This document discusses how the Neat Receipts scanner and software can help students organize paperwork and improve productivity. It notes that students often struggle with disorganized notes, lost assignments, and wasted time searching for papers. Neat Receipts allows users to digitally scan and file documents, class materials, receipts and more for easy access. The software uses optical character recognition to extract text from scans and allows users to search scanned files. This helps students stay organized and maximize their time spent on schoolwork rather than searching for lost papers.

1. From Paper to Productivity

2. Do you have massive piles of assignments, notes, and other school related documents stacked haphazardly on your desk? Is your current system of keeping up with paperwork and deadlines ineffective or nonexistent? If you answered yes to either of these questions, there is room for you to maximize your potential and productivity as a student. Like most people, college students rely on technology to help them stay connected and manage tasks in nearly every area of their lives. Additionally, technology is often equated with efficiency. A disorganized student can encounter a number of problems including:
 Misplacement of important assignments
 Missed deadlines
 Unprofessional, disorganized appearance
Do not allow your academic career become susceptible to hindered productivity because of hours spent searching for lost documents. There is help to overcome a paper management crisis.

3. Let’s look at some common problematic scenarios… The Project Handout You are in the computer lab on campus to work on an important class project. There are a number of specifications that must be addressed in the finished product. Though you thought you placed the project sheet in your bag, mysteriously, it has disappeared. What do you do? Call your roommate and hope that they answer so that you can try to direct them to rifle through your desk among the other piles of paper in search of your missing assignment sheet? Walk back across campus to your dorm to search for it yourself? Time is ticking away and both choices lead you to the same road: a loss of time spent on task. Test Time Quizzes, midterms, and finals are words that can be the source of much anxiety for the average student. If you are like many students, then test time can be the most stressful time of the semester, if you are unorganized. Digging for lecture notes, articles, and other class handouts can be a frantic process if you lack a systematic way to keep track of your materials. Also, think of the loss of sleep and productivity that you may suffer as a consequence of paper pandemonium. General Clutter Clutter can be a major hindrance to your daily productivity if you have to search for your materials to either get your day started or to keep it going smoothly. Or, perhaps you have roommates and a communal workspace that is regularly in disarray. Whatever the case may be, disorganization is the last thing you want to deal with when facing a deadline. Do any of these scenarios sound familiar? They no longer have to be an issue… Your reputation as a student can be synonymous with productivity, excellence, and success!

4. Previous Solutions In the past students have relied on the following tools to help structure and organize their selves for success:
 Syllabus
 Taking, organizing, and reviewing notes
 The Student Planner
More often than not professors are choosing to assign, collect, and grade work electronically. Although the use of the syllabus, notes, and planners are still relevant (and essential) to keep up with tasks and be an effective student, keeping up with the actual materials can prove to be a challenge. The solution for maximum effectiveness and productivity in an increasingly digital world is the synthesis of your information into one defined space.

5. Imagine the possibilities… Your school life can become the organized, efficient, and virtually paperless dream you’ve always envisioned. Recent advancements in technology have made it possible to not only work with mobility, but to also thrive. There are many applications and programs that are designed to help students be creative and productive. With so many options to choose from and with each program designed to so something different, how does one determine which one will most effectively help a student to stay organized to increase productivity? Would you consider using a software or product that is versatile and flexible to suit your academic needs?
 Portable
 Designed with productivity in mind
 User friendly
 Offers outstanding customer support
 Designed for MAC &PC users
 Compatible with existing programs
(MS Outlook and MS Word, to name a few)

6. Introducing NEAT RECEIPTS… From Paper to Productivity It’s not just for businesses…this is the theme of The Neat Company, that manufactures the innovative system which enables the digitization and storage of your important school documents. Neat Receipts has made it possible for students to organize themselves in a way that maximizes their productivity by reducing time spent sifting through mountains of paperwork. The Neat Company Story The Neat Company was born as a small business that sold their product from airport kiosks across the United States. They began as a group of software programmers who recognized firsthand the need for small business owners to simplify their life. They knew that people needed an efficient system to maintain and organize their important documents.
Since 2002, the company has grown exponentially, and so has the scope of its usefulness in every day life. Because they listened to their consumers in terms of product development and functional needs, Neat Receipts became a top-selling brand and the talk of trade-shows nationwide. The Neat Company embraces technology to help solve the organization challenges that people face.
Portable Scanner

7. Versatility The makers of Neat Receipts recognize that each person is unique and individual’s needs tend to vary depending what their organizational challenges are. Therefore, there are several versions of Neat products to choose from. Neat Desk
 Includes a desktop scanner & digital filing system for your PC
 Is ideal for people who deal with high volumes of paper
 Suitable for small office needs
Neat Receipts
 Includes a mobile scanner and digital filing system for ease of mobility when traveling
 Is the consecutive best selling Neat Company product since 2002
Neat Receipts (For MAC users)
 Designed by MAC users for MAC customers
 Includes a mobile scanner and digital filing system
Neat Works for MAC
 Scanning software & digital filing system for MAC users

8. It’s not just for receipts….
 School
 Syllabi
 Lecture Notes/Assignments
 Research papers
 Quizzes/Tests
 Personal
 ID cards/birth certificate
 Medical information
 Financial Aid documents
 Track monthly spending (books, supplies, food)
 Business
 Receipts
 Business cards
 Other important documents

9. Product Features Besides its portability, Neat Receipts has a number of outstanding features:
 Scanning capability for Important documents
 Intelligent Text Recognition can identify and input pertinent information
from scanned documents
 Keyword search ability on scanned documents
 Archiving capability to free up software space and allow faster processing
Here’s how it works:

10. Scanning Features
 Documents
 Organizes and archives information to a digital filing system
 Equipped with text editing capabilities
 Searchable PDF files
 Receipts
 Records dates, vendors, and amounts on receipts
 Creates expense reports to manage business expenses
 Accepted tax documentation for the IRS
 Business cards
 Keeps images and contact information
 Exports data to Microsoft Outlook and other programs
Neat Receipts is a great time-saver.
Scans multiple documents

11. Keep track of assignments, financial aid paperwork, and other school related documents.
The Future With the advent of new technologies, the world is moving quickly towards a digitally inclined environment. Now more than ever people look to digital sources for information consumption. Not only is it more economical, but it is also environmentally responsible. A number of factors have been attributed to society’s lessening reliance on the traditional paper trail:
 Pressure on businesses to cut costs where they can, especially in a weak economy.
 Technology that will reduce paper output, erase printouts and make reading off a screen easier.
 Concerns for the environment with paper manufacturers being the fourth-largest user of fossil fuels on the planet
 The rise of "digital natives," or people younger than 25. (MONTGOMERY)

12. Hear what others have to say about the benefits of going paperless: Patti Bisson Says: April 22nd, 2009 at 10:35 am With the advent of laptops being more common place than desktops, and more affordable, it makes perfect sense that the next step is integrated digital records. I am personally planning to convert my personal and business records to digital files. The convenient size and versatility of the NeatDesk and NeatWorks system is exactly what I have been looking for. Gregory Dracoulis Says: April 22nd, 2009 at 2:03 pm As a college student and a web developer, this would be GREAT for me. I have looked into using NeatDesk integrated through its API with web services to upload documents for some of my corporate clients looking to ease their workflow, and I can see how this would be incredibly useful to me as a contractor and a student to be able to scan my homework and assignments and keep them as PDFs on my computer, scan and email contracts and leases, keep business cards in order, and just use to file my files easily!

13. Featured Articles and Reviews The Tech - MIT June 12, 2006 Gadget Review: NeatReceipts Professional Scanner and Software The Neat Receipt Professional Scanalizer is a software and hardware package that enables you to un-clutter a life mired in paper. Any fellow entrepreneur, student group leader, or anal individual that is compelled to save receipts can relate to my disposition (I know, that’s not a word, but its the feeling of despising something) of paper receipts. Every meal, every home improvement, every T token results in an inch by inch advance in the machine’s war on trees. Not that this system fixes that problem, but it does provide me a quick way to organize the paper trail into some manageable fashion, rather than a discombobulated Diaspora of disparate documents. In short: scan, the software processes & organizes; you stick receipt in folder and forget. The New York Times - Circuits Holiday Buying Guide December 7th, 2005 "The NeatReceipts Scanalizer is a scanner that eliminates the clutter in the kitchen junk drawer by allowing you to store restaurant menus, lunch receipts, plumbers' business cards and other small documents in your computer. Resembling a small desktop printer, it is simplicity itself: slide your document in one end, and the machine reads it and spits it out. The documents can be converted into almost any format and exported into any word-processing program for PC's. The scanner is also helpful come tax time."

14. A word about environmental accountability…
The Neat Company not only makes products to reduce overall accumulation of paper in your everyday life, but it also strives to practice good environmental habits in their daily operation. A few notable company practices…
 In-office recycling of paper and cardboard products
 Refurbished versions of Scanners are available for purchase
 Packaging materials are 100% recyclable and made from post consumer content

15. Final Words Say goodbye to the burden of finding the proverbial needle in the haystack hidden under mile high stacks of paper. Work smarter, not harder in school by making your papers work for you instead of working to find your important papers. Imagine the possibilities of what you can do with all of the extra time you will save yourself with easy access to your important school information. “Get an ‘A’ for Organization!” With Neat Receipts at your desk you CAN conquer the paper monster!

16. Works Cited The Neat Company. The Neat Company. 2008. 13 February 2010 <http://www.neatco.com/our- company/newsroom>. MONTGOMERY, RICK. "Printout passion has started to fade; Digital Age finally rips into paper use." 23 December 2009. Lexis Nexis. 15 February 2010 <http://0- www.lexisnexis.com.library.scad.edu/us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview.do?docLinkInd=true&risb=21_T8577641609&format=GNBFI&sort=RELEVANCE&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T8577641612& cisb=22_T8577641611&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=8355&docNo=6>. About the Author Talia Witherspoon is a Freelance writer and MFA student at Savannah College of Art and Design, Atlanta.