Posted by Markita-MI on 6/12/05 11:23am
Msg #44054

Raising Edoc Prices

I am thinking of raising what I currently charge for edocs. I feel like I am loosing money everytime I print them with the price of toner, time to print, gas prices continuing to increase, and price of paper.

I can't be the only one feeling this pinch. I have to trust that lenders, ss, and title companies are aware of the increased cost to do edocs and would be willing to pay what is fair. What do you think?

Markita, CSA-MI

Reply by DMARTZ_IN on 6/12/05 11:33am
Msg #44055

Markita,. price of gas should be in with your base fee and mileage there after. It seams there was a post within the last few days of the cost it take to print Edocs buy for the life of me i don't remember who posted it.

Reply by Select Processing Servivces - Southeast Michigan on 6/12/05 11:34am
Msg #44056

True. I guess I need to take another look at my base price then. Thanks

Reply by Dmartz_IN on 6/12/05 11:36am
Msg #44057

sorry for the misspelled word should be (but for the life of me)

Reply by CaliNotary on 6/12/05 12:39pm
Msg #44065

"I have to trust that lenders, ss, and title companies are aware of the increased cost to do edocs and would be willing to pay what is fair."

How exactly has the cost of doing edocs increased? If you buy paper in bulk and toner refills it's really not very expensive at all for supplies.

The only way to find out is to start quoting a higher edoc fee and see what happens. I think you'll be unpleasantly surprised at your trust in the companies to do what you consider fair.

Reply by Select Processing Servivces - Southeast Michigan on 6/12/05 3:49pm
Msg #44096

Well, the cost of gas alone is an added increase to doing business. I don't know about you but I am doing a lot of edoc business and really going through the toner and paper. As you know, that stuff runs about $90 a pop for laser printers. If you are doing volume business, the bulk purchases from say Sam's Club definitely help but there is still the cost to print(even paper has increased as a result of gas increases). It is not cheap.

Although I can appreciate that your costs may not have gone up, mine definitely have increased. As a result, my base and edoc fee is going to have to as well. I've built a solid work relationship with these companies and they know my work, I think they will see that an increase is fair and the service is worth it. As you said, I will increase my prices and see who comes a biting.

Thanks for your input.

Markita-MI

Reply by Select Processing Servivces - Southeast Michigan on 6/12/05 3:52pm
Msg #44097

" is going to have to as well"

---correction....are going to have to as well.

Sorry for the type-o

Markita-MI

Reply by CaliNotary on 6/12/05 6:42pm
Msg #44123

like somebody else said in the thread, the increase of gas costs should be accounted for in your signing fee, not your edoc fee. I have no idea what you mean by "even paper has increased as a result of gas increases" since the cost of paper is in no way correlated with the cost of gas.

As for your toner costs, you should be refilling your toner cartridges. That'll bring your cost down from $90 a pop to below $10 a pop. That alone should make a huge difference in your edoc costs.

Reply by CaliNotary on 6/12/05 7:00pm
Msg #44126

On gas prices

One thing I realized as I hit "send" on the previous post. Right now gas prices are roughly the same as they were a year ago. I'm guessing the days of less than $2.00 a gallon are more or less behind us permanently.

If the fluctuation of gas prices is an issue for anybody, it probably means that your fees are too low to begin with. While I'm not denying that gas costs are obviously a concern for our business, an extra few bucks for a tank of gas spread out over X number of signings is really not a huge cost. If your average signing is 50 miles travel and you get 300 miles on a gank of gas, that's 6 signings per tank. If you're paying $10 more per tank than you used to be paying, that's still less than $2.00 in extra gas costs per signing.

Obviously everybody's numbers are going to be different in calculating this, but the point is that $2.00 per signing shouldn't be that big of an issue for anybody who is charging appropriate rates. I know it's easy to make a generalization about "rising gas costs", but I don't think people tend to do the actual math to see what it actually is costing them vs. a year ago or two years ago. I think it's not nearly as much as people think it is.

Reply by Lee/AR on 6/12/05 12:58pm
Msg #44068

Figure out--really--exactly what it COSTS YOU to print edocs. Then factor in the other costs associated...mainly your time, internet cost, machinery repair/replacement costs. Now add a reasonable PROFIT (oh, yeah...Profit...that's why we're in business...NOT to just cover costs, but make a profit.) I actually have 3 edoc fee charges--the quickie; the average; & the monster--they know which they are. A quick check of 'reasonable'---what does an outside printing source in your area charge to 'copy' a piece of paper? Ya' think Kinkos does it at cost?

Reply by aj/ca on 6/12/05 1:19pm
Msg #44071

also you need to factor in that if the amt of taxes you'll pay on the email portion of your fee. If you charge $25 dollars xtra for edocs ultimately you end up with only about $17depending on your tx bracket.

Reply by Lee/AR on 6/12/05 6:23pm
Msg #44120

Good point, aj! (nm)

Reply by CaliNotary on 6/12/05 7:04pm
Msg #44127

"If you charge $25 dollars xtra for edocs ultimately you end up with only about $17depending on your tx bracket."

Anybody who is paying over 30% of their income in taxes in this business is definitely not taking advantage of all of the write offs available to them.

Reply by aj/ca on 6/13/05 11:40am
Msg #44254

The only xtra write off you have for edocs is the xtra toner & paper you'd use. All the other write offs you would be taking anyway with overnight docs.

Reply by CaliNotary on 6/13/05 11:43am
Msg #44255

You're right, but when we do our taxes it's for all of our business expenses at once.

Reply by aj/ca on 6/13/05 12:13pm
Msg #44272

That's what I'm saying,too. We can't squeeze much more write offs out of edoc that we wouldn't have anyway. Maybe a couple of dollars per email Not much for the xtra time involved.

Reply by BrendaTX on 6/13/05 12:15pm
Msg #44274

***also you need to factor in that if the amt of taxes you'll pay on the email portion of your fee. If you charge $25 dollars xtra for edocs ultimately you end up with only about $17depending on your tx bracket.***

Less $2 or $3 on edocs to yield net profit: $14-$15

Am I missing something or isn't that gravy?