Paperless office – I don’t think so!
I think it was back in the mid-80’s when the concept of the paperless office was first banded about, most probably by IBM who had world domination on their mind at the time.
Here we are twenty years later and if anything, with the advent of printing off every email we receive, there is possibly more paper in circulation in your office now than ever before.
I would like however to focus in this article on the amount of paper that goes through your business every day just to pay for the running of your business!
Did you know:- the average cost of processing an invoice in a business, according to the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply, is £42.
It seems quite a lot of money but if you follow an invoice through your business, gauge how many people handle it and for how long, and then the time and cost of the payment process you can see how it could be this high.
Why am I telling you this fascinating fact you may ask? Well apart from it being a sure fire winner in a “pointless comments” competition, it should also lead you to start looking at the number of invoices you sign off each day and more importantly the value of them.
Even though the cost of processing these invoices is unseen you can quickly start to work out whether you are actually getting best value from your cashier or finance manager or whether you are just paying them to literally push paper all day.
In carrying out reviews for firms we have seen a visible reduction in the amount of paperwork in the accounts department by following three simple rules.
Rule 1– Consolidate invoices. If you use a supplier on a regular basis throughout a month ask if you can consolidate their invoices to one monthly statement covering all purchases. If you currently get billed per order, which is still commonplace in the office supplies market, then the impact can be dramatic.
Rule 2 – Consolidate suppliers. If you use more than one supplier in the same area of expenditure then see if you can reduce this down. The days of playing suppliers off one another is gone and by putting your business through a sole supplier you maximise your own buying capabilities.
Rule 3 –Consolidate small payments. There are some instances where you need to make a one-off small purchase from suppliers you may never use again. Pay these amounts using your business credit card and therefore consolidate them to your credit card statement once a month.
Don’t forget – less paper in the office equals more money in your pocket.
