No fixed amount exists
There is no rate that is the same for every company. What maintaining evidence documents costs depends on three things: how many questionnaires you receive from customers per year, how many of the requested documents you already have in-house, and who does the work. A company that completes a short list twice a year from a regular customer spends little time and money on it. A company that receives questionnaires dozens of times a year from different buyers, each with their own format, will notice that the costs are mainly in time, not in money.
The largest cost item is almost always people's time: someone must figure out where which document is located, check whether it is still valid, and retype the answer in the customer's format. Additionally, there may be costs for documents that you cannot prepare yourself, such as a certificate, an audit or a statement from an external party. These two items together determine the amount you ultimately have to spend.
Where the time goes
Evidence documents are rarely one-off. An insurance policy expires, a statement from the Chamber of Commerce becomes outdated after a few months, and a certificate has a validity period. Each time such a document expires, someone must renew it and put it in the right place again. If this is not done systematically, you will only discover it when a customer sends a questionnaire and you cannot find the document or it turns out to have expired. Then it still has to be arranged, often under time pressure, and that costs more than if it was already prepared.
How much time this takes depends greatly on how the administration is organized. If everything is scattered across mailboxes and different laptops, then each questionnaire counts as search work again. If everything is in one place, then filling it in is mainly a matter of copying and confirming. determined per subject which documents are required and how long they remain valid provides an overview of this, so you do not have to figure out what is involved for each questionnaire again.
Where the money goes
You cannot prepare every evidence document yourself. A certificate such as ISO 27001 requires an external audit, and that costs money, regardless of whether you need the certificate for one customer or for ten. An insurance certificate or a statement from an accountant also has a price that is beyond your control. These costs are usually not dependent on how many questionnaires you complete, but on what requirements your customers impose on you.
The difference between a document that you can provide yourself and a document that a third party must issue is therefore an important question when estimating costs. An extract or a policy document costs you mainly time. A certificate or an external statement costs money to a third party, apart from the work you do for it yourself.
Do it yourself or outsource
Some companies leave the completion of questionnaires or the maintenance of evidence documents entirely to an external agency. This can save time, but brings a fixed cost item with it, regardless of how many questionnaires arrive that year. Other companies prefer to keep it in-house themselves, with a fixed place where all documents are located and a fixed time to check them. The choice depends on how many questionnaires you receive, how many people you have to do the work, and how important it is that the answers go out quickly and consistently.
A middle ground is a system that recognizes the questions and retrieves the answers from a single supply chain file, so that for each answer you only have to confirm rather than having to search and retype each time. This does not change what your customer asks of you, but it does change how much time it takes to provide the answer. how that process works show where the information comes from and what happens to your data.
What you can check for yourself
Whether keeping records for your company costs a lot or little depends on your situation: the number of customers sending questionnaires, the number of portals where you need to fill in information, and how many of the requested documents are already in order. You get an initial idea of this by looking at which questionnaires you received last year and how much time each list took. see in a few questions which topics are relevant to your company provides an initial overview of this.
For the price of a subscription that makes filling in easier, you can view the current rates. For questions about your own situation, for example whether a certificate is mandatory or only desired by a customer, it is advisable to ask the customer themselves or consult an adviser who knows your situation.
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