Is my scanner slow? (Bank Shop)

I'm new at doing bank shops where you have to submit photos of the documents you were given. I knew it would take me awhile to do the first couple but even as I got into a rhythm, timing didn't seem to get any faster.

It takes me about 2-3 minutes to scan each document. My scanner is older than the hills, so I'm wondering if new scanners are faster?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/29/2015 02:33PM by Nipit.

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I used to scan, but taking a picture turned out to be faster. That's what i do now.

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Mike T
Looking for shops in Western Canada

"Life is good because the alternative is forever "

I tried taking pictures and they looked horrid because of the lighting conditions. I also felt like I had to cut out any background. Do you not worry about that?

I never scan anymore. I just hold the camera vertical and close enough for the paper to fill the whole viewing area, and it looks fine. An 8.5x11 sheet of paper will fill the whole picture. If it's a receipt, I just lay it on a neutral background, no need to crop anything out. If there's issues with the natural lighting of the room/area, I use flash, and the picture looks fine. I've never had a pic rejected for the way it was taken.

I normally don't worry about the background when I take pictures of receipts or collateral material as the background is usually a table top. I never use the flash. I try to set up near a window or use two lights at 45-degree angles for even lighting.

What is the resolution setting for your scanner [how many DPI]? That will affect the speed of your scanner. I once scanned a 35mm slide at 25k DPI [yes, 25,000 dpi]. The scan took about 3 hours, but the result was an image that I was able to have printed as wallpaper for a client.

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Have PV-500 & willing to travel.
"Answers are easy. It's asking the right questions which is hard." (The Fourth Doctor, The Face of Evil, 1977)

"Somedays you're the pigeon, somedays you're the statue.” J. Andrew Taylor

"I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him." Galileo Galilei

I have a corkboard hanging on the wall, and I pin my receipts, or documents to it to take the pictures. Scanning is too slow. Just experiment with your lighting and flash. I don't use flash personally. The great thing about pictures is that you can upload them all to your computer at once, for labeling and then they are ready to upload to your report.

I like scanning receipts and documents, although when I am traveling I take photos and have never had problems with the photos even though I personally don't like them as much as when I scan. The first scan takes time (maybe 2 minutes) since the scanner has to warm up. As long as I keep presenting receipts to scan before it decides to turn the bulb off, it goes quickly after that. The scanning program allows me to quickly crop and to lighten or darken B/W or to choose grayscale or color - all after the scan is completed. You do need to think about the scan resolution and keep it reasonable if you have an option to do so.

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008

Another advantage of scanning, assuming you're also good at Photoshop, is you can scan 15-20 business cards at once, then cut the individual ones from the "group scan".

I use a scanner for the bank documents and can complete all 8 in a couple of minutes. I individualy place 3 documents (sometimes 4) on the bed then feed the remaining 5 (sometimes 4) on the auto feed. My scanner is an HP Officejet Pro and I don't think I could speed thing up by using a camera.

I use a scanner and scan each piece individually. If it is a bank shop that you are scanning the information for, I do the entire report and then when I get to the mage that I am missing the pictures, I put them all in then. It takes no time at all. I also use a code that helps me identify the stuff I have to attach. For example, I use Bank name, part of the address, 1 and the date and then the next one, I use the number 2 and so on until all the pieces from that bank are numbered.
I got the tip to attach them all at the end of the report from this forum and it had cut down the time considerably.

I used to scan, now that I have a smart phone with auto-focus I just use either the smart phone or my little Canon digital 12 mp camera.

I do carry a Neat receipt scanner when I'm out in case I have something that just won't photograph well (glossy paper, for instance) or I have to produce a pdf instead of a jpg. But I can't remember the last time I used it.

Time to build a bigger bridge.

I know I have made this suggestion many times on the forum. The NEAT portable scanner is the best scanner I have purchased. Not only does it scan, it files, can PDF, and most important it sizes the scan automatically. I purchased mine for $100 a few years ago. Call the company, they are great to work with. Talk price and what you need it for. All you do is plug it in to your computer anywhere, anytime. The scanner sets up the program automatically. There are two sizes. All you need is the small NEAT portable. It measures 11"x 2", UBS cable and a computer, that's it. Scans business cards, receipts, documents, PDF files, keeps tax records (I don't use) A mobile scanner and digital filing system. Scans 3 to 4 receipts per minute. They also have one for Mac.

That's the one I have. I also had the $400 Neat Desk high speed scanner but a little plastic thingie in the sheet feeder broke and I was having to guide the pages in manually so I got rid of it and got a 4 in one printer to use for the increasingly rarer times I had to scan multiple pages. But I never used that one for mystery shopping anyway, only the portable one.

I used to have to scan tax returns to pdf files so I could fax or email them but my software has been creating the pdf's within the program for the last three years so I don't need high speed scanning any more.

Time to build a bigger bridge.

James Bond 007.5 Great idea for the business cards! @CoffeeQueen, I'm going to think about the corkboard idea.

Thanks everyone for all your ideas! I may give taking photos another try.

I love my scanner and have used it over 1000++ times, always a bright, crisp, sharp document

Don't use my old scanner anymore. It was always a pain and really slow. I just email all my piks now and upload them from my email. Works well except when is busy and is a pain to upoad but I just got so sick of the scanner. I feel it is going the way of the fax machine.

I still use my flatbed scanner. My receipts are usually folded up 3-4 times and jammed into my wallet. The scanner flattens them out. My scanner software will do a quick preview scan and then I can select the cropped area of just the receipt to scan and it does it at 300 DPI quick and will save to .PDF or .JPG format. For the restaurants with multiple receipts (Bar and table), I can lay them all on the scanner at once and make separate cropped scans in less than 2 minutes per receipt.

I have an Android & IOS APP for those times where I can't take the garage ticket home and it will auto crop and expose and works great. CamScanner PRO is the best one out there and I have tried all of them for Android: [www.intsig.com]

I can take it sloppy at a 45 degree angle and off to the side, and it will correct and even level the text and do OCR even.

I love CamScanner, and I use the free one. It loads in PDF as well, can't remember if you can turn that off or not. It's perfect for those time you need it in a pdf and converting a picture is an extra step.

Boy I must be old fashioned I just take pics with my digital camera. I wonder if maritz is hiring schedulers

Shopping Western NY, Northeast and Central PA, and parts of Ohio and West Virginia. Have car will travel anywhere if the monies right.

@BuffaloNY101 wrote:

Boy I must be old fashioned I just take pics with my digital camera. I wonder if maritz is hiring schedulers

Before you can be a scheduler for Maritz, you must first know how to take and develop a photo with this camera:

Then you need to know how to scan the photo to exactly 640 x 480.

I can do that...wouldn't want to, but I could use it if push came to shove.

@BuffaloNY101 wrote:

Boy I must be old fashioned I just take pics with my digital camera. I wonder if maritz is hiring schedulers

If thats old fashioned sign me up. Its by far the fastest and easiest way for me. I have one of the best cell phone cameras out there but emailing them to myself is as tedious as scanning. I prefer popping out the memory card of my camera and putting it into my computer and uploading a whole folder at once.

I only like my cell phone for pictures when i have to take them onsite discreetly. I use my 12mp Canon camera for all revealed audits and anything I photograph after I'm home. yup, much easier to stuff a memory card in the computer than to wait from them to upload to drop box or email them to myself because drop box is full and then have to save each one individually.

I could plug the phone into the computer but then I'd have to get out the usb cord.

Time to build a bigger bridge.

I use my digital camera, that has a VGA setting, and put the items on something with a plain background. I use the close up setting, the little flower, and get as close as I can, while still getting the full document in the picture. This way there is nothing to crop.

I've never cropped a photo for any shop.

Time to build a bigger bridge.

hey scannman where did you find a picture of my camera it is the exact one I use.

Shopping Western NY, Northeast and Central PA, and parts of Ohio and West Virginia. Have car will travel anywhere if the monies right.

That's what I need to do:

I have a windows phone, anyone know if I can pop out the memory card and download all the pics at once?

Thanks, Mary

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Is my scanner slow? (Bank Shop)

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