The Cost of a Payment Process Nobody Can See
Before choosing AP automation software, measure the work that happens between invoice receipt and reconciliation. A business may know how much it pays for software, but it may not know how much time its payment process consumes. Someone checks a shared inbox for invoices. Someone follows up on approvals. Someone confirms a vendor’s payment details. Someone answers a question about whether a payment was sent. Someone later compares the transaction with the accounting record. These tasks may not appear as a separate expense, but they still use the team’s time and attention. That hidden work is worth measuring before a business chooses new AP automation software. Measure the workflow for two weeks A short observation period can reveal more than a feature comparison. For each invoice or payment, record how many people handle it, how long it waits, how many follow-up messages it requires, and whether the transaction needs correction. The purpose is not to create perfect data. The p...