What are Accounts Payable Metrics?

It is the process of examining whether your business is capable of paying the incoming invoices from the vendors or suppliers.

It offers better visibility into your business’s financial health, uncovering the areas of concern that need to be addressed. The insights gathered using AP metrics can further aid you in identifying the need to revise the pricing strategies.

So, tracking them regularly means determining your business’s ability to clear the due payments on time, which is undoubtedly an important factor in maintaining and scaling your business activities.

11 Key Accounts Payable Metrics to Track

Below are the most important accounts payable metrics to keep an eye on to improve accounts payable efficiency.

1. Average Processing Cost Per Invoice

Firstly, urge your accounting team to analyze the average cost per invoice. Determine the effort and cost required to process an invoice in order to uncover inefficiencies that might hamper your overall budget. Some invoices with non-POs might be costing you more money. If your team is processing a relatively low number of invoices, then there are areas that need to be fixed at the earliest. Such issues indicate the need for an automated accounting solution to optimize the AP process.

2. Average Time for Payment Processing

Next comes the average invoice processing time or payment processing time, which will tell you whether your team spends numerous hours on payment or invoice processing. That’s what you need to analyze in order to enhance your accounts payable process. The longer payment processing could be due to the conventional approach where the team stays occupied with data-entry work.

So, how to fix that? Simply, prioritize the digital-first approach:

• Verify and record incoming invoices with online tools and software.
• Submit purchase orders for approval prior to the payment.
• Schedule payments considering the due dates and early discounts.
• Keep your invoicing records updated in real-time for audits and reporting.

3. Invoices Processed Per FTE (Full-Time Employee)

Another thing you need to track is the number of invoices processed by each team member. Shed light on how many orders are placed and the time taken by individuals to process the payment.

The process usually involves your accounting team, the company’s CFO, and vendors. Identifying the number of invoices processed per FTE is worthwhile as it helps determine whether additional resources are needed to manage the AP process.

4. Percentage of Exceptions Vs. Total Invoices Processed

Find out the percentage of total invoices processed and how many invoices encountered errors. Some invoices may include the wrong due amount or line items that can ultimately slow down the payment processing and hinder your supplier relationship.

So, zooming into the time taken by your team to fix issues rather than completing the real work uncovers the need for automation. Embracing the technology and tools for automation in the AP process can not only help discover the root cause of problems but also eliminate them.

5. Early Payment Discounts Offered Vs. Claimed

Dive into your payment reports to see how many early payment discounts you claimed in comparison to the missed ones. By doing so, you can gauge the team’s performance and figure out the areas that need your attention.

This metric highlights what’s to be fixed in order to reduce the payment processing time and claim maximum discounts. For that, you will need an accurate invoicing report or payment report to get in-depth insights.

6. Penalties Incurred Due to Late Payments

Keeping track of how many penalties you incur because of late payments is another KPI you should track regularly. If you are seeing late penalties often, then something is wrong with your accounts payable process. No one deliberately tried to pay bills lately, it could be the manual approach that might have led to payment delays.

Therefore, prioritize automation in the AP process and ditch the old way of maintaining invoicing details on spreadsheets to get rid of paying penalties.

7. Number of Discrepancies and Disputes

Payment errors are not always identified before processing the payments. Sometimes, they might appear even after the payment has been made. If so, they might lead to disputes with suppliers or vendors. Analyzing invoice discrepancies regularly can help you take the necessary steps to enhance accuracy in the accounts payable process.

For example, if invoices are compared to incorrect POs, then it may result in disputes, damaging your supplier relationship and eventually impacting your business operations.

8. Percentage of Electronic Invoices vs. Total Invoices Received

Not all invoices shared are paper-based. Some individuals may prefer sending electronic invoices. So, filter out what number of electronic invoices you received in comparison to the total invoices. By finding the percentage of electronic invoices out of the total, you can evaluate the use of manual data entry by your accounting team.

If there is excessive use of a paper-bound AP process, you can consider switching to reliable accounting tools that lessen your workload and eliminate the risk of accounting errors.

9. Number of Individuals in the AP Department

You may not realize it, but the number of people working in your accounts payable department directly impacts your accounts payable performance metrics. If the team’s performance declines over time, you may need to bring in new talent or invest in accounting software that can handle it all.

Start by counting how many employees are currently working in the accounts payable department and identifying their roles. You can then set individual KPIs to measure each team member’s performance. For example, you can monitor an employee’s time taken to process an invoice or resolve payment discrepancies.

10. ROI on Invoice Automation

It does not matter if you are already using some automation tools or about to get one for your business, make sure you check ROI. Automating invoice processing doesn’t mean your job is done; you need to track the ROI by identifying the time required to approve invoices and process the payment.

Know whether you are actually spending less time than what you were used to before implementing the automation tool. If not, you need to incorporate reliable tools like Moon Invoice to enhance invoicing and accounting processes in a way that you can save maximum time.

11. Percentage of No-Exception Invoices

Gauge the effectiveness of your accounts payable process by analyzing no-exception invoices that are processed directly for payment without any back-and-forth. These invoices aren’t flagged for issues like data mismatches or incorrect amounts. Identify how many invoices flow through without needing a second look. The more no-exception invoices you have, the more streamlined and effective your accounts payable process is.

For example, if incoming invoices from a particular vendor or supplier match your purchase orders, they get approved without manual review and labeled as no-exception invoices.

How to Track and Improve Accounts Payable Performance

Here’s how to enhance your accounts payable performance using simple steps.

1. Set Benchmarks for Your Team

Analyze your team’s performance and then decide on specific goals for each individual in the AP department. Consider the time taken by accounting experts to process an invoice and the number of no-exception invoices. If possible, check how the invoices are handled by your team using past data before setting the benchmark.

2. Assess the Scope of Improvement

Keep tabs on your AP process so that you can recognize inefficiencies and delays in approvals. Based on that, you can decide which areas need fixing. Invoicing errors, duplicate invoices, or missing information are common problems that you should resolve to streamline the AP process.

3. Embrace AP Automation

If nothing works, consider embracing automation tools to transform your AP process. The straightforward way to verify invoices quickly and dispatch payments without relying on manual efforts. Importantly, your accounting team doesn’t get burned out and can give equal attention to other important tasks.

Key Benefits of Tracking Accounts Payable Metrics

Regularly tracking AP metrics can help you spot bottlenecks so that you can quickly fix them and reduce the time you take to process payments.

1. Informed Decisions

Monitoring AP performance metrics can aid you in making data-driven decisions for your business. You get a better idea of whether your team can handle the high volume of invoices or if you need more resources to dispatch timely payments.

2. Optimized AP Process

Reviewing AP metrics can further expose loopholes in your current process and can assist you in avoiding them in the future. As a result, your accounting team spends less time verifying invoice details and proceeds for payments as early as possible.

3. Lasting Vendor Relationship

Apart from speeding up the AP process, another perk is the opportunity to develop long-term relationships with vendors or suppliers. Since you can pay invoices faster with an optimized AP process, your vendors are more than happy to collaborate with you for a long time.

Conclusion

Analyzing accounts payable performance metrics is as important as developing your business strategies. You can find out what are factors responsible for slowing down the payment process and what are bottlenecks you need to address.

Since now you know what role accounts payable metrics play in your business, you will find it easier to enhance your AP process and, ultimately, build healthier relationships with vendors.

That’s not all; you can even bring in the right automation tool, like Moon Invoice, and transform your accounting process with state-of-the-art features. It will not only help you keep accounting data well-organized but also minimize the workload of your AP and AR team. Try it free for 7 days.

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