In an era of technology reshaping every industry, many businesses still rely on outdated paper-based systems to manage their operations. While this may seem like a minor inefficiency, the true cost of processing paper dockets adds up quickly. From employee time and labour costs to administrative overhead, errors, and lost opportunities, the real price of paper can quietly erode your business’s profitability.
At Docketbook, we help businesses move beyond paper dockets to digital solutions that streamline operations and improve the bottom line. Let’s break down some hidden costs of processing paper dockets and explore why digital transformation is crucial.
1. Employee Time and Labor Costs
Processing paper dockets involves multiple employees, from those handling the physical paperwork to those entering the data into systems and double-checking for accuracy. The more employees involved, the more time is wasted on non-value-added tasks.
Imagine a company with:
- 5 employees processing dockets,
- Each earning an average of $40 per hour,
- Spending 10 minutes per docket.
If this company processes 750 dockets a month, the monthly cost of employee time for processing paper dockets alone adds up quickly, not even accounting for the inevitable mistakes and lost dockets. These hidden costs impact labour efficiency and could be redirected towards more productive activities.
2. Administrative Overhead
Beyond labour costs, companies incur additional expenses for storing and managing paper dockets. Docketbooks, filing cabinets, cloud storage for scanned copies—these costs seem minor in isolation, but they accumulate into significant expenses over time. The price of keeping these documents secure and organised for a business processing hundreds or thousands of dockets each month is substantial.
Moreover, there’s always the risk of losing paper dockets, resulting in further administrative challenges and potentially losing valuable business records.
3. Error and Correction Costs
Human error is inevitable when manually processing paperwork. Whether it’s data entry mistakes, lost dockets, or incomplete information, these errors lead to costly corrections.
An average company might encounter 10 errors per month, each taking 45 minutes to fix. Correcting dockets requires contacting customers, operators, accounts teams, and supervisors, time that could be more effectively used elsewhere! Employees earning $40 per hour earn $300 in error correction alone.
More importantly, errors can strain customer relationships, delay payments, and create operational bottlenecks.
4. Opportunity Costs
Paper dockets have an inherent risk of loss or incomplete documentation. When dockets are lost, businesses risk missing payments or investing time and resources to track missing information.
For instance, if just 1% of dockets are lost each month in a company processing 750 dockets, and each lost docket represents a $1,500 loss in payment, the monthly opportunity cost would be $11,250.
5. Processing Dockets into Invoices
Converting paper dockets into invoices is another labour-intensive process. Employees must ensure every docket is complete, accurate, and correctly entered into billing systems. Even with minor errors, this process is time-consuming.
The manual labour required for this task becomes unsustainable for businesses looking to scale or operate more efficiently. With a digital solution, dockets are processed instantly into invoices, reducing time, effort, and error margins.
6. The True Cost of Paper Dockets
The cost of paper dockets can be staggering when you factor in employee time, administrative overhead, error correction, and lost opportunities. For many businesses, these hidden costs undermine profitability without realizing it.
For a company with $5M in revenue, docket-related costs can easily exceed $75K annually (around 1.5% of revenue). A 5000-docket digital plan costs about $10K, yielding an impressive 7x ROI.
These numbers offer a glimpse into the hidden costs of processing paper dockets that often go unnoticed. From employee time to lost opportunities, these inefficiencies quietly add up, chipping away at your bottom line. But it doesn’t have to be this way! By evaluating the areas we've covered here, you can pinpoint where your business is losing money and take steps to streamline your processes. We encourage you to explore these insights in your business and discover how digital docketing can transform your operations into a well-oiled, cost-efficient machine.
Digital Transformation: The Solution
At Docketbook, we help businesses transition from paper to digital docketing, unlocking efficiencies and eliminating many of the abovementioned costs. By adopting a digital solution, businesses can:
- Reduce labour costs associated with manual docket processing,
- Eliminate administrative overhead related to paper storage and handling,
- Minimize errors and the time spent correcting them,
- Avoid lost payments due to incomplete or missing dockets,
- Automatically convert dockets into invoices, saving valuable time.
While moving away from paper may seem like a big step, the financial savings and operational improvements are clear. Businesses can expect better cash flow, higher accuracy, and more efficient use of employee time—giving them a competitive edge in their industry.
Ready to unlock these benefits? Book a demo with our Docketbook team to explore how our digital docket solutions can improve your bottom line.
