For accounts payable teams under pressure to scale operations, reduce costs, and deliver real-time insights to the business, the metrics that matter most are evolving.
Traditionally, AP teams have focused on invoice cycle time, cost per invoice, exception rates, and touchless processing—often abbreviated as TLP—as core performance indicators. These remain critical. But as automation capabilities grow and definitions vary across platforms, additional metrics are becoming increasingly valuable.
Touchless processing can mean very different things depending on the platform. Some solutions may count basic auto-population of fields as “touchless,” while others only include fully automated, end-to-end processing. That’s why we’re seeing more teams explore complementary metrics—like Automatic Entry Rate (AER)—to get a broader view of automation performance.
AER helps answer a different question:
Of all the invoices submitted to our AP system, how many were successfully entered without manual intervention at the point of entry?
It’s not a replacement for touchless processing, but a useful companion metric that provides clarity on how far automation extends across your full AP document flow.
What Is AER?
Automatic Entry Rate (AER) measures the percentage of all submitted invoices that are successfully entered without manual input.
In other words:
AER = (Number of automatically entered invoices) ÷ (Total invoices submitted)
This is a broader metric than touchless processing, which typically applies to documents that are preconfigured or deemed eligible for automation—for example, invoices from a specific group of suppliers that have been enabled for touchless processing within the system.
AER zooms out to ask:
Across all incoming invoices—regardless of source, supplier, or format—how many are processed without manual entry?
It captures documents that may not be part of a designated “touchless” workflow today but still enter the system automatically through broader automation rules. As a result, AER offers a valuable, high-level view into your AP team’s overall automation maturity and system coverage.
How AER Fits Into the Broader Metric Framework
We’re not suggesting AER replaces existing metrics like Touchless Processing Rate (TPR), invoice cycle time, or cost per invoice. Those remain essential to understanding operational performance.
Instead, think of AER as a complement—a high-level, directional signal of your automation coverage. Where TPR focuses on what the system is configured to do, AER reflects what’s actually happening in real-time across your entire AP document flow.
In practice:
Used together, these metrics help teams identify bottlenecks, prioritize areas for improvement, and track automation growth over time.
Why This Matters Now
With rising invoice volumes, tighter margins, and decentralized operations becoming more common, the pressure to do more with less is real.
AER can provide value in several ways:
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Performance Visibility: It surfaces hidden manual effort—especially in areas you might assume are automated.
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Strategic Benchmarking: It allows finance and AP leaders to track progress on automation initiatives and scale over time.
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Process Improvement: AER highlights gaps where manual entry still occurs, offering a roadmap for where to invest in automation next—whether that’s better invoice formatting, supplier onboarding, or process rule optimization.
And most importantly, it gives leaders a clearer picture of how far automation has permeated the actual workload, not just the configured subset of it.
AER Is a Conversation Starter
We believe AER is a helpful way to reframe AP performance discussions—not because it’s a silver bullet, but because it offers context alongside other familiar KPIs.
If your team is already tracking touchless rates and cycle times, adding AER to the mix gives you a more holistic view of where you are and where you’re headed.
And if you’re not measuring AER yet? That’s okay. We think it’s a conversation worth starting.
Want to see how your automation performance stacks up?
We’re working closely with customers to surface AER insights and build more transparency into AP automation success. Let us know if you’d like to learn more.
