Ready to Go Paperless? The Best Apps for Going Paperless

Decrease paper usage and the pain of shuffling through outdated and inaccurate paper documents. Save money, get digital documents in real-time and capture electronic signatures with powerful data capture apps. You'll save hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in costs and improve employee productivity.

A while back I wrote about how mobile forms can save you thousands of dollars a year by cutting costs for rekeying data, filing and storing papers, lowering real estate costs and improving productivity.

I've recently uncovered updated data on the costs of paper forms and how going digital can save you thousands of dollars. You might be surprised by what paper forms cost the average organization.

How Much Money You Can Save By Using Mobile Forms

You might be surprised by the amount of money that paper forms cost the average organization. “The Paperless Office: How Much You Can Save” offers great data on the lost productivity costs and high expenses that paper-based organizations face.

Further Reading: How Much Does It Cost to Go Paperless

Lost Productivity Costs with Paper Forms

First, the article claims that employees spend up to two hours trying to find paper files each day, and managers might spend four hours per week on average looking for lost or misplaced information. 

Employees can spend up to 2 hours a day trying to find paper files.
Managers can spend up to 4 hours a week looking for lost or misplaced information.

Administrative Expenses Associated with Paper Forms

Second, recording, moving, and storing paper forms is very expensive. Companies must pay for filing cabinets and extensive storage space. 

Consider the following chart from RecordNation. It shows that the cost of using paper forms can be 75% more than the cost of using digital forms. 

How much does this all add up to and how much can you save? Based on a business with 24 filing cabinets and 100 employees each making $15 per hour, the chart shows costs with a digital way to manage files, and without a way to manage them:

That's an annual cost savings of more than $570,000 for a small company!

Related reading: Learn how going paperless can fight climate change.

Given the lost productivity and growing costs of file storage and maintenance, going paperless seems to be a no-brainer, provided you can go digital cost-effectively.

What to Know Before Going Paperless

A lot of companies talk about “going paperless,” but it can be hard to know where to start. It’s not just about scanning old files. It’s about building a system that actually makes things easier.

Start with the basics. If you’ve got stacks of physical documents, you’ll need a plan for getting them into digital form. Some teams use scanning apps on phones or tablets. Others invest in higher-end scanners. Either way, once files are digital, it’s much faster to store and find them.

Storage matters too. Instead of rows of file cabinets, you can use cloud storage or digital filing cabinets. That saves office space and cuts down on clutter. It also means people don’t have to dig through drawers to find what they need. Just search and go.

Another thing to think about is how you’ll handle incoming paper. That’s where importing documents comes in. Some apps let you snap a photo, tag the file, and save it in the right spot—all in one step. It’s quick and beats scanning at a desktop.

The cost? It depends. Some tools are free or low-cost. Others have monthly fees. But in most cases, the switch pays off. You’re not spending on paper, printers, storage, or hours wasted searching for files. Over time, that adds up.

And don’t forget about easy access. That’s the real win. With the right system, anyone on your team can pull up a document from their phone, even if they’re not in the office. That kind of access keeps things moving—no waiting around for files or signatures.

Going paperless isn’t about being perfect. It’s about making progress. Start with a few forms, test a scanning app, and see what works. You don’t have to overhaul everything in one shot.​

For instance, a company mailing 10,000 paper bills monthly could save approximately $130,000 annually by transitioning 70% of its customers to digital billing, considering the combined costs of printing, postage, and labor. (Source: Paylode)

The main thing is this: going digital makes life easier. It helps you save space, save time, and keep your team in sync. Whether you’re a small business or a growing team, the tools are out there—and they’re easier to use than you might think.​

How to Go Paper Free: The Best Apps for Going Paperless

Keep in mind that it’s easy to quickly and affordably build mobile forms that collect data. You can get all the benefits of going paperless even if you don’t have a high-powered development team or a sophisticated document management system.

Eliminate stacks of paper. The best and easiest way to go paper free is to get the right mobile forms software partner. You can get all the benefits of going paperless even if you don’t have a high-powered development team or a sophisticated document management system.

Alpha TransForm is ideal for the task because it easily builds forms that work on any mobile device and offers built-in dashboards to make sense of the data. Customers are going paperless with ease, as the company offers a team of solution efforts that can help you get started. They'll document your business process, then digitize paper forms by crafting apps with the latest mobile features (camera, GPS, bar code scanning, etc.) for fast, accurate data capture.