For some years now, the use of paper in different stages of business has been questioned. Society as a whole no longer admits that different companies use paper in an excessive way, as it is well known that it has significant effects on the deterioration of the environment.

Not only are different regulations beginning to affect its indiscriminate use, but also consumers through their purchasing decisions are beginning to turn to organizations that are responsible in their use of paper.

Although this is a very serious, interesting and necessary topic, in this article we will focus on another aspect of the same problem.

How does paper affect the profitability of my business from a management and resource optimization point of view?

Paper, for the sake of redundancy, plays a key role in making businesses profitable.

Especially, those that for different reasons have complex internal processes. A clear example is the companies that have field collaborators distributed in different points of the map and therefore have a complex situation when it comes to register, transfer, process and systematize the information on paper.

In this type of process, the use of paper has two main areas of influence that have a direct impact on the profitability of a business.

First of all, having paper-based data recording processes prevents the generation of information in real time. Paper must be transferred and processed, which generates a time gap between the recording and the transformation of data into intelligence through reports, dashboards, papers, etc.

The profitability growth potential of applying business intelligence is difficult to estimate, but 8 out of 10 operations managers in the region believe that business intelligence applied to operations can increase profitability by numbers that never fall below 30%.

On the other hand, the other major area of impact of paper on the profitability of a business is revenue generation and realization.

What do we mean?

If processes are recorded on paper, they must be moved from the point where the service was provided to the point where the central processing center is located. This causes the paper to be lost and/or damaged. It is estimated that 1% of the processes recorded on paper are lost before being processed. A process that is not registered is a process that is not invoiced and therefore is a direct loss to the profitability of the business since the costs of the services not invoiced are paid in the same way.

On the other hand, having to move paper records creates a long delay between when services are generated and when they are invoiced. Switching from paper to a digital management tool such as GoDoWorks saves an average of 3 weeks in invoicing time for those companies that switch from paper to GoDoWorks' digital system.

The fact of being able to invoice earlier generates a great difference in the cash flows of the companies and allows a much more profitable operation, since it is possible to reduce debt taking and waste of reserves to cover very long revenue streams.

Finally, the processing of data from paper records is left to the subjectivity of the person who reads and processes this information, which generates differences between the services generated and the invoiced amount that end up in re-invoicing processes that only lengthen the process or simply reduce the total invoicing in those cases where the error goes unnoticed.

Taking these factors into account, it is evident that paper will play an increasingly less important role in the business world. In addition to helping the environment by eliminating paper components, we will also be generating positive profitability for our organization, ensuring invoicing and reducing delays and errors. 

The smaller the role of paper in your business, the more profitable you will be.