Invoice processing cost calculator

How to get your own numbers

The calculator rests on one idea. Today a person handles every invoice. With capture software, the software reads every invoice and a person only checks the few it is unsure of. So you need three numbers, and each one can be measured rather than guessed.

Two rules keep the numbers honest. Use the loaded cost of an hour, not the wage alone: add benefits and payroll taxes, or ask payroll for the figure they use. And time the whole job by hand, not just the typing. Printing an emailed invoice, renaming the file to match the filing rules and calling a vendor about a wrong total are all part of handling an invoice today.

What the calculator leaves out, on purpose

Approving an invoice and settling a dispute with a vendor are decisions people make, with or without automation, so the calculator counts neither side. What does change is the chasing around them. Content Central routes each invoice to the right approver, sends reminders and escalates when one waits too long, so the minutes someone spends sending PDFs and reminder emails mostly go away. That is a saving on top of the estimate above.

What each Ademero product does

The share sent to review is the number that matters most. The software reads every invoice, and your team only opens the ones it is unsure of. That share is higher while a new job is learning and keeps falling as people confirm and correct.

Open, sort and key: CapturePoint 6

CapturePoint 6 runs on a Windows PC and reads invoices from your scanner or from PDF and image files. It splits a stack into separate documents, recognizes which are invoices, and pulls header fields and line-item tables. It checks the line-item math and flags anything that does not add up, with the reason shown on the review screen, so your team checks the problem cases instead of retyping every invoice. It learns from each confirmation and correction. Reading happens locally on the PC, and finished documents go to folders with a data file of every value, to Content Central, or to SharePoint, OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox or Nucleus One.

Click to enlarge

Review screen with an invoice's fields and line items beside the page, and the reason it needs review. The review minutes in your estimate are time spent here, on only the invoices sent to review.

Approvals and export to accounting: Content Central

Content Central is document management in the cloud or on your own servers. An approval can start the moment an invoice is captured, rules can send invoices over a set amount to a second approver, and approvals that wait too long can escalate. Approvers get an email with Approve and Reject links, a phone-friendly queue, and can name substitutes while they are away. Approved invoices can export to QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, Sage 50, Sage X3, Workday or Epicor, with duplicate detection and an export status you can search on. In the help library:

• Route large invoices to a second approver
• Export approved invoices to accounting

Invoices that arrive as PDFs: Paige

If most invoices arrive by email and you want the data delivered into another system without a PC in the middle, Paige is our cloud service. Send it documents and get clean data back, header fields and line items included, by download, SFTP or webhook. It learns your layouts from a few samples. Read how Paige works.

Keep going

• Invoice processing with Ademero: the whole flow from intake to export.
• Invoice OCR, a practical guide: fields, line items, accuracy checks and how to evaluate a tool.
• AP document capture setup checklist: the decisions to make before the first invoice is scanned.
• CapturePoint 6 for invoices: what it reads and how the review screen works.

The most reliable way to fill in the review share is to measure it yourself. Install the CapturePoint 6 free trial, run a week of real invoices through it, and see how many it sends to review. Share the link with your controller, or print the summary for the budget file.