--- title: Build an Accounts Payable Automation Business Case | Aavenir url: https://aavenir.com/5-steps-for-preparation-of-an-ap-automation-business-case/ description: Five steps to a business case for accounts payable automation that finance will fund: your real costs, benchmarks, requirements, urgency and stakeholder buy-in. updated: 2026-11-07 --- [Home](https://aavenir.com/) / [Blog](https://aavenir.com/blogs/) / Accounts payable automation business case Accounts payable automation # Preparing a business case for accounts payable automation: 5 steps Everyone agrees invoices are painful. Getting the budget to fix them takes numbers, urgency and allies. MP **Misri Parikh**Aug 31, 2022 ยท 4 min read Our pre sales team hears the same thing in almost every industry. A manufacturer says invoices are a major pain, but supply chain pressures mean there may be no budget. A university knows accounts payable is a problem, but expects the chief financial officer to say no. A financial services firm loves the product, but cannot show the return to its business head. The pain is rarely in doubt. What is missing is a business case that turns that pain into numbers leadership will fund. These five steps, refreshed for 2026, take you from a list of complaints to an approved project. Key takeaways - Start with your own costs in time and money, measured, not estimated - Compare your numbers with credible external benchmarks - Agree requirements early, including integration and deployment model - Make the case for acting now with the cost of waiting - Win a champion in each stakeholder group before you ask for money ## Step 1: measure what manual processing really costs Begin with your own numbers. Leadership trusts figures from its own ledgers more than any vendor claim. Gather answers to these questions over a representative period, ideally a few months: - What does it cost finance and accounts payable to process one invoice? - How many invoices do you process each month, and through which channels? - How long does an invoice take from receipt to approval, and from approval to payment? - How much staff time goes on exceptions, supplier queries and corrections? - How many early payment discounts did you miss, and what late fees did you pay? - How many duplicate or incorrect payments were recovered, or not? If you do not track some of these today, start now. The [five accounts payable KPIs](https://aavenir.com/5-kpis-accounts-payable-team-needs-to-track/) give you formulas for the core measures. ## Step 2: compare with industry benchmarks Next, find out how organizations of similar size and industry perform. Research firms and industry bodies publish benchmarks for cost per invoice, cycle time and exception rates. Use only sources you can cite, and note the year, since benchmarks age quickly. Benchmarking does two jobs. It shows leadership where you stand against peers, and it gives the project measurable goals that every stakeholder can sign up to. A quantified gap between your current state and a credible benchmark is often the most persuasive line in the whole case. ## Step 3: define the benefits and core requirements Your team already uses a set of tools. Before proposing a change, agree internally what the new solution must do and how it fits what exists. Questions to settle early include: | Question | Why it matters | | How much training will users and approvers need? | Adoption drives every other benefit | | --- | --- | | Does it integrate with our enterprise resource planning and other systems? | Integration is often the largest hidden cost | | Cloud, on a platform we already run, or standalone? | Affects security review, cost and timeline | | Can it become the single source of truth for invoices? | Partial coverage keeps the old problems alive | | Can it apply our validation rules and check invoices against contracts? | Catches price drift and fraud before payment | If your company already runs ServiceNow, a native app can avoid a separate security review and reuse existing roles and approvals. See [Invoiceflow](https://aavenir.com/solutions/accounts-payable-automation/). ## Step 4: show the return and the need to act now With costs, benchmarks and requirements in hand, build the return on investment and add urgency. Leaders will ask three questions, so answer them in the case itself. ### Why now, not later? Quantify the cost of waiting: missed early payment discounts, late fees, payment terms you cannot standardize and exposure to invoice fraud, each month the current process continues. ### Why fix something that works? Set your current performance against the benchmarks. Where there is a gap, show the savings automation can capture and what the team could do with the time it frees. ### Will it grow with us? Show how the solution scales, from capturing and matching invoices today to contract compliance checks, fraud detection and supplier self service later, so leaders see it fits the roadmap. **Get help with your accounts payable business case**We can walk through your volumes and process with you and show where Invoiceflow would change the numbers, using your data rather than ours. Schedule a demo ## Step 5: align stakeholders and win buy-in A strong case with weak support rarely gets funded. Your stakeholders typically include IT, finance leadership, procurement, business approvers and your own manager. You need a champion in each group. - Involve each stakeholder early, during research and requirements, not at the end - Show each one what they gain, for example fewer approval chases for business users - Address IT concerns on security, integration and support upfront - Agree the success measures together, so everyone owns the result - Present both the numbers and the qualitative benefits when you ask for funding Funding is the critical step, so spell out both the quantitative and qualitative gains: lower cost, faster cycle time, stronger controls, better supplier relationships and a team freed for analysis. For a view of the chief financial officer's priorities, read [the future of finance and the chief financial officer's role](https://aavenir.com/the-future-of-finance-ap-automation-and-the-cfos-strategic-role/). ## What mistakes sink a business case? Three mistakes come up again and again. The first is relying on vendor figures instead of your own measured costs, which leadership rightly discounts. The second is promising savings without saying how they will be tracked after go live. The third is leaving IT until the end, so security and integration questions surface late and stall approval. Avoid all three by measuring first, agreeing the success measures with finance upfront and bringing IT into requirements from the start. ## The bottom line A fundable business case combines your own measured costs, credible benchmarks, clear requirements, a reason to act now and champions across the business. Build it in that order, and the conversation moves from whether to automate accounts payable to how fast. ### In this article - Step 1: measure what manual processing really costs - Step 2: compare with industry benchmarks - Step 3: define the benefits and core requirements - Step 4: show the return and the need to act now - Step 5: align stakeholders and win buy-in - What mistakes sink a business case? **Build your case with your own numbers**We will map your invoice volumes and process to Invoiceflow, on ServiceNow or standalone. Share [in](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Faavenir.com%2F5-steps-for-preparation-of-an-ap-automation-business-case%2F)[X](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Faavenir.com%2F5-steps-for-preparation-of-an-ap-automation-business-case%2F&text=Preparing%20a%20business%20case%20for%20accounts%20payable%20automation%3A%205%20steps) Frequently asked questions (FAQ) ## Frequently asked questions ### ### What should an accounts payable automation business case include? Your measured costs and cycle times, credible industry benchmarks, agreed requirements including integration, the return on investment with the cost of waiting, and named champions in IT, finance and procurement. Own data persuades more than vendor claims. See [Invoiceflow](https://aavenir.com/solutions/accounts-payable-automation/). ### ### How do I calculate the cost of manual invoice processing? Add up staff time, management overhead, technology, paper, postage and the cost of fixing errors for a period, then divide by invoices processed. Add missed early payment discounts and late fees for the full picture. Read about [accounts payable KPIs](https://aavenir.com/5-kpis-accounts-payable-team-needs-to-track/). ### ### Who needs to approve an accounts payable automation project? Typically finance leadership, IT, procurement and the business approvers who use the system, plus your own manager. Involve each early and agree the success measures together, so the project has a champion in every group. See [invoice workflow](https://aavenir.com/solutions/invoice-workflow-software/). Have a question we have not answered? [Ask the Expert](https://aavenir.com/contact/) ## Keep reading [Accounts payable automation 5 KPIs that drive accounts payable performance Five accounts payable KPIs to track, with the formula for each: cost per invoice, cycle time, invoices per person, share matched to an order and exception rate. Read more](https://aavenir.com/5-kpis-accounts-payable-team-needs-to-track/)[Accounts payable automation 5 signs you need accounts payable automation Five signs your accounts payable process has outgrown spreadsheets: lost time, late payments, errors without a trail, high turnover and records at risk. Read more](https://aavenir.com/5-top-reasons-you-need-ap-automation-in-2023/)[Accounts payable automation 6 reasons to automate accounts payable invoice processing Six reasons to automate accounts payable invoice processing: saved time, accurate data entry, spend visibility, fewer errors, higher productivity and lower cost. Read more](https://aavenir.com/6-reasons-to-consider-automating-accounts-payable-invoice-processing/) Schedule a demo ## See your contracts run on one record. - **1****A 30 minute walkthrough**Built around your team, whether that is procurement, legal, IT or finance. - **2****Your contracts, not ours**Bring a few sample agreements and watch Aavenir AI extract and review them. - **3****ServiceNow or standalone**We show the deployment that fits the systems you already run. Prefer to talk first? [Contact the team](https://aavenir.com/contact/). The form did not load. [Contact the team](https://aavenir.com/contact/) instead, or refresh the page.