Before a company moves to an electronic signing platform, the finance director asks a fair question: what is the return on electronic signature? And is the move worth the effort and cost? An honest answer does not come from general percentages published in advertisements, but from a calculation the company runs on its own figures: how many contracts it signs per month, what each paper contract costs, and how many hours staff spend following it up. The return differs greatly between a small office that signs ten contracts a month and a company that signs hundreds a week.
In this guide we present a systematic method for calculating the return step by step: how to account for the direct costs of paper, how to measure wasted time, how to estimate the indirect effect on speed of revenue and error reduction, and then how to bring it all together in a single formula that can be presented to management. We will use an example with hypothetical figures to illustrate the method only, and you should substitute your company's actual figures.
First: Why ready-made percentages are not enough
Why it matters: Many articles say that electronic signing "saves a large percentage of costs," but such phrases are no basis for a financial decision. Management needs a figure it can defend before the board or partners, and a figure taken from a study of a different market or of companies of a different size will not survive the first question. Worse, exaggerating the expected return makes the project look like a failure later, even if it actually succeeded.
How to do it properly: Start from your own data. Pull from your records the number of contracts signed over the last six months or year, and break them down by type: employment contracts, customer contracts, supplier contracts, and addenda and renewals. Then pick a small sample of each type and trace its actual journey: when it was prepared, when it was printed, when it reached the other party, when it came back signed, and when it was archived.
Common mistake: Calculating the cost of paper and printing alone, then concluding that the saving is small. Paper is usually the smallest cost item; the largest part lies in staff time, waiting, and delay.
Example: A services company calculated the printing cost per contract, found it small, and postponed the project. A year later it traced the contract cycle and discovered that the average time between sending a contract and its return signed exceeded a week, and that nearly one full-time employee was spending their time on printing, follow-up, and scanning.
Second: Account for the direct costs of the paper contract
Why it matters: Direct costs are the easiest part to measure and the most persuasive, because they are expenses that appear in the books. Accounting for them accurately gives you firm ground before moving on to the items that are harder to estimate.
How to do it properly: Calculate the cost of a single contract by adding the following items, then multiply by the annual number of contracts. Do not forget that one contract may be printed more than once if its draft changes, and that it is usually printed in two or three copies.
| Item | What is counted | Where the figure comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Printing and paper | Pages × copies × number of print runs | Ink and paper invoices and the printer maintenance contract |
| Shipping and express mail | Sending copies to the other party and getting them back | Courier company invoices |
| Travel | Messenger trips to deliver contracts or collect signatures | Travel allowances and vehicle expenses |
| Paper archiving | Files, cabinets, and storage space | Rent for the dedicated space and archive purchases |
| Scanning | Converting the signed contract into a digital copy | Staff time and scanning equipment |
Common mistake: Leaving out the archiving cost because it is "already there." In fact archive space has a real cost, whether it is a room at the office or an external warehouse, and finding an old contract consumes measurable time.
Example: A real estate office sends each lease by messenger to the tenant and then to the landlord. When it did the accounting, it found that messenger trips alone cost several times more than printing, and that some contracts required two or three trips because one of the parties was absent.
Third: Measure staff time
Why it matters: Time is often the biggest item, and also the most neglected because it does not appear as a separate invoice. But every hour an employee spends printing a contract, chasing a signature, or searching for a file is an hour not spent on their core work, whether that is selling, serving customers, or running human resources.
How to do it properly: Break the contract cycle into small tasks and ask the employees involved to estimate the time each task takes, or measure it on a sample. Then multiply the total hours by the cost of an employee's hour, which is the monthly salary plus benefits divided by monthly working hours.
- Preparing the final version for printing and getting copies ready.
- Coordinating with the other party on a signing date or delivery address.
- Follow-up by phone and email until the contract returns signed.
- Reviewing the returned contract to make sure signatures are complete on every page.
- Scanning, naming, and saving into the system.
- Searching for the contract later when it is needed.
Common mistake: Counting the time of one employee only. A contract usually passes through more than one person: the contract preparer, the manager who signs, the secretarial staff, and the archive clerk. The manager's time in particular is worth more than most, and waiting for them to sign on paper stalls the whole cycle.
Example: A human resources department hiring a large number of staff each month printed the employment contract, the declarations form, and the policy handbook for every employee. After measuring, it turned out that preparing the paper hiring file and collecting its signatures took noticeable time for each new employee, and this doubled when the employee worked at a distant branch.
Fourth: Indirect effects: speed of revenue and fewer errors
Why it matters: This is where the most valuable part of the return lies, and also the hardest to measure. When the signing of a sales contract is delayed by a week, the start of delivery and the collection of the first payment are delayed with it. And when a contract is lost or a page is left unsigned, the company can lose a right entirely in a dispute.
How to do it properly: Estimate this effect cautiously and in a way that can be reviewed. For example: calculate the average contract value, the average days of delay in paper signing, then estimate what bringing collection forward by that number of days means. Likewise, count the cases last year where an error occurred: a contract missing a signature, a lost copy, or a dispute over which copy is the latest.
| Indirect effect | How to measure cautiously |
|---|---|
| Faster deal closing | Difference in days of the signing cycle × number of deals |
| Fewer lost deals | Number of customers who backed out while waiting to sign last year |
| Fewer signing errors | Number of contracts returned for a missing signature or data |
| Strength of evidence in a dispute | Number of disputes that needed proof of who signed and when |
Common mistake: Putting these estimated figures into the core calculation with the same weight as the direct costs. It is safer to present them on a separate line titled "expected effect," so the core financial case stays persuasive even if the reader discounts the estimates.
Example: A software company sent its quotes and contracts by email as files to print, sign, and scan. Some customers put off printing for days. Once customers could sign from a link on their phones, the company cut a large part of that waiting, without needing a precise figure to be convinced the effect was real.
Fifth: The cost of the switch itself
Why it matters: A return means nothing without the other side of the equation. Moving to electronic signing has a cost: the platform subscription, setup time, team training, and perhaps integrating the platform with the company's systems. Leaving out these costs makes the calculation biased and weakens trust in it.
How to do it properly: Add up the annual subscription cost for the plan that suits your contract volume, and add the hours of initial setup: loading contract templates, configuring team accounts and permissions, and training employees. If you will integrate the platform with the sales or HR software through an API, add the estimated developer hours for that.
Common mistake: Choosing a plan bigger than needed "just in case," or smaller than needed to save money and then having to upgrade after a month. It is better to base your choice on the actual number of contracts you calculated in the first step.
Example: A mid-sized company wanted to connect its internal system to signing from day one, and estimated the development hours carefully. Because the platform it chose offers a test mode and ready-made code libraries, its team could experiment before real sending without every trial counting as a cost.
Sixth: The formula and a worked example with hypothetical figures
After gathering the items above, the calculation becomes simple. The basic formula for return on investment is:
Return (%) = (Annual savings − Annual cost of switching) ÷ Annual cost of switching × 100
Annual savings here are the sum of the direct costs saved and the value of the staff time saved, while the indirect effect is presented separately. To illustrate the method only, we assume a company with the following hypothetical figures, which are neither market averages nor promises of any result:
| Item (hypothetical) | Value |
|---|---|
| Contracts per year | 1,200 contracts |
| Direct cost of a paper contract (printing, shipping, travel, archiving) | X currency units |
| Staff time per contract | Two hours |
| Cost of an employee hour | Y currency units |
| Time remaining per contract after the switch | Half an hour |
In this example the time saving is an hour and a half per contract, or 1,800 hours a year, so its value is 1,800 × Y. Added to it is the direct saving of 1,200 × X, after deducting any remaining direct cost. The cost of subscription, setup, and training is then subtracted from the total, and the result is divided by the cost of switching. In this way any reader in management can trace each figure to its source and adjust it with more accurate figures if available.
Common mistake: Assuming staff time falls to zero. An electronic contract still needs preparation and review; the real saving is in printing, travel, follow-up, and archiving. A conservative estimate is stronger than an optimistic one.
Seventh: Elements that cannot be measured in money but enter the decision
Why it matters: Some benefits of electronic signing do not convert easily into a figure, but they affect legal risk and customer experience. Ignoring them leaves the calculation incomplete, while overpricing them makes it unreliable. The solution is to mention them in a separate descriptive section.
How to do it properly: State in your report what the platform adds to the strength of evidence. On a platform such as Wthaiq, each contract keeps an evidence record logging the signing events, a digital fingerprint of the document that reveals any later change, a trusted timestamp proving the signing time, and a public verification page with a verification number that any party can consult. These elements reduce the cost of a potential dispute, even if they are not priced in the formula.
- A better experience for the customer who signs from their phone anywhere.
- Less dependence on the manager's presence to sign papers.
- An organized archive that is easy to search instead of cabinets.
- Clearer proof of who signed, when, and by what verification method.
Common mistake: Converting "improved customer experience" into a large financial figure with no basis. This weakens the whole report; it is better to keep it descriptive.
Eighth: How do you verify the return after implementation?
Why it matters: The calculation before implementation is an estimate; the calculation afterward is a measurement. Management that approved the project will ask six months later: did we get what we were promised? A ready answer in figures builds trust for any later digital transformation project.
How to do it properly: Before starting, define three or four indicators that you measure before and after the switch in the same way: average days of the signing cycle, number of contracts returned for deficiencies, weekly follow-up hours, and monthly shipping and printing expenses. Then compare the figures after three months and six months.
Common mistake: Measuring only in the first month, when the team is still learning and working both ways at once. The true picture appears after the new method settles.
Example: A supply company measured the signing cycle before and after the switch and found the improvement modest in the first month because some suppliers asked for paper copies. Once suppliers got used to signing from the link, the full effect appeared in the sixth month's report.
Review checklist for calculating the return
- Have you counted the annual number of contracts by contract type?
- Have you calculated the direct cost of the paper contract with all its items?
- Have you measured the time of all employees involved in the contract cycle, not just one?
- Have you calculated the cost of an employee hour using salary and benefits?
- Have you included the full cost of the switch: subscription, setup, training, and integration?
- Have you separated the indirect effect onto its own line?
- Have you used conservative estimates you can defend?
- Have you defined indicators to measure after implementation?
Frequently asked questions
When does the return from electronic signing appear?
The direct savings in printing and shipping appear from the first contract signed electronically, while the time savings appear gradually as the team and the other parties get used to the new method. It is therefore advisable to measure results after several months, not after days.
Is electronic signing worthwhile if we have few contracts?
That depends on the nature of the contracts, not just their number. If the contracts are few but high in value or involve parties in different cities, the value of evidence and speed of completion alone may be enough. The calculation on your own figures is what answers it.
Should I include the value of fewer disputes in the calculation?
It is better to mention it descriptively or on a separate line, because the likelihood and cost of a dispute are hard to estimate accurately. Including it in the core figure may make the whole calculation open to doubt.
How do I calculate the cost of an employee hour?
Add the monthly salary to the benefits and insurance the company bears, then divide the total by the actual working hours in the month. If employees at different levels take part in the contract cycle, calculate a separate hourly cost for each level.
Can the switch be made gradually to reduce risk?
Yes, and it is usually the best approach. Start with one type of recurring contract, such as employment contracts or simple service contracts, measure the results, then extend use to the other types.
The return on electronic signature is not a slogan to repeat but a calculation you run on your own figures and review after implementation. Start by counting your contracts and their current cycle, then try the new method on one type of them. If you want to start the trial yourself, you can create your Wthaiq account and send your first contract for signature.