44% of businesses still use paper on a daily basis, according to a study by Foxit.
In an era of mobile devices, instant connectivity, and a lightning-fast internet connection, one would expect this number to be much lower.
The truth is most businesses that still rely on physical paperwork likely do so out of familiarity and habit.
However, there are several downsides to using paper in the workplace – and cost is one of them.
In this article, we will break down how much using paper may be costing your business and why electronic forms are far superior to their paper alternatives.
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How Much Does Paper Cost Your Business Per Year?
While a single sheet of paper might not appear to be costly, its main pitfall is that it adds up – and so do the associated costs.
On average, a typical American office worker goes through as many as 10,000 sheets of copy paper every year. It’s an astounding number that results in even more astounding costs.
According to an estimate by Record Nations, per year, an average business can spend as much as:
- $8,000 on paper alone
- Around $8,500 on filing and storage
- Roughly $30,000 in labor costs with a dedicated file manager
These are only a few paper-related costs that can put a significant financial strain on any business – especially a small one.
As a result of that, 53% of businesses are looking to go paperless as a cost-cutting measure, according to a study by Xerox.
What Are The Drawbacks Of Using Paper Records?
High costs are not the only considerable downside of relying on paper in the workplace.
As familiar and comforting as it may be, paper also has a few significant drawbacks when it comes to data management.
Drawback #1: Paper Is Time-Consuming To Process
Paper requires a significant investment of time and labor to collect, analyze, store, and maintain.
These processes tend to be time-consuming for employees.
According to a study by Nintex, 39% of employees believe that documentation management within their organization is broken.
Among them:
- 49% have trouble locating the needed documents
- 43% struggle with document sharing
- 34% find completing new client paperwork difficult
Drawback #2: Paper Can Compromise Your Security
A single misplaced sheet of paper can compromise the security of your data and the well-being of your business.
No matter how hard you try to ensure that all of your paperwork is handled safely, it’s nearly impossible to eliminate human error that may occur from time to time.
Mishandling paper documents can result in them ending up in the wrong hands, compromising vital information about your business.
Drawback #3: Paper Is Environmentally Unfriendly
Paper products are the most common items found in landfills, according to the EPA.
And businesses contribute a significant portion of that waste, as 45% of paper printed in the workplace usually ends up trashed within a day.
One can only imagine the extent of the negative environmental impact this has.
And while recycling efforts can help alleviate this issue to an extent, the only certain way of preventing your business from creating excessive waste is going paperless.
How To Go Paperless With doForms
doForms offers a mobile data management solution that can help you completely abandon paperwork and upgrade your processes.
The mobile forms tools by doForms have a variety of applications and use cases, including:
- Report building
- Email automation
- Data collection
All of this functionality is cloud-based, which means that the data is securely stored online and can be instantly accessed, shared, and edited by employees via their mobile devices.
By switching to mobile forms for your data collection and management needs, you can eliminate all of the costs and difficulties associated with physical paperwork.
On top of that, going completely paperless can also benefit your business in several additional ways.
Ready to build your own mobile form? Get in touch!
What Are The Benefits Of Going Paperless?
Apart from cost-cutting, going paperless can benefit your business in the following ways.
Benefit #1: Improved Security
Electronic mobile forms are almost entirely based on cloud infrastructure.
This means that whatever forms, reports or invoices you create via the electronic form solution are stored in a secure, encrypted cloud storage space.
Without the appropriate clearance, nobody but you and your employees will be able to access and share that data. Not to mention that it would be a lot harder to misplace a piece of data when it’s stored this way.
As such, mobile forms can not only give you peace of mind when it comes to the well-being of your data and business but also help you avoid spending resources, time, and effort to retrieve lost or stolen data.
Benefit #2: Improved Team Productivity & Cooperation
Because of their cloud-based functionality, mobile forms can be viewed, edited, or shared in real-time.
This can help significantly improve both productivity and cooperation within your team.
Your team will have instant access to whatever information and resources they might need and will not need to invest any time or effort into locating it. This could be especially helpful to new team members going through the onboarding process.
Mobile forms can also improve the communication between your team members and your customers, eliminating the delays that paper usage results in and allowing your team members to make instant, data-driven decisions that benefit your business.
Benefit #3: Reduced Environmental Footprint
The final and the most apparent benefit of going paperless is the reduced environmental footprint of your business.
By switching to a mobile form solution, you will avoid contributing to the massive amounts of paper waste created by businesses worldwide.
This will not only benefit the environment but also the image of your business as a forward-thinking, socially responsible enterprise – qualities that are very much cherished in the modern business world.
Costs For Your Business Summarized
While many businesses still rely on physical paperwork for data collection and management, they might not be aware of just how costly paper can be.
According to some estimates, an average business can save as much as $48,000 per year by going paperless and eliminating the operational costs that paper documentation commands.
On top of being costly, physical paperwork is also time- and effort-consuming to process, it can be a threat to your data security and it contributes to the negative environmental footprint of your business.
One way to avoid these issues and cut costs is to switch to a mobile form solution such as doForms.
By using electronic mobile forms for your data collection and management needs, you will boost the productivity and cooperation within your team, ensure that your vital business information is secure, and drastically reduce the environmental footprint of your business.
