In the worked examples in this article, we assume €25 as the average cost of processing an invoice by hand. Not in software, but in people's time: opening, retyping, coding, getting approval, chasing and correcting. Automated, that figure drops in our assumption toward €2.50 per invoice. This article is not about the price of tools. It is about the hidden internal process cost of manual invoice handling, with worked examples and a formula to calculate your own number.
The benchmark: €25 versus €2.50 per invoice
The exact outcome depends on your assumptions about hourly rate and process time, but the order of magnitude is consistent: fully manual processing of a purchase invoice costs somewhere between €15 and €40 in internal cost. €25 is a workable average for a Dutch SMB finance team. Heavily automated processing lands in our worked examples around €2 to €4 per invoice, software included.
One thing to be clear about: this is your internal process cost, not a tool subscription. If you specifically want to compare tools and pricing models, read the separate invoice processing software pricing overview. Here the question is: what does it cost your team to move a single invoice from arrival to payment?
Where the manual cost hides
The €25 is not one big line item. It is the sum of small actions that seem minor per invoice but add up. A typical manual route looks like this:
- Opening and sorting. Pulling the invoice from the mailbox, downloading, saving, filing it in the right folder or queue. One to two minutes.
- Retyping. Entering supplier, invoice number, date, amounts and VAT into Exact Online by hand. Three to five minutes, more with multiple lines.
- Coding GL and VAT. Determining the right GL account, cost center, dimension and VAT code. Requires knowledge and sometimes a conversation. One to four minutes.
- Approval emails. Forwarding to the budget owner, waiting, reminding. Lead time is days, active time a few minutes per invoice spread across several people.
- Chasing. Where is the approval stuck? Who still needs to respond? This coordination is invisible but real.
- Correcting. Wrong GL account, duplicate posting, incorrect VAT. Corrections often take more time than the original posting.
- Month-end close. Hunting for missing invoices, booking accruals, resolving differences. Manual processes make the close heavier.
Add those minutes against a realistic hourly rate and you quickly reach 15 to 25 minutes of effective time per invoice, spread across accounts payable and the approvers. At a loaded hourly rate of €50 to €70, that explains the €25 on its own. See how automated invoice processing reduces these steps to exceptions only.
Worked examples at 100, 300 and 1,000 invoices
Monthly cost follows almost linearly from your volume. The table below uses €25 manual and €2.50 automated as a baseline. Adjust the amounts to your own situation.
| Invoices per month | Manual (€25) | Automated (€2.50) | Saving per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | €2,500 | €250 | €2,250 |
| 300 | €7,500 | €750 | €6,750 |
| 1,000 | €25,000 | €2,500 | €22,500 |
On an annual basis, at 300 invoices that adds up to more than €80,000 in process cost you take out. Even with a more conservative €18 manual and €4 automated, the saving at this volume stays in the tens of thousands per year. To run the numbers for your team, use the invoice processing ROI calculator.
The hidden costs nobody books
The €25 only covers visible handling time. On top of that are costs that rarely land on an invoice line but still cost real money:
- Late payments. Invoices stuck in an approval round get paid late. That means reminder fees, penalties and sometimes a strained supplier relationship.
- Missed discounts. Many suppliers offer an early-payment discount. A slow manual route means you miss it structurally.
- Duplicate payments. Without a check on invoice number and PO, you sometimes pay the same invoice twice. Recovering it takes time and does not always succeed.
- Errors and corrections. A wrong GL account or VAT code distorts your numbers until the correction is booked. In the worst case you amend a VAT return.
These items are harder to quantify, but at an average AP volume they add up to 0.5 to 1 percent of your total purchase value. On a purchasing stream of one million euro that is €5,000 to €10,000 per year on top of handling cost.
When automation pays off, and when less so
Automation pays back fastest with volume and repetition. If you have many invoices from the same suppliers, with predictable coding, the gain is large and immediate. At 300 invoices per month, a solution like Glimps for Exact Online often pays for itself within weeks.
To be honest, there are situations where the ROI comes more slowly. If you have low volume, say under 50 invoices per month, with many exceptions that still need manual judgment, the time saving per invoice is smaller. The software mainly removes the retyping, while coding and review stay human work. The saving is still there, but the payback takes longer.
Calculate your own cost per invoice
Don't want to inherit assumptions but use your own number? Apply this formula with your actual labor cost and process time:
Cost per invoice = (total minutes per invoice ÷ 60) × loaded hourly rate
Work in four steps:
- Measure the process time. For a sample of invoices, time every step: opening, retyping, coding, approving, chasing, correcting. Include the approvers' time.
- Determine the loaded hourly rate. Take gross salary including employer costs and overhead. For an AP clerk, €45 to €60 is realistic; higher for a controller or manager.
- Compute the cost per invoice. Multiply the average time by the hourly rate.
- Multiply by your monthly volume. That gives you the total monthly process cost to set against a tool and the automated rate.
If you would rather not do this by hand, the ROI calculator works it out for you based on your volume and hourly rate. Then review the plans and pricing to see what automation costs in your case against what it saves.
Frequently asked questions
Is €25 per invoice really accurate for an SMB?
It is an average, not a law. In practice we see a range of €15 to €40 depending on complexity, number of lines and how many people are involved in approval. Measure your own process time to find your real number; the formula in this article helps.
Does that €25 include software?
No. The €25 is internal process cost: your team's hours. The €2.50 automated includes software, because human time largely disappears. For a pure tool comparison, see the pricing overview.
What is the biggest hidden cost?
Often corrections and delay. A wrong code or an invoice sitting in a mailbox for days costs more than the first retype. Late payments and missed discounts also feed straight through to your margin.
At what volume does automation pay off?
With repeat work, often from around 100 invoices per month. Under 50 invoices with many exceptions, payback takes longer, because the time saving per invoice is smaller.
How do I calculate this for my own team?
Measure the process time per invoice, multiply by your loaded hourly rate and by your monthly volume. The Glimps ROI calculator does this automatically from your input.
Conclusion
Manual invoice processing is rarely a deliberate expense, which is exactly why it goes unnoticed. The €25 per invoice appears on no invoice line, yet it is paid every month in hours, corrections and missed discounts. Calculate your own cost with your actual labor cost and process time, and set it next to the automated rate. For teams with volume and repetition, the difference is so large that the question is not whether automation pays off, but how fast.
Calculate your saving with the ROI calculator, read how automated invoice processing works, or review the plans.