The average UK SME is spending up to £32,723 every year just by not updating their paper-based tasks to make them paperless, recent research has revealed.
Leading field service management software provider, mpro5, has conducted extensive research to uncover all the hidden costs associated with businesses paper use – and it equates to a shocking 11% of average company revenue.
Printing costs are often the third highest operational expense after rent and payroll, and while many businesses are moving towards reducing their paper usage, the reality of a paperless world is still very much a dream for the future.
However, many offices are not aware of the soaring costs that could be avoided by making daily tasks paperless – a move that is much simpler than many people realise.
Where do the costs come from?
To establish the final number of £32,763, mpro5 looked at a number of ways paper-based tasks are costing businesses, namely; the cost of paper; the cost of printing; the cost of storage; and the cost of printer maintenance. The full breakdown is included below.
The cost of paper
Recent research has shown that on average, each employee uses around 10,000 sheets of paper. This equates to 20 reams, or four boxes of paper, costing £10 per box. Based on a company with 50 employees, just the sheets of paper alone can be costing up to £2,000 per year.
The cost of storage
Paperwork costs to produce, and needs to be physically stored. Unlike online data entry, folders and printouts need a place to live within an office. The cost of maintaining filing cabinets and office space for an average businesses annual paper use is £360 per year, but can be up to £863 in London offices.
The cost of printing
Not only do you need to consider the paper, but also printer ink and toner, which generally costs approximately 4.5p per page. Based on 50 employees printing 10,000 pages per year, this equates to a total of £22,500 per annum.
This doesn’t cover the cost of printer maintenance and repairs, which are an additional £148 per employee per year. This brings the annual cost of printing to a shocking £29,900. When combined with the storage costs and the cost of paper reams, we get our final figure of £32,763.
Wasting Paper
The cost to businesses is a significant reason for going paperless, but it’s also important to consider the waste that is caused by paper-based tasks. Almost a fifth of all the waste in England is generated by businesses, and 50% of business waste is paper.
On average, a tree can produce around 8,000 sheets of paper. That means that every employee uses more than one entire tree every year – that’s over 50 trees per year being used for paper for an average SME. The average employee wastes 1,410 sheets of paper per year, due to accidental printing, losing paperwork, and even just printing things and forgetting about them, as 20% of print jobs are never retrieved from printers.
Becoming Paperless
In response to this research, Alice Barrett of mpro5 said, “Seeing the amount of wastage and expense that comes from sticking with outdated paper-based tasks is really eye-opening. It’s easy for businesses to let these costs pile up as they tend to be hidden costs that aren’t generally considered within budgets.
“However, the effect that this has on profits and the environment means that the only way to move forward is for businesses to significantly reduce their paper usage.
“Often, the tasks that are being performed would actually be much faster, more efficient, and simpler if they were done through management software, such as mpro5. Businesses should start to look down these avenues and consider the long-term savings.”
