The Hidden Cost of Letting Employees Print Whatever They Want

Printing might seem like a minor line item in your budget—but that’s exactly why it gets overlooked. Day in and day out, employees print emails, spreadsheets, documents, flyers, and PDFs without giving it a second thought. After all, they’re just doing their jobs.

But here’s the thing: when print behavior goes unmanaged, costs can quietly spiral out of control. And we’re not just talking about ink and paper. We’re talking about real financial waste, productivity loss, and even compliance risks.

Let’s break down what really happens when employees are left to print “whatever they want,” and more importantly, how to fix it—without slowing anyone down.

 

The Cost of an Accidental Color Print

Most employees don’t know that color prints can cost 3 to 5 times more than black-and-white. They also may not realize that a simple link in an email, highlighted in blue, qualifies as a full-color print on most devices.

It’s not malicious—it’s just overlooked. Someone hits “Print” on a one-page email, and suddenly a $.01 print becomes a $.06 print. Multiply that by dozens of employees and hundreds of prints each week, and it starts to add up fast.

Even more confusing? Many documents that look black and white are actually made of mixed color inks to create smoother grays. That means your copier could be charging you color rates—without a single obvious splash of color on the page.

Pro tip: Want to test if this is happening in your office? Print a PDF you know is black and white. Then, check the copier’s color/black counters before and after. If the color meter ticks up, you’re paying for color—whether it looks like it or not.

 

Smart Defaults = Big Savings

The easiest way to get this under control? Set your print drivers to default to black-and-white and require users to choose color when needed. Better yet, have two print drivers: one labeled “Standard (B&W)” and one labeled “Color Only.”

This way, employees can still access color when it’s justified, but they’ll be more conscious of their choice. You’re not stopping them—you’re just guiding smarter behavior.

 

Personal Printing: A Few Pages Here, a Few Flyers There…

A few birthday invitations. A Boy Scout newsletter. A garage sale flyer. Most businesses are generous and don’t mind the occasional personal print job. But when there are no limits or monitoring in place, costs can balloon—especially if people are printing color flyers, double-sided marketing pieces, or full-page photos.

This isn’t about micromanaging—it’s about having visibility. Solutions like PaperCut give you reporting and accountability without creating a culture of distrust. You’ll be able to see where printing dollars are going and set gentle usage policies to curb overuse.

 

Printing Because Screens Are Too Small

Another often-overlooked factor? Employees print more when they struggle to read or work efficiently on-screen. Small or outdated monitors force people to print things just to make them easier to read or review.

Sometimes, a larger monitor is cheaper than an ongoing print habit. If your team prints a lot of documents “just to read them better,” it may be time to invest in better displays.

 

When Printing Does Matter—Make It Work Right

Then there’s the essential printing. The presentations, contracts, intake forms, shipping labels—the things your team genuinely needs to print to do their jobs. Here’s the rub: when printers are slow, jammed, out of toner, or hard to connect to, productivity suffers—and so does morale.

People waste time troubleshooting instead of doing actual work. IT departments get bogged down with printer tickets. Frustration builds. And no one’s thinking about cost savings when they’re just trying to get something to print.

This is where proactive Managed Print Services shine. By maintaining your fleet, automating toner delivery, and ensuring printers “just work,” you avoid the hidden costs of downtime and inefficiency.

 

The Bottom Line

Unmanaged printing isn’t just a paper problem. It’s a cost problem, a time problem, and in some cases, a security and compliance problem. But with the right software, policies, and hardware strategy, it’s easy to regain control—without getting in the way of productivity.

At Novatech, we help businesses eliminate waste, improve efficiency, and ensure every print serves a purpose. Whether you need better tracking, smarter defaults, or just more reliable devices, we’re here to help you print smarter.

Ready to stop bleeding money one page at a time? Let’s talk about a print strategy that fits your business.