The high cost of paper processing

We've been talking a lot about e-invoicing on Making Cents lately. Terry Kohn from Hackett Group shared his insights on how to develop an e-invoicing strategy and also his prediction how the cloud will transform the value proposition from e-invoicing in the near future.

Coupa's J.R. Robertson weighed in on why just processing paper better is not the answer in his post, "Why using OCR for electronic invoice processing is like hitching a buggy to your horse." And, Henry Ijams of Paystream commented on the findings from his annual state of e-invoicing report, "Electronic Invoice Management: A Move to the Middle." According to Henry's report, while large enterprises are leading the pack, new

tools and technologies are bringing electronic invoice processing within reach of more small-to-medium enterprises. 

E-invoicing has many benefits, not the least of which is saving paper. How much paper? We came across this interesting infographic visualizing paper usage and the associated costs, created by gocanvas.com using data compiled by The Paperless Project.  How much of that comes from paper invoices? We can't say for sure, but we've got to imagine it's significant. We'd suggest you could do some back of the envelope calculations based on your organization's invoice volume, but that would involve, well, paper. Better do them electronically instead!