Should I Hire Another Accounts Payable Person? The Real Answer

Your AP team is working late again. The invoice backlog keeps growing. Month-end close gets more painful every quarter. The obvious solution screams at you: hire another accounts payable person.

But before you post that job listing, let me ask you three questions:

1. Would a new hire actually solve the problem, or just delay it?
2. What if 80% of your AP team's work could be automated entirely?
3. What's the real cost of that new hire versus an alternative solution?

This isn't about cutting jobs. It's about making a strategic decision with your budget. Let's break down when hiring makes sense, when it doesn't, and what the numbers actually look like.

The Signs That Triggered This Question

You're reading this because something isn't working. Let me guess which symptoms sound familiar:

• Invoice backlogs keep growing despite everyone's best efforts
• Late payment penalties are becoming a line item on your P&L
• Month-end close takes 5-7 days instead of 2-3
• Vendor complaints about slow payment are landing on your desk
• Your AP team is stressed, overworked, and starting to make errors
• Audit prep feels like a fire drill every single time

Sound familiar? You're not alone. According to IOFM research, 62% of AP departments report being understaffed, and the average time to process an invoice manually is 10.1 days.

The instinctive response is to throw more people at the problem. But here's what nobody tells you: hiring more AP staff scales your costs linearly while your efficiency stays flat.

The True Cost of Hiring Another AP Person

Let's do the math that most hiring managers skip.

Direct Costs (The Obvious Ones)

Cost Component	Annual Cost
Base salary (mid-level AP specialist)	$48,000 - $58,000
Payroll taxes (7.65% FICA)	$3,672 - $4,437
Health insurance	$7,000 - $12,000
401(k) match (3-6%)	$1,440 - $3,480
PTO & sick leave (accrued value)	$3,600 - $4,400
Total Direct Cost	$63,712 - $82,317

That $55,000 salary just became $73,000+ in real cost.

Hidden Costs (The Ones That Kill Your Budget)

But wait—there's more. Much more.

Recruiting costs:

• Job posting fees: $200 - $500
• Background checks: $100 - $300
• Recruiter time (internal or agency): $2,000 - $8,000
• Interview time (multiple employees): $1,000 - $2,500

Onboarding costs:

• Equipment (computer, monitors, desk): $1,500 - $3,000
• Software licenses (ERP access, email, etc.): $1,200 - $2,400/year
• Training time (2-4 weeks of reduced productivity): $2,500 - $5,000
• Supervisor training time: $1,000 - $2,000

Ongoing overhead:

• Office space allocation: $2,000 - $6,000/year
• Management time: $3,000 - $5,000/year
• HR administration: $500 - $1,000/year

First-year total cost of a new AP hire: $78,000 - $115,000

And that assumes they stay. The average turnover rate in finance/accounting roles is 17-20% annually. Every time someone leaves, you restart the clock on recruiting and training.

The Productivity Reality

Here's the part that really stings: your new hire won't be fully productive for 3-4 months.

Time Period	Productivity Level
Week 1-2	10-20% (learning systems)
Week 3-4	30-40% (processing simple invoices)
Month 2	50-60% (handling routine work)
Month 3	70-80% (approaching competency)
Month 4+	90-100% (fully productive)

You're paying full salary for 25% average productivity in the first 90 days.

The Real Question: Why Is Your AP Department Overwhelmed?

Before deciding to hire, diagnose the actual problem. AP bottlenecks usually stem from one of these root causes:

1. Data Entry Is Eating All the Time

Symptom: Your team spends 70-80% of their time typing data from invoices into your ERP system.

The math:

• Average invoice processing: 12 minutes (data entry, validation, coding)
• 500 invoices/month = 100 hours of data entry
• That's 62.5% of a full-time employee just typing numbers

The fix: Automate data extraction. This isn't a people problem—it's a process problem.

2. Too Many Exceptions and Manual Approvals

Symptom: Invoices bounce around for weeks waiting for approvals. No one knows what needs their attention.

The math:

• Average invoices requiring exception handling: 30-40%
• Time per exception: 15-30 minutes (chasing information, getting approvals)
• 200 exceptions × 20 minutes = 67 hours of exception handling

The fix: Automated routing, approval workflows, and vendor self-service portals.

3. Duplicate and Fraudulent Invoices

Symptom: You've paid the same invoice twice. Or worse, you've paid a fraudulent invoice.

The math:

• Industry average duplicate payment rate: 0.1-0.5%
• Average invoice value: $3,500
• 500 invoices × 0.3% × $3,500 = $5,250 in duplicate payments annually
• Recovery rate: only 30-40% of duplicates are ever recovered

The fix: Automated duplicate detection before payment.

4. Poor Vendor Invoice Quality

Symptom: Invoices arrive without PO numbers, missing tax IDs, or in 47 different formats.

The math:

• 40% of invoices have data quality issues
• 10 minutes additional handling per problematic invoice
• 200 invoices × 10 minutes = 33 hours of rework monthly

The fix: Intelligent document processing that extracts data regardless of format, plus vendor communication automation.

Key insight: Most AP workload problems aren't solved by adding headcount. They're solved by eliminating manual work.

The Alternative: What AP Automation Actually Looks Like

Let me show you what modern AP automation does—and why it changes the hiring equation.

How Scanny AI Processes Invoices

Instead of a human typing invoice data into your system, here's what happens:

Step 1: Document arrives

• Email attachment lands in your AP inbox
• Vendor uploads to your portal
• Scanner sends to cloud folder
• API receives from procurement system

Step 2: AI extraction (30-60 seconds)

Scanny AI uses Gemini Vision to read the invoice and extract structured data:

{
  "documentType": "invoice",
  "extractedData": {
    "vendor_name": "Acme Supply Co.",
    "vendor_tax_id": "12-3456789",
    "invoice_number": "INV-2025-0847",
    "invoice_date": "2025-12-28",
    "due_date": "2026-01-27",
    "po_number": "PO-4521",
    "subtotal": 4250.00,
    "tax_amount": 340.00,
    "total_amount": 4590.00,
    "payment_terms": "Net 30",
    "line_items": [
      {
        "description": "Industrial Widget A-100",
        "quantity": 50,
        "unit_price": 45.00,
        "line_total": 2250.00
      },
      {
        "description": "Premium Fastener Kit",
        "quantity": 100,
        "unit_price": 20.00,
        "line_total": 2000.00
      }
    ]
  },
  "confidence": 0.97,
  "validation": {
    "math_verified": true,
    "po_matched": true,
    "duplicate_check": "passed"
  }
}

Step 3: Validation & matching

• 3-way match: Invoice ↔ PO ↔ Receipt
• Duplicate detection against historical data
• Business rules validation (GL codes, approval thresholds)
• Tax calculation verification

Step 4: Routing & approval

• Auto-approve if below threshold and 3-way matched
• Route to manager if above threshold
• Flag for review if confidence below 95%
• Queue exceptions for AP team attention

Step 5: ERP integration

• Auto-post to QuickBooks, NetSuite, SAP, or your system
• Create payment batch
• Update vendor records
• Archive source document with audit trail

What Your AP Team Actually Does After Automation

Before automation:

• 70% data entry
• 20% exception handling
• 10% strategic work (vendor negotiations, process improvement)

After automation:

• 0% data entry (automated)
• 30% exception handling (reduced volume, better tools)
• 70% strategic work

Your AP team stops being data entry clerks and becomes finance strategists: negotiating early payment discounts, optimizing cash flow, managing vendor relationships, and identifying cost savings.

The Head-to-Head Comparison: Hiring vs. Automating

Let's compare these two options for a real business scenario:

Scenario: Your company processes 800 invoices per month. Your 2-person AP team is overwhelmed and falling behind.

Option A: Hire Another AP Person

Factor	Details
First-year cost	$85,000 (salary + benefits + onboarding)
Ongoing annual cost	$73,000
Time to full productivity	3-4 months
Capacity increase	~400 invoices/month
Error rate	2-4% (human error)
Availability	40 hours/week (minus PTO, sick days)
Scalability	Need to hire again at 1,200 invoices
Turnover risk	17-20% annually
What happens if they quit?	2-3 month gap while hiring/training

Option B: Implement AP Automation with Scanny AI

Factor	Details
First-year cost	$12,000 - $18,000 (subscription + setup)
Ongoing annual cost	$10,000 - $15,000
Time to full productivity	2-4 weeks
Capacity increase	5,000+ invoices/month
Error rate	<1% (AI with validation)
Availability	24/7/365
Scalability	Handles 10x volume with same cost
Turnover risk	Zero
What happens during vacation?	System keeps processing

The Comparison Table: Manual Hiring vs. Scanny AI

Metric	Hire AP Person	Scanny AI Automation
First-Year Cost	$85,000	$15,000
Annual Cost (Year 2+)	$73,000	$12,000
Invoice Processing Time	10-12 minutes	30-60 seconds
Error Rate	2-4%	<1%
Setup Time	3-4 months	2-4 weeks
24/7 Availability	No	Yes
Handles Volume Spikes	Poorly	Automatically
Vacation Coverage Needed	Yes	No
Audit Trail	Manual documentation	Automatic
Duplicate Payment Prevention	Relies on human memory	100% automated

Bottom line: Automation costs 82% less, works 24/7, and handles 5x+ the volume with fewer errors.

When You Should Still Hire

Automation isn't the answer to everything. Here's when hiring makes more sense:

1. You Need Vendor Relationship Management

If your AP challenges are primarily about negotiating terms, managing disputes, or building supplier partnerships, you need a person—not a machine.

2. Your Processes Are Too Chaotic to Automate

If you don't have consistent invoice formats, established GL coding rules, or defined approval workflows, automation will struggle. Sometimes you need a person to create order before you can automate.

3. You're Processing Highly Complex or Non-Standard Documents

Some industries deal with documents that require human judgment: construction draw requests with lien waivers, complex legal invoices requiring matter-by-matter review, or R&D invoices requiring technical validation.

4. You Have Regulatory Requirements for Human Review

Certain compliance frameworks require human sign-off on payments above certain thresholds. Automation can do 80% of the work, but you may need staff for final approval.

The Hybrid Approach

The smartest organizations do both—but in the right order:

1. Automate first to handle the high-volume, repetitive work
2. Then assess your remaining workload
3. Hire strategically for roles that truly require human judgment

Result: Instead of hiring 3 AP clerks, you hire 1 AP analyst who manages the automated system and handles complex exceptions. Total cost: $80K (analyst) + $15K (automation) = $95K for 10x the capacity.

How to Get Started: Your Decision Framework

Here's a practical framework for making this decision:

Step 1: Audit Your Current State

Answer these questions:

• How many invoices do you process monthly?
• What percentage are routine vs. complex?
• How much time does data entry consume?
• What's your current error/duplicate rate?
• How long does it take from invoice receipt to payment?

Step 2: Calculate Your Automation Potential

Use this formula:

Automation Savings = (Invoices × Manual Time × Hourly Cost) - Automation Cost

Example:
- 800 invoices/month × 10 minutes × ($35/hour ÷ 60) = $4,667/month manual cost
- Automation cost: $1,250/month
- Monthly savings: $3,417
- Annual savings: $41,004

Step 3: Run a Pilot

Before committing either way, test automation with a subset of your invoices:

1. Start a free trial with Scanny AI
2. Process 50-100 sample invoices
3. Measure accuracy, time savings, and exception rates
4. Calculate projected ROI based on real results

Step 4: Make the Decision

Choose automation if:

• 70%+ of your invoices are routine and could be auto-processed
• Your team's primary bottleneck is data entry
• You need scalability for growth
• You want to reduce costs by 50%+

Choose hiring if:

• You need strategic vendor management capabilities
• Your documents require significant human judgment
• You have compliance requirements for human review
• Your processes aren't mature enough to automate

The Bottom Line: Don't Hire to Solve a Process Problem

Here's the uncomfortable truth: most AP hiring decisions are reactions to process failures, not strategic investments.

If your AP team is overwhelmed because they're manually typing invoice data into your ERP, hiring another person to manually type data faster doesn't solve the problem. It delays it by 6-12 months until you're overwhelmed again.

The companies that win don't ask "should I hire another AP person?" They ask "what work can I eliminate entirely?"

When you automate 80% of invoice processing:

• Your existing team handles 5x the volume
• Your costs drop by 60-80%
• Your error rate approaches zero
• Your month-end close shrinks from days to hours
• Your vendors get paid on time (hello, early payment discounts)

That's not a future vision. That's what businesses using intelligent document processing achieve today.

Ready to Stop Debating and Start Saving?

The question isn't whether to hire or automate. It's how fast you can stop doing work that a machine should be doing.

Start your free trial of Scanny AI. Upload your invoices. See the extraction accuracy for yourself. Calculate your actual savings based on your real volume.

In 30 minutes, you'll know whether that $85,000 hire is necessary—or whether $15,000 in automation can solve your problem better.

Already have an account? Log in and start automating your AP department today.

---

The answer to "should I hire another AP person?" is almost always "not yet." Automate first. Then hire strategically for what automation can't do. Your budget (and your current team) will thank you.