If your business still prints documents to get them signed, you are spending more than you think. And the biggest cost is not paper or ink — it is the time and deals you lose while waiting for signatures to come back.

Here is a breakdown of what the print-sign-scan workflow actually costs a small business.

The Visible Costs

These are the costs you can see on a receipt.

Paper and Ink

A typical business document is 2 to 5 pages. If you are printing contracts, agreements, or authorization forms regularly, the paper and ink costs add up:

Paper: A ream of 500 sheets costs a few dollars. If you print 20 documents per week at 3 pages each, that is 240 sheets per month.
Ink or toner: Printer ink is one of the most expensive liquids in the world by volume. A cartridge that costs $30-50 might print 200-500 pages depending on the printer.
Printer maintenance: Paper jams, alignment issues, cartridge replacements, and the occasional printer that just refuses to cooperate.

Individually, none of these costs seem significant. But over a year, a small business printing documents regularly can spend several hundred dollars on printing supplies alone.

Mailing and Delivery

If documents need to be mailed:

Envelopes and postage — a few dollars per document
Certified mail (if you need proof of delivery) — more per envelope
Multiple rounds — if the signer makes a mistake or misses a field, you may need to send the document again

Scanning

Once the signed document comes back, it needs to be scanned and filed digitally:

Scanner or multifunction printer — initial cost plus maintenance
Staff time — someone has to physically scan each page, name the file, and save it to the right folder

The Hidden Costs (Where You Are Really Losing Money)

The visible costs are minor compared to what paper signatures cost you in time and lost opportunities.

Staff Time

Every time someone prints, mails, tracks, follows up, receives, scans, and files a document, that is 10 to 20 minutes of work per document. If your team handles 10 signable documents per week, that is 2 to 3 hours per week spent on the print-sign-scan cycle.

Over a year, that is over 100 hours — time your staff could spend on revenue-generating work.

Turnaround Delays

Paper signing is slow. The document sits in someone's inbox, gets printed when they get around to it, sits on their desk, gets signed eventually, gets scanned, and gets emailed back. Best case: 1 to 2 days. Common case: 3 to 7 days. Worst case: it gets lost and you start over.

Every day a contract sits unsigned is a day of revenue you are not earning, a project you are not starting, or a deal that is at risk of falling through.

Lost Documents

Paper gets lost. Emails with scanned attachments get buried. Someone saves the file to their desktop and forgets about it. Now you have no record of the signed document, and if a dispute arises, you have nothing to show.

Follow-Up Overhead

"Did you get the contract?" "Have you had a chance to sign it?" "Can you resend the signed copy? I can't find it."

If you are spending time chasing signatures, that is time you are not spending on your actual business. Many business owners find that follow-up on unsigned documents is one of their biggest administrative time sinks.

Errors and Re-Dos

Handwritten signatures come with handwritten problems:

Missed fields — the signer skipped a page or forgot to initial
Illegible handwriting — names, dates, or other information cannot be read
Wrong version — the signer printed an outdated version of the document

Each error means another round of printing, signing, and scanning.

What E-Signatures Change

With electronic signatures, the entire print-sign-scan workflow disappears:

Paper Process	E-Signature Process
Print document	Upload PDF
Mail or deliver	Click send
Wait days for return	Signer completes in minutes
Scan signed copy	Automatically stored
File in cabinet or folder	Searchable in dashboard
Chase for follow-up	Automated reminders
Hope nothing gets lost	Full audit trail on every document

The time per document drops from 10-20 minutes to about 2 minutes. The turnaround drops from days to minutes or hours. And every signed document is stored with a complete audit trail — no more lost paperwork.

For a step-by-step walkthrough, see How to Send a Document for E-Signature in Under 2 Minutes.

Is It Worth Switching?

If you send more than a few documents per month for signature, the answer is almost certainly yes. The time savings alone justify it, and most e-signature tools (including AddSign) have free plans that let you try it with no financial risk.

You do not need to switch everything at once. Start with one document type — your most frequently signed form — and see how it goes. Most businesses find that once they send their first document electronically, they never want to go back to printing.

For more on the documents that work well with electronic signatures, see 5 Documents Every Small Business Should Sign Electronically.

The Bottom Line

Paper signatures are not just inconvenient — they are a drag on your business. The printing and ink costs are the smallest part of the problem. The real cost is in the hours your team spends on administrative work, the days you wait for documents to come back, and the deals that slip away while you chase signatures.

Electronic signatures eliminate all of that. Upload a PDF, add a signer, click send, and the document comes back signed — usually the same day, often within minutes.

Stop losing money on paper. AddSign pays for itself with your first batch of documents.

Start Saving — Try AddSign Free

Still Printing Documents for Signatures? What It's Actually Costing You