One Man Band too!
I had a Fujitsu ScanSnap a few years ago, and it is just the simplest thing ever. The fact that it comes bundled with a copy of Adobe Acrobat (over £300 RRP) almost makes it a no-brainer.
BUT
The ScanSnap uses a proprietary interface (it's not TWAIN), which means that, if your needs grow a bit, you won't be able to use it with any other software. In the end, this is why I replaced it (that, and I couldn't get the software to work reliably on Vista - something I think was only sorted with the newer ScanSnap models)
Based on my experiences when deploying scanners with Singleview, I ended up purchasing a Kodak i40 for my own business. I've had nothing but good experiences with Kodaks - they are just really well-built, and have handled all sorts of odd documents of varying quality - all the way down to scanning things like business cards and train tickets (paperless expenses!)
If you want software that can still deliver the idiot-proof behavior of the ScanSnap, then there is a product called 'ScanToPDF' (£50) which I use with my Kodak. It can be pre-configured to PDF the scan, give it a name, and save it wherever you specify - which adds up to a lot of time-savings when dealing with a pile of post.
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The i40 is in the course of being supplanted by the Kodak i1220 (around £550).
I'm currently working with a client who is deploying these across the firm, and so far I've been equally happy with them (although the output paper-tray is a bit flimsy). We've had no problems with misfeeds or image quality.
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My general advice on desktop scanners...
I don't like Multi-Function Devices (MFD) as I always feel they are Jack of all trades and Master of none. MFD's (the small ones at least) also don't cope very well with multi-page documents, which for an accountant, is most of them! They also tend to be slower than dedicated devices.
Only go for scanners that can scan both sides of the paper at once - most manufacturers offer a single-sided option (there is, for example, a Kodak i1210), but the cost saving is tiny, and the hassle just isn't worth it.
Go for a device that can deliver at least 25 pages per minute - and verify that the device is rated to cope with the workload you intend to throw at it (this is normally quoted in the fine-print. The Kodak, for example, has a 'recommended volume' rating of 3000 pages per day).
Don't worry too much about a flat-bed option - how often does a need for this actually come up? You can always use your copier for these one-off cases, and its much easier to fit a sheet-feed scanner onto your desk.
Although these devices all offer colour - I rarely use it. A colour image is not needed for legal admissibility (unless scanning in monochrome results in a loss of information - very rare) and the file-sizes will be dramatically smaller if you stick to greyscale. I normally scan at a resolutiuon of 300 dots per inch - a good balance between file-size and image quality.
Image Quality Selection
As an addendum to Charles post.
Most scanners allow you to choose between Black&White, Greyscale and Colour, in a variety of resolutions.
Black & White (text) mode will generally create the smallest and quickest loading image sizes. This becomes important if you want to email documents to others, as it keeps the numbers of bytes to a minimum. This mode works well for general correspondence, such as HMRC SA statements and the like, but not good for photographic images or originals where there is subtle shading and colours.
Both Greyscale and Colour can generate files between 10 and 50 times as big! Good to look at on screen and can display colour shading, but these files can take longer to load and view and for multi-page documents are sometimes too big to email.
We also find that scanning in colour can work well using lower resolutions (such as 150 dots per inch (dpi)) depending on the nature of the original. This has the benefit of smaller file size but colour representation.
By the way, an image scanned at 300dpi is more than twice the size of a document scanned at 200 dpi. The maths is as follows:
300 x 300 dots = 90,000 dots per square inch (no metric here!).
200 x 200 = 40,000 dots per square inch.
We also like the Fujitsu range starting with the Fujitsu 6130 which I think is similar in spec to the Kodak model mentioned by Charles.
Derek French
Commercial Director, DocuSoft.net
software/hardware
We use Sage Document Management (Invu), and have a high speed A4 scanner (Canon DR-2580C, which is excellent) plus Brother Multi functions (DCP8065DN) at each desk for printing, copying, and scanning the occasional document. We recently got an A3 Brother multi function for scanning the larger documents, which is pretty slow, but was fairly cheap.