With a simple mouse click or two, reports are generated, invoices printed in triplicate and letters, complete with typographical errors are created, most only to be thrown away either at the source or final destination. What is the true cost for a single page document to your companies bottom line? What are the ways to reduce this waste of both resources and money?

Larry Phelps has kindly provided us with these statistics on the staggering cost and quantity of paper in the workplace. For more information please visit his site and his expertise on efficient and environmentally document imaging.  larryphelps.wordpress.com

• Over its life-span, a single sheet of paper ends up costing an average of $30. -Delphi Group.
• Every year 7.5 billion documents are created and 15 trillion copies are made.
• E-mails will double to 60 billion a day in 2 years.
• 7% of documents are permanently lost.
• The average document is copied 18 times.
• 90% of business information is still on paper.
• Misfiled documents cost $120 each.
• 4-drawer file cabinets cost $25,000 to fill.
  and $2,000 per year to maintain. (Source: Coopers & Lybrand 2004)
• $14,000 worth of productivity is lost per worker per year due to their inability to find the data they require to do their job.-IDC Canada.
• Professionals spend 50 percent of their time searching for information, and take 18 minutes to locate each document on average. -Gartner Research.
• US companies spend approximately $20 on labor costs in order to file a document, $120 on the labor required to find a misfiled document and $220 to reproduce a lost document. -Coopers & Lybrand.
• Companies typically misfile up to 20 percent of their records – thus losing them forever.

With these facts in mind, it only makes sense, both financially and environmentally to examine the options for online invoicing, electronic payments and software based accounting. All of these provide a significant reduction in paper, paper related costs and environmental impact.

See for yourself , try the Greenbill Green Billing Calculator and find out how much paper is really costing your company.

He question to me was, “Why does recycling and saving seem more important when people have less?”

Now this may contradict my opening statement, yet it is very clear that although there is less outward focus on being “Green”, companies and individuals would appear to do more regarding conservation and recycling in times of economic strain. Reusing materials, equipment, and reducing energy usage to save. Swing shifts at the office to reduce heating and cooling costs, electricity usage at non-peak rates and on, and on. The same is very true for individual households. Lights turned off which otherwise would be left on, reducing fuel by commuting less or by public transportation, reusing items which otherwise would be thrown away, it is human nature and one which should be evaluated to help with the quest for a “Green” planet.

Now the challenge is to keep these habits in place during times of economic growth and abundance. Easier said than done? Well, we have begun a list of what we do as a family to help conserve and reduce energy, disposables and resources at our house. The kids have figured that with these notes we can see exactly how our “Green” habits can be retained as economic times improve. By continuing these habits we will be even farther ahead as we move into the future, helping the planet for my children’s children.

 Try it at your home or business; you may be surprised exactly how easy it is to be “Green” and to stay that way.

10. Seamless 2-way integration with Quickbooks.

9. Get up and going with Greenbill in minutes. It is painless and leverages your existing Quickbooks data.

8. Get up to date access to who paid and who owes from anywhere online. Works on the iPhone too.

7. Greenbill makes it super easy to get paid online via Credit Card, Paypal, Google Checkout or better yet by ACH/eCheck.

6. Quick and convenient  ACH/eChecks. ACH is $0.35 per payment instead of 2-3% of the transaction.

5. Your customers will love the your branded web portal. Its simple, fast and easy to use.

4. The reporting kicks ass. See trends and payment patterns for your customers that you have been missing in Quickbooks.

3. Set it and Forget. You never have to worry about making sure the invoices and reminders get to the right people.

2. Our Customers get paid 10 days faster on average when they use our solution for their invoice delivery, collections and online payments process.

And…..(Drum Roll Please)
1. Go Green and Get Paid Faster. If you are still sending paper out of Quickbooks, STOP IT.  Greenbill is good for the planet and good for your business.