If your company still stores documents in-house, you’re not alone. Many businesses haven’t yet adopted professional storage services. And there are valid reasons for keeping documents in the office. The biggest reason tends to be for quick access. However, that’s the biggest benefit when you consider the bigger picture.
With both direct and indirect costs to consider, keeping company documents in the office can require significant investments in resources. Other than the cost of paper itself, the amount of time required to manage documents yourself can add up quickly. And time is money, as they say.
Here, we’ll go into the details around how much professional off-site document storage services cost, and compare that to the costs of storing documents in-house. This should give you a good idea of how much your company can benefit by moving documents off site.
The Cost of Professional Document Storage Services
As with many things, the cost of professional document storage can vary. The location, the provider, and your specific needs all factor into the cost of off-site storage. The biggest factor, however, is the volume of your documents. The number of documents you have and, in turn, the number of boxes required to hold them will influence much of the cost.
Typically, off-site storage of physical paper documents costs anywhere from 50–95 cents per box, per month. The lower end of 50 cents tends to represent large projects, while the high end of 95 cents represents smaller storage projects. However, the number of boxes is not the only factor that goes into the pricing decision.
Additional Costs Factors for Document Storage Services
Outside of the volume of documents you have to store, additional factors can impact the cost of professional document storage services. The following are some of the most common factors.
- Document preparation: Does the provider need to remove staples, paper clips, or tape?
- Double-sided documents: Are there only certain documents that are double-sided?
- Indexing: Do you want your boxes indexed for easier retrieval and tracking?
- Additional security measures: Do you have critical documents that need extra security?
- Custom retrieval: Does your business have emergency retrieval, next-day retrieval, or regularly scheduled retrieval requirements?
- Pickup services: Do you have documents that require regular archiving?
- Consulting services: Do you need additional document management support?
- Backup storing and retrieval: Is your business interested in tape rotation and vaulting?
- Secure destruction services: Do you need secure disposal for documents that have met their retention requirements?
Determining which services you need will depend on your business and industry. For companies that need access to their records on a regular basis for auditing, compliance, or legal reasons, a full package of services might help. However, for businesses who don’t foresee a regular need to access their documents, a more basic package works well and can be more cost-effective.
The Cost of Storing Documents In-house
Now that we’ve outlined the cost factors for professional document storage, let’s take a closer look at costs for in-house storage. Keeping documents in the office can ultimately cost more when compared to other document storage options. This is especially true when considering alternatives like off-site or cloud storage services.
Because document retention periods can range upwards of five or more years, the overall volume of documents quickly begins to stack up. And when you need progressively more resources and supplies to store them, the overall cost goes up, too.
When we break it down, the factors that impact the cost of storing documents in the office include:
- Buying physical paper to print documents
- Maintaining printers and ink to produce and share documents
- Filing cabinets to store documents
- Office space to store filing cabinets
- Labor costs for employees to find, retrieve, and re-file documents
Let’s think about this another way. The average office worker in the U.S. 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.
To give you a better idea of just how much these individual costs factor into the overall price of storing documents on-site, let’s apply them for an example company.
Say a company employs 100 people. By our calculations, they’ll consume 200 boxes of paper per year. The average cost of office space per square foot in the U.S. is $15-$20. Let’s assume a median cost of $17.50, and for sake of example, a $15 per hour wage for all employees.
The average five-drawer filing cabinet can hold approximately 8.3 boxes of paper. That would cost $350, and would take up roughly seven square feet of space. In terms of our example, that would mean the company needs just over 24 filing cabinets to store their documents.
If we calculated an annual cost based on these numbers, the approximate cost of storing documents in-house would be upwards of $600,000. The cost, we see, is much higher than most businesses realize.
Considerations for Professional Document Storage Services
With real-number examples, it’s more clear just how much in-house document storage can cost. Maximizing cost and efficiency is key for business success, so professional storage services are a beneficial solution for almost any organization to adopt.
When looking for a professional document storage provider, it’s important to ask about what services are included in their offering. A few questions you might ask include:
- Do you have a bar-code inventory control system to keep track of my documents?
- Where will my documents be located?
- Who will have access to my documents?
- How fast are you able to locate and deliver my documents?
- Are there emergency retrieval services available?
- Are you able to provide a written contract?
Storing documents in the office often means making costly investments and losing out on potentially revenue-driving office space. Today’s alternatives — offsite document storage, cloud storage, and document management systems — can offer more cost-effective benefits and help you and your employees focus on driving business forward.
Find Off-site Document Storage With Record Nations
If your business is ready to outsource your document storage, Record Nations can help. Our nationwide network of providers offers secure document storage services, along with document scanning and destruction. Our partners can store your records quickly, easily, securely, and in compliance with your industry’s regulations and standards.
To start a document storage service in just minutes, fill out the form or give us a call at (866) 385-3706. We’ll connect you to a provider in your area who can assist you in your records storage project whenever you’re ready.
