Accounts Payable Statistics
Last updated: 2026-10-28 · 8 sourced statistics
Accounts payable is where supplier invoices turn into payments, and the main numbers to watch are what each invoice costs to process, how long it takes and how often it needs manual handling. Ardent Partners' State of ePayables 2025 put the average cost at $9.84 per invoice and the average processing time at 8.2 days, with 18.4% of invoices hitting an exception and AP staff spending 21.9% of their time dealing with suppliers. A majority of suppliers (57%) can now send invoices electronically, and the Best-in-Class teams that process 1.8 times as many invoices straight through had costs 79% lower than their peers. If you send invoices to larger companies, these figures help explain why a complete, correct invoice gets paid faster than one that has to be queried. Every figure below links to the publisher's own page.
Key takeaways
- Average invoice processing cost was $9.84 and average processing time 8.2 days (Ardent Partners, vendor survey, 2025).
- The average invoice exception rate was 18.4%, and AP staff spent 21.9% of their time dealing with suppliers, largely because of exceptions (Ardent Partners).
- 57% of suppliers can now send invoices electronically (Ardent Partners).
- Best-in-Class AP teams had costs 79% lower, processing 79% faster and exception rates 47% lower than their peers, and processed more than 1.8 times as many invoices straight through.
- ACH accounted for almost three quarters of US noncash payments by value in 2024, while checks kept declining (Federal Reserve).
At a glance.
Every figure on this page in one table, each linked to its named source. Scroll down for the full context behind each number.
| Figure | What it measures | Source | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| $9.84 | The average cost to process an invoice was $9.84 in Ardent Partners' 2025 benchmarks (vendor-market analyst survey; sample size not stated on the page). | Ardent Partners, The State of ePayables 2025 (Payables Place, Part Nine: AP Benchmarks and Best-in-Class Performance) | 2025 |
| 8.2 days | The average invoice processing time was 8.2 days, which Ardent describes as having dropped. | Ardent Partners, The State of ePayables 2025 (Payables Place, Part Nine) | 2025 |
| 18.4% | The average invoice exception rate for AP departments was 18.4%, and staff spent 21.9% of their time dealing with suppliers, which Ardent attributes in large part to exceptions. | Ardent Partners, The State of ePayables 2025 (Payables Place, Part Nine) | 2025 |
| 57% | A majority of suppliers (57%) can now send invoices electronically, which Ardent says helps improve the touchless or straight-through processing average. | Ardent Partners, The State of ePayables 2025 (Payables Place, Part Nine) | 2025 |
| 79% | Best-in-Class AP teams (the top 20% by cost and cycle time) had per-invoice processing costs 79% lower than their peers, processing times 79% faster and exception rates 47% lower. | Ardent Partners, The State of ePayables 2025 (Payables Place, Part Nine) | 2025 |
| 1.8x | Best-in-Class enterprises have 1.4 times more of their suppliers enabled to submit electronic invoices and process more than 1.8 times as many of their invoices straight through as their peers, and their staff spend roughly half as much time on supplier inquiries. | Ardent Partners, The State of ePayables 2025 (Payables Place, Part Nine) | 2025 |
| 39% | 39% of AP leaders say their team's overall potential is stunted by the sheer volume of manual, low-value work, the first time Ardent identified eliminating tactical tasks as a top driver of future success. | Ardent Partners, The State of ePayables 2025 (Payables Place, Part Nine) | 2025 |
| 236.6B | US consumers and businesses made 236.6 billion noncash payments in 2024. ACH payments reached almost three quarters of noncash payment value for the first time, while check payments continued to decline by both number and value. | Federal Reserve, 2025 Federal Reserve Payments Study, initial findings (press release, July 1, 2026) | 2024 |
The statistics
The average cost to process an invoice was $9.84 in Ardent Partners' 2025 benchmarks (vendor-market analyst survey; sample size not stated on the page).
The average invoice processing time was 8.2 days, which Ardent describes as having dropped.
Source:Ardent Partners, The State of ePayables 2025 (Payables Place, Part Nine)2025
The average invoice exception rate for AP departments was 18.4%, and staff spent 21.9% of their time dealing with suppliers, which Ardent attributes in large part to exceptions.
Source:Ardent Partners, The State of ePayables 2025 (Payables Place, Part Nine)2025
A majority of suppliers (57%) can now send invoices electronically, which Ardent says helps improve the touchless or straight-through processing average.
Source:Ardent Partners, The State of ePayables 2025 (Payables Place, Part Nine)2025
Best-in-Class AP teams (the top 20% by cost and cycle time) had per-invoice processing costs 79% lower than their peers, processing times 79% faster and exception rates 47% lower.
Source:Ardent Partners, The State of ePayables 2025 (Payables Place, Part Nine)2025
Best-in-Class enterprises have 1.4 times more of their suppliers enabled to submit electronic invoices and process more than 1.8 times as many of their invoices straight through as their peers, and their staff spend roughly half as much time on supplier inquiries.
Source:Ardent Partners, The State of ePayables 2025 (Payables Place, Part Nine)2025
39% of AP leaders say their team's overall potential is stunted by the sheer volume of manual, low-value work, the first time Ardent identified eliminating tactical tasks as a top driver of future success.
Source:Ardent Partners, The State of ePayables 2025 (Payables Place, Part Nine)2025
US consumers and businesses made 236.6 billion noncash payments in 2024. ACH payments reached almost three quarters of noncash payment value for the first time, while check payments continued to decline by both number and value.
Source:Federal Reserve, 2025 Federal Reserve Payments Study, initial findings (press release, July 1, 2026)2024
When these numbers don't apply
Aggregate statistics hide a lot. Read these caveats before quoting a figure as if it describes your specific situation.
- Cost, cycle-time, exception, supplier and AP-leader figures come from Ardent Partners' State of ePayables 2025, a vendor-market analyst survey. The Payables Place article that reports them does not state the sample size or how respondents were recruited, so treat them as indicative benchmarks rather than population statistics.
- Ardent defines 'Best-in-Class' as the 20% of enterprises with the lowest average invoice processing costs and shortest cycle times. Those results are a top-performer comparison, not a target every team can reach.
- The free article does not define an invoice exception, so the 18.4% rate covers any invoice that could not be processed as received, not only supplier errors.
- The Federal Reserve Payments Study counts all US noncash payments by consumers and businesses. It is not limited to accounts payable.
- This page covers AP process benchmarks. Payments fraud, business email compromise and check-use survey figures are on the payment fraud, invoice fraud and check payment statistics pages linked below.
How we compiled this data
Reviewed on 2026-10-28. Every figure was read on the publisher's own page that day. AP processing benchmarks come from Ardent Partners' own Payables Place article on its State of ePayables 2025 report (January 22, 2026), labelled as a vendor-market analyst survey. Payment-mix data comes from the Federal Reserve's July 2026 release of initial 2025 Payments Study findings. We removed the previous version's figures that were not shown on the cited pages: a $12.88 cost, a 3.1 versus 17.4 day comparison and a 'roughly one in four' exception rate attributed to an Ardent landing page for a paid report, a 'majority of invoices arrive as PDFs' claim, and a one-third B2B check share that linked only to the AFP homepage. On 2026-10-28 we also moved the AFP 2026 payments fraud and check-use figures and the FBI IC3 business email compromise losses to the payment fraud, invoice fraud and check payment statistics pages, so each figure appears on the page whose scope fits it best, and added three further figures from the same Ardent article.
We hand-collected each figure from its original publisher rather than recycling secondary round-ups, cross-checked the headline numbers against the source documents in 2026-10-28, and link every statistic to the report it came from so you can verify it yourself. Where a publisher issues annual updates, we cite the report edition and flag the year inline.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to process an invoice?
Ardent Partners' State of ePayables 2025 put the average at $9.84 per invoice. Its Best-in-Class group, the top 20% of enterprises by cost and cycle time, had costs 79% lower. These come from a vendor-market analyst survey, so treat them as benchmarks, not universal averages.
How long does accounts payable take to process an invoice?
The average invoice processing time was 8.2 days in Ardent Partners' 2025 benchmarks, and Best-in-Class teams were 79% faster. Ardent calls invoice exceptions, which averaged 18.4%, the biggest single reason AP benchmarks are not lower.
What is a good invoice exception rate?
The 2025 average was 18.4% in Ardent Partners' benchmarks, and Best-in-Class teams had exception rates 47% lower than the rest of the market. Exceptions also explain much of the 21.9% of AP staff time spent dealing with suppliers.
How many suppliers send invoices electronically?
A majority. Ardent Partners' 2025 benchmarks found 57% of suppliers can now send invoices electronically, and Best-in-Class enterprises have 1.4 times more suppliers enabled for electronic invoices, processing more than 1.8 times as many invoices straight through.
What do these numbers mean if I invoice larger companies?
A complete, correct invoice is more likely to go straight through. Exceptions affected 18.4% of invoices in Ardent's 2025 benchmarks, and Ardent calls them the biggest single reason AP costs and processing times are not lower, so quote the customer's purchase order number, legal entity name and agreed price. Larger customers may also verify your bank details before paying; see the invoice fraud statistics page for why.
Put these figures to use
- Accounting hub: Bookkeeping basics, records and accounting software comparisons for small businesses.
- Accounts payable automation guide: How AP automation works from bill capture to payment, with a worked cost-per-bill example and fraud controls.
- Cost of manual invoice processing: An itemised worked cost of handling invoices by hand, with every input stated so you can use your own.
- BILL vs Melio: Bill pay fees, approvals and accounting sync compared, with a worked cost for a three-person team.
Related statistics
Stop becoming a late-payment statistic
Create invoices, send them and record payments in InvoiceQuickly. Free to start.
Try InvoiceQuickly Free