This post is part of the comprehensive Datamation Guide to Office Relocation.

Moving your business to a new location is exciting, but daunting. With the costs of moving trucks, movers, and more, it can really add up, so its important to cut costs when you can.

One of the biggest costs that you encounter may be moving your heavy, bulky filing cabinets that take up a huge amount of space in moving trucks. Scanning your documents before you move can eliminate the costs and inconvenience of transporting your files, and has long term benefits that cant be matched.

If you plan to scan your documents well ahead of moving, you could save big on renting or leasing your new office space. Think of how many filing cabinets or boxes of documents that are in your office right now, and then imagine how much space you would have if you got rid of them.

Has your company been thinking about moving to a larger location? Well you may not have to if you scanned your documents and store them digitally. Since rental and lease costs increase as the amount of space increases, you’ll save money with a smaller space.

Fewer filing cabinets and boxes may also mean fewer moving trucks or movers, which means fewer costs to your company. To demonstrate where you can save by scanning documents, here are some stats about the average office relocation:

So to recap:

● A smaller office, about 1500 square feet, costs anywhere from $750-$4500 to move, depending on how much needs to be moved.

● A larger office, about 10,000 square feet, costs anywhere from $5,000- $30,000 if there are many employees, workstations, or filing cabinets.

● Per truckload, it can cost anywhere from $500-$1500 depending on how much time it takes to load the truck, how hard it is to load the truck, and the number of movers.

Essentially, the fewer boxes and cabinets you have, the more money you save on labor and space. The money that you save on moving pays for the process of document scanning and management, and has extensive long-term benefits as well.

Scanning your documents keeps your files safe, easily accessible, and organized without taking up any physical space. In an electronic format, documents are safe from fires and floods and also have layers of security that can only be accessed with specific passwords.

That being said, even with this much security, these documents can be accessed within a few seconds by authorized staff, eliminating the need to dig through filing cabinets. Better still, if you need to access a document during the move, you can! Moving offices doesn’t have to disrupt your entire workflow.

Moving offices can be troublesome and expensive, but if you scan your documents before you move, the scanning process pays for itself. With less space taken up by cumbersome filing cabinets and less heavy lifting to do for movers, your business will save big on moving costs, and you’ll reap the benefits of document scanning for years to come.