How to Print Invoices and Delivery Orders More Efficiently in a Small Office

TL;DR: To print invoices and delivery orders more efficiently in a small office, standardise print settings, use separate paper trays where needed, enable print preview, centralise printing on a suitable network multifunction photocopier, and match the machine's speed to your peak workload. These changes can reduce wrong prints, wasted paper and time spent waiting for documents.

For trading companies, distributors, wholesalers, logistics businesses and other small offices, invoices and Delivery Orders (DOs) may be printed continuously throughout the day. When several employees share an unsuitable printer or use inconsistent settings, simple document printing can become a repetitive source of errors and delays.

Why Does Invoice and DO Printing Become Inefficient?

Invoice and Delivery Order printing becomes inefficient when employees repeatedly change settings, use the wrong paper, send duplicate jobs or overload a printer that is too slow for peak demand.

A typical small office may have sales, accounts, warehouse and administrative employees printing documents to the same machine.

Common problems include:

• Printing the wrong invoice

• Accidentally printing duplicate copies

• Selecting the wrong printer

• Using the wrong paper tray

• Printing unnecessary colour pages

• Reprinting because of incorrect settings

• Running out of paper during busy periods

• Waiting behind large print jobs

• Documents getting mixed with another employee's printout

Individually, these issues may seem minor. When invoices and DOs are produced every working day, however, repeated small delays can create unnecessary administrative work.

How Can You Reduce Wrong Invoice and DO Printing?

The first step is to standardise the printing workflow.

Employees should not have to change several printer settings every time they produce a routine invoice or Delivery Order.

Where possible, create suitable default settings for common document types.

For example:

If most invoices and DOs are black and white, there is little reason for employees to manually select black-and-white mode every time.

Set the normal office configuration as the default and let users change it only for exceptions.

Why Should You Use Print Preview Before Printing?

Print preview helps catch formatting problems before they become wasted paper.

This is particularly useful when invoices or Delivery Orders are generated from accounting, ERP, inventory or browser-based systems.

Before printing a large batch, check:

• Correct customer

• Correct invoice or DO number

• Number of pages

• Page orientation

• Paper size

• Unwanted blank pages

• Cut-off tables

• Correct print range

A few seconds spent checking the document can prevent several unnecessary reprints.

This becomes especially important when employees print large batches of invoices at the end of the day or before delivery vehicles leave the warehouse.

How Can Separate Paper Trays Improve Invoice Printing?

Multiple paper trays reduce manual paper changes and help keep frequently used document types ready for printing.

For example, a small office could configure its multifunction photocopier as follows:

The exact setup depends on how your business handles invoices and Delivery Orders.

Some companies use only standard white A4 paper, while others may have specific stationery or operational requirements.

The main objective is to prevent employees from repeatedly opening trays, replacing paper and changing settings during busy periods.

How Do You Prevent Duplicate Printing?

Duplicate printing often happens when an employee presses Print, sees no immediate output and presses the button again.

The first job may simply be waiting in the print queue.

A few moments later, both copies appear.

For offices printing many invoices every day, employees should be trained to check the print queue or printer status before resending a document.

A reliable network printer or multifunction photocopier can also make shared printing easier to manage than having multiple employees rely on small individual printers.

For particularly important documents, secure or held-print functions may also be useful where supported. The document remains in the queue until the user releases it at the machine.

How Can a Small Office Reduce Paper Waste?

Start with the simplest rule: do not print documents that do not need a physical copy.

Businesses sometimes continue printing internal copies simply because "we have always done it this way."

Review whether every invoice or DO actually requires multiple physical copies.

For documents that do need printing, reduce waste by using appropriate print settings, checking documents before printing and avoiding unnecessary reprints.

Duplex printing can also reduce paper consumption for suitable multi-page internal documents.

For example, a 10-page internal report requires 10 sheets when printed single-sided but approximately five sheets when printed double-sided.

Invoices and Delivery Orders may have specific customer, accounting, operational or signing requirements, so duplex printing should only be used when appropriate for the document.

Should Invoices Be Printed in Colour?

For most routine invoices and Delivery Orders, black-and-white printing is sufficient unless colour communicates necessary information or forms part of a specific presentation requirement.

Company logos do not automatically mean every invoice needs full-colour printing.

Setting black-and-white as the office default can prevent employees from accidentally producing routine documents in colour.

Colour can then be selected manually for quotations, presentations, brochures, charts or other documents where it provides genuine value.

This is especially relevant when the office uses a colour multifunction photocopier for both administrative and marketing work.

How Can You Reduce Waiting at the Photocopier?

Choose a machine based on peak printing demand, not just the total number of pages printed each month.

Suppose an office prints 8,000 pages per month. That number alone does not tell you whether the existing printer is fast enough.

If much of that volume is spread evenly throughout the month, a moderate-speed machine may be sufficient.

But if accounts and warehouse employees need to print hundreds of invoices and Delivery Orders between 4:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. every day, print speed becomes much more important.

This is why businesses should ask:

How many pages do we need to print during our busiest hour?

That question can be more useful than looking only at monthly print volume.

What Print Speed Does a Small Office Need?

There is no single pages-per-minute (PPM) figure that suits every small office.

A business with three employees printing occasional invoices has very different requirements from a distributor with sales, accounts and warehouse teams continuously generating paperwork.

Consider this simplified example.

If 500 pages need to be produced:

• At 20 pages per minute, theoretical print time is about 25 minutes.

• At 30 pages per minute, theoretical print time is about 17 minutes.

• At 50 pages per minute, theoretical print time is about 10 minutes.

Actual output depends on processing time, document complexity, duplex settings and other factors.

The point is simple: when printing is concentrated into short periods, machine speed can directly affect waiting time.

Is a Network Multifunction Photocopier Better Than Several Small Printers?

For many small offices with regular document volume, one properly selected network multifunction photocopier can simplify printing, copying and scanning.

Instead of maintaining several small printers with different drivers, consumables and paper supplies, employees can share a central business-grade machine.

A multifunction photocopier can also provide:

• Printing

• Copying

• Scanning

• Automatic Document Feeder

• Duplex printing

• Duplex scanning

• Larger paper capacity

• Network connectivity

• Multiple paper trays

• User controls on supported models

However, centralisation should not create a single bottleneck.

If different departments have very high simultaneous workloads, the business may need a higher-capacity machine or more than one device.

How Can Scanning Improve Invoice and DO Management?

Printing is only one part of the document workflow.

After an invoice, Delivery Order or related document has been signed, stamped or returned, employees may need to digitise it for filing.

A multifunction photocopier with an Automatic Document Feeder can scan multiple pages into PDF without requiring each sheet to be placed individually on the scanner glass.

Where network scanning is configured, documents may also be sent directly to an organised shared folder.

For example:

Customer → 2026 → Invoices → August

or:

Customer → Delivery Orders → Completed

A consistent naming structure can make files easier to retrieve:

CustomerName_INV12345_2026-08-28.pdf

or:

CustomerName_DO56789_2026-08-28.pdf

This can be much more manageable than leaving scanned files with generic names such as SCAN001.pdf.

How Can You Stop Printed Documents From Getting Mixed Up?

When several employees share one photocopier, documents can become mixed together in the output tray.

One solution is to encourage employees to collect important print jobs immediately.

For confidential or important documents, a secure print or held-print function can be useful if supported by the photocopier.

Instead of printing immediately, the document waits in the machine until the authorised user releases the job.

This can be useful for:

• Sensitive invoices

• Payroll-related documents

• Customer information

• Pricing documents

• Contracts

• Management reports

It can also reduce abandoned printouts sitting beside the machine.

What Photocopier Configuration Is Best for Invoice and DO Printing?

For a small office handling high volumes of invoices and Delivery Orders, prioritise reliability, A4 speed, paper capacity and network connectivity over unnecessary features.

A practical configuration may include:

If the business prints almost entirely A4 invoices and Delivery Orders, paying extra for capabilities that are rarely used may not be necessary.

The right configuration is the one that matches the company's real document workflow.

Should a Small Office Rent or Buy a Photocopier?

Photocopier rental can be practical for small businesses with consistent printing volume that want a business-grade machine together with an agreed service arrangement.

Before choosing a rental package, compare more than the monthly rental fee.

Ask about print allowances or meter charges, maintenance coverage, toner arrangements, response procedures for breakdowns, machine specifications and rental terms.

For a company that depends on invoices and Delivery Orders for daily operations, reliability and technical support can be particularly important.

A cheaper machine is not necessarily cheaper operationally if employees regularly wait for print jobs or experience repeated printing problems.

A Simple Invoice and DO Printing Workflow

A more efficient small-office workflow can look like this:

Create Document → Verify Details → Print Preview → Select Correct Preset → Print → Collect → File/Send → Scan Signed Copy if Required

Standardising this process reduces the number of decisions employees need to make for every print job.

Businesses should also periodically review their workflow.

If employees constantly refill paper, wait for jobs, resend documents or reprint incorrect pages, these are signs that either the printing process or the machine configuration needs improvement.

For businesses in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and the Klang Valley, DBM Solution (M) Sdn Bhd provides photocopier rental and multifunction printing solutions for different office printing and scanning requirements.

FAQ

How can I reduce wrong invoice printing?

Use standard printer presets, check print preview before sending the job, verify the invoice number and page count, and avoid resending a document until you have checked whether the first job is still in the print queue.

What printer is suitable for printing many invoices every day?

For regular high-volume invoice printing, consider a business-grade printer or multifunction photocopier with suitable print speed, reliable paper handling, larger paper capacity and network connectivity. Choose capacity based on peak workload rather than office size alone.

Should invoices and Delivery Orders be printed in colour?

Usually, routine invoices and DOs can be printed in black and white unless colour is required for a particular business or document purpose. Making black-and-white the default can help control unnecessary colour usage.

How can I reduce waiting time when several employees print together?

Use a machine with sufficient pages-per-minute performance for peak demand, ensure adequate paper capacity, standardise settings and monitor large print jobs. If simultaneous demand is consistently too high, consider increasing machine capacity or adding another device.

Can a photocopier scan signed invoices and DOs into PDF?

Yes. A multifunction photocopier can typically scan documents into PDF, and models with an Automatic Document Feeder can process multiple pages more efficiently. Network-enabled machines may also support scanning to email or shared folders when properly configured.

Conclusion

In summary, printing invoices and Delivery Orders more efficiently in a small office requires more than simply buying a faster printer. Standardised print settings, print preview, adequate paper capacity, network printing and a machine sized for peak demand can reduce wrong prints, paper waste and unnecessary waiting.

For offices producing invoices and DOs throughout the day, the ideal setup is usually a reliable multifunction photocopier configured around the actual workflow—with black-and-white defaults for routine documents, suitable paper trays, efficient scanning and enough speed for the busiest period.

DBM Solution (M) Sdn Bhd provides photocopier rental and multifunction document solutions for businesses in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and the Klang Valley. Matching the machine to your daily invoice and Delivery Order volume can help create a faster, more consistent document workflow.