Stop Printing PDFs: Paper Is Just Data With Extra Steps
Printing a digital invoice to sign it and scan it back in is madness. It destroys data integrity and wastes time. We kill the printers.
You Are Murdering Data
In the year 2025, a printer in a finance department is a red flag. It signals that you do not trust your tools.
When you receive a PDF invoice via email, that file contains metadata. The text is searchable. The numbers are crisp. The moment you print it, you strip that intelligence away. You turn Data into Picture.
Then, you take a pen and write “OK” on it. Then you scan it. Now you have a blurry, crooked image file that is 10 times the file size of the original. You cannot search the text inside it. You cannot copy-paste the IBAN.
This is not a process. This is a ritual.
The Leak: The “Analog Loop”
Let’s quantify the waste.
- Hardware: Paper, toner, maintenance, electricity. (Small cost).
- Labor: The “Walk and Scan.” (Big cost).
- Print: 1 minute.
- Sign: 10 seconds.
- Scan: 2 minutes.
- File/Rename: 2 minutes.
- Total: ~5 minutes per invoice.
If you process 100 invoices a month, you are wasting 8 hours—a full working day—just standing in front of a Xerox machine. You are paying a manager €50/hour to operate a scanner.
The Plug: The Digital Stamp
If you need to approve an invoice, do not use ink. Use pixels.
Level 1: The PDF Editor If you are small, open the PDF on your screen. Use the “Stamp” tool or “Sign” tool in Adobe/Preview. Save. Done. Time: 30 seconds.
Level 2: The Approval Button If you are serious, use an AP tool (Dext, Bill.com, Moss). The invoice arrives. You click “Approve.” The system stamps the metadata: Approved by Klara, 14 Oct 2025, 14:02. This is your audit trail. It is immutable. Ink can be forged. Metadata is hard to fake.
Conclusion
Paper is for art. It is not for accounting. Every time you print a digital file, you are choosing to be less efficient.
Unplug the printer. Force the habit. Meten is weten.
FAQs
But the auditor wants to see the signature?
No, they don't. They want to see *approval*. A digital audit log showing 'User X approved at Time Y' is legally superior to a squiggle of ink.
It's faster to just scribble on paper.
Is it? Add the time walking to the printer, waiting for toner, walking back, scanning, naming the file, and shredding the paper. It is 10x slower.
What if the system crashes?
If the cloud crashes, you have bigger problems than an unprinted invoice. Backups are digital. Paper burns.