Once you've scanned a receipt, its image shows up in the Receipt Manager window, and data such as vendor name and amount appear to the right. The genius of the NeatReceipts software lies in its ability to search scanned receipts for common fields such as date of purchase, total, payment method, and vendor name. The software is organized into four main screens: Receipt Manager creates a one-line database entry for each receipt you scan, Expense Reports lets you create a new report into which you enter receipts, Drag And Drop lets you drag the receipts between windows, and Document Manager lets you scan other documents such as utility bills or contracts. The basic protocol: Hook up the scanner to your computer and launch the software, slide a receipt into the scanner, then click the prominently displayed Scan button within the program's main interface. Installing the NeatReceipts software is quick and easy, thanks to a well-written installation guide and the CD's helpful tutorials, which walk you through the layout of the software and hardware. However, entering data manually into NeatReceipts' intelligent software forms takes less time than in Excel, which makes this device worth its price tag if you're self-employed or a business traveler who generates frequent and copious expense reports. Of course, NeatReceipts isn't perfect: it fails to make heads or tails of handwritten receipts or those from a noncomputerized cash register, and it's a pricey $250, considering it serves only one function. If that doesn't sound appealing, you've clearly never waded through a shoe box full of paper scraps on the eve of tax day, and you probably don't spend precious hours taping photocopied receipts to handwritten expense reports.

It also allows you to export the data to Excel, various financial software packages, and even Adobe Acrobat. NeatReceipts is a dainty sheet-fed scanner and software combo that scans your receipts, interprets the text, and enters the information into a database.

Neat receipts app for iphone