How Much Should You Spend on Office Supplies?

If you are planning on expanding your business or you simply want to know the type of budget that you should allocate to keep yourself and your employees in office supplies every month it’s important that you take into consideration some averages. Any office is going to need typical supplies like ink cartridge, paper, lights for the desk, chairs, computer monitors, pens, and some comfort items. Budgeting and allocating for these basic office supplies is important to running any good business. Here is an indication of what you should be spending on each one of your regular office supplies so you can not only budget but also understand when a supplier is charging too much. Computers and electronics- most companies usually need to buy some large electronic items and on occasion it’s important to have some backup computers and monitors in the event of breakages. You can usually pick up the good work computer for under $500 and depending on the software that you need to run upgrades and IT services can run you a few thousand dollars per year. Common office supplies like paper usually ranges from $9-$65 for 500 sheets in bulk. Regular inkjet printer will cost between $20-$40 per ink cartridge in black and white. Overall this is one of the most expensive office supply subsections. Desk supplies- ongoing supplies for desks between notepads, paper clips, binders, pencils, markers and other writing utensils can usually run you around 20- $50 or so a month per employee depending on the size of your company. You can get some bulk deals but these are must-have supplies. Customized supplies- if you are planning on getting blank address labels, company stationary, personalized business cards and other office supplies these will run extra on top of your budget. Although the startup costs can be exponentially more money for any business when it comes down to office supplies the bulk of your expenses lie in computer electronics. Beyond that a typical office may take less than $100 to supply per month with fresh office supplies, especially if you are willing to take on a paperless initiative.