Maintaining paper documentation involves more than just the price of paper and ink. For general documents, the costs include printer expenses, ink, paper, folders, dividers, boxes, and storage for the entire retention period. Additionally, there’s the hidden cost of labour inefficiencies in handling documents, and delays in archiving, retrieval, and project completion.

For validation documents, which require an estimated 30+ year retention period, these costs accumulate significantly. Our conservative estimate is that on average, each paper page costs a minimum of $4.68. Similarly, batch records with a 7-year retention period are even more costly at $5.53 per page. These figures reflect not only the material costs but also the inefficiencies and delays inherent in managing paper-based systems.

To help you calculate and compare the costs of completing documents with Paper vs Docufen, we’ve created a Paper Page Cost Calculator. Feel free to download and customise it with the costs specific to your site.