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samingeorgia

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Three Epson scanners in two years. They do OK at first but then can't seem to feed multiple sheets and start clicking for no apparent reason. I did about an hour of research and decided that the rollers needed replacing. So I went to the Epson website -- out of stock! I called their support number and spoke to a representative who said that, yes, the rollers are out of stock. I asked if she knew when they might have some more - she said, "Maybe weeks, maybe months - who knows?" Then she suggested I call a place in Washington. They had the rollers in stock so I ordered them and had my computer guy install them. The scanner still clicks and won't feed properly.

I'm switching to an HP scanner.

The scanners for Drake and Creative Solutions have to be "Twain Compliant". What a 19th century humorist has to to do with data storage is beyond me.

Rant over. That is all.

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I have an ancient Kodak i1120 that I loved so much I bought a second on ebay.  Twain compliant, very vertical paper path so almost no jamming, simplex or duplex scanning... the one downside is that the software is so old it's crotchety - but it works perfectly with Adobe Acrobat and Nuance too.   FYI (and fyi for anyone else, too).

If your scanner decides to write a novel, please let us know!  Or maybe this one will last until the next appearance of Haley's Comet.

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Fujitsu, definitely.  Gave my long-time ScanSnap to my kids who run a business; it was too good to upgrade unless I found a home for the ScanSnap.  I bought a newer Fujitsu 6130Z with a very small footprint to use with CCH products.  Fujitsus are the workhorses of the scanner world, like HP is to printers.

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I also recommend the Fujitsu S1500, it's the best scanner since the invention of whipped cheese in a can.  

I have a question, can one get a bad ream of paper?  I recently bought a whole box of paper at Costco and when I print more then 5 pages it curls up, now if want to scan it, my scanner chews up the paper pretty badly, anyone had this happen to them?

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2 minutes ago, ILLMAS said:

I also recommend the Fujitsu S1500, it's the best scanner since the invention of whipped cheese in a can.  

I have a question, can one get a bad ream of paper?  I recently bought a whole box of paper at Costco and when I print more then 5 pages it curls up, now if want to scan it, my scanner chews up the paper pretty badly, anyone had this happen to them?

Years ago, I used to buy paper at Costco. It's just not worth it due to jams etc.

Especially, since Staples and Office Depot have name brand high quality paper on sale constantly. No more jams or feeding problems ;)

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7 minutes ago, ILLMAS said:

it's the best scanner since

I have to disagree.  I have a Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 *and* two Kodak i1120's; in my experience the more-vertical paper path on the Kodak makes it faster and far less likely to jam than the S1500.  I find the S1500 also tends to double-feed if you put more than 8 or 10 pages in at once - not the Kodak.  Stuff it until it barely fits, and it still won't double-feed.  (Unless it's super-slick magazine type paper; those won't feed more than 1 or 2 sheets through anything worth beans.)

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I'm going to try the HP just to see.

Late last year in getting ready for the season, I paid big bucks for a Fujitsu (because everybody says it's the Cadillac), but it wasn't Twain-compliant, so no bueno for me. I sent it back and got a complete refund and got the new Epson. It lasted almost through extension season before falling apart.

Sic transit gloria mundi.

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On ‎10‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 8:58 PM, TAXMAN said:

I have been using a Xerox Documate 152 for years. Still working and like the others almost a straight shot through for the paper.

:DI read that fast and thought you had been using Xerox for 152 years!  And thinking - is Xerox that old?  And assuming tax preparers never die.....:D

 

 

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I have an old Fujitsu ScanSnap S500.  Been working for 10 years.  I have to be careful not to feed too many sheets at once.  That's not been a problem for me.  Neither has the lack of Twain compliance.  When I got my Win 8.1 computer, the S500 had no driver updates and I had to do something to make it think it was working on Win7.  So it has continued to work for me.  I'm thinking of getting a new Win 10 computer.  So I'm thinking my old S500 won't work with it.  Is the Twain compliance really needed?  What are your needs for Twain.  I don't need the super speed and I can continue to feed a few pages at a time.  I'm thinking the S1500 or whatever updated equivalent Fujitsu has will do fine for me.

 

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Good point about the Twain issue Randall.  I can't answer about the Creative Solutions program that Sam is using because he didn't mention which one, but I use one of their too, and I'd suspect that their files are stored in a proprietary area that may be less flexible than Drake's as he mentioned Drake is the other program.  Drake recommends a Twain-compliant scanner so that all of the features that make their document manager fully functional, functions that would include scanning, naming, remembering those common names, and turning duplex on and off from within the doc mgr itself.  

With that said, Drake's Document Manager will install and still function as a file storage directory because it simply puts the files into a directory on the C: drive, and it is absolutely possible to scan and save by using the scanner's software itself outside of Drake while still naming and saving within that same Drake doc mgr directory. In a similar vein, it's possible to save other files such as Word & Excel to that Doc Mgr directory in their original formats or as pdfs.  There is a slight inconvenience to using a non-twain scanner, but the files are still there and accessible, either by launching the doc manager from within Drake's tax program, opening the Doc Mgr program itself separately, or opening files directly from the file directory of the C: drive.

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Actually, the Twain issue is from Drake! I have spoken to them on two occasions and both times they said that I had to have Twain in order to scan in documents within the tax software into Document Manager. Maybe if I was scanning directly into Document Manager it wouldn't be a problem, but that would be one more step for me. I scan the documents into the software while I'm meeting with the client or working on the return.

The few Creative Solutions clients I have are big, so I keep hard copies of documents in a file for each year and also scan in items into the clients' individual files in MS-Office.

The CPA that I shared an office with passed away in January, and his successor is a big fan of Creative Solutions. We talked to their sales rep earlier this year, and they are hell-bent on pushing everything to the "cloud". That's another topic for another day.

The HP scanner I ordered has not yet arrived. I will keep everybody posted. Thanks to all for the input. This board is invaluable.

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I have a non-TWAIN scanner that we use for client docs with the Drake document cabinet.  We just save directly to the cabinet.  It is literally zero more work - you just do the folder-choosing and file-naming in a different place.  I need TWAIN for bank deposits - so I take those to the my home office and use the Kodak i1120 scanner there.

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^^ Catherine said exactly what I was also trying to convey. I have a Twain scanner that works perfectly within Drake's doc mgr, but I can also scan using the scanner's software and save to Drake's Doc Mgr directory without ever opening the doc mgr or tax programs.  I did that last week when someone brought in a state revenue notice that didn't require any attention on my part, but I wanted to save a copy in the client's records. I scanned and named the file using the scanner without having to enter passwords to open any of Drake's programs. Easy and quick.

Drake "recommends" using a twain-compliant scanner, but it is only "required" if you want to scan from within the DDM software itself.

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We may be revising our processes anyway. We have been discussing having the front desk person do the scanning, so maybe that would allow them to put the material directly into Document Manager outside the "View" mode in the tax software. It sure would be easier on me!

Notwithstanding the above, I still say I will never spend another penny on anything Epson. These scanners are just too flimsy, especially considering the price. If they were less than $ 100, I'd cheerfully use them for a few months and toss them out and go buy another.

Well, not cheerfully, but you get the idea.

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Abby, how do you make all those notations if the original document is printed in landscape?  Crook your neck?  I prefer to write on the paper copies as I work with them and scan when I'm done.

Creative Solutions has a feature called "file cabinet."  You can send completed returns, 8879s, 9325s, etc to the cabinet as well as docs from word, excel, faxes, emails, etc.  There is even a place to put notes on the wall page.  As we consider using ATX for more than payroll and 1099s, a fear we have is that if we do not renew Ultratax, will we still have access to our file cabinet?  ALL our client data is in there!  Letters we wrote for them, hand projections, client contacts, much more than their tax returns and raw data. 

A few years ago we did not renew CS Accounting.  After the license ran out, we could view existing data but could not work with it.  We had a few late 1099s to file and even though we had paid good money for the prior year program, we could not produce any tax forms or returns.  I don't suppose asking them if we will have use of File Cabinet if we don't renew will yield a good answer.  They'll probably say the whole thing will self-destruct if they sense an $18k account leaving.

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@SaraEA I believe what you say is correct about not being able to access your file cabinet if your firm did not renew the Creative Solutions products.

Drake's document manager has all of that same functionality that you describe AND files are stored directly on the C:drive in a directory that is accessible outside of the program. I am 100% sure that I could retain access to those pdfs even if I left the company.

@Abby Normal what pdf program do you use to insert the adding machine tapes into the pdfs? I have Acrobat and don't see that but have not explored the plug-ins.

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On 10/5/2017 at 2:12 PM, cbslee said:

Years ago, I used to buy paper at Costco. It's just not worth it due to jams etc.

Especially, since Staples and Office Depot have name brand high quality paper on sale constantly. No more jams or feeding problems ;)

Speaking of paper.  I get the BEST paper from Office Depot when they have a sale.  Buy two get one, which qualifies for free shipping and it is in my office the following morning.  I like the Boise 20#.

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12 hours ago, jklcpa said:

 

@Abby Normal what pdf program do you use to insert the adding machine tapes into the pdfs? I have Acrobat and don't see that but have not explored the plug-ins.

First we use Judy's Ten Key to create the tapes, then we use Typewriter tool in Foxit PDF reader. But Adobe has a similar tool under Fill & Sign, Add Text, but you can't right align the text unless you have the pro version of Acrobat, and a left aligned calculator tape is just offensive to my eyes. :) Foxit has full text properties in their reader so it's easy to right align.

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If you have Tic, Tie, and Calculate (an Adobe plug-in from CPaperless) it has shortcuts to bookmark, annotate, repaginate, add a paper tape calculator, add internal hot-links, and rotate single pages.  If you use Drake's Gruntworx (Gruntworx was separate, Drake bought it, it works for anyone) it comes with a TTC license.  I use it *all* the time.

TTC does not work with Nuance, though.  I dunno about it working with any other pdf editing programs.

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