Searching for paper-based documents is wasting millions of pounds in lost revenues.

The survey, which was commissioned by Invu and conducted by YouGov, revealed that managers and directors are wasting valuable time trying to locate documents that may have been mis-filed, moved to another location or simply lost, costing businesses dearly.

With more than 4.5 million SMEs in the UK, and the survey finding that 80% of managers and directors waste up to one hour (worth £88 on average*) of their time per day looking for documents, it is little wonder that this wasted time is costing businesses £42.2 million.

The root cause of this inefficiency is paper; just 7% of SMEs have 91% or more of their documents saved electronically, even though paper documents can easily be lost or mis-filed due to human error. Spending time on business development was the top response (31%) to the question of what managers and directors would do if they had additional time during their working day.  This was followed by completing admin tasks (26%) and going home on time (21%).

George Derbyshire, Chief Executive of The National Federation of Enterprise Agencies (NFEA), says, “This research is quite frightening and is an example of how everyday inefficiencies can have a very damaging effect on small businesses. It's vital to prioritise on a daily basis, but it is also important to take time out from time to time and review your processes and systems to ensure that they are supporting you - not holding you back.”