What does your AP process actually cost you?
Most finance teams know what their AP software costs and have no idea what their AP process costs. Put your own numbers in and find out, including the part almost nobody prices: getting invoices approved.
Your AP volume
Start here. The result updates as you type.
PO backed invoices reach touchless posting first, because there is an order and a receipt to match against.
- Invoices a year
- 3,600
- PO backed / non-PO
- 1,800 / 1,800
- Per supplier, monthly
- 2.5
What one invoice takes to process
Time from the invoice arriving to it being posted in Business One.
Usually more accurate, because the small steps are the ones people forget.
Include everything: opening the email, keying, coding, matching, filing. The ATO's eInvoicing model allows 9 minutes for the equivalent steps, so 6 is deliberately conservative.
AP labour cost. We work the hourly rate out for you.
Leave, tax, super or pension, IT, desk, management.
Do invoices need approving before they are posted?
For most finance teams this is the most expensive part of AP, and the part nobody has ever costed.
3,600 invoices a year · 360 hours of AP processing · 3.0 days to post
Where it goes
| Processing labour | $17,383 | 82% |
| Approval loop | $0 | 0% |
| Direct costs | $0 | 0% |
| Rework and errors | $3,940 | 18% |
How that compares
Cost per invoice, against published industry research.
Days to post
Source: Ardent Partners, AP Metrics that Matter in 2025. Survey of 212 AP and finance leaders, March to May 2024. Figures are USD, and the sample skews large: only 16% of respondents were under US$250M revenue. Shown here converted at an indicative 1 USD to 1.52 AUD. These are industry benchmarks, not B1 Developers results, and not a claim about what any particular business would achieve.
“Best in class” means the top 20% by lowest cost and shortest cycle time, not simply those running automation. The $19.58 figure is everyone outside that top 20%, which is often misquoted elsewhere as the cost of manual processing. It is not.
An Australian reference point on a different basis: the ATO's eInvoicing value assessment (Deloitte Access Economics) puts a PDF invoice at $27.67 shared between sender and receiver, of which the ATO attributes 60% to accounts payable, so roughly $16.60 on your side.
What if some of it posted itself?
You choose the assumption. We do not promise a number.
For PO-heavy sites we target 60 to 70 percent over 18 to 24 months. That is a target, not a guarantee.
That is 10% of one person's working year, freed for work that needs judgement rather than keying.
+–What this assumes
- Keying, coding and matching disappear on the share you set above, and nothing else changes.
- Fewer keying errors, so rework falls by the same share.
- Your mix is 1,800 PO backed and 1,800 non-PO invoices a year. PO backed spend is where touchless posting arrives first.
- Nothing here nets off the cost of the software.
How this is worked out
A calculator you can argue with, which is the only kind worth using.
Your numbers, not ours
Every figure here starts from a conservative default and you change it. We would rather you argued the numbers upward than felt sold to.
Approver time is priced separately
Most calculators apply one blended hourly rate to everything. The person signing an invoice usually costs two to three times what the person keying it does, so the two are worked out separately.
No number on fraud
You will not find an invented fraud figure in this total. Duplicate payments only appear if you tell us you have found some, and how much they were worth.
Nothing is hidden behind a form
The whole calculator and every result is open. The email is there if you want the breakdown sent to you, not as a toll gate.
Common questions
What counts as the cost of processing an invoice?+–
The labour to receive, key, code, match and file it, the direct costs of printing and storage, the software you already pay for, the time lost to rework and chasing, and the approval loop that has to happen before it can be posted. Most internal estimates stop at keying, which is why they come out low.
Why does the approval section make such a difference?+–
Because approver time is management time. A printed invoice that goes to two people for signature can carry more cost in those two signatures than in the entire data entry, and it is spending nobody has ever put on a line item. If invoices are printed and hand delivered, add the printing, the walking round, the chasing and the filing on top.
Where do the benchmark figures come from?+–
From Ardent Partners' Accounts Payable Metrics that Matter in 2025, a survey of 212 AP and finance leaders conducted March to May 2024. It puts the average all-in cost at US$9.40 per invoice, US$2.78 for the best-performing 20%, and US$12.88 for everyone else, with cycle times of 3.1 against 17.4 days. Two things worth knowing: the figures are USD and the sample skews large, with only 16% of respondents under US$250 million revenue, so they are not SMB numbers. And US$12.88 is the cost for the 80% outside the top tier, not the cost of manual processing, though it is frequently misquoted that way. For an Australian view on a different basis, the ATO's eInvoicing value assessment estimates AU$27.67 to handle a PDF invoice between sender and receiver, of which about 60% sits on the accounts payable side. None of these are our results, and your own number is the one that matters here.
Does this tell me what B1 AP Automation would cost?+–
No. This works out the cost of your current process only. What you would spend to change it is a conversation, and it depends on your volume and your Business One setup.
Is my data stored?+–
Not unless you ask us to email you the breakdown. The figures are worked out in your browser as you type, and your inputs live in the address bar so you can revisit or share the scenario. Nothing is written to our database until you fill in the email form, and we say so on the form itself.
Benchmark figures in this tool come from Ardent Partners, Accounts Payable Metrics that Matter in 2025, and for Australian figures the ATO's eInvoicing value assessment (cost estimates by Deloitte Access Economics). They are quoted for orientation with their caveats stated, they are not B1 Developers results, and nothing here is a commitment about what any particular business would achieve. If you want to see how the automation side actually works, the B1 AP Automation page has a full demo video.
Now see what it looks like automated.
Bring your numbers to a short call and we will walk through your actual invoice mix, including the approvals.