Invoice Processing Benchmark Case

The Problem

The accounts payable team was processing invoices through a largely manual routing and approval workflow: paper and PDF invoices scanned in, manually keyed, then routed by email for sign-off. Processing cost per invoice was high relative to comparable teams, and nobody had measured exactly how high until it was benchmarked.

The Benchmark

Automated, well-run accounts payable operations typically process an invoice for a fraction of what this team was spending, largely because keying and routing are automated rather than manual.

The Gap

The cost-per-invoice gap, multiplied by monthly invoice volume, represented a recurring cost the business was absorbing every month with no corresponding benefit — a clear, quantifiable value leak.

The Initiative

Automate invoice capture and data extraction, replace email-based routing with rules-based approval workflow, and reserve manual handling for the genuine exceptions that need it.

The Plan

Pilot automated capture on the highest-volume vendor group, tune extraction accuracy and approval rules against real invoices, then extend to the remaining vendor groups in scheduled waves.

The Expected Result

Cost per invoice reduced toward benchmark, processing time cut significantly, and the accounts payable team's time reallocated from data entry to exception handling and vendor relationships.

Measure and Stabilize

Cost per invoice and average processing time are tracked monthly for the first two quarters after go-live to confirm the reduction is sustained.