When we started SendYourDocs in 2021, we committed to being a paperless company from day one. We thought it would be easy. We were mostly right, but there were a few things we didn’t anticipate. Here’s an honest look at what “going paperless” actually involves for a small business.
What we mean by “paperless”
To be clear, we don’t mean we never touch paper. We mean that paper is never the primary record for anything. If a vendor sends us a paper invoice, we scan it and file the digital version. The paper goes in the recycling bin. Our systems of record are all digital.
The tools we use
Going paperless doesn’t require a lot of software, but you do need a few things:
- E-signatures: We use SendYourDocs (obviously) for contracts, offer letters, NDAs, and vendor agreements. Any e-signature tool that gives you audit trails and compliance will work.
- Cloud storage: Google Drive for day-to-day files. Everything lives in shared folders organized by department.
- Accounting software: QuickBooks Online for invoices, receipts, and expense tracking. No more filing paper receipts.
- Scanner app: For the occasional paper document that arrives by mail. We use a phone scanner app—most of them produce clean PDFs.
- Password manager: Not directly related to paper, but once everything is digital, securing access becomes more important.
What it costs
Here’s a rough monthly cost breakdown for a team of 10:
- E-signature tool: $0–$150/month depending on volume and plan
- Cloud storage: $72/month (Google Workspace Business Starter, $7.20/user)
- Accounting software: $30–$80/month
- Scanner app: free
Total: roughly $100–$300/month. Compare that to what you spend on printer ink, paper, filing cabinets, and the time your team spends managing physical documents. For us, the math was obvious.
How long it takes
The switch itself took us about three weeks, broken into phases:
- Week 1: Set up folder structures in cloud storage. Migrate active documents from local drives. Create templates for commonly sent documents.
- Week 2: Scan and digitize any important paper records. For us, this was a small stack—we were new, so we didn’t have years of filing cabinets to deal with. If you do, budget more time here.
- Week 3: Switch all ongoing processes to digital. Invoices go through accounting software. Contracts go through e-signatures. Meeting notes go in shared docs.
After about a month, paper stopped showing up in our workflows entirely. The occasional letter arrives by mail, gets scanned, and that’s the end of it.
What worked well
- Search. This is the biggest win. Finding a specific clause in a contract from 2022 takes 10 seconds instead of 10 minutes. Everything is full-text searchable.
- Remote access. When half the team works from home, nobody has to drive to the office to pull a file from a cabinet.
- Speed of signing. Contracts that used to take days (print, sign, scan, email) now close in hours. Some close in minutes.
- Fewer lost documents. Paper gets lost. Files get mislabeled. Digital documents with consistent naming conventions and cloud backup don’t have this problem.
What we didn’t expect
- Some vendors still want paper. We work with a few companies that require wet-ink signatures on certain forms. It’s rare, but it happens. We print, sign, scan, and send back the scan. It’s annoying but infrequent.
- Tax season has quirks. Our accountant was fine with digital records, but our state requires certain filings to be submitted on paper. We had to print a handful of forms once a year. Check your state’s requirements.
- Folder discipline matters. If people don’t follow the naming and folder conventions, the system gets messy fast. We spent time in the first month correcting misfiled documents and eventually wrote a one-page guide for the team.
- Backup is non-negotiable. When everything is digital, a data loss event is catastrophic. We use cloud storage with versioning and run a separate nightly backup to a different provider. This is not optional.
Is it worth it?
For us, absolutely. We spend less money, move faster, and can find any document in seconds. The transition was not painful, but it did require some upfront effort to set up folder structures, create templates, and get everyone on the same workflow.
If you’re a small business still running on paper and email attachments, the switch is simpler than you think. Start with your most common document—probably a contract or invoice—and move it to a digital workflow. Once that’s working, add the next one. Within a month, you’ll wonder why you waited.