How much does a contract actually cost to sign on paper?

The bulk of the cost is not the stamp, it's the time. With the calculator's default assumptions — 45 minutes of complete processing and €45 of loaded hourly cost — a paper contract works out to roughly €34 of internal time, against €3 for printing and shipping. The postal item, the one you see, accounts for less than 10% of the total. That's why a cost-saving calculation that only looks at postage misses the main point.

From how many contracts per month is it worthwhile?

Let's do the math rather than announce a threshold. The Standard plan costs €228 per year per user. With the calculator's default assumptions, a paper contract costs roughly €37 (€34 of internal time and €3 for shipping): a single contract per month is therefore enough, arithmetically, to exceed the subscription price. This result mainly says a lot about the starting assumption: it's the cost of time that decides, not the tool's price. The real question is not 'how many contracts', it's 'does 45 minutes per contract match my reality'. Lower that slider to 15 minutes, its minimum, and one contract per month is no longer enough: you need two. And if your volume is low, the free plan is enough: 5 envelopes for 14 days, then 2 per month, without a credit card.

What exactly do these 45 minutes per contract cover?

The complete cycle of the manual process, not just signing: preparing and printing the document, putting it in an envelope, sending it, waiting, following up, receiving, verifying nothing is missing, scanning and archiving. It's an average: an internal NDA takes less, a file with three signatories and handwritten notes takes much more. The slider ranges from 15 minutes to 3 hours so you can fit your case.

Why does the calculator account for revenue, not just costs?

Because a contract that drags on often never ends up being signed, and the corresponding revenue is lost. This is however our most uncertain line: it depends on your loss rate and your conversion rate, two values only you know. We use €1,200 as average value per B2B contract, deliberately low. If your average basket is higher, your actual gain is too — and if you prefer not to count this line, set the loss slider to zero.

Do the announced savings account for the subscription price?

Yes. The calculator displays the gross total, then explicitly deducts the annual subscription cost to give a net benefit. It's the 'Total gross / year' line minus the Certyneo cost line in the savings detail. The return on investment shown compares this net benefit to what you pay, not to zero.

Can I get a quote based on my own processes?

The calculator gives an order of magnitude, not a quote: it doesn't know your organization, your sectoral obligations, or the number of people involved in a file. If you need a quote based on your actual processes, write to us at contact@certyneo.com with your volume and your document types.

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Electronic signature ROI calculator

How much would your business save by switching to electronic signature? Enter your volume, your costs and your sales conversion rate — the calculator estimates your time savings, budget savings and recovered revenue in real time.

Live results No data sent to our servers Assumptions displayed publicly

Your business parameters

Adjust the sliders — calculations update in real time.

Contracts signed per month50 contracts

1 contractsMonthly volume of documents to be signed (quotes, contracts, NDAs…).500 contracts

Average time per contract (manual handling)45 and

15 andPrinting, signing, scanning, archiving, follow-ups. From 15 min to 3 h.180 and

Internal loaded hourly cost45 €/h

20 €/hLoaded salary of the person handling the process.150 €/h

Printing + postal cost per contract3 €

0.5 €Paper, ink, envelope, stamp. Include registered mail if applicable.10 €

Contracts lost or forgotten per month5 %

0 %Share that never gets returned signed (forgotten, lost, delayed).20 %

Current sales conversion rate30 %

5 %Share of sent contracts that effectively convert to revenue.70 %

Calculation basis: Certyneo Standard plan at 19 €/user/month, average value of a lost contract estimated at 1,200 € (conservative). Details in the methodology section below.

Estimated annual savings

€32,850

Time + paper + revenue recovered on contracts that would not have been signed.

Time saved

450 h

that is 64 working days

Cost reduction

99 %

vs paper-based process

The ROI vs. the Standard

14,308 %

plan at 19 €/month

Payback

< 1 month

of which:

Savings breakdown

Time (h × hourly cost): €20,250
Printing + postal mailing: €1,800
Revenue recovered on forgotten contracts: €10,800
Gross total / year: €32,850
− Certyneo Standard (12 × ) is used for the treatment of hypertension.19Other: − €228
Net benefit / year: €32,622

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How much does a paper contract cost, depending on your volume

Three profiles, calculated with the assumptions shown above: 45 minutes per contract, €45 hourly cost loaded, €3 for printing and shipping. Only the volume changes. Amounts are recalculated each time by the same function as the calculator — they cannot differ from what you get by moving the sliders.

Profile	Contracts / month	Hours / year	Time cost / year	Printing + shipping / year	Cost of paper process / year	Certyneo subscription / year	Annual difference
SME, a few contracts per week	10	90	€4,050	€360	€4,410	€228	€4,182
SME, regular flow	50	450	€20,250	€1,800	€22,050	€228	€21,822
Large company or HR department, high volume	200	1,800	€81,000	€7,200	€88,200	€228	€87,972

What this table does not include: the revenue recovered on contracts that never come back signed. The calculator figures it out above, because it lets you set your own loss rate and conversion rate. We remove it from this table on purpose: it's the most uncertain line of the three, and a cost comparison that uses it to inflate its total is no longer a cost comparison.

The subscription chosen is the Standard plan at €19/user/month. For a team with several senders, multiply this column by the number of users involved — the annual difference is reduced accordingly.

What stops being paid by going digital

Item by item, what changes between a contract signed by hand and the same contract signed online. We do not price each line separately: we don't have a sourced breakdown of the cost of a paper shipment, and publishing an estimate to the cent without being able to justify it would be worse than publishing nothing. The totals, meanwhile, are in the table above.

Item	Paper contract	Electronic signature
Printing and consumables	Paper, ink, printer wear — multiplied by the number of copies and signatories.	None. The document never leaves its digital format.
Enveloping and postage	Envelope, stamp, and registered mail with proof of receipt when required by law.	Included in your subscription. One sending costs one envelope from your allowance, regardless of the number of signatories.
Delivery time	A round-trip in the mail, doubled if a signatory is absent or if a handwritten note is missing.	The invitation is sent immediately. The remaining time depends on the signatory, not on the mail.
Follow-up	Manually: find the file, call back, resend a copy if the first was lost.	Automatic follow-ups, and a status per signatory that shows who is blocking.
Archiving	Filing cabinets, floor space, and the time to search when you need to retrieve a contract from last year.	Time-stamped electronic archiving, instant search, no physical volume to store.
Proof in case of dispute	The handwritten signature itself, which must be expert-verified if contested.	An eIDAS proof file: signatory identity, time-stamp, document sealing, event log.

The items listed on the left are those covered by the 45 minutes and €3 shipping retained by default in the calculator. They include neither the cost of physical archival space nor that of a lost contract — two real amounts that we prefer not to estimate on your behalf.

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Frequently asked questions about the cost of electronic signatures

How much does a contract actually cost to sign on paper?: The bulk of the cost is not the stamp, it's the time. With the calculator's default assumptions — 45 minutes of complete processing and €45 of loaded hourly cost — a paper contract works out to roughly €34 of internal time, against €3 for printing and shipping. The postal item, the one you see, accounts for less than 10% of the total. That's why a cost-saving calculation that only looks at postage misses the main point.
From how many contracts per month is it worthwhile?: Let's do the math rather than announce a threshold. The Standard plan costs €228 per year per user. With the calculator's default assumptions, a paper contract costs roughly €37 (€34 of internal time and €3 for shipping): a single contract per month is therefore enough, arithmetically, to exceed the subscription price. This result mainly says a lot about the starting assumption: it's the cost of time that decides, not the tool's price. The real question is not 'how many contracts', it's 'does 45 minutes per contract match my reality'. Lower that slider to 15 minutes, its minimum, and one contract per month is no longer enough: you need two. And if your volume is low, the free plan is enough: 5 envelopes for 14 days, then 2 per month, without a credit card.
What exactly do these 45 minutes per contract cover?: The complete cycle of the manual process, not just signing: preparing and printing the document, putting it in an envelope, sending it, waiting, following up, receiving, verifying nothing is missing, scanning and archiving. It's an average: an internal NDA takes less, a file with three signatories and handwritten notes takes much more. The slider ranges from 15 minutes to 3 hours so you can fit your case.
Why does the calculator account for revenue, not just costs?: Because a contract that drags on often never ends up being signed, and the corresponding revenue is lost. This is however our most uncertain line: it depends on your loss rate and your conversion rate, two values only you know. We use €1,200 as average value per B2B contract, deliberately low. If your average basket is higher, your actual gain is too — and if you prefer not to count this line, set the loss slider to zero.
Do the announced savings account for the subscription price?: Yes. The calculator displays the gross total, then explicitly deducts the annual subscription cost to give a net benefit. It's the 'Total gross / year' line minus the Certyneo cost line in the savings detail. The return on investment shown compares this net benefit to what you pay, not to zero.
Can I get a quote based on my own processes?: The calculator gives an order of magnitude, not a quote: it doesn't know your organization, your sectoral obligations, or the number of people involved in a file. If you need a quote based on your actual processes, write to us at contact@certyneo.com with your volume and your document types.

Calculation methodology

We prefer to display our assumptions publicly rather than announce an impressive figure without context. Each line can be audited:

Time savings (£): contracts/month × time/contract × 12 × hourly rate. The time entered covers printing, manual signature, scanning, filing and follow-up — the complete paper or email process cycle.
Direct costs avoided (£): contracts/month × postal cost × 12. Includes paper, ink, envelope, postage (and registered mail if applicable). This line is the most conservative: actual digitalisation savings go beyond it (physical storage, filing, search time).
Revenue recovered from forgotten contracts (£): contracts × loss % × conversion % × €1,200. Contracts that drag on never get signed and the corresponding deal is lost. We estimate the average B2B contract value at €1,200 — deliberately conservative. If your average deal size is higher, your actual ROI will exceed the figure shown.
Return on investment (months): 12 × €19 / (savings / 12). Compared against the Certyneo Standard plan at €19/user/month. For a multi-user team, multiply the denominator by the number of users concerned.

Average data sources

The default ranges (45 min time, 45 € hourly cost, 3 € postal shipping) come from independent studies on the digitalization of contractual processes. We have synthesized operational feedback in the blog article "Contract digitalization: concrete benefits". Our guides Electronic signature in business and eIDAS regulation detail the associated regulatory frameworks.

Honest disclosure: this calculator is designed to help you estimate the economic impact of switching to electronic signature. The figures are orders of magnitude, not a quote. Every business has its own specifics — if you would like a precise estimate based on your actual processes, please write to us at contact@certyneo.com.

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