically all the paperwork that I have. My previous method was all paper and a calculator, so the NeatDesk is a lot better. I use it to download all my documents for my business and put them in categories to get ready for my taxes. Although I should use it weekly, I wait until all my paperwork builds up, about two months at a time, before I use it. The NeatDesk is a lot quicker and easier to use. It's also a lot easier to manage what you have on your documents and what you store on your documents, and keeps them running total of everything. If you've gotta look for something, it's right there. That makes it a lot simpler.
I have a lot of stuff on my Neat stuff. I had five years of my business files and taxes on there. Then one time I lost my hard drive on my computer and I had to get a new hard drive put it. A new hard drive was put in, but I never saved the files to the Neat Cloud like I do now. I thought what was saved on there when I saved it, was saved and I didn't do an offline back-up because I had no idea. That was my one little downfall. After going to a computer place and spending a couple of hundred dollars, I got all of my information back, but I could not open up that program. Then I had to call and I had to spend to get the program to get my files back. But the NeatDesk was what saved me because they were able to log in their remote access, and I've got close to almost 4G of all my files back.
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The Neat Company response
Michael,
Thank you for writing a review! We are happy to hear that Neat is saving you time and keeping you organized with your business! Great to hear that you were able to recover so many files after your hard drive crashed. Like you stated, saving your documents in the cloud will prevent losing your data in the future. Thank you for choosing Neat and if you ever need any additional assistance, please do not hesitate to reach out!
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Ted of Doylestown, PA Verified Reviewer Verified Buyer
Original review: Sept. 26, 2018
I've had a Neat scanner for several years and it started off very well, and then it stopped working. I came back to them once and they told me I needed a software upgrade. I went through a couple of other software iterations on my Mac and I still couldn't get it to work. I got the email for the new Cloud service after that and I was anxious to either find out if the scanner worked or if I could get it repaired.
I had some trouble downloading the software, so I called in and a nice young lady looked and analyzed things on my computer and told me that, in fact, I had not downloaded, or I did not have the right version of the software. She uploaded it and walked me through it, and it works. I'm scanning documents like crazy and I'm very happy. I'm pretty darn impressed with the customer service when I called in and we got an understanding of the problem. The reps were both extremely happy to help. And a lot of places you call, the first thing they wanna know is how much you're willing to pay and I just liked the support.
I mostly used NeatDesk for receipts, business cards and medical records. It seems these days, to go to the doctor, you need to be able to provide medical history in much greater detail and it helps me just keep track of things. Plus, it eliminates the paper clutter. A lot of the stuffs that I scanned is our financial records. I'm retired, so I don't do many reports or things anymore, but I'm looking to upgrade to a version of Quicken that will interface with Neat, and that should simplify things quite a bit.
I've created a grouping of subfolders for the major items that I wanna track, and I scan the documents, so I can go to any subfolder. It’s like all my medical records filled out into a spreadsheet. Everything is in one place. When I upgraded to a subscription plan, I put everything in the Cloud. What I have seems to be working quite well. Neat has been outstanding.
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The Neat Company response
Thank you for your positive review, Ted. We really appreciate your comments and are glad to hear that you are able to keep all your important documents organized in one place with Neat.
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Amer of L'Ile-Bizard, QC Verified Reviewer Verified Buyer
Original review: Sept. 23, 2018
The Neat Scanner is a Cloud-based service and we got it because of the software and hardware integration. It also has an application on the smartphone. I bought a refurbished model and when I unpacked it, the actual cover of the scanner was wobbled. But even though it has lost its form, it did not affect the function of the scanner. I had an issue with the paper feed in and I solved that by buying the cleaning kit from The Neat website. For many years now, I’ve been using the scanner in accordance with the smartphone application.
I have a very basic usage of the NeatDesk. I scan everything in and put it in folders. I use it to keep tabs of my daily spending and make sure that I have a paper receipt of them. I also use the NeatDesk in case one might ask where someone was and inquire about them as a person, so it's a precocious measure as well. I use the Neat Cloud whenever I have receipt, which is twice a week, on average. With The Neat Company, I have the ability to manage the account administrator and have the list of the people that are in charge of the account. The website allows me to manage my account and the users, and there is the listing of the address and personal information.
So far, I’ve run the scanner with no need to do any maintenance. Unfortunately, a folder got deleted. I contacted Neat through the chat and e-mail and they answered. They proceeded to advise me to install the software application for the Mac in the hope that we would be able to recover the folder, but it was already permanently lost. It was the dining-out folder for the receipts and it wasn't important. But if it was another folder, I would have sent more e-mails to see if it was possible to recover it. Overall, my experience with the Neat Company has been excellent. It’s an excellent product, both software and hardware.
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The Neat Company response
Amer, thank you for your thorough and thoughtful review. We appreciate hearing how Neat helps stay organized. Please don't hesitate to contact us at 888-898-3253 if you run into any further technical issues. We are here to help.
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Gary of Garnerville, NY Verified Reviewer
Original review: Sept. 9, 2019
Let say you have a customer and he gives you a card and you create a contact on NEAT. Then a week later, or anytime later, you meet another person working for that company. CAN YOU BELIEVE NEAT HAS NO WAY TO COMBINE THESE CONTACTS???? VERY BAD PRODUCT.
The Neat Company response
Thank you for submitting a review!
We appreciate the feedback. When saving a contact within Neat, our system will automatically save the name of the company that is listed on the business card. We apologize that we currently do not have a combined contact feature but we’d like to mention a change Neat has implemented both internally and externally. We’ve recently opened up an “Ideas portal” -available right inside our application- where our users can provide feedback, request new features (or old features), and even vote on ideas their peers have already requested. The portal has democratized the process in which we can receive the vital information we need to stay innovative, with YOUR voice helping to guide and steer our future direction.
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Original review: July 26, 2019
2019 07 26 - I upgraded my computer and was installing the Neat 5.7 software into it, but I forgot my original password. I cannot reset the password since I do not have a paid account and there is not way to do so. This is no different than ransom. I pretty pissed-off.
The Neat Company response
Thank you for submitting a review.
The reason why you cannot reset your password is due to the version of Neat you are utilizing. You are using our Legacy software that has been retired since 2015. You are more than welcome to sign up with any of our subscriptions or a free trial to see if you are interested in using the software. We would also like to provide you some additional options:
1. Migrate your data to our latest Neat web application and take advantage of an offer exclusively available to our desktop users.
(Our newest update brings back many of the features from our older solutions!) 2. Utilize our FREE Neat scan utility to continue scanning items - directly to your desktop
We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and thank you again for submitting a review!
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Yoel of New Milford, NJ Verified Reviewer Verified Buyer
Original review: May 27, 2019
Neat is a company that only wants you to buy subscriptions. But not everyone needs their cloud service. Neat hasn't produced any workable software or drivers that works with Windows 7 SP! Without crashing 100 times a day. Their software engineers are incompetent. The corporate of Neat is Beneath any dignity, because they refuse to provide any ability to enjoy their products without a subscription. Don't waste your time or money with them. I rarely write product reviews, but this one deserves to be known to caution future victims.
The Neat Company response
Thank you for submitting a review! We are not a company that will force a subscription onto any of our customers that are using our legacy programs. While we did stop phone support for the legacy software and the scanners- we still have a community that is dedicated to our long term customers. Pease take a look here for more information on how to utilize neat without a neat subscription
We do apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
5 people found this review helpful
Kristin of Tooele, UT Verified Reviewer
Original review: May 23, 2019
I purchased a NeatDesk scanner to digitize household documents, hoping it would be quicker and more efficient than my 3 in 1 printer. It will not correctly install the necessary drivers to connect the scanner to my computer. The related program folders are completely empty after installation! Simply put: the driver will not install rendering the scanner useless.
I contacted Neat customer support only to be met with an automated message stating, 'After reviewing our records, it appears that you do not have an active Neat subscription under the email address provided. Agent support is reserved for current Neat subscribers.' The automated 'help' only redirects you to the driver download page. In short, Neat scanners only work with cloud subscription and customer support is only available for cloud subscribers! Thanks to Neat's unavailable drivers and their subscription-based business model, I would not recommend purchasing a Neat product and will be returning my scanner.
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The Neat Company response
Thank you for leaving a review Kristin, The Neat Desk scanner can be utilized without a neat subscription. You can locate more information here on how to use your scanner without purchasing a subscription with Neat. We have discontinued our phone support for our legacy products for quite some time but we do have a community that is accessible 24/7 with many answers for questions you may have about our legacy products. Lastly, if you are having issues with downloading a driver for your scanner, please take a look at our website.
We do apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced by this.
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Ken of Hoschton, GA Verified Reviewer
Original review: May 11, 2019
Recently my computer hard drive with my Neat Software crashed. Once I re-installed a new hard drive and reloaded my Neat Software, it will not recognize my Neat Database. I even tried opening one of my older backup files and it will not open. This has put me in a very bad situation since all my receipts for years has been scanned into a Neat file on my data drive which did not crash and is separate from my program file drive. It seems impossible to get support from Neat. Apparently Neat requires a subscription to their cloud service in order to get help in opening my files. This is unethical and frankly smells of extortion. If I cannot get some resolution, I am contacting my attorney to take legal action.
The Neat Company response
Hello Ken, If you need help with migrating your information over to our cloud based software the yes, you will need to sign up for a subscription. If you prefer to utilize your scanner without the Neat software, you can definitely do that as well.
Please view this article for more information - https://support.neat.com/scanning/using-your-neat-scanner-without-the-neat-software-2