Every dollar wasted on inefficient invoice processing is one that could be funding your company's growth. Yet, most businesses continue to process invoices using methods that haven't evolved since the 1990s. The result? Delayed payments, strained vendor relationships, and finance teams drowning in paperwork instead of driving strategic decisions.

If your finance team is still manually keying in invoice data, chasing email approvals, or maintaining spreadsheets to track payment status in your accounts payable process, you're not just falling behind — you're actively leaving money on the table and putting your business at competitive risk.

Read on to learn how to modernize your accounts payable, and discover how Brex customers are using invoice processing automation to save time and money.

The hidden costs of manual invoice processing.

According to Goldman Sachs research, manually processing a single invoice costs businesses an average of $22. For a mid-sized company handling just 500 invoices monthly, that's $132,000 annually spent on pushing paper.

Even more concerning is the time drain. The Institute of Finance and Management (IOFM) reports that manual invoice processing takes an average of 8.3 days, with less efficient operations requiring up to 25 days per invoice.

These aren't just administrative headaches — they directly impact your bottom line:

• Revenue leakage: One estimate says that errors in manual invoice processing cost U.S. businesses over $120 billion annually through duplicate payments, missed discounts, and penalty fees.
• Strategic opportunity cost: Finance professionals spend more than 50% of their time on transaction processing, limiting their capacity to engage in financial analysis and business strategy.
• Cash flow strain: QuickBooks reports that invoice processing delays cause late payments that affect 89% of small businesses, creating unnecessary cash flow pressure.

4 common invoice processing challenges.

Regardless of company size, finance teams face several recurring challenges in invoice processing. These challenges can compound over time, gradually eroding efficiency and creating vulnerabilities in financial controls.

1. Approval bottlenecks that delay payments.

When invoices sit untouched in email inboxes or on desks awaiting approval, the consequences cascade throughout your business. Vendors don't get paid on time, early payment discounts vanish, and relationships with key suppliers deteriorate.

2. Manual data entry errors that cost time and money.

The 3.6% error rate in manual data entry reported by the Institute of Finance and Management might seem modest until you calculate the downstream effects. A single mistyped amount or invoice number can trigger hours of reconciliation work, payment delays, and damaged vendor trust.

3. Visibility gaps that hinder accurate planning.

Without centralized tracking of invoices and payments, finance teams struggle to answer basic questions: Which invoices are pending? Who needs to approve them? When are they due? This lack of visibility makes cash flow forecasting nearly impossible.

4. Inconsistent processes that create risk.

When invoice handling varies by department or location, maintaining financial controls becomes nearly impossible. These inconsistencies create compliance vulnerabilities, complicate audits, and prevent standardized financial reporting.

Invoice processing best practices that top businesses follow.

Leading companies are addressing these challenges through invoice automation. A Levvel Research report shows that organizations using invoice automation software solutions reduce processing costs by 80% and cut cycle times from weeks to days or even hours.

Brex customers across various industries and growth stages have seen transformative results through automated invoice processing. Their experiences highlight how the right technology creates value beyond mere efficiency gains.

Auto-route invoices to reduce bottlenecks.

For Limelight Steel, a climate tech startup, invoice approvals were creating unnecessary bottlenecks. Strategy and Operations Lead Nishant Karandikar explains the transformation:

“Any invoice that needs approval is automatically routed to me. Now I just have a once-a-week approval system where I click on the bills, verify that they're legitimate, and pay them in the specified time window. Brex bill pay helps ensure that I'm not the bottleneck on our procurement.”

This streamlined approach repositions finance from a transaction processor to a strategic function that supports business growth.

Use AI to auto-ingest bills and improve operational efficiency.

For smaller companies, invoice automation creates leverage that enables lean teams to accomplish more with limited resources. Jesse Kallman, Founder and CEO of Danti, emphasizes this point:

"Brex has helped keep the operations portion of our business lean, where I can run it all myself with ease. The AI/auto ingest of bills in the bill pay app keeps my time paying bills to a couple of minutes per week, all my team's purchasing cards, spend management, is all automated.”

Automation reduces workload, and in turn, creates capacity for small teams to focus on higher-value activities that drive business growth.

Leverage real-time data to enhance decision-making.

Tiffany Miller, Director of Accounts Payable at Empire Portfolio Group, a leading area franchisee of Orangetheory Fitness, has experienced how much smart invoice processing can elevate the finance function:

“With Brex, we can see in real time what’s being spent across multiple locations,” she says. “And because we’re able to see spending at such a granular level, we’re able to benchmark our studio locations against one another and truly understand the cost of running the most efficient studio. Now that we have the tools to easily run information to the C-suite, we've seen a huge shift in accounts payable from being a back-office data entry function to a powerhouse of information.”

This elevation of finance from transaction processor to strategic partner represents invoice automation's true potential: creating business insights from financial data.

Unify your financial ecosystem for total visibility.

For Matt Jungert, Senior Manager of Operations at Cottage, the biggest benefit is integrating invoice processing with other financial workflows for complete visibility into their payables — from receipt to accounts payable reconciliation.

“I've used different bill pay services before, and Brex has done a great job of putting their spin on it,” Matt says. “Brex does everything you want it to do, from scanning invoices to routing approvals to processing payments — with the added benefit of having all your company spend in one place."

This integrated approach eliminates silos between invoice processing, payment management, and expense tracking, creating a unified view of company spending that supports more informed decision-making.

5 things you can do today to automate invoice processing.

Companies successfully implementing invoice automation typically follow these proven approaches:

1. Implement digital invoice capture.

Implement AI-powered document capture technology that can extract key information from invoices regardless of whether they arrive as PDFs, emails, or paper documents.

2. Create smart approval workflows.

Design approval routing based on invoice attributes (amount, department, vendor) to ensure the right stakeholders review expenses without creating bottlenecks.

3. Connect invoice processing and payments.

Connect invoice processing directly with payment execution to eliminate duplicate data entry and create a seamless process from invoice receipt to payment confirmation.

4. Prioritize strong vendor relationships.

Maintain a centralized vendor database with payment terms, contact information, and historical transaction data to streamline payment processing, prevent late fees, identify opportunities for vendor consolidation, and build stronger supplier relationships.

5. Use financial data for key decision-making.

Leverage the data captured through automation to analyze spending patterns, identify cost-saving opportunities, and improve forecasting accuracy.

Enhance your invoice processing with Brex.

For companies seeking to remain competitive, modernizing invoice processing isn't optional — it’s essential for financial visibility, operational efficiency, and strategic decision-making.

Next-generation accounts payable automation software incorporate smart invoice matching capabilities, predictive analytics to identify spending trends, machine learning to detect potential fraud, and deeper integration with other accounting solutions to accelerate invoice reconciliation. The most advanced solutions now feature bidirectional ERP integration, allowing for automatic synchronization of vendor details, chart of accounts, and payment information while enabling real-time financial visibility across the organization.

Ready to transform your invoice processing? Sign up for Brex and discover how our integrated platform can help your business save time, reduce costs, and gain greater visibility into your financial operations.