A controller for a nine-building skilled nursing group pulls the AP clerks' payroll export and last month's invoice count into one spreadsheet. The owner wants a cost per invoice before an automation line goes into next year's budget. The first search result gives one number, the next gives another, and neither page says what it counted.
Ardent Partners' 2025 survey puts the average all-inclusive cost to process one invoice at $9.84, and APQC's database, as reported in 2018, puts the median at $5.83. The two are different statistics taken years apart, so pick one and compute your own figure by its definition.
Cost per invoice is the total cost to process AP divided by the number of invoices processed, as APQC's column defines it.
What does Ardent Partners say it costs to process an invoice?
The 2025 edition of Ardent Partners' State of ePayables report puts the all-inclusive cost to process a single invoice at $9.84 and marks it as declining. The same report puts its Best-in-Class group at $2.65 and All Others at $12.42, and says Best-in-Class costs are 79% lower than their peers. Best-in-Class, in the report's words, is the 20% of enterprises with the lowest average invoice processing costs and shortest average invoice process cycle times.
The figures come from a web survey of 204 AP and finance leaders answered between March and May 2025. Of those, 54% reported revenue above $1 billion, so check that mix against your own AP desk before adopting $9.84 as a target.
What does APQC say it costs to process an invoice?
The APQC figures we could read are in CFO.com's Metric of the Month column, published February 5, 2018. The column reports on 1,485 organizations that submitted data on the measure to APQC's database. The top 25% process an invoice at a cost of $2.07 or less, the median organization spends $5.83, and the bottom 25% spend $10 or more. The column does not state the year APQC collected that data, so date these figures to 2018 and no later.
Can the APQC and Ardent Partners figures be compared?
The APQC and Ardent Partners figures cannot sit on one line. One is a median from a database and the other an average from a survey, collected years apart.
| Source | Figure | What it is | Who is counted | Date as the source states it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ardent Partners, State of ePayables 2025 | $9.84 | Average all-inclusive cost per invoice | 204 AP and finance leaders, surveyed March to May 2025 | June 2025 |
| Ardent Partners, same report | $2.65 and $12.42 | Best-in-Class (20% lowest on cost and cycle time) and All Others | Same 204 respondents | June 2025 |
| APQC, via CFO.com | $2.07 or less, $5.83, $10 or more | Top 25%, median, bottom 25% | 1,485 organizations in APQC's database | Column dated February 5, 2018, data year not stated |
The low-cost groups are drawn differently as well. Ardent's Best-in-Class is the 20% of respondents lowest on both cost and cycle time, while APQC's top quartile is the lowest-cost quarter of its database with no cycle-time test. A controller who quotes $2.07 as a best-in-class figure has put APQC's number under Ardent's label.
How do you compute your own cost per invoice?
Your own figure follows that definition, total AP processing cost for a period divided by the invoices processed in it. Ardent's companion report, Accounts Payable Metrics That Matter in 2025, describes the all-inclusive cost as the staff and operating costs of receiving, processing, and approving invoices, including salaries, benefits, technology, and overhead, and gives its own average of $9.40. APQC's column lists no line items, so write your own list and keep it with the figure. Decide whether the numerator holds AP clerk wages and benefits for the hours spent on invoices and the approvers' time. Decide the same for the AP software subscription, scanning, mailroom handling, and the postage and check stock behind each payment.
Count each invoice once in the denominator even when it was keyed twice, and write that rule down for next quarter. Set the result beside the survey whose definition you followed, and name it in the same cell. Ask any vendor, ours included, what sits in the numerator of the before and after figure it quotes. For what a manual AP desk costs, see the cost of manual AP.
How does Adelpo process an invoice?
In Adelpo, Adelpo Capture reads an invoice in any format, paper or digital, and extracts the data, and the invoice is then matched to the purchase order and the receipt. A price that differs from the order or the contract is flagged on the invoice, and an invoice with the same vendor and invoice number as one already entered is flagged before payment. After approval, the accounting system receives the invoice PDF, the line items with their GL codes, and the invoice number, date, due date and amount. Adelpo connects to Sage Intacct and QuickBooks, and NetSuite and other accounting systems get automatic batch imports of approved invoices.
Questions controllers ask
what is the average cost to process an invoice?
Ardent Partners' State of ePayables 2025 reports an average all-inclusive cost of $9.84 per invoice, from 204 AP and finance leaders surveyed in 2025. APQC's database, as reported in a February 2018 CFO.com column, shows a median of $5.83 across 1,485 organizations. One is an average and the other a median, so quote each with its source and date.
is the apqc cost per invoice benchmark still current?
The APQC figures we could read come from a February 2018 CFO.com column, so they carry a 2018 date. We could not read APQC's own measure pages, so no newer APQC figure is repeated here. Ask APQC for the current cycle and its collection year before quoting a newer figure.
is there a cost per invoice benchmark for skilled nursing or long-term care?
We found no skilled nursing or long-term care cost-per-invoice benchmark, and both sources above are cross-industry. What automation changes in the figure is covered in what SNF invoice automation costs and saves. Until a long-term care figure is published, track your own, computed the same way each quarter.