Cost per invoice calculator
Find what your current invoice process costs before buying automation. Enter monthly invoice volume, staff time, fully loaded labor cost, and other AP processing costs.
Page reviewed September 30, 2026.
Current AP process
What invoice processing costs you today.
Modeled result
Cost comparison
What to do with the number
Your cost per invoice is the baseline for any automation decision. Compare it with a candidate product's modeled cost on the AP automation pricing and cost calculator, then model payback on the ROI calculator.
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate cost per invoice?
Cost per invoice = (AP staff hours per month × fully loaded hourly cost + other monthly AP costs) ÷ monthly invoice volume. Other costs include postage, printing, check stock, and bank fees.
What should be included in cost per invoice?
Staff time spent receiving, keying, coding, matching, chasing approvals, paying, and answering supplier questions, at a fully loaded hourly cost (pay plus benefits and overhead), plus postage, printing, check stock, and bank fees.
What is a typical cost per invoice?
Published benchmarks vary widely with method and company size, and this site does not use them as a stand-in for your process. Your own inputs give a baseline you can defend internally.
How do I reduce cost per invoice?
Remove manual touches. Capture, matching, and approval routing are where AP automation targets staff time; compare them on invoice OCR software, PO matching software, and AP approval workflow software.
Next steps
Match vendors to your requirements · Test shortlisted vendors with the AP Vendor Evaluation Kit