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
