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Showing posts with label Accounting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Accounting. Show all posts

February 17, 2021

Receipts? Documents? Scan From Anywhere! The Epson RapidReceipt RR-70W

Hi Friends,

   A quick question; is anyone tired of shoveling snow yet? Well, here in the Northeast, I have thrown the towel in, and I am done with all the snow! 

   The only thing tougher than snow is traveling during the middle of a rough, cold, snowy, and icy winter, and as many of you know out there, I do quite a lot of that, just so I can be there for my clients, while of course, observing social distancing. As a matter of fact, I happen to know that a large percentage of you reading this are also on the road a lot, and it is not for pleasure trips! The popularity of Zoom meetings can only bridge the gap during the pandemic, but there is nothing like being face-to-face with your clients. 

   The benefits of that personal touch come along with some issues, because as we all know, business travel means 24/7 work, and in many industries, that means a lot of paperwork to keep track of and to organize when you are on the road. 

   Why the long lead-in? Well, I have had the extreme honor of testing out one of the newest scanners from Epson, the Epson RapidReceipt RR-70W Wireless Mobile Receipt and Document Scanner. Along with testing it out, I have written up a review about this handy new portable scanner, and I have a feeling that many of you fellow "road warriors" will be quite interested in the RR-70W! 

   Now, when I say "portable", I truly mean portable! This is the definition of "compact", and exceptionally light (I didn't weigh it, but it cannot weigh more than a pound, maybe less!). In terms of size, it is just about a foot long, and has a low-profile of about 1-2 inches tall and wide. However, do not left the size fool you, because this is a full-functional, sleek, sharp, and powerful scanner that will shock you, and will make a substantial impact on how you do business and get organized, at home, in the office, or on the road!

   Before we dig deep, I want to give you the 30,000-foot overview of this manual sheet-fed portable document scanner. First, on the topic of documents, this is truly a versatile scanner, with a wide realm of potential items that you can scan. The reason that I call them "items" is that they really are items; not only receipts, invoices and documents (financial, etc.), but the scanner also will scan checks, business cards, identification cards, as well as some pretty large pages (based on the specifications, the max size would be up to 8.5 x 72")! 


SET-UP:

   The entire process of un-boxing and unpacking the RR-70W is quite easy, and of course, you must make sure you remove all of the wrap and the protective plastic before you can get rolling. I buy a lot of electronics, and a lot of products that always work better when you give them a charge for the first time, so I followed that same rule here. Taking a step back to let you know, the RR-70W has an extremely efficient built-in rechargeable battery, which allows it to operate without requiring it to be permanently connected to a USB power source. However, if you are a fan of cables, the RR-70W will run with power over the provided USB cable when connected/tethered to your laptop or desktop. On that note, I did not have the USB charger that I use for my smartphone nearby, so I connected the USB cable from the RR-70W to my laptop. However, I fully believe that the scanner would charge substantially quicker plugged into a smartphone wall charger (Please note that the USB cable comes in the box, not the charger or wall charger). 

   Since I happen to be one of those folks who likes to charge electronics before using them, then in order to make good use of my time while letting the RR-70W charge up, I figured it would be the perfect time to download the software and drivers from the Epson site to get things going. This download includes any drivers needed for Windows. After downloading the installer, I made some coffee and answered a few E-mails, which took all of 30 minutes, and I figured that by now, the RR-70W was at a good enough charge level to start rolling! 

   I ran the set up for the installer that I had downloaded and followed the prompts as I went forward. At a point during the installation, it will ask you to connect the Scanner to your laptop or computer, but if you are charging the Scanner via USB connection to your laptop or computer, you are already on your way! 

   At another point during the installation, it asks if you want to configure the device as a wired device (USB) or as a Wi-Fi device. Why would I choose Wi-Fi? The answer: Because I want to Wirelessly scan my receipts and documents. After the scanner is detected and the updates are downloaded, it will also tell you to flip on the Wi-Fi toggle switch on the RR-70W. When the whole process completes (and you feel that you have enough of a battery charge), you will no longer need the USB cable to configure the scanner. 

   I mentioned the Wi-Fi toggle switch in the last section, but there are some other parts of the control panel area on the RR-70W that are worth mentioning. The control panel is the section where all of the action is in terms of the buttons and switches on the right front and right side of the RR-70W. For example, your Power button and Scan button are located there, as well as small LED status lights on the side that will display the status of your connection, of your battery, your mode, and any errors. That is where you will also see your "Ready" status light. Everything is located intuitively, without needing to search all over the device. Also, on the right side of the RR-70W is where I plugged in the other end of the USB cable earlier when charging the device and configuring it.


SPEED, QUALITY, & SOFTWARE/INTEGRATION: 

   So now, with everything installed, configured, and ready to go, I prepared a pile of multiple types of documents and business cards and receipts that I planned on using to test the RR-70W, and I will give my review based on the intersection of multiple factors, consisting of the speed, accuracy, and the software/integration features. I will provide the review of these factors together, and I apologize in advance for not separating these out to sections with headers, as there is a lot of correlation between these factors.

   SPEED: This is a sheet fed scanner - and I manually fed 15 pages of a contract that I removed a staple from. In total, with my stopwatch feature on my phone, it took 1 minute and 9 seconds, which is not bad, because the specifications state the speed at 15 pages per minute. I was also able to feed through a bunch of older receipts that were a little bit "mangled" to say the least, for example, folded/creased and some were faded. Not only did these zip through pretty fast, but I thought that they might rotate left or right a little bit when the scanner hit the creases or tears, but the RR-70W was able to feed all of these through neatly and, getting the jump on my review of the quality and accuracy, the scans were not skewed and the images and text looked enhanced, almost making it look as if the receipts did not have any fading, and excessive area around the receipt was cropped out. Great job, and it saved me a lot of touch up work and enhancements I would normally have to do after scanning (or sometimes, having to repeat scans multiple times until I got it right and feeding without skewing...before even starting to crop and enhance images once I complete the scanning part). This scanner saved me a lot of work! Incidentally, I had the same success scanning business cards, and some of them were thick, and some of them were in less-than-perfect shape from my wallet, and this process was just as seamless!

   QUALITY/ACCURACY: When reading the specifications, I noted that the RR-70W features a 600-dpi optical resolution for detailed image capture, so I was naturally very curious to see how accurate the scan results would be. I figured that one of the best tests I could do was a page that I had with multiple images and logos on it, and I proceeded to initiate the scan from the application. At the completion of the scan, I was extremely impressed with how sharp the images were, and how clear they came out. Some of these were quite detailed images, and it did not miss a single section of the images!  

   SOFTWARE/INTEGRATION: The key factor...the key "pitch" with the Epson RapidReceipt RR-70W, from what I can see from testing it and reviewing it, is being able to scan receipts and documents on the go, and after that, being able to make use of the scanned content and images. For that reason, Epson include a receipt management software (ScanSmart), which helps you accomplish the goal of making use of what you have scanned, and it is quite efficient and clever, all at the same time! 

   The software that comes with the Epson RR-70W, as I mentioned, is a receipt manager, allowing you to extract data from your scanned documents...basically, it intelligently reads the scanned data and pulls it into fields within the ScanSmart database. This is the feature that allows you to do something with that data (instead of letting your receipts and documents sit in folders!). What I found most helpful is that it lets you edit the fields, so you are able to categorize the data and save it in a way that works best for your purposes, for example, I split my data across fields/categories for each of the clients for which my receipts and documents apply. 

   Just to go off on a "geek" tangent for a moment, the technology that allows the ScanSmart software to be able to read and extract data from scanned images is known as "OCR", or "Optical Character Recognition". The OCR functionality that comes with the RR-70W is incredibly accurate and on the very high-end of this technology. I am comfortable saying this because I cross-checked most all of what I scanned and what the software extracted, and I was hard-pressed to find even one letter or number that was different from what was on the hard copy/copies that I scanned. Think about that for a moment, and you will realize just how important that is when it comes to dealing with critical financial documents! 

   You might ask, "What can you do with this categorized data?". Well, when you downloaded the software, it also included TWAIN drivers that can help you quickly and efficiently take that data and export it to/integrate it with many other 3rd party programs, such as, per Epson; Quicken, QuickBooks, TurboTax, Excel, CSV, and more. For my purposes, I like to export to the universal data format, CSV, or "comma separated values", for use across both Microsoft Office (Excel), as well as some proprietary systems that I use for my company. Doing it this way, I just had to change a few of the fields to make the export/integration as easy as apples-to-apples, which it was, but from what I understand, exporting to/integrating with popular apps such as QuickBooks and Quicken are even easier, and close to seamless (but we do not use these specific apps).


SUMMARY:

   Testing and reviewing the Epson RapidReceipt RR-70W was a great experience for me, and it was quite easy, mostly because of accurate documentation, and an intuitive button layout.

   The compact size of the RR-70W, and the fact that it is super lightweight make it easy to slip this scanner in your laptop bag and go on your way!  

   Are you the type with folders and boxes of receipts and documents that are stressing you out? The RR-70W allowed me to cut down on at least 3 folders and a box with receipts and documents, and now they are safely stored to my cloud drive, after being extracted to the categories that make my life easier, especially when it comes to tax time!

   Of course, nothing is ever perfect, and if I could make one wish for the RR-70W, I would love to have an Automatic Document Feeder (an ADF) that comes along with the scanner or that would be available as an add-on. This way, I would not have to manually feed each page to scan them. However, after a little while, it becomes second nature, and it helps you stay present and keep better track, granularly, as to what you plan to scan and what you have already scanned.

   Overall, this is a great, portable, compact, fast, accurate, cutting-edge receipt and document scanner that is likely to make your life easier, and to help you escape the paper jungle that most of us still live in on a daily basis!

   I highly recommend the RR-70W to anyone looking for a comprehensive scanning solution for use at home, in a small office, on the road...or actually...for all of the above! Once again, Epson is a class act with this high-performance and sophisticated scanner, and they really hit it out of the park with the Epson RapidReceipt RR-70W!

Thank you!

Have a Great Week, and Happy Rent-to-Owning !
Regards,
Rob Eisenstein
HomeRun Homes - Rent to Own Homes, since 2002
"Located at the Corner of Technology and Real Estate"
Rent to Own Homes and Real Estate Blog for HomeRun Homes: http://blogging.lease2buy.com
HomeRun Homes Websites: http://www.lease2buy.com and http://www.homerunhomes.com


TAGS: #Epson #RapidReceipt #RR-70W #Wireless #Scanner #Color #Document #Receipts #RealEstate


TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:

Specifications: 

Type Mobile, sheet-fed simplex color scanner

Sensor Type Color Contact Image Sensor (CIS)

Light Source 3-color RGB LED

Optical Resolution 600 dpi

Max. Interpolated Resolution 1200 dpi

Color/Grayscale Scan Mode (Bit Depth) 16-bit input/8-bit output

Buttons Scan Start/Stop, Power, Wireless Connect, Wireless On/Off

Capacity Single sheet feed

Document Size 8.5" x 72" max. (up to 300 dpi), 2" x 2" min.

Paper Weight 35 – 270 g/m

Scan Speed (Letter-size)4 15 ppm (300 dpi Black-and-White, Color, Gray 1-sheet scan speed)

Connectivity USB 2.0, Wireless 802.11 b/g/n

Peak Daily Duty Cycle 300 sheets


System Requirements:

Windows 10 (32-bit, 64-bit), Windows 8/8.1 (32-bit, 64-bit), Windows 7 (32-bit, 64-bit) SP1

Mac OS X® 10.11.x to macOS® 10.15.x

Software requires Internet connection for download and installation.


General:

Environmental Conditions

Temperature (Operating): 41 ° to 95 °F (5 ° to 35 °C)

Storage: -13 ° to 140 °F (-25 ° to 60 °C)

Humidity (Operating): 10 – 85% (no condensation)


Power Requirements 5 V DC (USB Bus)

Power Consumption

Connecting: USB

Operation: 2.7 W

Ready: 1.6 W

Sleep Mode: 1 W

Power Off: 0.2 W or less

Connecting Wi-Fi

Operation: 3.1 W

Ready: 2.4 W

Sleep Mode: 1.9 W

Power Off: 0.2 W or less


Warranty 1-year limited warranty in the U.S. and Canada

Country of Origin China

Weight and Dimensions (W x D x H)

Product Only: 10.7" x 1.8" x 1.3"; 0.66 lb

Product in Package: 13.3" x 5.6" x 2.6"; 1.3 lb


Software Included:

Epson Scan 2, Epson ScanSmart® Accounting Edition, Kofax Power PDF

Software requires Internet connection for download and installation.

Driver Support TWAIN


What’s in the Box:

RapidReceipt RR-70W receipt scanner, Start Here poster, USB cable


Eco Features:

ENERGY STAR® qualified

RoHS compliant

Recyclable product




September 20, 2018

Life@Easier; The Epson Workforce ES-500WR

Hi Folks,
   Welcome back, and I'm glad to have you back here with us!

   SPOILER ALERT: I'm going to ask you a couple of rhetorical questions, to which I already know the answer:

   Do you ever look at hard copy printed receipts and wish you didn't have so much critical paper floating around which fades out a little more each day?

   Do you ever wish you could extract data from your receipts and add it into your Accounting software?

   Do you think about how life would be so much easier if you could scan your documents directly to a cloud storage service, like Dropbox, Google Drive, Evernote, etc?


OK, I just gave you a small preview. Are you excited yet?

The Skinny...

   I hope so, because I have had the fortunate opportunity to test and review the new Epson Workforce ES-500WR Wireless Color Receipt Duplex Document Scanner (Accounting Edition), and the features I mentioned above are just the tip of the iceberg with this dynamic scanner.

   The size of the box is a little confusing at first, and you will be thinking, "Where's the Beef?", but always remember what Aunt Nannie told you..."good things come in small packages"! It's actually the perfect size, because it is compact and you can fit it almost anywhere opened up, and absolutely anywhere when folder closed.

   The main step is to get it plugged in, ready for some brutal testing, and to see if this baby can live up to it's beefy specs. While we are on the topic of "Specs", all technical specifications will come at the end of this review, for those tech geeks (just like me!!).

   So, knowing the download process can take time with all new devices from all manufacturers, I set this to download the required software. All-in-all, it took me less than 20 minutes to complete the download, and during that time, 1/2 cup of coffee was consumed. It was really good coffee, but the set up was truly very fast for me.

   The Epson ScanSmart Accounting Edition is comprehensive, and the Nuance Power PDF software, which helps you create or convert to searchable PDFs, is a game-changer. Further, everything supports TWAIN drivers, so there are no worries about integrating with pretty much any document management software.

The Sizzle... 

   Now, a huge selling point is the 50-sheet Automatic Document Feeder (ADF), and I had some nice tests planned for it. Right away, I took a huge stack of statements, some thick, some wrinkled, some with other markings on them, and they scanned in blazing fast. I did experience one jam, but it was my fault, as there was a small paper clip on a statement (User Error!), but it was better that it alerted me rather than try to run it through and ruin the device.

   I then put together the most rag-tag and ugly bunch of bent, folded, creased "scrap" receipts anyone has ever seen. Very smoothly fed into the device, and everything came out perfectly, except for one, but when I took a close look at it, I could not read it myself, so it might not have even been a receipt in the first place. Perhaps a smudge from an older print out? Any way, that bodes for a 100% execution rate for the Scanner.

   Now, I took this to the next level; it's really humid here on the East Coast, so I left a few statements on the backyard table for an hour, and of course, they were then sticking together. Instead of taking the paper feed, the scanner notified me of the potential jam, and upon looking this up, apparently it's due to the double-feed detection. When I let the pages dehumidify, I accidentally put them in crooked, and the scanner straightened it out for me. Auto-pilot?

   Fast? Understatement. The specs say this scans 35 pages per minute or 70 images per minute, but I think they undercut the true amounts (which I found much higher), just to be on the conservative side, and so people could not complain ("you said 35 pages per minute and I only got 34 pages per minute"). Perhaps I should complain I got 37 pages per minute? Ahh, people...you know who I'm taking about....!!!

The Steak...

   I really like how when you do duplex-scanning (double-sided), it will not scan a blank page if that is what is on side 2, and how you can approve the thumbnails as they scan, so you are in total control.

   Earlier we spoke about searchable scanned documents, and this is a major feature. You can export these to Excel or your Accounting software, i.e. Quickbooks. As it does this, it has learning capabilities, so I saw it begin to "know" a few logos that were repeating in the statements. This scanner is more like a well-oiled tool to help streamline your accounting process, especially for archiving and storage.

   All-in-All, a very quiet, compact, and very attractive tool, that lets you connect with computer, smart phone, or tablet. It is fast, high quality, and helps you reduce your paperwork to the point where it literally reduces clutter and makes life easier. Theoretically, isn't that what we are looking for...to make life easier?

Have a Great Weekend, and Happy Rent-to-Owning !
Regards,
Rob Eisenstein
HomeRun Homes - Rent to Own Homes, since 2002
"Located at the Corner of Technology and Real Estate"
Rent to Own Homes and Real Estate Blog for HomeRun Homes: http://blogging.lease2buy.com
HomeRun Homes Websites: http://www.lease2buy.com and http://www.homerunhomes.com


TAGS: #Epson #Scanner #TWAIN #Printing #Office #Accounting #Wireless #Duplex #Document