Templates
Business case: does digital key management pay off?
With your own figures: what key management costs in working time today and when Log+Key pays for itself — as a PDF for your decision.
Free · no sign-up · your details never leave your browser
To be honest
A calculation doesn’t replace a test in your own routine
The calculation is only as good as the figures you enter: checkouts per day, search time and the time saved per transaction are estimates, not measurements.
Our recommendation: don’t calculate for long — try it. Log+Key is free for up to 10 objects, for good: start with a few keys right away and decide with experience from your own operation.
Calculator
Calculate with your figures
Your details never leave your browser: the calculation and the PDF are made on your device; nothing is sent or stored.
How it works
The calculator runs entirely in your browser. On the first click on “Business case as PDF” it loads the PDF tool and the font from log-key.de once — your figures and logo are not sent anywhere.
Nothing is saved, not even in your browser. Close or reload the page and everything is gone.
Our visitor statistics (Matomo, without cookies) only learn the plan tier and whether the result is positive, never your figures.
In brief
Digital key management pays for itself through the working time saved at every checkout, return and search. What matters is the number of transactions per day and the time per transaction; set against that are the licence, the labels and, if needed, a terminal.
Transparency
How the calculator works
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Working time
Transactions per day × days × seconds per transaction, plus the minutes spent searching and asking per week × 52. The hours times the staff cost per hour give the value of the working time per year.
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Costs
The plan for your number of objects and the terminal rental per month × 12, 5 % less with an annual contract. One-off, the NFC tags come on top — the first three are free, and shipping is waived with a terminal.
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Balance and payback
Value of the working time minus costs, with the one-off costs in year one. Payback shows after how many months the one-off costs are recovered.
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Cautious calculation
The same calculation with half the time saved and half the search time — in case your assumptions are too optimistic.
The assumptions
- Time saved per transaction: 10 seconds — an assumption from the Caritas Krefeld case study, not measured.
- Staff cost: €32 per hour (employer cost) — also from the case study.
- 250 days with key traffic per year; round the clock it’s 365.
- Prices: the public price list, net plus VAT; above 5,000 objects there’s an individual quote.
What is not included
- Lost keys — shown, but not counted as a saving.
- Evidence for audits: who had which key when is in the history.
- Less stress day to day when nobody has to ask around any more.
From practice
Caritas Krefeld
Four care stations, around 300 staff: in less than twelve months, 200,000 key movements ran through Log+Key. At an assumed ten seconds per movement, that is over 555 hours — around 70 person-days and around €18,000 in staff costs.
The licence costs equal around twelve person-days — 70 were saved.
„It’s actually a simple story with a big impact.“
Log+Key
What’s behind the numbers
The time is saved because a checkout in Log+Key is an NFC scan — on a smartphone, tablet, computer or terminal. The history writes itself, a PDF receipt goes out by email, and Log+Key flags overdue keys automatically. Log+Key is free for up to 10 objects, for good.
The calculation in Excel
Same fields, same defaults, same calculation — with today’s prices on the “Prices” sheet. For anyone who prefers a spreadsheet or wants to pass the file on.
Upload the Excel file to Google Drive and open it with Google Sheets — the formulas work there too.
FAQ
Questions about the business case
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Where do the defaults come from?
Ten seconds saved per transaction and €32 per hour are assumptions from the Caritas Krefeld case study — not measured. 250 days is a year of working days. Replace all three with your own figures.
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What counts as a transaction?
Every checkout and every return on its own. Someone who takes ten keys in the morning and brings them back in the evening makes 20 transactions.
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Why aren’t lost keys included?
We can’t prove by how much losses fall with software. So we show what they cost today but don’t count them as a saving. That keeps the calculation cautious.
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Do the prices apply to my organisation?
The calculator uses the public prices from the pricing page, net plus VAT. For more than 5,000 objects we prepare an individual quote; the calculator then shows only the value of the working time.
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Are my details stored?
No. The calculator runs in your browser and the PDF is made on your device. Nothing is sent to us and nothing is stored, not even in the browser.
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Is the calculation available in Excel?
Yes. The Excel file calculates exactly like the calculator, with today’s prices on the “Prices” sheet. It works in Excel 2016 and later, LibreOffice and Google Sheets.
Sample calculation without warranty. It is not a quote.