Incoming invoice processing time: where the real lever is

According to a survey of 201 medium-sized businesses, an incoming invoice takes 6 to 9 minutes on average from receipt to booking, depending on format. If a supplier moves from PDF to an e-invoice, meaning an invoice as a structured file that a program can read directly, that saves about one minute. That is little. More time goes where someone decides whether the invoice is correct, and that is not capture work.

What the study measured

The figures come from the study “Wenn sich Digitalisierung rechnet” (“When digitalisation pays off”) by IW Consult GmbH in Cologne, dated 4 November 2025. It was commissioned by the Partnership for Finance Digitalisation (Partnerschaft für Finanzdigitalisierung). According to the Bundestag lobby register, it is an association of the Deutscher Mittelstands-Bund and Visa that conducts its representation of interests solely in its own interest. So this is a commissioned study with a declared interest. That need not change the figures, but keep it in mind when reading.

In April and May 2025, 201 small and medium-sized firms from industry and services were surveyed by telephone, drawn at random and extrapolated to the Mittelstand. The question was, in essence: how many minutes of working time does it take on average, roughly, to process an incoming invoice, from receipt to booking? Between 79 and 152 firms answered for each format. These are self-reports, not time measurements. I did not find an analysis for construction or the finishing trades alone, or for businesses with 5 to 50 employees only.

Format	Share of invoices	Minutes per invoice	At 47 invoices a month
Paper	26 %	9	423 minutes, about 7 h 3 min
PDF	55 %	7	329 minutes, about 5 h 29 min
E-invoice	19 %	6	282 minutes, about 4 h 42 min

Compared with paper, the study gives 2 minutes or 25 % less for the digital invoice and 3 minutes or 31 % less for the e-invoice. With the rounded minutes it would be 22 % and 33 %. The percentages evidently rest on unrounded means. Between PDF and e-invoice the difference is about one minute.

The calculation: invoices per month times minutes

On average, a medium-sized business in the study receives about 47 incoming invoices a month. The Mittelstand there extends to 249 employees. A figure for smaller businesses alone does not appear in the text I read.

This is how you can work out what the switch to the e-invoice would bring an average business:

1. Weighted mean of the minutes: 0.26 × 9 + 0.55 × 7 + 0.19 × 6 = 2.34 + 3.85 + 1.14 = 7.33 minutes per invoice.
2. At 47 invoices: 47 × 7.33 ≈ 345 minutes, or a good 5 hours 45 minutes a month.
3. If all invoices arrived as e-invoices: 47 × 6 = 282 minutes.
4. Difference: 345 − 282 = 63 minutes, about one hour a month.

This is an illustration using means from subgroups of different sizes, not a measured value. The study itself extrapolates to the whole Mittelstand and arrives at 9.2 million working hours saved per month. That is a model calculation by the authors. For a single business, about one hour remains. In one case example in the study, a building services and facility management company with several branches in North Rhine-Westphalia, working time in accounting fell by about 20 per cent after moving from paper to the e-invoice format ZUGFeRD. That is a single case reported by the company itself and cannot be transferred to other businesses.

current formate-invoice

• Capture, paper to e-invoiceSelf-reported, mean value

  current format 9 min
  e-invoice 6 min

• Capture, PDF to e-invoiceSelf-reported, mean value

  current format 7 min
  e-invoice 6 min

• Check on merits, exampleAuthor's assumption, not measured

  current format 45 min
  e-invoice 45 min

Source: IW Consult 2025 (survey, N=79 to 152 per format); 45 min: the author's working assumption

Text version of the graphic

• Capture, paper to e-invoice: current format 9 min, e-invoice 6 min (Self-reported, mean value)
• Capture, PDF to e-invoice: current format 7 min, e-invoice 6 min (Self-reported, mean value)
• Check on merits, example: current format 45 min, e-invoice 45 min (Author's assumption, not measured)
• Source: IW Consult 2025 (survey, N=79 to 152 per format); 45 min: the author's working assumption

Capturing is not checking

When capturing, the invoice is read, its data are entered in the accounts, and the payment is prepared. A structured format helps here because a program reads the fields directly. When checking on the merits, a person asks instead whether the work was done and whether quantity, price and deductions match the order, the measurement and the contract. No data format answers that.

The KI-Xellenz website assumes 45 minutes for checking an interim or final payment invoice in client-side project management. For incoming invoices of a construction company (materials, equipment, subcontractors) it assumes 12 to 20 minutes until approval. Both are the author’s working assumptions, not measured. They do not contradict the study’s 6 to 9 minutes, because approval and the check against measurement and contract are presumably not part of that figure, or only partly. These are different activities on different invoices: capturing any incoming invoice versus checking an interim payment invoice against the bill of quantities and variations. The two values do not belong in one calculation, and neither is “too high” compared with the other. How to keep different figures apart is explained in the article Bureaucracy and working time: what the figures measure.

It remains open what the surveyed businesses counted in “from receipt to booking”. The study does not say whether checking on the merits is part of it. It names as a further advantage of the e-invoice that mandatory fields and VAT details can be checked automatically. That is a formal check, not a check of content.

An example with invented data

A finishing-trades business receives 47 incoming invoices a month. Five of them are interim or final payment invoices from subcontractors, checked against the order and the measurement. For the check, an assumption of 45 minutes per invoice is used, as above. All figures are invented.

• Capture at the study’s mix: 345 minutes.
• Check on the merits: 5 × 45 = 225 minutes.
• Together 570 minutes, or 9.5 hours a month.

If all suppliers move to the e-invoice, the effort falls by 63 minutes, about 11 per cent. If the study’s values already include part of the check, the share would be somewhat higher.

Now suppose preparing each check took 10 minutes less, for example because the order item and the measurement already lie side by side and deviations are marked. Those 10 minutes are an assumption for illustration, without measurement. That makes 5 × 10 = 50 minutes, with only five invoices. It is almost as much as the whole switch of format. Besides, the suppliers decide on the format, while the business decides only on its own process.

On the framework: since 1 January 2025, according to the BMF, a business has had to ensure it can receive an e-invoice, and an email inbox is enough for that. For issuing invoices, section 27(38) of the German VAT Act (UStG) names two transitional periods, and in both two things must hold at the same time. First, the supply must have been made within a certain period, and second, the invoice must be transmitted by a cut-off date. For supplies made from 2025 to the end of 2026, the invoice may still arrive on paper until 31 December 2026, and a PDF only with the recipient’s consent. For supplies made in 2027 the same applies until 31 December 2027, but only if the issuer’s total turnover in the previous year was no more than 800,000 euros. The mix of formats will therefore remain for a while. How this applies to your business is for your tax adviser to clarify.

Where the lever lies

Three steps after capture usually determine the time: matching (which construction project, order or cost centre the invoice belongs to), preparing the check, and filing, so that invoice, delivery note, measurement and approval can be found together. That is the author’s assessment. The study does not quantify these steps, and I have no measured times for them.

An automated process can sort and prepare here: recognise the supplier, suggest an order or a purchase order, create a checklist. The decision on whether an invoice is approved stays with a person.

1. Receipt Email inbox, post or portal
2. Capture The format matters here: e-invoice saves about 1 minute
3. Match Suggest project, order or cost centre AI prepares
4. Prepare the check Set order and measurement side by side, checklist AI prepares
5. Check and approve A person decides
6. File Invoice, delivery note, approval together AI prepares

Text version of the graphic

• 1. Receipt: Email inbox, post or portal
• 2. Capture: The format matters here: e-invoice saves about 1 minute
• 3. Match: Suggest project, order or cost centre (the AI prepares)
• 4. Prepare the check: Set order and measurement side by side, checklist (the AI prepares)
• 5. Check and approve: A person decides
• 6. File: Invoice, delivery note, approval together (the AI prepares)

How to measure time savings without promises is shown in the article Measure time savings instead of promising them.

What you can do now

1. Count the incoming invoices of the last three months by format (paper, PDF, e-invoice) and by type (materials, subcontractors, other).
2. For ten invoices at a time, time capturing, matching, checking and filing separately.
3. For each step, calculate invoices per month times minutes, and look at the largest items first.
4. Ask your tax adviser how receipt and the deadlines for the e-invoice apply to you.