Receipt scanners, recommendations?

[Ronal B Morse]

I use an app named "Scanner Pro" on my iPhone to capture 
documents/receipts while out of the office.  Images automatically upload 
to my iCloud storage or I can mail them to myself.  Access to files on 
iCloud from the Linux box in the office is done via the iCloud web 
portal.  Works fine, but Scanner Pro is slow and tedious to use if you 
have a lot of documents to process.

I have an $80 Canon LIDE 220 flatbed scanner attached to the desktop.  
It's fast and effective and is truly "plug n' play" with Ubuntu 17.10.  
Doesn't have a document feeder, though.  I normally use VueScan 
(recommended) as the scanning front end software, but the Canon also 
works great with the "Simple Scan"  and "Xsane" packages which are 
available at no charge from the Ubuntu repository.

Any images that need to be retained are stored in a "tax items" folder 
on iCloud so I don't have to dedicate local storage space to retain 
them. I can get to them from any devices that has Internet access.  
Reduces the space needed for local backup, too, but really depends upon 
a reliable high-speed net connection to work like it should.

RBM


On 12/21/2017 09:48 PM, GWB wrote:
> I can say that VueScan softer does work with the older Fujitsu
> ScanSnap (s500, I think) on Ubuntu 14.  But VueScan is not free, and I
> have not tried Fujitsu's linux version for the ScanSnap.  I don't use
> OCR when I scan, but instead batch scan, and then later run the files
> (usually .tiff) through an OCR program if necessary.  In my
> experience, the OCR takes too much time, and I have too many pages
> (various sizes, receipts, etc.).  I will take take a blank sheet and
> write the date or topic (usually "201701JAN", etc.; YYYYMMAAA) and
> scan that sheet at beginning and end of the batch.
>
> That also takes more space, because I'm scanning one sheet to one
> file.  If you do scan to .pdf, you can place multiple images of sheets
> in one file, which might work best for you.
>
> I have used Neat Receipts, and it's not bad, but too proprietary for
> cross platform work; they did not support Linux at the time.  The cell
> phone based scanner apps look interesting, and I would love to try
> that as well.
>
> Gordon
>
> On Thu, Dec 21, 2017 at 5:53 PM, George Riner <georgeriner at mycogeo.com> wrote:
>> An interface from a product like Neat Receipts into gnucash would be cool!
>>
>> But you say you have a scanner, but it's not a reasonable option. Why? If you just want to scan receipts and store the scans on your computer, sounds like you're all set.
>>
>> As others said, gnucash doesn't store scanned images. Much less store them in any way that let's you associate a scanned image with a transaction.
>>
>> It sounded like you were drowning in getting all the transactions entered into gnucash that all those receipts represent. I find that the most tedious part.
>>
>> If you just want to scan bits of paper and throw the paper away, what does gnucash have to do with that?
>>
>> : George
>>
>>
>> -- -- --
>> Sent by Droid.
>>
>> On December 21, 2017 3:09:10 PM PST, jeffrey black <beastmaster126 at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>> On 12/21/2017 3:05 PM, George Riner wrote:
>>>> Is your question regarding a general purpose scanner?
>>>>
>>>> Or is your point about a application/tool that will process a scanned
>>> image of a receipt and create a ready-to-import file of accounts,
>>> descriptions, memos, and amounts - with splits?
>>>> : George
>>>> -- -- --
>>>> Sent by Droid.
>>>>
>>>> On December 21, 2017 11:56:54 AM PST, John Ralls <jralls at ceridwen.us>
>>> wrote:
>>>>>> On Dec 21, 2017, at 11:42 AM, jeffrey black
>>>>> <beastmaster126 at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>> I am using GnuCash (Windoze version) to track multiple sets of
>>> books.
>>>>>> My personal, my farm, my wife's business, and for another family
>>>>> members
>>>>>> personal and business.  Needless to say I am buried up to my ears
>>> in
>>>>>> receipts and would like to go paperless by storing the images in
>>>>>> GnuCash.  My flatbed scanner works but; is not a reasonable option.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Right now, my budget would have to be a maximum of about $400 USD.
>>> I
>>>>>> need to scan everything from 2 inch wide thermal receipts up to to
>>>>> full
>>>>>> size 8 1/2 X 11  inch receipts.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> As soon as I can replace several legacy apps I intend to ditch
>>>>> Windoze
>>>>>> and move everything over to Unix (probably Ubuntu), so
>>> compatibility
>>>>>> would be an issue.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I would like to hear your recommendations.
>>>>> I've been very pleased with my Fujitsu ScanSnap. They publish a
>>> linux
>>>>> driver, see
>>>>>
>>> http://www.fujitsu.com/global/support/products/computing/peripheral/scanners/sp/software/ubuntu.html.
>>>>> I use mine with a Mac so I can't vouch for that part.
>>>>>
>>>>> Regards,
>>>>> John Ralls
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________

>>>>> The main purpose is to just scan the receipts so I can toss the paper
>>>>> in
>>>>> the shredder.
>>>>>
>>>>> IF there is an application/tool that is capable of creating a
>>>>> ready-to-import file that would be a huge bonus.  A large portion of
>>>>> these receipts have multiple splits, which I assume would still be done
>>>>>
>>>>> manually in GnuCash.  The conversion program(s) would also have reside
>>>>> strictly on my computers, no internet processing or fees.
>>>>>
>>>>> --JEffrey Black M.B.A.
>>>>>