Scanners - Who's using them? How? What?

[MAJ]

Some more questions - product comparisons if you will.

In efforts to improve document management, reduce umm.. paper.. I wanted to improve on my Epson WorkForce 600 scanner. It's a great inexpensive inkjet all in one. Works great. I have two. Play it smart & you can pick it up for $49-$99 dollars at Staples when on sale. Right around this time... $199.00 on sale for $99 then bring junk printer in for $50 credit = $49.- Current model is 630. 2 Year Warranty. Wireless, wired, auto-sheet feeder, fax, scan to PDF, copy - . The ink cartridges $13-$20. Good speed. Yup.. Epson WorkForce 600 series, I'd endorse them for any small office.

So, I just bought the ScanSnap S1500 w/ Bundle - Love the Epson but 20 pages per minute vs. Maybe six. Duplex vs. umm.. Simplex... Document management vs. NOT! . 20ppm = 40 ppm with duplesing on. Also auto detects blanks and removes them [if you want]. Now is they just had a shred and shred version!! That's the next version - One built into the shredder. Scan if you want.. Don't if you don't. Yup. One shot - or not!

Now, the S1500.... Boooyyyeeee! Liking it. I was able to scan my mother-in-laws docs today in like 1 minute and hand them right back. She's not telling me I lost a document again. It was only once - I didn't loose it - You don't know her - Don't judge!

Their are lots of options and things I can improve using the ScanSnap software. Very cool stuff.
Scan & DB business cards

Preserved my Dads last Business Card (that I know of). He's the one that got me started with taxes. I carried his old Tan Squared leather briefcase when I was like ... 10. To and from clients houses. He used to make me figure them out while he was working on them. Kept me busy and quiet - Little by little I learned... By High School I wrote my first comptuer program on a way old Decowrite 300 (baud) teletype we time shared with the local college. Yup. Figured Federal & NJ Income Tax. Note every code. Ok almost none.. But it did the Math on any field you plugged an entry in. No monitors. No Internet. Just teletype!

Sooo, the questions: -

Who is scanning?.
What are you scanning?.
and, What are you scanning with?
Pros and Cons that you have found with the product?
Rough costs?
Problems or Good things along the way?

I'll stop now..

[taxmandan]

We use a Xerox 515 attached to the server, it's not high volume but works for our small office. The nice addition we did two years ago was the keyboard scanners at each desk. They are slow but if you have one or two papers that you need added to the database it is real nice to not have to leave the desk and wait for the main scanner to be available.

http://www.keyscan.com/

[S T]

Twain

What about the ScanSnap not being Twain compliant?

I am using a Canon 1210C and looking at upgrading - but it is Twain compliant which is what my Tax Software, etc advises that I need.

Sandy

[ttbtaxes]

I had an HP n6010 which kept jamming and was not reliable. Just bought a Fujitsu 6030 and am hopeful it will be able to handle the myriad of document sizes, shapes and thicknesses that tax documents present.

It comes with Adobe which is a nice feature.

[taxxcpa]

Not twain compliant

What about the ScanSnap not being Twain compliant?

Sandy

I found a way around that problem. I scan client documents into the SnapScan organizer instead of into the Drake Document manager which requires a twain compliant scanner.
I have one folder set up to hold all documents the client brings and another one for signed Form 8879s and W-2s and 1099s with withholding.

Last year I would scan them, then cut and paste them into the Document manager, which was too time-consuming.

[Terry]

Scan Snap

I'm using the Scan Snap portable model, and I really like it.
Right now, I'm just using it to scan in documents of the client and I'm also using to decrease the amount of storage I need, but scanning in old files. For the money, it was a good investment for me.

[TAXNJ]

Try the higher end Fujitsu

You can look into the Try the higher end Fujitsu - about double what you paid for the Fujitsu 1500 if you want "TWAIN"

Also, Window7 FAX and SCAN program will not recognize the ScanSnap product.

But the Fujitsu scanner products are great

[DonB]

ScanSnap S600

I've been using the ScanSnap S600 for a few years and love it. I scan all W-2s and 1099Rs, K-1s, closing statements, client's summery of deductions, plus other stuff if it seems like a good idea. No paper files-- it all goes to the shredder.

[kpangelinan]

Some more questions - product comparisons if you will.

In efforts to improve document management, reduce umm.. paper.. I wanted to improve on my Epson WorkForce 600 scanner. It's a great inexpensive inkjet all in one. Works great. I have two. Play it smart & you can pick it up for $49-$99 dollars at Staples when on sale. Right around this time... $199.00 on sale for $99 then bring junk printer in for $50 credit = $49.- Current model is 630. 2 Year Warranty. Wireless, wired, auto-sheet feeder, fax, scan to PDF, copy - . The ink cartridges $13-$20. Good speed. Yup.. Epson WorkForce 600 series, I'd endorse them for any small office.

So, I just bought the ScanSnap S1500 w/ Bundle - Love the Epson but 20 pages per minute vs. Maybe six. Duplex vs. umm.. Simplex... Document management vs. NOT! . 20ppm = 40 ppm with duplesing on. Also auto detects blanks and removes them [if you want]. Now is they just had a shred and shred version!! That's the next version - One built into the shredder. Scan if you want.. Don't if you don't. Yup. One shot - or not!

Now, the S1500.... Boooyyyeeee! Liking it. I was able to scan my mother-in-laws docs today in like 1 minute and hand them right back. She's not telling me I lost a document again. It was only once - I didn't loose it - You don't know her - Don't judge!

Their are lots of options and things I can improve using the ScanSnap software. Very cool stuff.
Scan & DB business cards

Preserved my Dads last Business Card (that I know of). He's the one that got me started with taxes. I carried his old Tan Squared leather briefcase when I was like ... 10. To and from clients houses. He used to make me figure them out while he was working on them. Kept me busy and quiet - Little by little I learned... By High School I wrote my first comptuer program on a way old Decowrite 300 (baud) teletype we time shared with the local college. Yup. Figured Federal & NJ Income Tax. Note every code. Ok almost none.. But it did the Math on any field you plugged an entry in. No monitors. No Internet. Just teletype!

Sooo, the questions: -

Who is scanning?.
What are you scanning?.
and, What are you scanning with?
Pros and Cons that you have found with the product?
Rough costs?
Problems or Good things along the way?

I'll stop now..

1. We scan.
2. We are a completely paperless office and scan everything that comes in. Any outgoing material (tax return we prepare, word documents, email communication, excel spreadsheets, etc.) that comes from a desktop computer gets saved in the client file.
3. Fujitsu FI6130
4. Pros - tons! It scans both sides, color and black and white, all sizes including business cards and little note cards or scratch pad notes, it saves it as a pdf file, can scan large files and save it as one pdf document (meaning we can scan a client file of 1500 pages and have one pdf file), fast scanning, automatically flips pages upright if upside down when loaded.
Cons - keep this thing covered with a plastic bag...the dust and dirt that collects on the machine causes it to jam and not work properly...after cleaning, it works fine....once we started covering it at night, everything has been working just fine.
5. $1000

We decided to go paperless last year and it's been one of the best business moves I've ever made. We've saved 100's of hours of looking through and finding paper files.....cabinet space, etc. Now, when a client calls or comes in, I have EVERYTHING about that client in a folder on my desktop that can easily be searched if looking for something specific, say, you can search for 1040, or poa, or a SS#, for a certain year 2008, and on the side of the adobe file, it will pull all the documents that have that search item in it for you to scroll. I can look through a 1000 page document and find everything I need for a 2007 tax return in 2 minutes.

Our scanner has been a workhorse, scanning over 2000 client files this past year and over a quarter million sheets of paper (10 years worth) - (and about 20 gigs of in space -can be put on a couple of small thumb drives). I back all this data up multiple times within the office and have an offsite backup as well.

[AZ-Tax]

Currently Brother MFC-7220 mulit but need to get a real scanner

I too am moving more and more to paperless. I spent hours last fall looking at scanners. ProSeries (tax software Co.) recommends and sells the: Fujitsu FI-6130 Sheetfed Scanner. I have been strongly considering the: Epson WorkForce GT-1500.

I explain my paperless document handling to one of my clients that I back it up with off site firm that backs up my data. The TP replied we have an excellent organization at our house. I replied: I just wanted to give you comfort that you files are backed up especially since here in the greater PHX area being so dry and hot, houses burn down fast. The spouse look at the TP and said "so if our house catches on fire, are you going to look for your tax returns or wake us up"?

[Gary2]

For those who scan everything: Do you keep your hard drives and backups encrypted?

[ttbtaxes]

I ended up with the Fujitsu fi-6130 and am pleased with it. It costs more but it comes with Abode which is a $300 software and which I now use all the time. It costs around $900 or did when I got it a few months ago.

[MAJ]

Scanning - Backups and Encryption...

Ok.. So.. here's my update and then bed!!

So, i started this thread a while back and have been so busy -- Anyway my ScanSnap s1500 -
I've been scanning anything that has ANY relevence to the return, notes, receipts, W2, anything. If you have the document with you I drop it in the scanner. Done.

Clients final return is printed to PDF including all worksheets, etc. That's saved to the clients directory with their scanned images. A 2nd printout (to PDF) includes the client copy which includes less worksheet detail & only the actual return relevance is printed if the client wants.

I now offer a CD - Includes their return and images of all documentation they provded. Saves more paper - Need to finalize the process maybe with a lightscribe label or something..

I am getting closer to a paperless operation. The Scansnap can also pick up highlighted words and create keywords to search for. Clients Last Name, etc -- I have not explored 1/2 of what I can do yet. I too want to use the organizer but have to figure a structure first. Now, it scans to the root of my directory - I either open or create a client directory ( LN-FN) and store all documents. At 20 pages per minute (40 images if double sided) most clients take 2 minutes or less. Some smaller receipts or more worn have jammed - but it hasn't been bad at all.

For me? All of my receipts get scanned now and saved under either a category for taxes and or separated by companies (I have a two - Computer Consulting & Tax Preparation). No more thermal receipts fading away on me - Warranties, rebates, scanned... Medical crap / records - Insurance EOB's... Anything that I feel I don't need a physical copy I shread.

Now - Backups - Yes.. I have an external e-SATA caddy that i put an drive in & use bit-locker for encryption - Tax Software backs up daily. That drive i can pull out and take with me anytime. I keep one in the house and one live on the system in the detached office.

Night..

[ttbtaxes]

The company I use to for data vaulting using near military strength encryption (up to 448 bit).

[MAJ]

Encryption

Ehhh.. too much .... Dicided just to use 1 bit ---- much easier to read that way!