Hidden Costs of Document Storage

Businesses often don’t consider the hidden costs of document storage when they are deciding what to do with their documents. Often the mis-conception is that document storage is a more cost effective solution. However things like booking in fees, retrieval fees, exit fees, etc often haven’t been taken into account and can quickly mount up.

As a provider of document scanning services we often receive comments from prospective customers who are looking to move away from document storage. Budgeting for unexpected costs is something that comes up time and time again when discussing making the switch. We have even had clients who have ended up in extreme situations where they can’t afford the exit fees so have had to keep paying storage fees for a significant amount of time.

What are the hidden costs of document storage?

Some of the charges and fees associated with document storage are:

•   Collection Charges – Per collection charge whenever boxes are collected.
•   Booking In Fees – Per box fee to book boxes into the storage facility.
•   Storage Fee – per box fee paid monthly.
•   Retrieval Fee – Per request fee every time a box is retrieved out of storage.
•   Delivery Charge – Per delivery charge whenever a box is returned.
•   Exit Fee – A per box fee applicable at the end of the storage period.
•   Destruction Fee – A per box charge applicable when a box of document is destroyed.
•   Other fees – Indexing fees, admin fees and fuel surcharges.

To help get a better understanding of the true costs associated with document storage we have put together an example based on feedback from our clients:

50 boxes of finance documents collected for 7 years of storage. With an average of 20 retrievals per year.

Initial collection fee – £25 / Booking in fee – £75 / 7 years of storage – £1400

Storage total – £1500

Retrievals – £30 / Retrieval deliveries – £150 / Collection fees – £100 / Booking in fees – £30

Retrievals per year total – £310 / 7 Year Total – £2170

Exit fee – £250 / Destruction fee – £125

Total cost £4045

As you can see the retrieval fees can easily surpass the actual storage costs meaning you could be paying significantly more than originally budgeted for.

Document Scanning with UK Document Management

UK Document Management are one of the UK’s leading providers of document scanning services. For over 10 years we have been helping businesses to make the move away from document storage by digitising their documents.

We can collect, scan, index and destroy your documents all for a one off payment. Meaning you can be sure there will be no surprise hidden costs months or years down the line.

Call now on 01625 574499 or 0800 049 9744 to learn how to move about the benefits of making the switch to document scanning.

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