JRW / Blog / Statistics

Accounts payable statistics, 2026.

Two figures for the cost of an invoice, measured two ways, then the time, the exceptions, the wages, and the other side of the ledger: how late customers pay. Each figure carries its sample and who measured it.

Jeff Weinberg, JRW · Checked 22 October 2026

$6.00median cost to process an invoice. APQC, 5,846 organizations
$9.84average all-in cost per invoice. Ardent Partners survey
8.2 daysto process an invoice, on average. Ardent
18.4%of invoices hit an exception. Ardent

Cost per invoice.

Two sources, both self-reported. APQC divides the whole AP process cost by invoices processed; Ardent asks finance leaders for their cost per invoice.

$6.00 (link to this figure)

Median total cost to process an invoice: people, systems, overhead and outsourcing, divided by invoices processed.

Survey: APQC Open Standards Benchmarking, 2026. 5,846 organizations, cross-industry

Mostly larger organizations. Quartiles are behind membership.

Cite
JRW, “Accounts payable statistics 2026”, https://jrw-tech.com/blog/accounts-payable-statistics#ap-apqc-6, checked 22 October 2026
$9.84 (link to this figure)

Average all-in cost to process a single invoice, as reported by AP and finance leaders.

Survey: Ardent Partners, 2025. Sponsored survey, 2025

Best-in-class teams reported 79% lower; secondary reports put that at $2.65 against $12.42 for everyone else.

Cite
JRW, “Accounts payable statistics 2026”, https://jrw-tech.com/blog/accounts-payable-statistics#ap-ardent-984, checked 22 October 2026
$24.36 (link to this figure)

Median hourly pay of bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks, $50,670 a year, before benefits and overhead.

Official: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025. Federal wage data, May 2025

Cite
JRW, “Accounts payable statistics 2026”, https://jrw-tech.com/blog/accounts-payable-statistics#ap-wage-2436, checked 22 October 2026
$118,565 (link to this figure)

Staff cost a year for three people each processing 400 supplier invoices a month at the calculator defaults, labor only.

Our default: JRW, 2026

Invoice processing cost calculator: 12 minutes an invoice, 18% exceptions at 20 minutes, bookkeeper wage plus 30%. Staff time only. Late fees avoided and early-payment discounts caught are worth more on top.

Cite
JRW, “Accounts payable statistics 2026”, https://jrw-tech.com/blog/accounts-payable-statistics#ap-jrw-cost, checked 22 October 2026

Time and exceptions.

8.2 days (link to this figure)

Average time from receipt to approval. Best-in-class teams reported 79% faster.

Survey: Ardent Partners, 2025. Sponsored survey, 2025

Cite
JRW, “Accounts payable statistics 2026”, https://jrw-tech.com/blog/accounts-payable-statistics#ap-days-82, checked 22 October 2026
18.4% (link to this figure)

Of invoices hit an exception: a mismatch with the order or receipt, a missing PO, a duplicate, an unanswered approver.

Survey: Ardent Partners, 2025. Sponsored survey, 2025

Cite
JRW, “Accounts payable statistics 2026”, https://jrw-tech.com/blog/accounts-payable-statistics#ap-exceptions-184, checked 22 October 2026
57% (link to this figure)

Of suppliers can submit invoices electronically. The rest send PDFs, emails and paper.

Survey: Ardent Partners, 2025. Sponsored survey, 2025

Cite
JRW, “Accounts payable statistics 2026”, https://jrw-tech.com/blog/accounts-payable-statistics#ap-electronic-57, checked 22 October 2026
21.9% (link to this figure)

Of AP staff time goes to supplier inquiries: where is my payment, did you get my invoice.

Survey: Ardent Partners, 2025. Sponsored survey, 2025

Best-in-class teams reported half as much.

Cite
JRW, “Accounts payable statistics 2026”, https://jrw-tech.com/blog/accounts-payable-statistics#ap-inquiries-22, checked 22 October 2026
1.8× (link to this figure)

Best-in-class teams process 1.8 times as many invoices straight through, with no human touch, as their peers.

Survey: Ardent Partners, 2025. Sponsored survey, 2025

No absolute rate given.

Cite
JRW, “Accounts payable statistics 2026”, https://jrw-tech.com/blog/accounts-payable-statistics#ap-straight-18, checked 22 October 2026

Getting paid late.

The other side of the ledger: what customers do with the invoices a business sends.

About half (link to this figure)

Of US B2B invoice value is overdue, collected about 20 days after the due date on average. Bad debt averages 8% of credit sales.

Survey: Atradius Payment Practices Barometer, 2024. US companies surveyed mid-2024 by a trade credit insurer

Mostly mid-sized exporters. The 2026 North America edition puts overdue invoices at 23% of receivables.

Cite
JRW, “Accounts payable statistics 2026”, https://jrw-tech.com/blog/accounts-payable-statistics#ap-overdue-half, checked 22 October 2026
59% (link to this figure)

Of US small businesses have invoices more than 30 days overdue, up from 47% a year earlier. Those owed are owed $17,700 on average.

Survey: Intuit QuickBooks, 2026. 1,305 business owners, December 2025

Cite
JRW, “Accounts payable statistics 2026”, https://jrw-tech.com/blog/accounts-payable-statistics#ap-qb-59, checked 22 October 2026
9 days (link to this figure)

Late, on average, for invoices paid to US small businesses in the first quarter of 2026: 28.8 days to be paid in all.

Measured, vendor data: Xero, 2026. One accounting platform’s customers

8.4 days late the quarter before; long-run average about 8.8.

Cite
JRW, “Accounts payable statistics 2026”, https://jrw-tech.com/blog/accounts-payable-statistics#ap-xero-9, checked 22 October 2026
56% (link to this figure)

Of employer firms reported difficulty paying operating expenses; 51% reported uneven cash flow.

Survey: Federal Reserve Banks, via Coleman Report, 2024. Federal Reserve Small Business Credit Survey, 2024, reported second-hand

Cite
JRW, “Accounts payable statistics 2026”, https://jrw-tech.com/blog/accounts-payable-statistics#ap-fed-56, checked 22 October 2026
6.75% (link to this figure)

The prime rate since December 2025, the floor for what carrying an overdue balance costs a business that borrows.

Official: Bankrate, 2026. Published rate

Cite
JRW, “Accounts payable statistics 2026”, https://jrw-tech.com/blog/accounts-payable-statistics#ap-prime-675, checked 22 October 2026
$84,358 (link to this figure)

What late-paying customers cost a B2B services firm a year at the calculator defaults: carrying the overdue cash, write-offs, and chasing.

Our default: JRW, 2026

Late invoice cost calculator.

Cite
JRW, “Accounts payable statistics 2026”, https://jrw-tech.com/blog/accounts-payable-statistics#ap-jrw-late, checked 22 October 2026

The labels.

Measured. Call logs, records or a trial, with a stated sample, from someone not selling a fix for the problem measured.
Measured, vendor data. A vendor’s own platform data, with a stated sample.
Survey. A survey or secret-shopper study, with a stated sample.
Official. Government statistics, statutes and regulations.
Legal analysis. A law firm’s or court’s account of a law or ruling. Not legal advice for your state.
Vendor figure. Published or repeated by a company that sells a related product, with no independent check. Some have no primary source we could find; the note says which. Where a calculator starts from one, its defaults table says so.
JRW engagement. Measured in one of our own client engagements. We sell the work being measured, so read it as one practice’s result, not a benchmark.
Our default. A number we chose, or a JRW calculator’s output at its default settings. The calculator page shows the assumptions.

To cite a figure, copy its cite line. Anchors are stable. Corrections: jeff@jrw-tech.com.

Questions.

Which cost per invoice should I compare against?: APQC’s $6.00 if you want a measured median; Ardent’s $9.84 if you want what finance leaders say. Both are all-in. Our calculator counts labor only, and at its defaults that alone comes to about $8 an invoice. Compare yourself with one source at a time.
Is 18.4% exceptions high?: It is the survey average. Teams with POs on everything and suppliers on electronic invoicing run lower; teams that receive PDFs by email and code by hand run higher. Count a month of yours.
Can I cite these?: Cite APQC, Ardent Partners, the BLS, Atradius, QuickBooks or Xero for their figures. Cite JRW for the calculator outputs and this page.

What does an invoice cost your AP desk?

The calculator starts from these figures and takes your invoice volume and wages.

Open the invoice processing calculator

Accounts payable statistics, 2026.

Median total cost to process an invoice: people, systems, overhead and outsourcing, divided by invoices processed.

Average all-in cost to process a single invoice, as reported by AP and finance leaders.

Median hourly pay of bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks, $50,670 a year, before benefits and overhead.

Staff cost a year for three people each processing 400 supplier invoices a month at the calculator defaults, labor only.

Average time from receipt to approval. Best-in-class teams reported 79% faster.

Of invoices hit an exception: a mismatch with the order or receipt, a missing PO, a duplicate, an unanswered approver.

Of suppliers can submit invoices electronically. The rest send PDFs, emails and paper.

Of AP staff time goes to supplier inquiries: where is my payment, did you get my invoice.

Best-in-class teams process 1.8 times as many invoices straight through, with no human touch, as their peers.

Of US B2B invoice value is overdue, collected about 20 days after the due date on average. Bad debt averages 8% of credit sales.

Of US small businesses have invoices more than 30 days overdue, up from 47% a year earlier. Those owed are owed $17,700 on average.

Late, on average, for invoices paid to US small businesses in the first quarter of 2026: 28.8 days to be paid in all.

Of employer firms reported difficulty paying operating expenses; 51% reported uneven cash flow.

The prime rate since December 2025, the floor for what carrying an overdue balance costs a business that borrows.

What late-paying customers cost a B2B services firm a year at the calculator defaults: carrying the overdue cash, write-offs, and chasing.

What does an invoice cost your AP desk?