Payment automation is often sold as a straightforward path to efficiency: reduce paper checks, eliminate manual processes, increase visibility, and save money. On paper, the value proposition is compelling.
But after implementation, many finance leaders find themselves asking a difficult question: Are we actually getting the return we expected?
The reality is that implementing payment automation and realizing meaningful ROI are two different things. A company can automate payments while still dealing with supplier enrollment challenges, manual exceptions, fragmented workflows, payment inquiries, and rising costs. If your organization has been using payment automation for six months, a year, or even several years, now is the right time to conduct a performance audit.
This guide walks through the key areas every finance team should evaluate to determine whether their payment automation investment is delivering measurable value—and where opportunities for improvement may still exist.
Why Payment Automation ROI Is Harder to Measure Than You Think
Automated doesn't always mean optimized
Many organizations evaluate payment automation success based on implementation alone. If payments are being processed electronically, the assumption is often that the system is working as intended.
However, finance teams might discover:
- AP staff still handling payment exceptions manually
- Suppliers resisting electronic payment enrollment
- Significant time spent answering payment status inquiries
- Separate systems required to manage payment workflows
- Growing transaction volumes that continue to require additional resources
In these situations, automation may have reduced some manual work without fundamentally transforming the payment process.
Surface-level metrics can be misleading
Simply processing more payments electronically doesn’t automatically translate into better outcomes. For example:
- Electronic payments may increase while overall processing costs remain flat
- Payment volumes may grow while AP headcount grows at the same rate
- Payment cycle times may improve while supplier satisfaction declines
Auditing Your Payments Process
To understand whether payment automation is truly paying off, finance teams must evaluate outcomes rather than activity alone. Let’s look at what that means.
1: Evaluate your operational efficiency gains
How much manual work has actually been eliminated?
One of the primary goals of payment automation is reducing the amount of time employees spend on repetitive payment-related tasks. Start by examining your current workflows.
Ask:
- Are employees still printing and mailing checks?
- Are payment files uploaded manually?
- How often are exceptions handled outside the platform?
- How much staff time is spent researching payment status?
- How many approvals require manual intervention?
If employees are still spending significant time on these activities, your automation program may not be delivering its full potential.
Here’s an example: An automotive company hypothetically cuts check volume by 60% after automating vendor payments. However, an audit shows AP staff still spend hours each week fixing payment file errors, routing exception approvals by email, and answering supplier status questions. The process is more digital, but the manual work has shifted rather than disappeared. Tracking exception volume, inquiry response times, and approval delays can reveal where automation is falling short.
Metrics to review
Compare current performance against pre-implementation benchmarks. Key measurements include:
- Hours spent processing payments each month
- Payments processed per AP employee
- Payment exception rates
- Time required to resolve payment inquiries
- Approval cycle times
The goal is to determine whether automation has changed how work gets done, or if it has just shifted where the work occurs.
2: Measure financial impact
Are you actually reducing payment costs?
Many organizations implement payment automation expecting immediate cost savings. While those savings can be significant, they are often spread across multiple areas. Review costs associated with:
- Check stock
- Postage
- Printing
- Bank processing fees
- Payment reconciliation
- Fraud losses
- Labor costs
Some organizations focus exclusively on labor savings while overlooking reductions in operational expenses and risk-related costs.
Continuing the example: When the automotive company looks beyond labor savings, it finds the financial picture is mixed. Check stock and postage costs have dropped, but bank fees, exception handling, and supplier support time are still higher than expected. The audit helps the team separate visible savings from hidden costs, giving finance leaders a clearer view of whether automation is improving the total cost of payments.
Metrics to review
- Cost per payment
- Total payment processing costs
- Check volume reduction
- Percentage of payments delivered electronically
- Annual savings compared to previous payment processes
Finance leaders should also evaluate whether electronic payment adoption is creating opportunities for additional revenue streams through rebate programs where applicable.
3: Assess supplier adoption and satisfaction
Your automation is only as effective as supplier participation
Supplier enrollment is often a major factor influencing payment automation ROI. Even the most advanced payment platform can struggle to deliver value if a significant portion of suppliers continue receiving paper checks.
Low supplier adoption can create:
- Higher processing costs
- Slower payment delivery
- More payment inquiries
- Increased administrative work
Conversely, strong supplier participation can dramatically increase efficiency while reducing manual workload across both AP and accounts receivable teams.
Continuing the example: The automotive company also discovers that supplier adoption is uneven. Large vendors have moved to electronic payments, but smaller maintenance providers still prefer checks or need help understanding enrollment, remittance details, and payment timing. As a result, AP is still fielding questions like “Has my payment been approved?” and “When should I expect it?” The audit shows that improving ROI depends not only on moving payments off paper, but also on making the process easier for suppliers to accept and continue using over time.
Questions to ask
- What percentage of suppliers currently receive electronic payments?
- Has electronic adoption increased over time?
- Are suppliers receiving payments faster?
- Have payment-related inquiries declined?
- How easy is enrollment for new suppliers?
Metrics to review
- Supplier enrollment rates
- Electronic payment adoption rates
- Payment inquiry volume
- Average payment delivery times
- Supplier satisfaction indicators
If supplier adoption has plateaued, it may be worth evaluating whether your payment provider actively supports supplier enablement efforts.
4: Examine fraud prevention and risk reduction
Has automation improved payment security?
Fraud prevention is an important part of the payment automation conversation. Paper checks remain a common target for fraud, while manual processes often introduce additional vulnerabilities through inconsistent controls and limited visibility.
A successful payment automation strategy should improve both security and governance.
Continuing the example: The automotive company’s audit also reveals that some fraud risk remains despite the shift to electronic payments. A few approvals are still happening by email, vendor banking updates are not always verified consistently, and payment history is split across multiple systems. By tightening approval workflows, standardizing vendor validation, and centralizing audit trails, the team can reduce risk while giving finance leaders better visibility into every payment.
Areas to audit
Evaluate whether your current process includes:
- Structured approval workflows
- Multi-level payment authorization controls
- Vendor validation procedures
- Payment audit trails
- Secure payment delivery methods
Metrics to review
- Fraud incidents before and after implementation
- Unauthorized payment attempts detected
- Time spent preparing for audits
- Internal control deficiencies identified during reviews
Strong payment controls can generate value that extends far beyond direct cost savings.
5: Evaluate scalability
Could your current process handle growth?
One of the best indicators of successful payment automation is scalability. As organizations grow, payment volumes typically increase; the question is whether your payment process can support that growth without requiring proportional increases in staffing.
Continuing the example: As the automotive company adds new locations, payment volume sees a 30% increase. But because exception approvals, supplier onboarding, and payment inquiries still require manual follow-up, the AP team struggles to keep pace without adding staff. The audit shows that true scalability depends on whether automation can absorb growth across the entire payment process, not just process more transactions electronically.
Questions to ask
- Could your current team handle a 25% increase in payment volume?
- What about a 50% increase?
- How difficult is it to onboard new suppliers?
- Can the system support new business units, locations, or acquisitions?
If growth requires additional manual effort at every step, automation may not be providing the long-term value originally expected.
Metrics to review
- Payment volume growth
- Headcount growth versus transaction growth
- Supplier onboarding time
- Payment processing capacity
The strongest automation programs allow organizations to increase transaction volume without significantly increasing administrative burden.
6: Determine whether you're maximizing your platform's capabilities
Are you using everything you’re paying for?
A surprising number of organizations only use a portion of the functionality available within their payment platform.
After implementation, teams often focus on immediate needs and never revisit additional capabilities that could improve performance.
Finishing the example: In the final stage of its audit, the automotive company realizes it has not fully enabled the platform’s reporting, supplier outreach, and workflow automation tools. Once those capabilities are activated, the team can monitor exceptions more easily, guide more suppliers toward electronic payments, and reduce the manual follow-up that limited ROI in earlier sections. The audit gives finance leaders a clearer roadmap for turning payment automation from a digital process into a measurable business improvement.
Areas to evaluate
Review whether you’re fully utilizing:
- Electronic payment options
- Supplier enablement resources
- Reporting and analytics
- Payment visibility tools
- Workflow automation capabilities
- System integrations
Organizations that periodically reassess platform usage often uncover new opportunities to improve efficiency and ROI.
Payment Automation ROI Scorecard
Use the following questions as a high-level evaluation framework.
| Category | Key Question |
|---|---|
| Efficiency | Has manual payment work been significantly reduced? |
| Cost Savings | Are payment-related costs declining? |
| Supplier Adoption | How much time is your team spending managing suppliers & enrollment? |
| Security | Have payment controls improved? |
| Scalability | Can payment volume grow without adding headcount? |
| Utilization | Are you fully using available platform capabilities? |
Organizations that consistently score well across all six areas are typically realizing meaningful returns from their payment automation investment.
What to Do If Your Payment Automation Isn't Delivering ROI
If your audit reveals disappointing results, you’re not alone. Some of the most common causes include:
- Low supplier adoption
- Excessive manual exceptions
- Poor system integrations
- Limited visibility into payment performance
- Weak reporting capabilities
- Insufficient user adoption
How to improve results
Start by establishing measurable benchmarks and identifying the biggest sources of friction. Then focus on:
- Increasing electronic payment adoption
- Streamlining exception management
- Improving workflow automation
- Expanding reporting visibility
- Leveraging supplier enablement services
- Reviewing platform utilization
Often, the biggest opportunities for improvement exist outside the technology itself and within the surrounding processes that support it.
How AvidXchange Makes Payments That Pay You Back
Many payment automation providers focus primarily on software functionality. While technology is important, achieving long-term ROI often depends on something else: supplier adoption.
Simple and deep supplier enablement
AvidXchange takes a service-driven approach to payment automation by combining payment technology with dedicated supplier enablement and ongoing optimization services. Our supplier services specialists manage supplier enrollment, communications, payment execution support, issue resolution, and ongoing engagement to help increase electronic payment adoption over time. Rather than placing the burden of enrollment on internal AP teams, AvidXchange’s supplier services organization works directly with suppliers to help accelerate adoption and maintain engagement.
A vast supplier network
AvidXchange’s supplier network includes more than 1.5 million suppliers and processes over 100,000 payments daily, providing organizations with access to a large, actively managed supplier ecosystem.
For organizations conducting a payment automation audit, these capabilities can directly influence several of the most important ROI categories discussed throughout this article: efficiency, supplier adoption, scalability, and financial impact.
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Notice: The information presented on this page is based on research and intended for educational purposes only. Anyone seeking to follow the information contained herein should consult their own advisors and conduct their own research prior to doing so. AvidXchange, Inc. and its affiliates disclaim any and all liability resulting from reliance on the information contained herein. AvidXchange makes no guarantee of specific cost savings, efficiency gains, or return on investment. The information in this article is provided for general informational purposes only. Results and outcomes may vary.
AvidXchange is a licensed money transmitter for B2B payments in the United States, licensed as a Money Transmitter by the New York State Department of Financial Services, as well as all other states that require AvidXchange to have a license.