The Epson Rapid Receipt RR-600W scanner is what any small business needs. Especially if you put all your invoices in a shoebox and get a nice hefty bill from your accountant to sort it out.

The Epson Rapid Receipt RR-600W is a Wi-Fi/USB, duplex (both sides) scanner designed to process stacks of invoices and receipts. It can batch scan, and the software can later interrogate the scans for the export of financial data to popular accounting programs, OCR, Word, Excel or email straight to the accountant or the cloud.

It is fast, uber-reliable, takes 100 pieces of multiple paper types in good-to-poor condition, and its auto-scan function means you don’t have to worry about opening the app and processing it – just scan and keep earning money.

We use Fail (below expectations), Pass (meets expectations) and Exceed (surpasses expectations or is the class leader) against many of the items below. We occasionally give a Pass ‘+’ rating to show it is good but does not quite make it to Exceed.

To position this, it is an entry-level, Wi-Fi/USB connected, 600DPI, duplex (both sides), sheet-feed, scanner. The key difference between it and other Epson scanners is that it has Epson ScanSmart Accounting Edition software (other models may also have this option).

As a scanner, it is the usual Epson quality, reliable and serviceable. You can safely assume that it will quickly scan pages and save them to a computer, network folder, FTP, email, cloud, or USB drive.

So, it really depends on whether the ScanSmart Accounting Edition Software suits your needs.

Epson released V1 of this software in February 2020, so it is a work in progress that should receive updates as accounting standards change.

In its most basic form, it will single/double-sided scan and send to computer, email, Google Drive, Dropbox, Evernote, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneDrive (this list is subject to change). It saves in PDF, Searchable PDF, JPEG, TIFF, Multi-TIFF, PNG and BMP. Most will use PDF.

Once scanned (single or up to 100 pages), you can format the data to MYOB Essentials/AccountRight (local), QuickBooks Online or Xero.

The scan then proceeds to the ‘Review Invoices/Receipts’ stage, where data is extracted into pre-set fields. At this point, you can fix any misreads (data in the wrong pre-set field), add classifications/sub-classifications and much more. You can read the tutorial. We have a number of screenshots at the end of this review.

We found that the scan to pre-set fields was generally good, but it got confused if GST was shown after the invoice total or the suppliers’ name was a graphic.

We could not find a way to add new pre-sets (like delivery fees or rebates), nor was there any machine learning (when you keep having to swap amounts if it confused GST with the total). For example, the software could identify that GST was lower than the total amount.

But on the whole, these are relatively minor issues as most invoices scanned well.

As it is a standard TWAIN scanner, you can use almost any software. So, while the Epson ScanSmart software is subscription-free, there is nothing stopping you from scanning directly from other accounting software.

The scanner has two top and bottom oversized feed rollers positioned near the start of the scan (place the paper upside down and face back). It is a reliable mechanism and can be replaced if worn.

Mixed media/size scans can be bad if you do not take care and do a little preparation.

It scans A4 bond paper very well. It does not care that it may have had creases, punch holes or greasy fingers as long as you remove the staples as these can damage the scanner head.

It also scans other sizes as long as you sort them into sizes and correctly set the paper width sliders. Otherwise, it can skew the scan (there is an auto-skew fix) or jam. The scanner has a wide-open cover to remove jams easily.

Lightweight thermal image receipts were the worst as they tend to curl and have a glassy surface. Again, sort these, flatten them and at worst, hand feed them.

The duty cycle is up to 4000 sheets per day –a lot of scans.

If you connect to Wi-Fi, it needs to have a strong signal, and the PC (that you scan to) needs to have the horsepower to store the data. Otherwise, you can overrun the inbuilt data buffer.

Paperwork is the most boring, time-consuming, thankless task best done by mandatory personality-removed clerks and accountants. If you don’t do it, keep on top of it; the taxman cometh, and he taketh away lots of fines and penalties.

But it took a long time to research, test and write this review (weeks). It is not all Epson’s fault, but frankly, manuals are sketchy, cloud setup is tetchy, software install was variable, and it took some time to get pre-sets right. So, if you are a busy small business person, seek professional help to get this going to the point where it is useful and indispensable.

The Epson Rapid Receipt RR-600W, when correctly set up, makes getting paperwork from the shoebox to the accountant easy. Our best advice – talk to your accountant and work out if it suits you.

Finally, as you don’t know if it will work for you until you try it, look for a retailer that will accept returns. User reviews all state that interoperability with their accounting software is the key.

Tough call. As a sheet-fed, duplex scanner it is everything, you need. It may be enough to scan and send paperwork to the accountant.

The more critical thing (that will save you money) is the Epson ScanSmart Accounting Edition software which I can’t unreservedly recommend as it depends on your needs.

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