NeatConnect Premium WiFi Cloud Scanner - High-Speed Document Scanning & Digital Filing System for PC & Mac - Perfect for Home Office, Small Business & Remote Work

Neat company has some serious haters or competitors are writing bad reviews for them, I hope last is not a case as wouldn't be ethical for anybody to do that, so I'll give you guys my experiance with Neat products as I tried them all I think, OK maybe not all but I tried 3 different models. So here you go. I have been running paperless office for at least last 5 years. We have been scanning everything and I have in-depth knowledge and understanding of this scanners.It all started with a NeatReceipts scanner that we started scanning receipts for tax purposes. Not long after we realized that NeatReceipts scanner is way to slow and moved to NeatDesk. We started using NeatWorks back then on a PC and it was OK process not the best but we ware OK with it, then couple years later we switched all office to Mac environment and had to re-license NeatWorks for Macs, that was relatively easy process but I wanted to talk to someone at Neat to make sure that years of data we entered will be easily transferred.At that time I was for a first time faceing Neat customer support. I wasn't able to get much of the phone support but I was provided with excellent email support. Not ideal as talking to somebody over the phone is always more encouraging. In any case there was a little bit of learning curve on the Mac version but we realized that NeatWorks for Mac was scanning and OCR processing much much quicker then PC version, so we fell in love with it quickly. Then year or so ago they came up with NeatCloud and we thought that would be a good idea as would eliminate a need from us to keep making backups and worrying of storing it offsite. NeatCloud actual works pretty good as you can email receipts to it or any other documents you want to keep digital copies of for archiving. So we are VERY happy with it and can't really imagine keeping truck of all expenses without it.Last and a half we also connected couple Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 to NeatCloud and that has been working great but we found that Fujitsu are not build to last, yes they ware little bit faster then older NeatWorks but they pretty much died in little less then 2 years. So we now are switching back to Neat and found this new NeatConnect. Typically I would prefer regular scanner hat is simply connected to computer and without touch screen etc But let me tell you this was a refreshing surprise. It works seamlessly with NeatCloud without being connected to computer, fast and easy. Now I like this idea as I can simply scan receipts in bundles and then process them in NeatCloud on my leisure as all of them are going to be waiting in a INBOX folder for further processing. I like this a lot as its much faster and fits my workflow much better.Now the touchscreen is not really a smartphone quality but is decant, it dose a job, I wish soft keyboard for emailing the scan that pops up on the bottom of the screen (same as would on a smartphone) is little bit larger as I find it difficult to type, but again its doable, not perfect but dose a job. All in all, this is a great scanner so far, I hope that lasts longer then Fujitsu scanners, that all I'm asking for. The old NeatWorks lasted quite a few years so as long as its that kind of quality or better, I'm a happy camper.I know there are people out there that are happy with Fujitsu and if you are looking at reviews you will find much better reviews at Fujitsu iX500, I liked that scanners while they work, but again I found them defaulting on us often and that's not cool. Also software that comes with Fujitsu is bad, when we purchased it didn't even have mac version of archiving software, I haven't looked since to see if they developed mac software but we ware pretty invested in to NeatCloud with all the time and years of scanned we are storing there that I really do not looking forward to moving to anything else.Summary: I like this new NeatConnect scanner, in whole honesty I can't imagine doing receipt tracking for bookkepping purposes any other way so its surprising to me to see people not happy with it and these bad reviews I can't justify as fair. Oh one more piece of info, I run 2 busy businesses, so data archiving I was mentioned is for both businesses and also my personal expenses. Hope this helps.I was looking forward to a product that would make filing bills, documents, and other paperwork easy. I had tried to go completely digital years ago but it was too cumbersome especially since you had to scan to the computer first, then work on the files on that same computer. Not easy to then share the database either so that idea was quickly canned. But now with this new cloud scanner coupled with Neat's cloud brains and ability to access and work on the files from anywhere, I am a happy camper. The scanner has worked well for me and easily allows you to combine pages together as well as other options when you scan to Neat's cloud, there is a bonus that you can also scan to other clouds such as OneDrive. I found it fed the documents well through the auto sheet feeder (just be sure to put the paper in straight and solid and you shouldn't have an issue) and it saved a lot of time since it has a double sided scanner.The tools for managing the docs are pretty good. I gave 4 stars because these could use some enhancement and there is some difference between the various clients that make is a bit inconsistent. Also, the ability to automatically grab data from documents works inconsistent but it's passable and seems like it will improve over time in the cloud. Nonetheless, it still works well and keeps those docs safe and easy to access. I found that the ability to keyword search was useful and just needs you to think about how you want to file and tag all your data consistently so you can find it later. Overall, I am very glad I got this unit and service. I was a little worried based on some negative reviews but so far I don't see any major issues.UPDATE: I have now had it for about two years! I love it. You do have to pay extra for the storage on neat desk but I just have my files go directly to my dropbox or email address as pdf instead. It is great for my real estate documents, saving warranty papers etc. My fax/scanner/copier is so much slower and will not handle near the workload of this scanner. I am very happy that I have it and although it was pricy I probably would have spent a lot more trying to find other scanners to match the speed. It is small, easy to set up and you can move it around if that makes your life easier. I usually just keep mine in the study but I could put it by the mail or other areas that I use frequently.TIP: When doing documents like real estate contracts of 20plus pages you can reduce to 150dpi and are able to fit in a pdf file that emails can handle. If you scan larger files they get kicked out. Still alot more than you could have ever done with a multi machine and at very fast speeds.CONS: I haven't found it to be awesome with photos. I mean I may not be doing it correctly but I think my HP multi machine does better in that aspect. I have both so it really isn't an issue for me. The buttons on the screen alpha numeric are tiny. I have skinny fingers but I still use a stylus to set up email addresses. Once set up and in address books it is much easier.FIRST WEEK REVIEW BELOW:Have had it a week and so far I love it. It is easy to scan in. Had a couple glitches where it would need to be turned on then back on to see paper but I'm sure I'll figure that out. Easy to set up wifi in my office and portable enough to take home and use as well. Have done photos and paperwork, receipts and business cards with easy so far.