Document Storage Services
The advantage of storing documents in the office is the fact you can access them quickly and keep documents nearby. Keeping company documents in the office can require significant investments in resources other than just the cost of paper itself like, for example, the cost of the time required to manage your office documents yourself.
In terms of cost, compared to other document storage options managing documents in the office can come with steep prices.
Because document retention periods can range upwards of 5 or more years, the overall volume of documents quickly begins to stack up as does the overall cost when you need more and more resources and supplies to store them.
Some of the main costs that factor into storing documents in the office include:
- Buying paper
- Filing cabinets to store documents
- Office space to store filing cabinets
- Labor costs for employees to either personally locate, retrieve, and re-file documents
How Much Does It Cost to Store Documents in the Office?
The average office worker in the US will go through roughly 10,000 sheets of paper each year.
With the average standard box of copy paper able to hold 5,000 sheets and costing approximately $40 a case, the price per employee over the course of a year will sit around $80.
Say a company employs 100 people meaning they consume 200 boxes of paper per year. The average cost of office space per square foot in the US is $15–$20, so we’ll use a median cost of $17.50, and for sake of example, we’ll use a $15 per hour wage for all employees.
The average 5-drawer filing cabinet can hold 8.3 boxes of paper, and costs $350 taking up roughly 7 square feet of space which in terms of our example, would mean the company needs just over 24 filing cabinets to store their documents.
Average Annual Cost to Store Documents In the Office:
| Individual Cost Factors | Annual Cost |
| Paper Costs | $8,000.00 |
| Filing Cabinet Costs | $8,433.73 |
| Space Costs (7 sq. ft. per cabinet @ $7.50 per sq. ft.) | $1,265.04 |
| Labor Costs With Single File Manager ($15.00 per Hour) | $30,240.00 |
| Labor Costs Without Single File Manager | $604,800.00 |
| Total Annual Cost With File Manager | $47,938.77 |
| Total Annual Cost Without File Manager | $622,498.77 |
Need a Cost-Effective Document Storage Services?
Unlike alternative storage options like offsite document storage services and electronic document management, storing documents in the office means making costly investments for filing cabinets and and losing out on potentially revenue-driving office space—just to mention a few of its downsides.
At Dox Vault we can help to prevent and avoid these issues.
To learn more, simply give us a call at 360-943-6040.
