What Printing Actually Costs a Accounting Firm
accounting firms run on paper more than most people realize — tax season alone drives a volume spike most offices never fully account for. The average employee here prints around 18,000 pages a year, and industry-wide waste patterns suggest roughly a quarter of that is misprints: wrong margins, faded toner, the wrong version sent to the tray. Here's what that costs a firm your size, and how to stop it.
Why accounting firms Print More Than Average
Tax returns, financial statements, and audit documentation are printed in multi-page sets where a single misaligned page can mean reprinting the whole packet to keep it in order. Volume spikes hard during filing season, which is exactly when a reprint costs the most in staff time.
Interactive: Estimate Your firm's Waste
Estimates based on 18,000 pages/employee/year and a 18% misprint rate — adjust the numbers for your actual team size.
The 18% Problem: Where the Waste Comes From
- Multi-page tax packets reprinted entirely after one misprinted page
- Financial statements discarded due to formatting shifts between software exports
- Audit documentation reprinted for pagination or margin compliance
What a firm Saves by Testing Before Printing
| Employees | Est. Sheets Wasted/Year | Est. Cost/Year | Est. Savings with Pre-Print Testing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | 64,800 | $3,888 | $2,722 |
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does printing cost a firm per year?
A firm of 20 can lose several thousand dollars annually to misprints, concentrated heavily around tax season when print volume spikes.
Why do accounting firms waste so much paper?
Accounting documents are often printed as ordered, multi-page sets, so a single misprint can force reprinting an entire packet rather than just one page.
How can a firm reduce printing costs?
The fastest fix is catching problems before a full job runs — a single test print reveals alignment, color, and formatting issues that would otherwise turn into a wasted batch. Run a free test print before your next job.
Related
Other industries: Law Firm, Real Estate Agency, Insurance Agency.
Most accounting firms we hear from run KYOCERA equipment — see the KYOCERA test print page for brand-specific checks.
See also: the PrinterPrintTest blog for more on avoiding wasted print jobs.
Run a free test print before your next big job.
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