AP automation ROI calculator
Most vendor ROI calculators leave out the subscription and assume automation takes handling time to zero. This one includes both, which is why it sometimes returns a negative number. That is the point: if the case is not there, you should know before you buy rather than after.
Your numbers
Bills you receive, not customer invoices you send.
Time twenty real ones rather than estimating.
Salary plus ~28% for taxes and benefits, divided by ~1,800 hours.
Review only. Automation does not take this to zero.
ZapBooks is $29 or $99. Use whichever plan fits your volume.
Duplicate payments, late fees, missed early-payment discounts.
What it works out to
Net saving per year
$2,934
- Cost per invoice today
- $2.99
- Cost per invoice automated
- $0.95
- Monthly cost today
- $359
- Monthly cost automated, including software
- $115
- Hours back per month
- 5.5
- Hours back per year
- 66
Assumes automation removes 70% of duplicate and late-fee costs, which is the conservative end of the published 50 to 90 percent range. Nothing you type here leaves your browser.
How to get honest inputs
- Minutes per invoice: time twenty real ones with a timer, deliberately including the ugly multi-line ones. Estimates from memory run about 40 percent low.
- Hourly cost: salary plus roughly 28 percent, divided by about 1,800 hours. Use the rate of whoever actually does the work, not the owner's rate.
- Error costs: pull twelve months of duplicate payments and late fees. If you have never checked, request statements from your top five vendors first. Most businesses find something.
- Review time after: 45 seconds is a reasonable default. Push it to 90 if your invoices are complex or your coding needs judgement.
For the full method behind these numbers, including where published benchmarks come from and why they disagree, read what it actually costs to process an invoice.
ROI calculator questions
If the number came out positive
Start a 14-day trial with your own invoices and check the assumption that matters most: how long a review actually takes.
14-day free trial. No credit card required.